The 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV

This is the new 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV, and it’s the latest electric car from Chevrolet. The Bolt first came out back in 2017. For 2022 they’re adding a new version, the EUV, which stands for Electric Utility Vehicle, because it’s more practical than the regular Bolt. And today I’m going to review it. Before I get started, check out Cars & Bids, which is my online enthusiast car auction website, and the best place to buy and sell cool cars from the modern era. We’ve had some amazing sales recently, including this 1992 Infiniti Q45, which sold for $27,000 under 9,000 miles. This Mercedes SLS AMG Roadster, which sold for over $170,000, and this Toyota Land Cruiser, which sold for $26,000.

If you’re looking to sell your cool car from the modern era, Car & Bids is the place to do it. And if you’re looking to buy a cool enthusiast car from the ‘80s and up, we have an amazing selection with daily auctions, check it out, Carsandbids.com. So let’s talk Chevy Bolt, and pay attention because this is a little confusing. The Bolt first came out back in 2017 and it was an electric hatchback, you understand that. For 2022, the Bolt has been redesigned and it is still an electric hatchback called the Bolt EV. But Chevy is also adding a new version of it, in addition to the regular hatchback called the Bolt EUV. That is this car, and it’s a little bit larger and more practical than a regular Bolt. So what’s the difference between the regular Bolt and this, the Bolt EUV? Well, EUV stands for Electric Utility Vehicle, and this is larger than a regular Bolt with more interior space and a more muscular design.

Chevy is sort of pitching it as kind of a crossover electric vehicle, not SUV, but EUV, that’s the thinking, although to me that’s a little suspect. It’s only offered with front wheel drive and ground clearance isn’t very crossover-y, let alone SUV-vy. But there’s still a lot to like here. The regular Bolt EV starts around $32,000, the EUV is around two grand more. They have the same fully electric power train, about 200 horsepower and roughly the same range, about 250 miles. But the big news is that the Bolt EUV will offer super cruise, which is General Motors driver assist technology designed to rival Tesla autopilot and others. That’s a big deal because this is the first time super cruise has appeared outside of some very expensive Cadillac products on the new Bolt EUV.

Today, I’m going to review the Bolt EUV and show you what it’s all about. First I’ll take you on a tour of all the interesting quirks and features of the Bolt EUV, then I’ll get it out on the road and drive it and see how it feels, and then I’ll give it a Doug score. All right, I’m going to start the quirks and features of the Bolt EUV with some interesting exterior quirks, starting with the brake lights which are strange, because these are dummies. You can see these are lit up right now, but that’s only because the headlights are on in this function. There’s taillights, but when you actually go and put on the brake, you can see the brake lights light up down below, like in the bumper. And that’s the same deal with the turn signals. Put on the turn signal, and it also lights up in the bumper and far away from this giant brake light assembly, which you would expect to be the brake lights and the turn signals.

Very interesting and quirky. Now, part of the reason they do this, is because there’s a regulation that says you can’t have brake lights on a piece of body work that moves like tailgate, but they still could have put the brake lights over on the side, like so many cars do, but instead they’re in the bumper. Kind of a strange thing with the Bolt EUV. By the way, speaking of these taillights, this taillight assembly lights up when the lights are on, like I mentioned, but one quirky, little Easter egg over on the side, it also lights up the Chevy logo. You can see this little Chevy logo lights up whenever the tail lights are lit up, and that just looks cool. I love that. But I mean, next up, two other interesting quirks around the back. One is on the bumper itself. You can see there’s this black plastic piece in the center, very large and not painted, looks a little bit out of place.

In fact, it makes the Bolt look like it permanently has one of those bumper protector rubber things that people buy. On a blue car it doesn’t look quite so bad, but on silver, you can see it really shows up. It doesn’t really look all that great. One other interesting item back here you can see on the taillight, this is badged as Bolt EUV. Not just Bolt or Bolt electric or whatever, it specifically calls out EUV to distinguish this car from the regular Bolt EV Hatchback, which is a different car, like I mentioned. Speaking of the Bolt to EUV mark on this car, you can see the same thing on the front fender, just below the hood line again, it says Bolt EUV, specifically calling out which version of the Bolt it is. Now, in this area, you also have another little hidden Easter egg.

