GM’s decision to bring back the Bolt for the 2027 model year has been hailed as a great move amid a chronic shortage of affordable EVs in the U.S. market.
Even if it’s back for a short production run of 18 months, the revived Chevy Bolt has been widely praised by critics and consumers alike, mainly due to it being one of the best EV deals on the market.
With a starting price of $28,995 (including destination charges), the 2027 Bolt is America’s cheapest new EV—and the only one priced under $30,000 when the shipping fee is included.
A Bad Start To A One-Year Test
Adam Lynton/Autoblog
Obviously, there’s more to the 2027 Bolt than its low price, and car shopping platform Edmunds is looking to find out everything about it by submitting the subcompact crossover to a comprehensive one-year road test.
The thing is the long-term test got off on the wrong foot as the Chevy Bolt had to be taken back to the dealership right after Edmunds bought it. That’s ridiculous as the issues started the day the Bolt was brought home from the dealer.
Actually, one hour after picking up the Bolt from the dealership with 15 miles on the odometer, the reviewer noticed that the central infotainment screen and the digital gauge cluster went completely blank.
After attempting to fix the problem by turning the car off and on again—which requires the driver to get out, walk away, lock it (since there’s no on/off switch) and then turn it on—the reviewer had no success, so he let it sit overnight. After getting a notification to try and perform a factory reset the next day, he did, but that didn’t work either.
This left Edmunds with no other solution but to take the Chevy Bolt back to the dealer, where a technician performed a hard reset using a USB stick. That did the trick, and the service was free (as it should be).
Back To Square One Three Weeks After The Fix
Chevrolet
Fast forward three weeks and the Bolt broke again, this time under another Edmunds reviewer’s watch: the navigation screen went completely blank. After trying the turn off/turn on approach several times, the maps came back but with only a 2G connection. Here’s what the problem seems to be, as per Edmunds’ Keith Buglewicz.
“Since there’s no CarPlay or Android Auto in GM’s EVs, the Bolt relies entirely on the Google Built-In system. That system requires some sort of internet connection to work, and our Bolt’s connection is wonky at best. When I first got into the Bolt there was no map. Nothing. I could add an address if I wanted to, but there was nothing but a blank screen, and there was no data connection of any sort so voice programming and even traffic info was a no-go.”
After two days of attempting to fix the problem, he tried using his phone as a hotspot, which helped maps and traffic data load faster, but the rest of the system was locked out.
As you would expect, the Bolt will be heading back to the dealer again, and this time the fix would better work because having this kind of problems on a brand-new car is crazy. Other 2027 Chevy Bolt users reported similar issues on owner forums, so this doesn’t appear to be an isolated case, unfortunately.
