Fast Facts | 2027 Chevrolet Bolt RS
💰 Pricing: LT $28,995 | RS $32,995 including destination | $35,685 as tested
🛣️ EPA Range: 262 miles on a full charge
⚡ DC Fast Charging: More than 150 kW peak | 10% to 80% in approximately 25 minutes
🏁 Performance: 210 hp and 169 lb-ft sent to the front wheels
🚀 Acceleration: 0 to 60 mph in 6.7 seconds in Car and Driver testing
📦 Cargo Space: 16.2 cubic feet behind the rear seats | 56.3 cubic feet with them folded
🖥️ Technology: 11.3-inch touchscreen, 11-inch driver display, Google built-in, and no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto
🎯 Best Fit: Urban driving, commuting, tight parking, and buyers prioritizing range and value over luxury
A Week With America’s Most Affordable New EV
To fully understand where the Chevrolet Bolt stands in 2027, it helps to know its history. The Bolt first went on sale back in 2017 — a decade ago — making it one of the pioneering mass-market electric vehicles. Back then, its 238-mile EPA-estimated range and roughly $37,500 MSRP made it a headline-grabber.
A few years on, the Bolt lineup grew to include an SUV-ish version with a higher seating position called the Bolt EUV. Then, suddenly, Chevrolet pulled the plug on the entire Bolt lineup in 2023. For four years, Chevy dealers had no affordable EV.
Yet here I am, driving the 2027 Chevy Bolt — which, at first glance, sure does seem a lot like the 2023 model. With gas prices as volatile as ever, however, the new-but-not-new Bolt is very appealing.
The Bolt’s Back, With an Ultra-Low Price Tag
A lot has changed since the first Bolts hit the road. The EV market has grown exponentially, and so have prices. Many models now command north of $50,000, especially once you’ve added a few options. Then there’s the 2027 Bolt, which starts at an MSRP of just $28,995, and it delivers an EPA-estimated 262-mile range on a full charge, plus true one-pedal driving.
The new Bolt is actually based on the Bolt EUV, the longer and taller version that offers an SUV-like seating position and decent rear-seat legroom. At just 169.6 inches long, it's hardly a garage-filler; it’s nearly five feet shorter than a Chevy Suburban.
Outside, it has new front- and rear-end styling with pinched LED headlights and a range of new colors, including the eye-catching Habanero Orange that I tested.
Its cabin houses an 11.3-inch touchscreen with Google Built-in infotainment with native Google Maps and access to the Google Play app store. That tech mostly works well, at least once you figure out that things like the trip computer take several taps to access.
Don’t look for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, however; they’re not on board here. There’s also no traditional center console. Instead, the Bolt has a tall, narrow storage box with a reconfigurable cupholder between the front seats, plus a host of shelves built into the dash. Nothing is fancy here. Even the door armrests are fairly hard but for less than $30,000 to start, it’s hard to complain. Sure, the Nissan Leaf is snazzier, but it should be for $2,500 more.
The seats are somewhat small up front, with short lower cushions and limited bolstering. Rear-seat riders have surprisingly good space, but that comes at the expense of cargo room. The Bolt has a bite-sized cargo area capable of holding around 16 cubic feet of stuff with the back seats upright. Fold them, and that space grows considerably to 56 cubes. The trade-off is clear. Rear-seat riders: yes. Cargo: no.
My tester was the step-up RS trim, which adds $4,000 to the base LT and adds such niceties as heated and ventilated front seats, ambient interior lighting, and black-finish trim throughout. (The LT is arguably the smarter buy, though; just budget $995 for a package with heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, and a power-adjustable driver’s seat.)
The revived Bolt returns to the role that made the original such an important EV, and our closer look at why the Chevy Bolt is America’s most affordable electric vehicle explains how Chevrolet kept its price below most new gas-powered crossovers ➜
One option my tester didn't have was GM's Super Cruise system, which allows for true hands-off-the-wheel, eyes-on-the-road driving on all sorts of pre-mapped roads across the country. It’s great tech, though its $3,500-plus price tag makes it a tough sell in a budget-minded EV.
A Great City Choice
Another reason I wouldn’t opt for Super Cruise: the Bolt is really more of an urban runabout than a long-distance highway cruiser. Its range makes it a confident vehicle for road trips, especially since it now comes with the NACS charging port that allows it to plug into the vast Tesla Supercharger network. But this pint-size car's narrow tires and a short wheelbase give it a choppy, somewhat unsettled feel at speed. It’s certainly capable of eating away the miles, but even Chevy’s own Equinox EV is better suited to long-distance highway jaunts.
Instead, the Bolt’s tight turning radius makes it feel nimble in town. It has a bolt-upright, if you will, seating position and a relatively low dashboard that gives drivers a decent view of the road ahead. The roof pillars are a bit too wide forward, and they’re UPS-truck-blocking big at the rear, which is where the $1,195 Technology package’s rearview camera mirror and surround-view camera system seem worth every penny. (More so than the $1,495 panoramic moonroof that ballooned my test car’s MSRP to $35,685.)
The Bolt scoots away from stops quickly and quietly. With 210 horsepower and 169 lb-ft of torque from its single electric motor sent to the front wheels, it can scaddadle to 60 mph in a brisk 6.8 seconds, per Car and Driver testing. There’s reasonable passing power in reserve, though the Bolt lacks the aggressive, pin-you-back acceleration of, say, a Tesla Model 3. That’s fine; you probably don’t need to move that quickly, do you?
One-Pedal Driving and Charging
Better yet is the one-pedal mode, which has several different levels of strength. Left in its standard configuration, the setup delivers predictable pedal-on/pedal-off driving. I barely ever tapped the brakes. I also never needed to press start, since the Bolt lacks a start button. Instead, the car senses when the key is present and fires up the climate and audio controls immediately. Place it in park, get out, and press the door handle-mounted lock buttons, and it turns itself off. The system is so good that I accidentally left the next car I drove running more than once. Whoops!
The Bolt’s real party trick may very well be its rapid charging times. The 65-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack can juice up from 10 to 80 percent on an ultra-fast charger like a Tesla Supercharger in a mere 25 minutes. That makes it a great choice for drivers who may not have easy access to overnight or during-the-day charging.
I saw around 5 kWh-per-mile in mixed driving, which is very good. I never had the opportunity to test out Chevy’s Tesla Supercharger claims, but I was able to top the car up quickly using my Level 2 charger at home, as well as an adapter that the automaker loaned me.
While not the world’s greatest electric car by any measure, the Bolt is among the most rational. The average new car now runs around $50,000; a Bolt is just over half that, making it among the cheapest ways to get that new-car smell and that new-car warranty (not to mention that new-car financing).
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