Once again, a Chevy logo appears in the side, reflector in the orange, which is a nice little quirk if you notice it, for people who see those kind of little details. Now, the headlights themselves are kind of interesting in this car. The upper piece, what you see here is not the headlight. Instead, this is the running light, and when you put on the turn signal, it becomes the turn signal, and you can see what the turn signal on it sort of sweeps across the front, which I think looks very cool. It’s becoming more and more common in the car industry and it always looks neat and interesting. So then you might be wondering, where exactly are the headlights? If they’re not in this upper light assembly, where are they then? They are down here in this lower headlight assembly, sort of in the bumper.

This is the headlight, this big piece that you see, that’s the light. It’s pretty low, especially for a car. Some SUVs put the lights lower, can make them more compliant with cars, but you rarely see it in hatchbacks, this lower headlight, but that’s where it is in the EUV. One other interesting item upfront, is the grill. This is an electric car, so they don’t actually need a big grill for airflow. So instead it is this piece here with this sort of strange design on it. Looks like the side of an art museum, but it’s interesting to see it there. Indeed, it’s kind of interesting to see what automakers are doing with their electric cars front end, since they don’t need grills. It’s sort of a big piece of unused space and all automakers are kind of reaching different conclusions about what they should do with the space, and this is what Chevy did.

But anyway, next up, we move inside the Bolt EUV. Your first impression you get in here is that the interior is actually pretty nice, especially for the price point. Now, it’s worth noting there are some cheaper materials in here. For instance, the door panel has some cheaper plastic on it. Same deal with the center console. You can see around the cup holder some cheap looking and feeling plastic, and same deal over on the passenger side of the dashboard looks a little cheap. But mostly the stuff in here is pretty nice. You have for instance, a lot of piano black trim, which you don’t usually see at this price point in like a smaller hatchback, and you have these neat kind of blue seats. They’re dark blue to match the car’s blue exterior, and they have blue stitching, which looks pretty cool.

And they have sort of this interesting perforated triangle design to them too. I would say this interior is better than I was expecting, given the price point, given General Motors and given kind of the size and class of this car. But anyway, moving on to the interesting quirks in here, one notable one is the gear selector in the center. No lever, no dial, you have buttons. P for park at the very top, then R, you pull back on this switch to get into reverse. Then N for neutral, you push down, and then D for drive, again a switch to get into drive. Kind of an interesting and odd gear selector for an interesting futuristic type vehicle. Now, the button below all of these in the gear selector is a very important one. This button turns on one pedal driving.

So if you press this, then the car will automatically regen every time you get off the accelerator pedal, and it will sort of slow down and break automatically. A lot of electric cars have this feature and this car very easy to toggle on or off, you just press that little button. One other interesting thing in the center console area is around the cup holders. One cup holder has this silver trim around it and the other one doesn’t. So you have one chosen cup holder in this car, and one lesser a cup holder. It is kind of strange trim. Also worth noting in the center console, ahead of all the gear selector stuff at the very top, you have a button with a checkered flag on it, which turns on sport mode. Even though this car only has about 200 horsepower, not really very sporty, you do have a sport mode to make it feel a little bit more exciting to drive.

The sport mode button is placed next to the inexplicably, huge traction control off button, which is like the size of four buttons, but it is there for you to be able to press traction control off with all of your fingers at once if you want to. Next up also in this vicinity, moving up to the dashboard though, is a power button to turn the car on or off. Now, a lot of EVs don’t have power buttons. You just get in, they detect you’re in and then on, but this one does. You get in, you have to manually turn it on in order to turn it on and get going anywhere. And when you park it, you have to press that button to manually turn it off. A little different operation than some other electric vehicles. Next up in the vicinity of this power button is something I know that I will hate. Absolutely hate.

You have the volume control for the stereo system in this car, and then mounted right next to that is a dial the same size and shape, which adjusts, where you’re looking on the infotainment screen. You can see, one is volume, and then an inch away, you have the same dial, and that just sort of moves through the icons in infotainment. Not really great placement of this, not ideal to have those two things with different functions right next to each other, although it is worth noting that the driver has their own volume control on the back of the steering wheel, very convenient. So your hand’s wrapped around the steering wheel, you just tap these little buttons for volume up or down. So these dials will mostly be a problem for the passenger, but they are annoying to have them right next to each other.

By the way, speaking of the back of the steering wheel, this car has one steering wheel paddle. Not two like every other car with shift paddles, just one, and it’s over on the left. You can see there’s a little icon of a battery with an arrow on it. That paddle allows you to control your regen, your regenerative breaking when you’re slowing down. You can increase your regen and thus increase how quickly the car slows down by pulling on that paddle if you want, and you can use it in conjunction with one pedal driving. So if one pedal driving isn’t slowing the car down fast enough, you can start pulling on that paddle and it will regen more and slow the car down even more, which is a nice touch, especially so convenient right next to your hand.

