General Motors is quietly scaling back its electric ambitions in Kansas, opting to prioritize a profitable, gas-powered Buick crossover over a heavily promoted next-generation Chevrolet Bolt EV.
According to Breitbart, GM will end production of the revamped 2027 Chevrolet Bolt EV after roughly 18 months, clearing the way for the Buick Envision at its Fairfax, Kansas, assembly plant. The Envision, currently built in China, will be reshored to the United States, a move that aligns more closely with America First trade priorities and growing skepticism toward overreliance on Beijing-centered supply chains.
Inside EVs reports that GM has confirmed the Bolts short life cycle, describing it as a limited-run model rather than a long-term pillar of its lineup. A Chevrolet spokesperson acknowledged that when the company revealed the Bolt in October, they made clear it would be a constrained offering brought back in response to strong customer demand.
The spokesperson further noted that the Bolt is expected to represent the bulk of Chevrolets EV volume in 2026, supported by the Chevrolet Equinox EV. Yet even with that role, the company is already preparing to pivot away from the model, underscoring the financial and regulatory headwinds facing mass-market electric vehicles.
Buick sold about 42,000 Envision units last year, with sales shaped in part by tariff-related restrictions on the Chinese-built crossover. Shifting Envision production to Kansas is a direct response to those trade pressures, even as GM also plans to move gas-powered Equinox production from Mexico to the same facility in 2027.
The automaker has been under pressure from the Trump administration to expand domestic manufacturing, particularly for models like the China-built Envision that are vulnerable to tariff policy and national-security concerns. At the same time, the Bolt has been hurt by the loss of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, stripping away a key subsidy that had helped mask the underlying cost and limited consumer appeal of many electric models.
With fuel economy rules now relaxed from the aggressive standards favored by the left, GM sees less regulatory compulsion to push an unprofitable EV at the expense of a higher-margin gasoline crossover. In that environment, a Kansas-built Envision offers a more attractive business case than a niche electric hatchback that depends on government incentives to compete.
Breitbart News recently reported that even as GM retreats from one of its flagship EVs, Ford is doubling down on its own electric gamble, despite massive write-offs tied to failed EV efforts. During a conversation with automotive media at the Detroit Auto Show, Ford CEO Jim Farley unveiled new details about the companys Universal EV Platform, calling it one of the most challenging projects of his career.
Farley likened Fords EV push to the Space Race, declaring, This is literally like the Apollo or Gemini mission within Ford. A uniquely American, high-risk project just like the power units for Formula 1, its one of the most challenging projects Ive ever been involved in. The Universal EV Platform, announced last year, is slated to debut in 2027 with an electric pickup built in Kentucky, targeting a starting price of about $30,000.
According to reports, Ford intends to spin as many as seven additional models off this architecture, including a midsize crossover, in an effort to match Chinese competitors on both technology and cost. Yet as GMs Kansas pivot illustrates, market realities, tariff policy, and the rollback of heavy-handed green mandates are already steering major automakers back toward domestic production, conventional powertrains, and a more sober reassessment of the lefts EV utopianism.
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