GM, Tesla, Nissan And The Electric Vehicle Race

GM has three vehicles, which have short names and an obvious tilt towards clean energy. Those green cars from Chevy are the Volt, the Spark and newly announced Bolt. In an era when a car company that wasn’t even around for Y2k, Tesla motors is setting the electric vehicle agenda, General Motors seems bent on being a strong competitor. The way they could be able to put a huge dent in Tesla’s plans is through the Bolt.

The Chevy Bolt was announced in early 2015 at the North American International auto show. The concept car looks a lot like the Chevy Spark EV. The Spark, a 82-mile electric compact which books under $20,000. It’s only available in California and Oregon at participating dealers, however, it does also have a new attractive lease option, which is $139 per month with minimal money down. The Spark EV is clearly not meant for masses. Two states is hardly a wide audience. The Bolt, however, is intended for the masses. The range of the compact EV is expected just north of 200 miles and the price is expected to be about $30,000, after government credits. If the vehicle is produced and lives up to its billing, it would be the first true mass-market, higher-range electric car in the U.S.

The race to get a mass-market electric car on the road in the U.S appears to be down to three main competitors, GM, Tesla Motors and Nissan. GM is providing the Chevy Bolt and perhaps an improved Chevy Spark. Tesla Motors is building a $5 billion dollar gigafactory in order to lower the cost of lithium-ion batteries and build the Model III, a 200-mile EV with a price of around $30,000. Finally, Nissan already has the Leaf, which has an all-electric range of around 84 miles, but the company CEO reportedly told Japanese TV show hosts the vehicle will be upgraded to a range of 240 miles.

The thing all three competitors have in common is their rumors. None of the vehicles in question are currently in production above 200 miles of range. The winner of this mass market EV race has to bridge the gap between planning and putting a 200-plus-mile Electric vehicle on the road for around $30k. Most estimates for Tesla and GM have their vehicles on the road by 2017, while Nissan’s upgraded Leaf timetable is unknown.

The impact that this EV race has for dealers is immense. The small EVs will be a novelty and likely become popular in a short amount of time. The Bolt and Leaf could prove to be very popular selling cars in the future. However, if Tesla is the first to market and excels, then dealers won’t be involved in that success.

Tesla motors has been known to be full of surprises. Do you think that they will be able to upstage GM and make better $30,000 EVs than the Chevy Bolt? What impact could tesla make on the industry if they are the first to bring the mass market EV to the U.S.?