The Chevrolet Bolt is an award-winning, small, five-door hatchback battery electric vehicle. Here at Car Talk, we named the Bolt the best EV overall in America for 2023. The Bolt is an outstanding vehicle in many ways. One thing that makes it almost unique is that it is affordable. At the time of this publication, General Motors has announced that the Bolt’s expected cancellation (due to huge success) is being reconsidered. We certainly hope GM decides to keep the Bolt in the lineup.

The Chevrolet Bolt is a fantastic vehicle. Since 2017, the Car Talk test team has spent many months driving the Bolt. It is universally respected by all and loved by many. If you want a small five-door hatchback for $30K, there really isn’t a better one on the market, and we are including the gassers in that endorsement. The Bolt is electric, yes, but its greatness transcends that one aspect of its design.

The Bolt is a point-and-shoot type of city car that can easily master the in-and-out darting around of rush hour traffic. Or you can sit back, relax and enjoy the car in chill silence. With 259 miles of range, the Bolt makes a great commuter car and is capable of most weekend trips. If you wish to go farther, you can DC fast charge. However, the Bolt’s charger rate is relatively slow. It can only make use of up to 50 kW of input power. So a charge from 10% to 80% can take the better part of an hour. Although some of the pricey EVs on the market today can charge quicker, nothing in the Bolt’s price range can. We don’t consider it a negative as long as shoppers understand this is not the ideal road trip car. Want to drive green for hours on end, day after day? Buy a Prius Prime.

The Chevy Bolt is a battery-electric vehicle, meaning it runs exclusively on electricity. For some shoppers, that is the end of the discussion. Such a shame. There are outstanding green vehicles that don’t contribute meaningfully more carbon than the Bolt. The best example is the new 2023 Toyota Prius lineup. The Prius Prime will get you to and from work all week without using gas at all. It will get you around locally on weekends without using any gas, and on road trips you can use the hybrid mode and get 50 MPG for 600 miles of uninterrupted driving.

The Prius is better-looking, more practical, more reliable, and has a lower cost for energy than the Bolt in many important markets. It will also have a lower cost of maintenance, the first two years of which are free of charge. The Prius comes in Hybrid trims with miles per gallon approaching 60, and it can also come with AWD if you wish. We’ve tested the new 2023 Prius, and it is a great vehicle to drive. Quick, fun, and darn close to sporty. Since the cost is very similar to the Bolt, it is a hard vehicle to overlook. Toyota also builds about 10X the number of Prius cars that GM builds Bolts, so your chances of finding one are much higher.

There are really only two battery-electric vehicles on sale in America for around $30K. The Leaf is the other one. We like the Leaf, but the Bolt is straight-up better. The Bolt EUV is our pick, but either Bolt is a much better overall vehicle than any Leaf. The Leaf is hobbled by an outdated DC fast charging setup. If you're buying a second car for around-town use only, the Leaf is a consideration, but try to find a great deal because it is bygone tech, and we suspect its resale value will be the lowest in its class in five years. Do yourself a favor and drive a 2023 Prius Prime the day you think of buying a Leaf.

The Hyundai Kona is a great alternative to the Bolt or Bolt EUV. However, it is more expensive, and the inventory is ridiculously limited. If you can actually find one, and you are considering a top-trim Bolt EUV, check out the Kona EV from Hyundai. We love the super long warranty, three years of included maintenance, and, oh yeah, the Kona EV is fun to drive!

The Kia Niro is meaningfully larger than the Bolt and Bolt EUV but costs a bit more. It’s a lot like the Hyundai Kona but without the three years of included maintenance. When the Kia Niro first launched, we drove it back to back with a Tesla Model 3 SR+. In our testing that day, we liked the Kia Niro more in just about every possible way except looks.

Be forewarned, dealer markups have been a thing with Bolts for the past few years. Also, the Bolt may or may not be sunsetted this fall. You may need to order one without knowing when or if you will get it. Warnings now out of the way, the budget for a Chevy Bolt if you can find one without dealer markups is between $28K and $32K. There is a possibility you may get a tax incentive as well if you don’t earn too much or too little. The Bolt EUV is a few grand more and would be our suggestion.

