THIS MOTORING YEAR 2016: The car we won’t see in 2017
GM’s most innovative new car was styled in Melbourne, but may never come Down UnderIt might have been styled in Melbourne by GM Design, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be seeing a Holden-badged Bolt electric car in Australia any time soon. Certainly not in 2017...
General Motors won’t build one of the world’s most affordable mass production electric vehicles in right-hand drive, as either a Bolt or the rebadged European version, the Ampera-e. Thus, not only do we miss out, but so does GM’s other RHD brand Vauxhall — bad news for the Poms too.
But even if it was built in right-hand drive would this good looking, well packaged, relatively affordable, 400km range, zero emissions passenger car come here anyway?
The reality is there’s very little incentive to buy an electric vehicle in Australia… Apart from the fact that you’re doing the planet, yourself and your children a good turn (if you’re not sucking power down from a CO2-spewing coal-fired power station to run it, that is).
And the situation seems unlikely to change. The Federal Government has vacated the stage when it comes to protecting the environment and supposed progressives like the Prime Minister have been muzzled by the far right fundamentalist kooks who control the Liberal party and sit on the cross benches in the Senate. (And when I say kooks I mean it — google One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts if you want to understand just how completely the inmates have taken control of the asylum.
Our only real hope is the introduction of state-based incentives. At least this is something that is achievable -- vehicle registration remains a state government responsibility and right now the state governments are showing more interest in a sustainable future than the feds.
Oh, and if you are pooh-poohing EVs as something irrelevant to you because you only drive V8s, or pick-ups or some other hydrocarbon-intensive form of transport, consider this.
A huge reason GM (and much of the car industry) is investing in EVs, hybrids and range extenders (plus hydrogen and other alternate energy forms) is so they can continue to build the gas guzzlers you love so much.
The Bolt is a -oser for GM but it means the corporation hits the mile per gallon numbers that will allow it to sell all those Silverados, V8 Camaros and Corvettes well into the future.
So there you go -- buy a Bolt and the V8 you save could be your own…
If you could actually buy a Bolt that is…
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