The Road Ahead: For Chevy Bolt And Tesla Model 3, It's A Culture War

An EV culture clash could hurt Bolt sales when the Tesla Model 3 arrives.

First, let me say that the focus of this article is my experience at Chevy dealers, using Tesla stores as a benchmark. Second, let me state the obvious: the Tesla Model 3 isn't available yet. So, I'm extrapolating on the Model S. And to some extent extrapolating on the Chevy Volt too since the Bolt has only been available for a few months and is only being sold in select states.

Chevy dealers are getting better at selling electrified vehicles but...: I've written about the Chevy dealer EV experience/culture before. Since then, things have improved -- a little.

Because the Bolt* is so new, I'll relate a recent Volt-buying experience on the east coast. I spend time on both coasts (Los Angeles and suburban Philadelphia), so I have a pretty good line of sight into how the Volt/Bolt is sold in two large but very different markets.

First a quick primer on the Philadelphia EV market. When I travel to Philadelphia, I stay in Gladwyne, a tony suburb about 15 minutes (sans traffic) from Philadelphia. Gladwyne is a hotbed (albeit small) for Tesla growth in Philadelphia. Just like Beverly Hills and Bel Air are for Teslas in Los Angeles. That is to say, Gladwyne -- and to some extent the nearby towns of Ardmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Wayne, Devon, and Berwyn -- has a relatively high density of Teslas.

So, despite the lack of the EV conscious-raising you get in Los Angeles, Tesla manages to sell a decent number of EVs in the suburbs west of Philadelphia.

Chevy EVs are another story: The local Chevy dealer (near Gladwyne) is a pretty typical Philadelphia suburban EV experience. When I first went to scout Volts there for my father in January this year, there was one new 2017 Volt on the lot. When I went back a couple of days later, there were two. Coming from Los Angeles it's always a shock for me to go to a Chevy dealer and see a lot packed with Silverados, Malibus, Impalas, Cruzes, and even lots of $55K-and-up Corvettes. But only one or two Volts -- or a few at best -- on the lot.

The salesman was of course eager to sell us a Volt but it's not like I could walk onto the lot (like I can do in Los Angeles) and pick out a Volt from dozens of inventory. Basically, as explained to me by the salesman, we would have to select the Volt we wanted (and commit to it) and then they would see if one was available from a dealer in the tri-state area. If not, they would have to cast a wider net.

As I considered what to do, one thing struck me: it is still obvious in 2017 (six years after the Volt began to ship) that too many Chevy dealers are not geared to move lots of of EVs. The culture is still gas. The dealers always say the demand isn't there. But there are lots of chicken-or-the-egg reasons the demand isn't there including lack of awareness because of lack of high-exposure advertising.

(Along these lines, I'm always amazed at how little the average car buyer knows about EVs. Even die-hard Prius owners -- at least the ones I know -- have "heard of" cars like the Volt but really don't get the plug-in/EV thing. Especially if EV is synonymous with an $80K Tesla, which is way, way out their price range.)

But getting back to the Volt purchase. My father ended up getting a used (but pristine) 2015 Volt with 10K miles. That 2015 model is the last year of the Bob Lutz-inspired design, which both my father and I prefer to the new Volt design. (Disclosure: I own a 2013 Volt.) That Chevy dealer was of course perfectly happy to sell us the used Volt but, again, selling Volts was not that dealer's métier.

So, here's my question for GM: if you're not going to advertise the Volt/Bolt on TV and many of your salespeople are not terribly eager to pitch the Volt or Bolt to customers (because of the ICE culture), how will GM ever sell two of its best vehicles in large enough numbers to compete with the Tesla Model 3 or whatever hot-selling EV a major Japanese or European carmaker eventually comes up with? (And I do mean best. I believe the Volt is the best car GM has made in the last 60 years and after test driving the Bolt a couple of times, my impression is that the Bolt might be even better than the Volt.)

And another question: how will, let's say, the east-coast Prius owner -- who may be more disposed than others to consider the Volt or Bolt -- ever get converted in large numbers if there's no national advertising (as I mentioned above), no real presence on Chevy dealer lots, and, as a result, no free advertising on local roads (read: dearth of Volts on the road but lots of Prius and an increasing number of Teslas).

