Video teases pre-production Chevy Bolts on the assembly line

This week General Motors released a video highlighting pre-production underway at its Orion Township, Mich. assembly plant for the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV.

The 200-plus-mile range all-electric car is to start at $37,500 before a $7,500 federal tax credit and potential state incentives, as available, but what’s being shown are not units for sale.

Rather, they are to finalize testing of plant tools and processes in preparation for the start of retail production at the end of this year.

“We’re at another critical and important point in the development of the Bolt EV,” said Josh Tavel, Bolt EV Chief Engineer. “We’ve moved from working in math and building cars by hand to building Bolt EV’s on the line. We’re now testing the tooling used in the plant so that we deliver high quality 200-plus mile EV that our customers are eagerly anticipating.”

Chevrolet has committed to producing the first Bolts for consumers by the end of this year. Rumors and conjecture that the Bolt would be in first buyers’ driveways by end of this year are not confirmed by the automaker.