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by fgfarben 40 days ago
It includes a 66 kWh battery. This might be a strategy for offloading all the Bolt EV batteries they had to refurbish.
3 comments

Maybe? It's a 400V architecture, and honestly that's my criticism... 400V seems low at this point. Particularly for something requiring an "Authorized Installer" I'd have expected 800V architecture, if not pushing higher. Minimum 600V though... so IMO huge miss on GMs part. I do think GM does have an opportunity if they really wanted to do what you're suggesting and just make drop on chassis for square bodies etc.
I'll bite.

What's the point of 800V with a battery this small? 400V already enables around 200 kW of charging, which is 3C with a pack this small. So charging is not limited by the voltage level, because the pack assuredly isn't reaching 3C. At 200hp the efficiency gains are marginal if they exist at all. So what would the benefit of 800V be, apart from higher costs?

Let's be realistic. GM is not interested in burning R&D money to make a good 800V electric crate kit. They only want to burn R&D money to make new profitable trucks.

They are doing this because they have a billion dollars of refurbished batteries sitting in warehouses that they need to dump.

400V DC on a 66KWh battery will fry you in an instant if you don't know what you are doing or get careless with your tools.
As a Bolt EUV owner, I'd like to just offload my Bolt.

(Not because it's a bad car in itself, but all of the electronics shit is falling apart.)

How old is your Bolt. I've been toying with the idea of getting a used one. What has failed with the electronics?
It's a 2023 Bolt EUV, I bought it new at the end of 2022. My issues with it only started last year; it was a great car up until then, easily my favorite vehicle out of all the ones I've owned. The issues with my car are the rear cameras, which have stopped working, and the touch screen, which no longer responds to touch.

The repair techs couldn't find anything wrong with the cameras, and their diagnostic tool reported that they were apparently functioning. They ended up replacing the cameras and the cabling, but it didn't help at all; the new cameras just stopped working again within a couple of weeks. When I took it back in, they told me straight up that they didn't know what to do about it if replacing the cameras and cables didn't work, so there was nothing left to do.

The touch screen broke around the same time[†] as the cameras, and this is worse than not having cameras IMO. The Bolt is nice because it has a good amount of physical buttons to control things, but there are still some critical functions tied to the touch screen that you just can't do if it's not responding to touch. Examples: I can't look at the front or side cameras; I can't adjust the defrost at all in the winter (it's tied to the touchscreen unlike the rest of the climate controls); I can't select a destination or add stops in Maps without opening my phone; and I can't install or decline software updates for the vehicle, which nag with a very loud chime every time the car is parked.

The dealership offered to replace the touch screen, but only as a replacement for the entire head unit which was going to be $2500 or more. I couldn't justify the cost on a car that's only worth $15k now, especially after they couldn't fix the cameras.

[†] Makes me think the two things are related, but there's no practical way to debug it on my own.

Touch screen out of warranty in only 3 years?
For me it was, unfortunately. It falls under GM's standard 3 year/36k mile warranty as far as I can tell. I bought it in November 2022, and the issues started popping up toward the end of summer 2025 (edit: wait I can't math, that's just under 3 years). I've also put a lot of miles on it (at 49k right now), so it was likely over that mileage warranty by then as well.
You can buy head unit parts on eBay. It sounds like you have rodent harness damage.
Can you elaborate? Genuinely curious.

My family has a small fleet of bolts, and we could not be happier with them…

In fact, if cars get mixed up and I’m driving my wife’s much “nicer” Audi etron, I find that I always wish I were driving one of the bolts instead.

I answered in more detail here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48051714), but mine has two major issues: the rear cameras stopped working even after a full replacement, and the touch screen stopped responding to touch. The Bolt is nice because it has a bunch of physical controls for climate, music, etc., but there's still some critical stuff tied to the touchscreen that has made using it without touch really difficult.
Looks like it, or just clearing inventory. All the specs are identical to the 2020 Bolt EV batteries: energy, weight, dimensions.