2020 Chevy Bolt EV range increased to 259 miles on a full charge

The 2020 Chevy Bolt EV is getting more electric range, with the official EPA rating rising to 259 miles, up from 238 miles for the 2019 model year. Car and Driver initially noticed the change on the EPA’s fuel economy reporting website. We’ve reached out to Chevrolet to confirm the news and learn what they did to achieve the extra 21 miles of range on a full charge.

That’s the big mystery for now, too. Chevy hasn’t put out a press release or any official information regarding the increased range, so we don’t know exactly how it got there. Nothing much has changed as far as the Bolt’s design, so all the efficiency gains must be coming from improvements to the powertrain. The battery pack is a 60 kWh unit in the Bolt now. Chevy could’ve found a way to increase the size of that pack, or the battery chemistry could’ve improved. We’ll let you know when we find out.

Ultimately, this range increase makes the Bolt even more competitive than before. It offers more range than the Soul EV (243 miles), Niro EV (239 miles) and Kona Electric (258 miles). The Bolt also takes the Nissan Leaf Plus (226 miles) and Tesla Model 3 in “Standard Range Plus” form (240 miles). The “Long Range” and “Performance” models still handily beat the Bolt EV at 310 miles, though.

Other 2020 Bolt changes we know about now include new colors, improved cameras and a new high gloss black grille as opposed to the black or silver grille options.