Motoring Special

Bolt set to soar off the production line by next month

November 9 - 16, 2016
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Gulf Weekly Bolt set to soar off the production line by next month

GENERAL Motors is ramping up production of Chevrolet Bolt electric cars and is on track to start delivering vehicles as promised by the end of the year, company officials said.

Barring a last-minute stumble, GM will be first to offer an electric car with more than 200 miles of driving range at a starting price of less than $40,000 (BD15,000).

Silicon Valley electric car maker Tesla has said its entry in this new market segment, the Model 3, will launch next year. The Bolt and the Model 3 represent contrasting strategies to push electric vehicles into the mainstream of the auto market.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has said the company will overhaul its US factory to build as many as 500,000 Model 3 sedans and related models a year. Tesla’s Model 3 design prototypes show a car aimed at German luxury sedans such as the Audi A3 or A4.

Musk has said nearly 400,000 people have put down deposits on the Model 3. GM, however, is taking a more cautious approach. The Bolt, with a 238-mile range, is a compact, utilitarian hatchback with design features such as a thin front seat to increase rear-seat legroom, aimed at making the car attractive to taxi drivers.

The company is also hedging its bets on production targets after getting burned in the past by overestimating demand for electric or hybrid cars. Sales of electric and
plug-in hybrid cars represent just one per cent of the US light vehicle market, for example.

At GM’s Orion assembly plant, Bolts are rolling off the same final assembly line as gasolinefuelled Chevrolet Sonic sedans and hatchbacks. During a tour on Friday, every fourth or fifth car on the line was a Bolt.

The Orion plant is working on one shift, building at a pace of about 90,000 cars a year. GM redesigned the Orion assembly operation to allow workers to build either Bolts or Sonics and can shift production depending on demand, said Yves Dontigny, launch manager for the Bolt.

At one assembly station, after a Sonic body is mated to its gasoline engine and axles, a carrier wheels the battery pack for a Bolt into place. The same workers secure it to a Bolt body hanging on a carrier overhead.







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