GM plans all-electric Chevy Bolt with 200-mile range

DETROIT -- General Motors plans to introduce by 2017 an electric car that will travel about 200 miles on a single charge, a person with knowledge of GM's plans said.

GM will show a concept of the EV, the Chevrolet Bolt, at the Detroit auto show on Monday, the source said. The company already has confirmed that it will unveil its redesigned Volt plug-in hybrid as well.

The Wall Street Journal late Friday reported on its website GM's plans for the Bolt.

GM registered for the Chevrolet Bolt trademark in August, according to website GM Authority.com.

The car is larger than the compact Volt and has a hatchback body style, the source said. GM has targeted a price between $30,000 and $35,000, which would put the net price under $30,000 after a federal tax credit, the person said.

In an e-mailed statement late Friday, GM reiterated that it will show the 2016 Volt at the auto show Monday, adding: "we have no other announcements to discuss at this time.”

The Journal reported that the Bolt would be equipped with "more capable" batteries from LG Chem, the Korean company that supplies the battery cells that go into the Volt.

The future Bolt would compete squarely against Tesla Motors' planned Model 3, which the Silicon Valley company also plans to price at around $35,000 and launch sometime in 2017.

GM global product chief Mark Reuss told analysts in October that Chevrolet planned to add an electric vehicle to its lineup, joining the Volt and the Spark EV minicar. He didn't provide details.

Dave Sullivan, an analyst with AutoPacific, sees the Bolt as more than just a Tesla competitor.

"GM will use it to learn how to market extended range alternative fuel vehicles, doesn't matter if it is an electric vehicle or a fuel cell vehicle, but this is the incremental step to FCVs," he told Automotive News.

In 2013, then-GM CEO Dan Akerson said the company was working on a car that would travel about 200 miles on a single charge.

Citing a senior GM official, Reuters reported in March 2013 that the company's next-generation electric vehicles would be produced in South Korea. 

Reuss recently signaled GM's continued commitment to electric vehicles in an interview:

“If you are a slave to monthly sales, you will give up your long-term vision of what you think the future will be,” he said. “And we did that [with the EV1]. We had the first electric car. And we didn’t follow it up. Think of where we would be today if we hadn’t done that.

"And I remind people who weren’t in the company or are younger. I say, we are not going to make that mistake again.”

Richard Truett contributed to this report.