Less than an hour after General Motors chairman and CEO Mary Barra unveiled the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt, we?re behind the wheel for our first drive of the revolutionary electric car, which promises better than 200 miles of range and a net selling price (after tax credits) of $30,000. This has to be some kind of record for the shortest time between a production-car reveal and a first drive; the usual waiting game lasts for months.
This kind of instant gratification does have its disadvantages, though. We?re driving the Bolt without knowing the full extent of its capabilities. Chevrolet won?t provide a power-output figure or the battery capacity until next week?s Detroit auto show, and a final range number won?t arrive until much closer to the start of production toward the end of 2016.
Our short stint at the helm was also just a tease of what?s to come. Chevrolet isn?t done tuning the Bolt, and our test car was a development unit with bug-like headlights and fabric sheets draped over the unfinished interior. Oh, and we were limited to five laps around a parking-lot cone course where we never topped 35 mph or saw a surface imperfection larger than a hairline crack. Despite all of this fine print, our first taste left us wanting more. We walked away from our Chevrolet Bolt drive convinced that the bow-tie brand?s electric car could be great on a real road.
Go, Stop, Steer
With such limited time in the car, the first matter of business, naturally, is to floor the go pedal. We?re...