2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV Reviews, Pricing & Specs

On paper, the Bolt EV sounds pretty vanilla. It’s a subcompact hatchback with seating for five, wrapped in an aerodynamic jellybean-like design. From 2017 to 2021, the exterior was only slightly more exciting than that description. But for the 2022 model year, Chevy has punched up the exterior with a more futuristic and aggressive design—this is an electric vehicle, after all. The result is a small car that actually looks the part, and could be in the same family as a BMW i3. For 2022, the Bolt EV is being sold alongside the all-new Bolt EUV. The EUV has less range, less cargo space, and costs more, but it’s marketed as a crossover, so it’s possible Chevy will sell more of them.

Inside, the Bolt EV is the right blend of futuristic and daily functionality. The exterior should rightly catch your attention, but we’re just fine with the cabin design being as conventional as it is. Unlike the 2017-2021 Bolt EV, which had the look of a knockoff Apple product, this shares many design cues with other new Chevy products and even has the look of a downsized Cadillac cabin.

In Canada, a single trim is offered for the 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV, that being the LT. Previously, an upscale Premier trim was available, which you can now only get on the Bolt EUV. The logic is that if you want to move upmarket, you move to the (more expensive) Bolt EUV. Standard features include 17-inch aluminum wheels, heated and power-adjustable side mirrors, solar-absorbing glass, manual front seats, a 60/40 split-fold rear seat, automatic climate control, and a 10.2-inch touchscreen infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto.

Heated front seats are also included. Our test unit is in U.S. specification, which includes a heated steering wheel, leather seats, adaptive cruise control, wireless device charging, and a Bose seven-speaker premium sound system, all of which are features not available in Canada.

Nestled in the floor, the 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV's 65-kilowatt-hour battery pack powers a single electric motor. The single-speed motor carries power specs of 200 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque, which is sent to the front wheels. As expected, the low-end acceleration was quick and responsive. This is a characteristic of nearly all electric motors, which deliver 100% of their torque at zero rpm. More surprising was acceleration at highway speeds, which is an area where electric cars often falter. The Bolt EV is no Tesla Model 3, but there’s enough additional power to overtake and get up to highway speeds. The Bolt EV also has a Sport mode, which quickens the throttle response. Range estimates start to fall off with Sport mode engaged or once the speed starts to climb over 100 kilometres per hour, however.

The low placement of the battery means the Bolt EV has a low centre of gravity, which is helpful in cornering. Though the steering is daily-driver light, the Bolt EV feels quite spry around corners. Sport mode adds a bit of weight to the steering feedback, helping contribute to its agile runabout nature. It’s no sports car (or Tesla Model S Performance), but it delivers confidence in cornering and is more fun to drive than most conventional subcompact hatchbacks.

One thing we’re not a huge fan of is the proprietary shifter design, which looks just like the proprietary Honda shifter design. Pretty much every automaker is winging it these days when it comes to this critical component. That could become a safety issue, as it might be hard to tell if the car is in Drive, Reverse, Neutral, or Park. Speaking of which, the Bolt EV emits a bit of white noise when in Drive or Neutral. This is mandated by the government to ensure folks can hear when the near-silent Bolt EV is approaching.

Aft of the Drive button in the shifter arrangement is a button with an image of a foot surrounded by two swirling arrows. This button activates “full regen,” which is otherwise known as “one-pedal driving.” In addition to actual brakes, the Bolt EV features regenerative braking, which captures some of the energy from braking and can store it as electricity. You can see this give-and-take of energy on the digital instrument panel when applying the throttle and the brake. By engaging one-pedal driving, the resistance of regenerative braking is maximized and the moment you take your foot all the way off the accelerator pedal, there is an abrupt deceleration.

You’ll definitely want to be aware of what mode you’re in when you get in the car, so you don’t coast into an object expecting the regen to slow you down. Hopefully, the Bolt EV's raft of standard driver-assistance technologies can help with that. With full regen, you can elegantly decelerate from highway speeds onto an offramp, or navigate winding roads. While others might appreciate the efficiency of full-regen, a performance driver will appreciate the ability to decelerate without applying the brakes. Once again, it's no sports car, but there are performance angles to explore about this car.

With the battery in the floor and the electric components all up front where the conventional engine would be, there is no transmission tunnel to negotiate. As a result, there’s a solid amount of space, including a deep centre console bin and even a storage tray below the shifter/cupholder area. The interior update moved the cupholders from an awkward position in front of the old shifter design farther back. They now fall right where the driver’s right arm would rest, which is far more convenient.

