Car and Driver gathered 25 new and recently updated electric vehicles, drove every one of them over the same roads, ran its usual instrumented testing, and then handed the EV of the Year award to the cheapest car in the room. The 2027 Chevrolet Bolt starts at roughly $29,000, which the publication measures against an average new vehicle transaction price hovering near $50,000. Value was never the surprising part of a Bolt. The surprising part is everything the video says came with it this time: a 65 kWh lithium iron phosphate pack, a peak charge rate of 150 kW that the editors say is close to three times the old car's, a 10 to 80 percent charge in about 31 minutes, and an EPA rating of 262 miles.
The chemistry is doing quiet work behind that price. Iron phosphate cells are generally cheaper to build than the nickel-based chemistries used in most long-range EVs, and they are usually more relaxed about being charged to 100 percent on a routine basis, which is a real convenience difference for someone plugging in at home every night. The tradeoff is normally cold weather, where LFP packs tend to give up more usable range and take longer to accept a fast charge until the pack is warmed. Anyone shopping this car in a northern state should read the winter numbers before the award copy. There is a second thing the trophy does not cover. Car and Driver says Super Cruise, GM's hands-free driver assistance, requires spending around $35,000 on a Bolt, so the $29,000 headline and the technology headline are not attached to the same window sticker.
On the test numbers, the video reports 210 horsepower and 169 pound-feet through the front wheels, 6.7 seconds to 60 mph, about 3,800 pounds on the scales, and 0.82 g on the skidpad wearing 17-inch low rolling resistance tires. The editors argue the 60 mph figure undersells the car in traffic. They measured 2.5 seconds from 30 to 50 mph and 3.6 seconds from 50 to 70, and say that is nearly a second quicker than the last Accord hybrid they tested, even though the two match on 0 to 60. On their 75 mph highway efficiency loop the Bolt covered 230 miles, which the video says beats the old Bolt EUV by 40 miles and the original Bolt by 10, with both of those cars needing much longer to recharge.
The rest of the praise lands somewhere less glamorous. The new car borrows the longer wheelbase from the discontinued Bolt EUV, and the reviewers say the back seat now has enough legroom for six-footers behind adults, which is not a normal claim for a subcompact. Inside, they describe hard plastics throughout and plenty of storage, but reserve most of the compliment for the controls: physical buttons for climate, the shifter and the wipers, and an infotainment menu they call logical and quick to respond. Their argument is that a lot of EVs reinvent the shifter and the wiper stalk for no benefit, and that the Bolt is usable the moment you sit in it. They still want Apple CarPlay and Android Auto back, and note that GM's built-in Google apps work well without replacing them.
Bottom line: the award is not really for the Bolt, it is for the idea that an EV is allowed to be ordinary in the places that do not matter. Nothing here wins a spec-sheet argument. A 6.7 second car with 17-inch eco tires and a plastic dash wins because the price is real and the car does not ask you to learn it. If you want one, buy the cheap one and skip the trim walk to Super Cruise. The question worth watching is not whether the Bolt is good. It is whether anyone else is willing to build a $29,000 EV to compete with it.
Commentary on a third-party video. Figures and claims are as presented in the source and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.