Next up, a very important feature to mention. The vicinity of the steering wheel is this little piece right here, which is a camera that will monitor you as you drive as part of the super cruise system which this car has. Super cruise is General Motors like driving assist feature, and it will steer for you, and it will break for you and accelerate for you as long as you’re on a mapped road. And super cruise has mapped most of the highways in North America so you can use this feature most of the time. And the camera will look at you to make sure you’re paying attention. If you are looking ahead, it will basically do the driving for you on mapped roads, steering, breaking, accelerating, all that stuff. Now, I have an in depth video about how super cruise works on my second channel.

I will link that in the description below, so you can check it out and see how it works. But basically this is General Motors rival to Tesla autopilot. Now, it’s important especially in this car, because this is the first time GM has installed it in anything other than an expensive Cadillac like the Escalade. Here it is in a relatively affordable vehicle, the super cruise driving assist system, which works great. Now, it’s worth noting, it is not available in the Bolt EV. Just in the Bolt EUV, this car, that’s the only way you can get super cruise, but it’s the first application outside of an expensive Cadillac in a car like this. Pretty neat to see it. With that said, one drawback of super cruise in the Bolt EUV, it will not change lanes for you. In the Escalade, you put on your turn signal and the system automatically will make a lane change when it’s safe.

That does not happen here. The Escalade has like more sensors on the outside that the Bolt doesn’t have. So in this car, you have to manually change lanes, but otherwise you have all the benefits of super cruise. And frankly besides super cruise, there are a lot of impressive features in this car, given the price point and like the classic competes in like a little hatchback. There’s a lot of nice luxuries in here. For instance, you have heated and ventilated front seats, which is a pretty nice touch. You also have a heated steering wheel, press this switch, and you turn on the heated steering wheel. You don’t see that too often in little hatchbacks. So you also have auto high beams in here. So you press this little button on the turn signal stalk, you turn on your auto high beams, and then your bright lights go on when it’s safe, when you’re driving at night, which is pretty cool.

And your rear view mirror in this car is a camera. You can see right now, it’s just a normal looking mirror, but if you flip this switch, it has just become a camera. And then you can see everything behind you a lot easier, because you’re not looking at headrests and seats and trying to see out your back window. You see everything in the wide field of view, and that is another cool feature in this price point. You also have a panoramic sunroof in here, a big wide sunroof that opens over the front seats, which is again nice to see in a little hatchback. Another feature I love in this car is the infotainment system. This is General Motor’s latest to infotainment system. I’ve reviewed it in many cars, and I love it in all of them. It is tremendously intuitive, very well laid out and very easy to use. Incredibly responsive to your touch, just like your smartphone is, if not better.

It’s really, really excellent. There are a couple of special highlights worth pointing out in this infotainment system. One is the camera system in this car. You go in here and you can see there are all sorts of different camera angles, where you can check out all sorts of different angles while you’re driving this car or parking it or moving it at a small space, whatever makes it very easy to park. And it’s nice to see such a comprehensive camera system in a car like this. But my very favorite feature in this infotainment system, is undoubtedly the energy portion. You tap on this and it gives you some interesting information you don’t see too often in electric cars. For instance, it tells you exactly what’s using up all of your power while you drive along.

You can see that your driving is using up some portion of it, but also your climate control or whatever is using up more. And that is interesting to see kind of the breakdown of what’s using what. Also cool here, this little tab that tells you what is affecting your range and your battery usage. You can see, it shows you like how your driving technique is affecting it, if it’s increasing or decreasing your range, but it also shows like the terrain you’re on. If elevation changes, gains or losses are affecting your battery performance and climate and temperature, and how much of an effect they are having, and it’s even telling you like exactly how much they’re affecting every little bit that you’re driving each of these external factors. That is pretty cool to see. It’s like, “Hey, the terrain is too steep. It’s robbed us of three miles of range.”

It actually tells you that in this system, I love seeing that. Next up, we move on to the backseat of the Bolt EUV, which I have to say is surprisingly large for what this car is. I’m sitting back here and you can see, my knees are just sort of touching the back of the front seat, and I have enough head room to sit here. I’m 6’’3, 6’’4, and I have acceptable room back here. I wouldn’t say I’m incredibly comfortable, like I’m sitting in the back of Maybach lounging around, but I rarely have enough space in the back of little hatchbacks like this car, but I do here. And that’s kind of the point of the Bolt EUV compared to the regular Bolt EV. This car is six inches longer than the regular Bolt, and most of that extra space is added to the backseat for more interior room.