The Volt/Bolt appeals to Japanese/German car buyers: GM should try to own its (repressed) EV culture. It's not like GM is new to the game. Its EV1 was a trailblazer. As was the Volt.  Here's my reasoning: the Volt (and I'm guessing this will happen with the Bolt too) is bringing back long-lost GM customers. My parents traded in a Prius and a Subaru for the Volt. And it's the only GM sedan I see appealing to the German/Japanese car-buying crowd (who turned their back on GM decades ago). I see this trend clearly in Los Angeles. When I drive through neighborhoods in Bel Air, for example, the GM sedan I see consistently among a sea of German and Japanese sedans is the Chevy Volt. So, yes, a tiny sliver of educated/affluent Americans understand the Volt and some even buy one.

But what about all of the other, more mainstream, Prius-driving Americans that don't have a clue about the Volt? Or, at best, have a vague idea but it's too vague for them to act on. If GM doesn't go after that segment of the car-buying population more aggressively, what will happen to the Bolt? Particularly as Tesla, BMW, Daimler, and Toyota gear up for their next-gen EVs and appeal to customers that already buy their cars.

Will the Chevy Volt/Bolt survive the lower-cost Tesla Model 3 tsunami? Tesla hopes to be making 5,000 Model 3s per week by the end of the year and 10,000 per week at "some point" in 2018. The Model 3 is rated by Tesla at 215 miles of range per charge and starts at $35,000 before incentives.  The Bolt (with an EPA-estimated range of 238 miles) has an MSRP of close to $37,000 (about $30,000 with federal EV tax credit -- and less with state rebates). That's still a lot of money for the average consumer. For example, hipsters with a limited budget. The challenge for GM is that those same hipsters may be willing to bust their budget for the Model 3. Because Tesla -- not Chevy -- has the EV buzz, is seen as the EV must-have and as leading the new EV culture. Think about it: a lot of those hipsters have been to a Tesla store. You know, the Tesla store that's a few storefronts away from their favorite Apple Store in the local mall. But those same hipsters have never visited a Chevy dealer.

Model 3 as an expensive gadget: as a result, a lot of those hipsters, I would argue, are not focused on the Bolt. And their craving for a Tesla Model 3 is constantly reinforced because Tesla already has a decent road presence: the Model 3, in effect, is a smaller version of the coveted, high-profile Model S. Maybe more importantly, the Model 3 is seen as another must-have battery-powered gadget (albeit with four wheels) from another Silicon Valley purveyor of cool stuff.

And here's a sobering real-life example: in Los Angeles, I took a test ride in the Bolt with a young (25ish), educated, well-spoken, dapper Chevy salesman (see video at bottom), who was well-versed in the subtleties of the Bolt. The kind of salesperson I've met at Tesla dealerships. We spent part of the time talking about Tesla (prodded in part by me). He told me at the end of the conversation that he had thought about the Model S and gave me a list of reasons as to why he would lease the Model S instead of buying it. In other words, it seemed that as a personal preference he was focused on Tesla not Chevy.

The Tesla experience: I have less to say about this because I've never purchased a Tesla, though I've visited lots of stores in Los Angeles and the two (one in a mall, the other a store/service center) in the western suburbs of Philadelphia. And taken more than a few test drives. Tesla's advantage can be reduced to the fact that it's strictly an EV culture. It only sells EVs. There are no distractions like Cruzes, Suburbans, or Silverados. And no distracted/uninformed salespeople (i.e., salespeople who spend most of their time selling gas-engine-centric vehicles). That focus (or lack of it for GM) can make a huge difference.

Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of prospective Tesla Model 3 buyers (reservations are close to 400K) who go on line and order the Model 3 based on the buzz the car is getting.

Conclusion: the Chevy Bolt is an amazing EV, as many reviews have made clear, but I worry that Chevy won't do what's necessary to win over hundreds of thousands of EV buyers to GM. And I mean do whatever is necessary. Let's hope I'm wrong. (Or maybe GM doesn't want to. That's also a depressing possibility.)

I asked GM for comment but have yet to hear back.

*Note: contrary to previous reader comments, I do believe the Volt/Bolt will compete with the Tesla Model 3 for buyers. I see this play out in Beverly Hills where there is often a healthy mix of Volts and Teslas at swanky shopping spots in Beverly Hills.