Muzzle the Guzzle
Electric vehicles. They have been in existence for sometime now, and while opinions on them are still divided its no secret that they are gaining more popularity than ever before, thanks in part to rising oil prices, but hey, I know they have dropped in recent weeks - but they'll be creeping back up before you know it. As we enter a new year we can see that there is a better public understanding on the dangers of polluting and the leaps and bounds made by electrical car engineering is plain too see for Joe & Jane public. Now days, for the big car companies, it's a race to develop the worlds most popular electrical vehicle, and while there's been a few on the radar for a while, we'd like to introduce a new serious player, the Bolt, by the struggling yet bouncing back from the ropes car company, General Motors.
General Motors raised a few eyebrows with the Volt, the high priced electric vehicle that wasn't all that it had hoped to be due to poor marketing, price and questionable design specs and performance. The Bolt, however, is GM's answer back to the naysayers, and the Bolt is creating quite a buzz. GM is quick not to call the Volt a failure, rather, through the Volt the Bolt was born, and they have had more time to iron out the creases that the Volt had shined a light on.
The Bolt is larger, can drive almost 100 more miles than its predecessor, looks better, and though its final price tag has yet to be formally released, rumours are indicating the same price tag of the original Volt, around the $40'000 US mark. Word on the street is the comfort and drive feel of the Bolt is a big selling point in that it doesn't feel like an "electrical" car, in other words, its got guts. Its closest competition for price and power, the Nissan Leaf, is said to be lacking the power to keep up with the Bolt, and the Leaf is known within the electric car circles as being an exceptional car for speed and control. Of course, the Telsa Model S beats a lot the Bolt specs, but so it should, it costs double the price of the expected Bolt price tag.
GM has also created an electric loyal following, so it will be interesting to see how the Volt fan club will react to the latest GM electric flagship model. The Bolt was made for the middleclass, an affordable and reliable electrical vehicle that ticks all the boxes. As we head towards the next decade its impressive to finally see big corporations attempting to build cars and vehicle that are less cruel on the Earths resources. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, we're lagging behind the rest of the world in coming to terms with alternative and cleaner vehicles, one can only hope we see a resurgence in affordable electric vehicle technologies on the road someday soon, for the meanwhile, I'll see you all on the road with my two wheeled single speed.