The new Chevrolet Equinox EV is a solid entry into the compact crossover market, and with a (just) sub-$35,000 starting price, it also counts as affordable by the standards of 2026. But if you think that’s too rich for your blood, or that the Equinox is still too large for your needs, take heart—the Chevrolet Bolt is back in dealerships now as well.
The Bolt was GM’s first modern electric vehicle, following on from the hand-built, pre-lithium ion EV1 and the compliance car that was the Spark EV. We’re big fans of the Bolt here at Ars Technica. It offered well more than 200 miles of range in a mass-produced EV at a reasonable price well before Tesla’s Model 3 started clogging up our roads, it got more efficient over time, and it managed to be fun to drive in the process.
General Motors (which owns Chevrolet) probably feels less well-disposed toward the Bolt. It lost thousands of dollars on each car it sold, even before the entire fleet had to be recalled for a costly battery replacement. The issue was due to improperly folded tabs on some cells that could cause a battery fire, giving GM (and its battery partner LG) plenty of bad press in the process. That recall alone cost $1.8 billion.
The Bolt also predated GM’s big investment into the battery platform it used to but no longer calls “Ultium.” As the automaker began to ready a larger portfolio of new EVs (including the aforementioned Equinox EV), it decided the Bolt would have to go to make room for production of other, more profitable vehicles. The announcement was made in April 2023 and helped make the Bolt GM’s best-selling EV by a large margin.
The outcry from Bolt fans was loud and vociferous, and in July 2025 GM CEO Mary Barra announced that it would be coming back, with a new Ultium-based battery pack. But only in the Bolt EUV body style—if you prefer the original hatchback, you’re out of luck.
Reengineering the Bolt for a new battery pack wasn’t the work of a minute. The cells, modules, and electronics are all different but had to fit in the same size space with the same mounting points as the original. And GM’s own LFP factory won’t be producing cells until sometime next year. Which means for now, GM is importing LPF cells from CATL in China, paying costly tariffs in the process.
In October, Chevy released pricing: $28,995 (plus a $1,395 delivery charge) for the Bolt LT, or $32,995 for the Bolt RS. In time—we’re not sure when—there’s supposed to be a stripped-out model that starts at less than $28,000. For the record, this is more expensive than the Bolt EUV we reviewed in late 2022, particularly once you take trim levels into account. And of course, there’s now no way to cast your Apple or Android phone to the new infotainment system. And the MY27 Bolt makes far less torque than the Bolts we were used to driving, which may well mean a very different on-road experience, given how important that tidal wave of torque is to how an EV feels.
Now, Chevy has released the all-important range info: 262 miles (422 km) of range according to the EPA test, a slight improvement on the 249 miles (398 km) of range from the old Bolt EUV. Better news is that fast charging is almost three times more powerful. Where the old Bolt topped out at 55 kW, often infuriating other EV drivers waiting for them to hurry up at overcrowded charging stations, the new car will reach rates of up to 150 kW, meaning a 10–80 percent charge should take as little as 26 minutes, not close to an hour.
Chevy says that the new Bolt is already in dealerships, in both LT and RS trims. But its inventory checker won’t search for MY27 vehicles yet, so we haven’t been able to confirm that. The company has also said that the car is only back “for a limited time only.” Although with no elaboration on what “limited” means in this context, we can’t tell you how many cars the automaker will actually build.
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