Zander Drives Cars

Electric cars come in two flavors. The first is hyper-expensive, hyper-luxurious rocketships meant to test the limits of what is possible in automotive design. The other is small city cars with no power, shoddy interiors, and equipment levels similar to that of an Armenian jail. For years, I have been waiting for an EV with the same luxuries as a Polestar 2 for half the price. While we probably won’t get to that point for a few more years, the Chevy Bolt EUV is the closest thing I can find to cheap and impressive.

The Chevy Bolt EUV is an electric “crossover” designed to ease consumers into the electric car market. It does this by presenting as a completely “NPC” vehicle. Seeing one of these on the road doesn’t evoke any strong emotions in the looks department. The style is similar to that of the regular Bolt, which in itself takes heavy cues from the discontinued Sonic and Spark. They were never the prettiest cars on the road, and neither is this, but there’s little to be offended by. The tall roofline and roof rails along with some cladding on the bottom of the doors give the illusion of a larger car than it is, but the EUV has the exact dimensions as the regular Bolt, with an added inch of ride height. As for electric symbols on the car, Chevy kept them subtle. There’s a badge on the trunk that tells you what you’re looking at, and another one right above the headlights. Aside from those badges, the lack of a proper grille is your only main giveaway that it’s an EV.

The interior of the EUV (get used to it, I’m not calling it the Bolt EUV every time) is where all my hype comes from. The EUV features a unique dashboard only seen on this car, and while it isn’t to the levels as the one found in the new Suburbans and Silverado, it is more than serviceable. Chevy has been doing a really good job recently making their less expensive cars feel a bit more premium than they are. The scratchy plastics are stuck in places where your hand doesn’t normally feel around leaving most exposed surfaces with some stitched leather and nicer soft-touch plastics. The leather theme continues to the seats. Yes, in this $31,000 car you get blue leather seats! How about that? Speaking of seats, the rear legroom and headroom in this car are unlike anything I have experienced in any compact car. I’m 6’2 and I had domestic-business class levels of legroom even with the front seat in my driving position. The headroom is great too, I had about four or five inches of free room between my head and the ceiling. The main takeaway here is that this interior is leaps and bounds away from what Chevy was doing a decade ago.

When I sat down in the EUV and turned it on, my butt became warm. “Wow,” I thought. “Heated seats. That’s neat.” So, I went to turn them off with the little toggle switch. What I ended up doing was turning on the cooled seats. I swear on everything, the words that came out of my mouth were “that’s not right.” This pretty much sets the tone for the amount of kit you get in this car. Again, the MSRP on this EUV is $31,000. For that, you get the aforementioned heated and cooled seats, along with a heated steering wheel, wireless charging, two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, radar-guided cruise control, CarPlay, Android Auto, a digital drivers display, and OnStar. Do I want to complain that there is no sunroof and a manually operated passenger seat? Yes. Should I in the grand scheme of things? No. Chevy’s MyLink system isn’t the newest one seen in their larger SUV offerings but the system itself is responsive and easy to navigate. Although, it was a bit of a hassle getting my phone to connect to CarPlay. The previously stated driver’s display is also very configurable, with you having the ability to see everything from the current song on the radio, to navigation, and even down to tire pressure. Is this to the levels of what you’d find in a Tesla or Polestar 2? No, there is a lot missing. But, this has way more stuff than any other EV at this price point.

Let me set the record straight by saying that the EUV won’t set any records. The 200hp electric motor gets this car from 0-60 in 7 seconds. But, if you’re looking for some wheelspin, this car will give it to you. Turning the traction control off and putting it into sport mode won’t necessarily make the car go faster but will make more tire noise. Like all EVs, this car is significantly heavier than most of the cars in its class. Because of that, the ride had to be made softer, and driving it you can tell there is a bit of floaty-ness in how it handles bumps. Weirdly, however, the second it hits more than one bump in the span of about 3 seconds, the car shakes a lot and the ride comfort goes down to BMW quality before returning to normal. As for the steering, the input is pretty direct in all drive modes, but in standard eco mode, there is about a second or so delay before the wheels do anything. The largest issue this car faces driving-wise is the wind noise. Because EVs don’t have engine sounds to drown out the air hitting the car, companies have to try to find ways to minimize the noises you hear from the wind while you drive. Unfortunately, this was not a very quiet ride.

Alright, let’s talk about the battery. You all knew this was coming. The EUV gets 247 miles of range on a single charge but a GM representative told me that it can get up to 260, so do with that what you will. Your Bolt will not catch on fire. GM released a software patch back in the middle of 2021 that limits the current that can go into your car while charging while also fixing battery overheating issues. Your Bolt is fine. You can charge it in your garage. They are fixed. While this was a major PR issue for Chevy, I don’t think it should put anyone off the EUV.

The Bolt EUV is the only sub $40,000 EV that gets anywhere close to cars double its price. In almost every single way, the EUV kept surprising me with how much stuff this car had. Is it the best EV? No. Is it the best EV for people who just want “an electric car” and don’t want to do their best John D. Rockefeller impression at the dealership? Abso-friggin-lutley.

Huge thank you to Tim and Steve from Koons Chevy in White Marsh for letting me come down and drive the Bolt EUV. They are great people to work with. Koons Chevy has a great selection of new Bolt EUVs and will be getting a whole new onslaught of Chevy EVs in the coming months as well. Click here to view their inventory.