







Want a long-range electric vehicle ASAP and don't want to spend $68,000 on the cheapest Tesla Model S? You're in luck! Chevrolet's configurator for the Bolt EV is now live, and the company intends to keep its promise of cars on the road before the end of 2016. (If you live outside California, you might still have a bit of a wait.) We drove a pre-production Bolt at CES in January; now it's the vehicle we're looking forward to spending some time with more than any other in the coming months. In the meantime I amused myself building a Bolt with the specs I'd want in an electric commuter.

The base Bolt starts at $37,495 before any federal or local incentives and rebates, but you need to find another $4,285 to get the Premier trim if you want the various driver assists, some of which are still optional extras even then. An eye-catching paint job will also cost you extra; soothing silvery grays or blues are the default choices. Equipped with a few choice options—OK, the Premium and all its toys, plus DC Fast Charging and some funky red paint—my Bolt would cost me a tenner less than $44,000 before incentives.

Even at that price Chevrolet may be losing cash. A report in Bloomberg suggests the company could lose up to $9,000 on each car, although those numbers didn't come from General Motors. The election of Donald Trump last month has given rise to plenty of uncertainty when it comes to the future market for EVs and clean energy. Even at loss-making prices, EVs still depend on hefty government subsidies for mass-market viability, and confusion reigns with regard to the longevity of those programs.

Trump has been linked to an anti-Tesla propaganda outfit, and the president-elect has widely disparaged the idea of anthropogenic climate change (until recently when he appeared to soften his stance after talking to someone with actual knowledge of the matter). And even though the US Environmental Protection Agency has reaffirmed plans to improve US fleet efficiency to 54.5mpg by 2025, some automakers are hoping the incoming administration will prove more pollution-friendly. Yet, as Bloomberg's piece details, California intends to keep to the path it has forged as the nation's most forward-thinking regulator. The state is the largest sales market in the country, and OEMs can ill-afford to ignore its mandates.