I wouldn’t call them “very very” far behind. Reviews of Bolt and Volt were positive, and the cars were technically sound. So they have the capability to engineer a decent electric vehicle.
With the limited maintenance, regular servicing and less things to break where dealers have historically made their margins. EVs are a threat in this regard and you've already seen this play out with the Bolt/Volt to a degree.
Heck, they wanted ~$300 to run a DPF regen on our truck when it went into limp mode(yay for open-ish OBD protocols so we could do it ourself).
I just don't see them wanting to sell them and without a channel it doesn't matter how good of a product you make.
GM definitely has advantages and failings. Their advantage is actual capability in designing and building cars. They are not particularly behind in their ability to build electric cars.
Of course, the Bolt is neither a particularly (universally) attractive car, nor is it produced and distributed to dealerships in quantities sufficient to make a difference.
The charging network is obviously Tesla's cup of tea.
So GM will (almost certainly) make a bunch of appealing electric cars, and they'll get them to dealerships. That alone will make waves, but the charging network will likely need work so that reviews of their cars aren't littered with experience complaints.
It's also easy to debate items like software, updates and driver aids. GM is probably average with software (good enough) and average with updates (terrible). They have plenty of good investments with driver aids though they promise a lot less than Tesla (for now).
Anecdote isn’t data but when I went from a Chevy Volt (2016) to a Model S (2017) I was surprised at how much worse the computer in my Tesla is.
Bluetooth is unreliable and balky. Speech recognition doesn’t work. The touchscreen is unresponsive - it can take a minute to type in an address. And sometimes the main touchscreen computer freezes and I have to manually reboot it, which means no A/C or radio or navigation for 5 minutes.
I understand that the computer in my Model S isn’t as good as their newer ones. But I have to say the overall experience is terrible. My Volt had a more functional and reliable computer. I’m tempted to buy a new Model S just to upgrade the computer.
All of this is to say that Tesla may have great technology but it is unevenly applied and they are terrible at support.
Try 2021 of both. You were looking at MCU1. They are on MCU2 now, and it looks like the new S/X may be on an even newer MCU. You will find the typing speed and screen responsiveness 100% reversed.
Yes! In fact I own one of each. A Bolt, a Volt, and a Tesla "S". Each are good in their class. No major problems with any of them. (Actually, the "S" has been in the shop more times than the other two, which have never needed a repair other than routine service.)
It's a shame the "Volt" was discontinued because it was a great concept and the car works well. Unlike the fake "Plug-in Prius" -- which can't go faster than about 30 MPH without the gas engine kicking in -- the Volt is 100% electric on its ~ 50 mile range before the ICE will turn on. I got it for the occasional long drive I need to do.
With the limited maintenance, regular servicing and less things to break where dealers have historically made their margins. EVs are a threat in this regard and you've already seen this play out with the Bolt/Volt to a degree.
Heck, they wanted ~$300 to run a DPF regen on our truck when it went into limp mode(yay for open-ish OBD protocols so we could do it ourself).
I just don't see them wanting to sell them and without a channel it doesn't matter how good of a product you make.