That shows when you’re actually sitting back here, if you had one of these, you could transport adults in the front and back in this car in relative comfort, not always true of little hatchbacks. But anyway, aside from the size, some other interesting items back here. For one thing, there’s only one storage pocket on the back of the front seat. You have on the passenger side, a little storage pocket back here, but on the driver’s side, you don’t have anything. Most cars have two, this only has one, which is kind of a curious quirk. Now, also worth mentioning back here, there are no climate vents for the rear seat passengers, but you have something which in my opinion is more important. On the back of the front center console, you have two charge ports, one USB-C, and one regular USB.

This car is so small, you don’t really need a rear seat climate control, but it is nice to have charge ports for devices for the rear seat passengers. You also have heated seats back here. This little button on the door turns on the rear heated seats. You only have one setting, on or off. You can’t decide how much heating you get, but you do have heated rear seats in a small hatchback, and that’s a pretty cool feature, frankly. Finally, we move around to the back of the Bolt EUV and into the cargo area. Surprisingly, the tailgate is not power operated, you have to manually open it up. Which I say is a surprise, considering how many features this car has, because of all the driving assist, heated ventilated seats, but still a manual tailgate, kind of strange.

But anyway, you get in here and you can see relatively large cargo area considering the size of this car, but you can make it even larger if you want. This little cargo floor can be lifted up, and then you can see underneath is a huge sort of second level of cargo area where you can stick stuff if you don’t want it rolling around, or if you want it to be maybe a little bit more private. You can also just remove this cargo floor entirely, and then you have access to your entire cargo area in one for transporting larger items, which is pretty cool. And frankly, having a lot of space back here is pretty nice, because in the Bolt EUV, you don’t have a front trunk. You can still open up this front area, and it’s just mechanical components. A lot of electric cars have a little trunk up here for extra storage, but the Bolt EUV does not.

So it’s nice to have this extra larger cargo area in back where you can store even more stuff than you might expect, thanks to this lower floor. And finally, since I’m outside the Bolt EUV, let’s talk styling. From the outside, I think this looks like a fairly normal hatchback. Certainly not ugly, not exactly beautiful, it just looks like a reasonable hatchback. But it is interesting that they’re releasing the new Bolt EV and this EUV at the same time, and they’re different cars. I personally prefer the look of the Bolt EV, I think it has more of a cool futuristic look. I like the egg shape with sort of the flat windshield. I think the regular Bolt EV hatchback just looks a little nicer. But if you’re comparing the two, I personally think that this, the Bolt EUV is the one that you should probably get.

It’s the one that I would get. They have the same power train, 200 horsepower, about 250 miles of range, but the EUV is larger inside like I showed you, and only the EUV offers super cruise. You can’t get it in the regular Bolt. So to me that makes this the more appealing car, even though it’s a little bit more expensive and a little bit less good looking, I think this is the more practical, better alternative in the Bolt lineup. So those are the quirks and features of the new 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV. Now it’s time to get it out on the road and see how it drives. All right, driving the Bolt EUV. Now, I should say I was a fan of the outgoing Chevy Bolt, not because I thought it was like the greatest car, but I thought it was a pretty good value for what it was.

In terms of its electric range and its capabilities, it seemed like a reasonably good car. A lot of Tesla people were like, “No, Tesla, it does sound as fast, the Tesla is good.” Although it was true, but it was also a pretty good bargain, and so I was always a big fan of the outgoing model. Now, one interesting thing with the new car, it doesn’t really improve upon the range of the outgoing car. You still have the same powertrain, you still have the same range, which is pretty good, 250 miles or so that’s, that’s reasonable, but obviously EVs are getting more and more range. We’re starting to see over 300 more and more frequently. So that’s a little bit disappointing, although I must say at the price point 250 miles for 33,000 34,000, that’s a reasonably good trade off. So let’s start with driving experience.

Couple things, like I mentioned, one pedal driving is sort of a button that you can push to turn on or off, which, you know, some people don’t like one pedal driving. So it’s nice to be able to just easily go from on to off. Materials in here, pretty nice, but not like amazing. Ultimately this is a General Motors car in the $30,000 range. It’s not going to have the very highest quality and nicest stuff, but it looks reasonably nice, especially given the price point and given what this car is, which is basically like a compact hatchback. One thing I am surprised about and kind of interested in, the ride quality is pretty good in here. It’s not certainly like luxury car good, but it’s better than I would expect for like a slightly tall hatchback from Chevrolet.

