Enlarge (credit: Jeffrey Sauger for Chevrole)

One of the first modern mass-market electric vehicles we tested remains one of our favorites. It's the Chevrolet Bolt, which we first sampled at CES in 2016 , then drove for real when it went on sale the following year . A fun-to-drive hatchback that could feel a little spartan—some people hate the seats in early models—it was also quite affordable, with prices dropping well below $30,000 for a car with a range of 259 miles (417 km).

Understandably we were pretty upset to learn that General Motors was calling time on this solid little EV; in April this year it announced it was ending the product line. But today, during GM's Q2 results call, CEO Mary Barra revealed the Bolt will be back.

"Our customers love today's Bolt. It has been delivering record sales and some of the highest customer satisfaction and loyalty scores in the industry," said Barra. "It's also an important source of conquest sales for the company and for Chevrolet. We will keep the momentum going by delivering a new Bolt… and we will execute it more quickly compared to an all-new program with significantly lower engineering expense and capital investment by updating the vehicle with Ultium and Ultifi technologies and by applying our 'winning with simplicity' discipline," Barra said.

Enlarge / In March BrightDrop shipped the first 500 vans built at its factory in Canada. (credit: BrightDrop)

General Motors has idled production of some of its electric vehicles due to a battery shortage. BrightDrop—a GM startup brand that's building last-mile delivery vans for companies like FedEx and Verizon—has stopped building EVs at its plant in Ingersoll, Canada, due to a lack Ultium battery cells.

GM debuted BrightDrop and its delivery van during chairwoman Mary Barra's keynote address at CES in 2021. The van was developed in record time—just slightly quicker than the electric Hummer , and like that EV, it leverages GM's new Ultium batteries .

Production began later in 2021, at first being conducted under contract in Michigan with an unnamed company as GM refitted its CAMI plant in Ingersoll. CAMI started production in December 2022, and BrightDrop has years of orders to fulfill, but some of those customers will end up waiting longer due to a lack of batteries to power the electric vans.

Enlarge / GM is the second American automaker to decide to ditch the CCS port (pictured) for Tesla's design. (credit: Cadillac)

Tesla's Supercharger network is about to get more crowded. On Thursday afternoon, General Motors CEO Mary Barra joined Tesla CEO (and Twitter's owner) Elon Musk to announce that GM is signing on to what Tesla calls the North American Charging Standard (NACS) and will integrate those ports into its electric vehicles from 2025. The move follows a similar agreement between Tesla and Ford, announced two weeks ago .

"This collaboration is a key part of our strategy and an important next step in quickly expanding access to fast chargers for our customers. Not only will it help make the transition to electric vehicles more seamless for our customers, but it could help move the industry toward a single North American charging standard," Barra said in a statement.

GM EVs will gain access to the Supercharger network of over 12,000 chargers starting in 2024. As with the Ford news, GM EVs will initially require an adapter to connect the NACS cable to their CCS1 charging ports.

Enlarge / Use your freedom of choice. (credit: Apple)

A long while back, Toyota told me it didn't want to give up interior real estate to Apple’s CarPlay. The automaker felt that losing that space to the tech company would be a huge mistake. Fast forward a few years, and after what I assume were some internal struggles, it caved and now you can get CarPlay and Android Auto on your fancy new Highlander, Prius, Tacoma, or Camry. It seemed like a silly decision had been reversed. Now it’s GM’s turn to go down the same path.

Today, news dropped that GM would be phasing out CarPlay support in future EVs . In its partnership with Google, it hopes that all the features you get from mirroring your iPhone can be replaced with an Android Automotive feature . GM, like Toyota before it, wants to control the digital real estate in its vehicles. It’s a revenue-based and walled-garden (ironically against Apple) decision that will cost them.

Software-driven vehicles should be about choice. Instead, GM is making a short-sighted decision based on a trickle of revenue under the guise of better integration. Owning all the data that a vehicle generates while driving around could be a great source of cash. The problem is potential customers have become accustomed to choosing which device they use to navigate, chat, text, and rock out within their vehicle. They’ve grown weary of being mined for data at the expense of their choice and they’re really not all that keen on in-car subscription services .

Enlarge / The #6 Porsche Penske 963 and the #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 run on Daytona's banking during the 2023 Roar Before the 24. With so many miles of testing completed, the Porsches are probably the favorites, but 24 hours is a long time in racing, and a lot can happen. (credit: Jake Galstad/LAT Images)

This past weekend saw the successful conclusion of the International Motor Sports Association's "Roar Before the 24," the series' preseason test ahead of this coming weekend's Rolex 24, a 24-hour race held each January at Daytona International Speedway in Florida. This year, the preseason test was more important than most, as there's a new kind of race car, called the GTP, competing in the Rolex 24 in 2023.

The new hybrid prototype category has attracted more manufacturer interest than we've seen in many years, with brands like Acura and Porsche building new cars to compete and others, like Lamborghini, waiting in the wings to join next year. But the biggest question is whether these new race cars will be able to make it to the end of the race. As in the larger automotive industry, supply shortages mean that spare parts are scarce, so the consequences of a crash are calamitous.

But what makes GTP—originally called LMDh—so attractive to car makers? I asked David Salters, head of Honda Performance Development, which oversees the Japanese OEM's racing activities in North America.

Enlarge (credit: GMC)

Android Automotive, Google's operating system for cars, has historically been pretty niche, and only a handful of high-profile cars like the Polestar 2 have used it. Now, though, Android Automotive is going mainstream, and we're starting to see some of the biggest car manufacturers roll out Google's operating system across entire lineups.

Today, we're looking at the 2022 GMC Yukon, but really, this is General Motors' Android Automotive system, and you'll see it rolled out across most of GM's lineup in the future. The same basic setup powers the Hummer EV1 , and with all of the parts-sharing that goes on at GM, expect to see this system pop up in Chevys, GMCs, Cadillacs, and Buicks. With Ford and Honda jumping into the Android Automotive ecosystem in the near future, Google's car OS will soon be everywhere.

Let's get the usual disclaimer out of the way: This article is not about Android Auto, Google's tethered phone app and competitor to Apple's CarPlay. Android Automotive , fully spelled out (it's sometimes branded as " Google Built-In "), means the car is one big Android device. A computer runs the car's infotainment system, and that computer runs Android. Even if you have an iPhone in your pocket, that won't change the OS your car runs (it does support CarPlay, though). For most models, buying General Motors will mean buying an Android Car. You'll see an on-screen message pop up during setup saying, "By using this car, you agree to Google's terms of service."

La transition électrique, ça concerne tous les constructeurs automobiles et toutes les marques, y compris celle auxquelles on n'associe pas naturellement l'idée de motorisation électrique. Corvette aussi va s'y mettre !

L’iconique Corvette de Chevrolet va passer à l’électrique