The 2023 Bolt is mostly a carry-over from 2022. However, please note that the 2022 model year was a refresh year.

Before we explain how the Bolt drives, let’s keep it real. This is a $30K small and tall hatchback on tires optimized for fuel economy. OK, the public service announcement is done, and we can now tell you that we love to drive Chevy Bolts. They are fun! Nothing in its price range has as much torque and nothing in its price range is quieter or more serene in commuter traffic.

The Bolt does a great job of being a zippy city car, a suburban runabout, and it is not bad on the highway at legal speeds. The Bolt’s neatest trick is its acceleration. You give the go pedal a nudge, and it sprints forward like no other $30K car does.

We’ve taken Bolts and Bolt EUVs on long road trips in the mountains, and they are very fun cars. Heck, we drove one up Mount Washington, and it was a blast. Bolts don’t “handle” like a sports car. Who cares? The visibility is amazing, the torque is addictive, and the cars steer just fine. There is even a little lever on the bottom left of the steering wheel that allows you to regulate the regenerative braking force. We love stuff like that and suspect you might as well. In the context of a $30K vehicle, the Bolt is a great car to drive. If you plan to use your Bolt in harsh winter weather, we would suggest a re-think of that plan. The range will drop, the charge times will increase, and the tires are not great for snow and ice. At least consider switching tires in the winter months. A better winter alternative would be the AWD 2023 Prius.

The 2022 Chevrolet Bolt was tested by NHTSA and IIHS and did well. It earned a five-star rating from NHTSA, and it scored Good or Acceptable on all of IIHS’s tests. Some safety systems, such as Rear Park Assist, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, and Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert, are optional.

The Chevy Bolt had a pretty solid reliability rating until it started to catch on fire. A battery defect caused by poor manufacturing quality control on GM’s part (blamed on the battery supplier) resulted in a massively expensive recall campaign. Herds of owners turned in their cars to GM as part of a buyout option. Other owners suffered through reduced performance, limited safe parking options, software updates of dubious helpfulness, and full battery replacements that took months. Aside from that, the car has had few problems. The battery issue resulted in the Bolt earning the lowest possible reliability score from Consumer Reports (based on owner surveys).

Options matter a lot with the Bolt and Bolt EUV. Be sure to come home with the optional Dual-Level Charge Cord. This is a charger cable that allows you to use either a 115-Volt or 230-Volt charge source. You can add a NEMA 14-50 receptacle in your home and charge at a very quick rate without having to buy a charger.

We also feel strongly that the optional infotainment and safety packages are well worth getting. Our test vehicles had great infotainment, and without that, we would not have loved the Bolts so much.

If you opt for a Bolt EUV, definitely get the hands-free Super Cruise package. You will thank us later.

Chevrolet’s warranty package is nothing to write home about. The bumper-to-bumper warranty is a short three years or 36,000 miles. The propulsion battery warranty lasts eight years or 100,000 miles. Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi, and Genesis offer much longer warranties. Given the Bolt’s past battery problems, we would not suggest that anyone own a Bolt outside of its battery warranty.

Part of the Chevrolet Bolt’s charm is its affordability. In 2019 and 2020, buyers in key EV markets were driving new Bolts home for under $20K - without any EV tax incentives factored in. Today, the budget is around $30K for a new Bolt. We would suggest a new Bolt makes more sense than a used one.

The world of used EVs has been crazy over the past three years, with unreasonably-high prices caused by a shortage of new vehicle inventory. That has started to settle down, and the government has a used EV tax incentive program. If you can get a 2022 or newer used Bolt with time remaining on its bumper-to-bumper warranty for under $20K, consider it. Older Bolts are a risk we cannot endorse.

Editor's note and disclaimer: Car Talk is supported by our fans, readers and listeners. When you click on some of the links on our website, we may receive referral compensation. However, you should know that the recommendations we make are based on our independent editorial review and analyses.