All right, flow in here, fast isn’t the term that I would use to describe this car. It feels fine, but it doesn’t feel like excitingly quick. You know, it’s a reasonably fine electric car in terms of acceleration. All right, I’m in traffic now and I’m kind of bumper to bumper just on a highway. So I’m going to turn on super cruise, I just turned it on. So here I am, I’m sitting here and no hands, super cruise is doing the driving, or at least the steering and breaking. This really is an excellent system. I understand that it only works on mapped roads, and a lot of the Tesla people will say that that’s a big limitation of it. But to me, that’s generally acceptable. I primarily find myself wanting to use these systems when I’m on the interstate, on kind of a long monotonous drive, when I’m in bumper to bumper traffic.

That’s when super cruise works its best. Most freeways have been mapped and so it works pretty well in that situation. Now, it did come up during the last super cruise video I did. Does super cruise deal well with sunglasses? Does it work with sunglasses? The answer is generally yes. It has some camera system that allows it to see through most types of sunglasses and see if your eyes are still focused forward. And if they are, then you can continue driving. Now, in terms of performance with this car, don’t expect it to be particularly high performance or particularly thrilling. I know the Tesla Model 3 offers like a lot more fun for like low $40,000. But this car is just, that’s not what this car is. This car is intended to be more of an electric hatchback, just kind of commuter type car, and it certainly isn’t thrilling.

You can tell the steering and handling does not feel all that thrilling. Overall, I would say there’s a lot to like about the Bolt EUV, especially when you’re looking at price point, and then what it delivers at that price point. This is not the best electric car in the market. But just like a Toyota Corolla is not the best car on the market, at the dollar value, it’s a pretty good decision and I think that that’s the case here. There are a lot of people who want an electric car, who are ready for an electric car that don’t want to spend Tesla money, that don’t need the full capabilities of a Tesla. You still have the excellent driving assist feature, you still have a lot of great tech and good range. It isn’t the very best tech or the very best range, but it’s still excellent.

I’m pretty thrilled with the way that this car operates and how it drives and everything for the price point. So that’s the 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV. This is an appealing car. It’s no Tesla in terms of performance or technology or brand name, frankly, but it presents an attractive alternative at this price point for people who want a lot of the benefits of an electric car without spending a fortune. And super cruise is a nice cherry on top. Anyway, now it’s time to give the Bolt EUV a Doug score. Starting with the weekend categories and styling, the Bolt EUV looks fine. Certainly not beautiful, but not ugly. About what you’d expect for a car like this is, it gets a 5 out of 10. Acceleration, supposedly does 0 to 60 in 7 seconds, which gives it a 2 out of 10. Although I must say, I think it felt a little slower than that.

Handling is normal for a car like this, and it gets a 3 out of 10. Fun factor is low. This isn’t intended to be fun, and it’s not really, except for some decent acceleration, and it gets a 2 out of 10. Cool factor is also pretty low. This isn’t one of the new cool electric cars, just a more utilitarian budget friendly EV hatchback, and it gets a 3 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 15 out of 50. Next up are the daily categories and features. The Bolt EUV has some great tag, like super cruise in the mirror camera, but it’s also missing some stuff like a power tailgate. It’s a weird mixed bag, but it’s mostly in the right direction, and it gets an 8 out of 10. Comfort is normal for a car like this, and it gets a 5 out 10. Quality too is normal given this car’s price point in market positioning, and it gets a 5 out of 10. Practicality is good.

It’s not huge inside, but it’s bigger than you might think, and range is decent. It gets a 7 out of 10. Value is also strong. It’s a bit expensive for what it is, but it does have some compelling features and it’s cheaper than a lot of EVs. It gets a 7 out of 10 for a total daily score of 32 out of 50. Add it up and the Doug score is 47 out of 100, which places it here against relevant cars. The Bolt EUV is only slightly ahead of the old Bolt, which was a little quicker. The EUV falls behind the Kia Niro EV, which is more expensive and neither can touch the Tesla Model 3. Although that’s no surprise as the Model 3 I reviewed was far more expensive. The Bolt EUV isn’t especially exciting or amazing, but it’s a good electric car for the money. At this price point, this is a practical, reasonable, attractive.