The 2022 Bolt EV has an upright driving position that, when combined with the spacious interior, results in a vehicle that feels larger than it is. The rear seats are also surprisingly accommodating. A full-size adult will have enough headroom and legroom to sit comfortably for a long trip, although they better be traveling light—the Bolt EV has just 470 litres of cargo space behind the rear seats. With the rear seats folded, that figure grows to a more generous 1,614 litres. That’s more than the Volkswagen Golf (1,337 litres) and, in fact, more than the Bolt EUV crossover, which has 1,611 litres of cargo space.

As mentioned above, the Bolt EV comes standard with a 10.2-inch touchscreen infotainment system, including wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto as well as Wi-Fi hotspot capability. Though the screen remains the same size as before, the infotainment system itself has been updated. In addition to the wireless smartphone connectivity, it swaps out the unique, standalone Bolt EV software for the more conventional Chevrolet Infotainment System 3 setup. It still has pages that monitor energy consumption and charging, but it has a look shared with the rest of the Chevrolet lineup.

This is another area where Chevrolet made the right decision to embrace convention while pushing the envelope in other areas (like exterior styling). The Chevy infotainment system is intuitive and has a short learning curve, so why go with anything else? It’s another area where convention will make the Bolt EV more attractive to newcomers to an EV. The only problem with this screen setup is that the volume dial, tuning dial, and home button are all positioned to the left of the screen, and the steering wheel completely blocks the line-of-sight for these toggles. But it’s still good that this car has a volume knob, tuning knob, and home button. The latter ensures that you’ll never get hung up in a menu on the infotainment system or in CarPlay. When in doubt, you’ve got a helpful hard button. More automakers could take note of this simplicity and functionality.

The 2022 Bolt EV comes standard with Chevy Safety Assist, which incorporates safety features including automatic emergency braking, forward-collision alert, pedestrian detection, lane keep assist and lane-departure warning, and automatic high beams. In Canada, the Bolt EV also comes with standard rear park assist, rear cross-traffic alert, and lane-change alert. However, the Bolt EV doesn't get the more sophisticated Super Cruise system that's available on the Bolt EUV.

The Bolt EV also comes standard with a tire pressure monitoring system and a tire-fill alert that means you don’t have to bring the tire gauge with you to the air pump.

In August of 2021, General Motors expanded a recall of Chevrolet Bolt EVs to include over 60,000 2020-2022 Bolt EV and Bolt EUV models. The recall is in response to rare manufacturing defects that increased the risk of fire.

The biggest advantage to the 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV over the 2021 model is the addition of standard DC fast-charging capability. Previously an optional extra, this allows the Bolt EV to add up to 160 kilometres of range in just 30 minutes, according to Chevy. And the fast-charging network is growing. We used an Electrify America fast-charger, which lets you swipe your card, rather than sign up for an app. Electrify Canada is owned by the same parent company and its charging stations operate identically.

Far more common are the 240-volt Level 2 chargers, which add about 62 kilometres of range for every hour of charging. These chargers are often found at libraries, town halls, movie theatres, and malls. The Level 2 network is plentiful, but DC fast charging is the path forward for electric vehicles. The key is being able to add truly usable range in a bit more time than it would take to fuel up a conventionally powered vehicle.

Natural Resources Canada uses litres-equivalent per 100 kilometres (Le/100 km) to calculate the efficiency of alt-fuel vehicles such as EVs, plug-in hybrids, and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. In NRCan testing, the 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV consumed an estimated 1.8 Le/100 km city, 2.2 highway, and 2.0 combined. The battery and electric drive components are backed by an eight-year/160,000-kilometre warranty.

Between energy consumption estimates and driving range, the Tesla Model 3 Long Range has the Bolt EV beat, but the Model 3 cannot compete with the Bolt EV on price. The 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV has a base MSRP of $38,198 Canadian—that’s $6,800 less than the 2021 Bolt EV and nearly $6,000 less than the new Bolt EUV crossover. Pricing for the Model 3 starts at $59,990, but good luck finding one at that base price. The Bolt EV more closely competes with the Kia Niro EV, which has a retail price of nearly $45,000 and has an all-electric range of 385 kilometres.

The Model 3 and Bolt EV are for different customers. The Tesla is for the buyer looking to make a splash and turn heads. The Bolt EV is a far more frugal take on the EV. It’s an evolution of the vehicle that was introduced for the 2017 model year, and the changes and updates (the range, the standard fast charging, the infotainment) all conspire to help the Bolt EV feel like an actual option for more new car buyers. It’s no longer a niche choice for early adopters.

More importantly, it lays the groundwork for future vehicles. There will be larger and more capable electric vehicles from General Motors in the near future. While the Bolt EV may be a bit small for some, it shows just how close the “Bowtie Brand” is to producing a legit EV for the masses.

Note: Images show a US model.