General Motors has delivered its first Chevrolet Bolt electric cars to three customers in Fremont, California, home to rival electric automaker Tesla Motors' assembly plant.
According to Reuters, this allowed the Detroit based automaker to claim first place in the race to deliver an electric car that can run for more than 200 miles (about 300km) on a charge with a starting price below US$40,000. Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk has promised its entry in this new segment, the Model 3, will go into production in July.
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Some analysts expect the Model 3 will miss that target, Reuters noted. The production plan calls for a substantial overhaul of Tesla's Fremont assembly plant which, before Telsa, was a General Motors/Toyota joint venture factory.
Tesla has said its starting price would be $35,000 although it expects the average sales price to be about $42,000.
Reuters said the the Bolt, which GM developed with South Korean battery maker LG Chem, has a 238-mile driving range on a charge and a starting price of $37,495 before tax breaks.
Nissan Motor, Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW have indicated they are developing similar electric vehicles with a driving range of about 200 miles.
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By GlobalDataGM has been cautiously ramping up Bolt production at a suburban Detroit factory. Suppliers and people familiar with the programme have told Reuters the initial production pace indicates plans for 20,000 to 30,000 units a year.
However, company officials told the news agency the plant could build more. The Bolt is specifically designed to be a battery-electric vehicle, and could form the basis of other electric vehicles, company officials have said.
In contrast, Tesla has outlined ambitious plans to make up to 500,000 Model 3s annually, more than five times its expected vehicle production for this year. The company has said it received more than 325,000 initial orders for the Model 3.
The Chevy Bolt, and the similar Opel Ampera-e GM plans to offer in Europe, are functional, small hatchbacks. Executives have said the Bolt is well-suited for such ride-service companies as Lyft, in which GM owns a stake and have also said the automaker plans eventually to offer self-driving Bolts.
Prototypes of the Model 3 displayed by Tesla suggest that car will be aimed at compact, German luxury sedans such as the Audi A3 or A4, or the Mercedes-Benz CLA or C class, Reuters noted.
