Colorado’s thirst for electric vehicles was key for Chevrolet picking the state to sell its new Bolt EV before other states nationwide. The Bolt is the automaker’s latest plug-in car that goes 230 miles on a single charge.
More than 6,000 Bolt EV’s have sold since debuting in California and Oregon in December and last month in Colorado, according to Fred Ligouri, the company’s manager of electric vehicle communication. The new car will be available to dealers in the remaining 30 states in August.
Colorado is particularly fond of Chevy’s electric fleet, which includes the Chevrolet Volt, the hybrid electric car that debuted in 2011 and can drive 53 miles on one charge. Sales of the Volt nationwide increased 58 percent between 2015 to 2016. In the same period in Colorado, Volt sales grew 74 percent.
“Colorado has been (interested) for a long time. It certainly seems like the mindset is right,” Ligouri said. ” There’s a great amount of charging infrastructure, especially in the eastern half of the state, which makes it very viable, especially with the added range of the EV Bolt.”
The automaker focuses on building cars, not charging stations. But every car comes with a portable cord that adds four miles of range for every hour it’s plugged in. A charging kit is an extra $700 allowing users to fully charge the car overnight. Chevy made sure to go with the standard plug so that drivers can use public charging stations, he said.
