General Motors sets Bolt electric car cost at $37,495

General Motors on Tuesday announced its Chevrolet Bolt electrical vehicle will cost less than $30,000 after tax breaks, a price that makes it significantly cheaper than the average brand-new U.S. car and establishes a test of whether the innovation can go mainstream in the United States.

The least pricey Bolt will begin at $37,495 prior to a $7,500 federal tax credit, indicating it would sell for $29,995, General Motors stated. The average U.S. cost of a new automobile was $34,143 in August, as per Kelley Blue Book.

The Bolt will have a driving range of 238 miles on a full charge, considerably more than any currently offered electric vehicle at a comparable cost.

However, experts familiar with General Motors’s plans say the Bolt will at first be a low-volume specific niche design with production of less than 30,000 cars each year. Fully electrical automobiles presently represent less than 1 percent of U.S. automobile and light truck sales.

General Motors executives had indicated the Bolt’s cost would be close to $37,500, but with the rate now set, General Motors will speed up efforts to take thunder from competing Tesla Motors Inc, which has promised to provide its new Model 3 next July with 215 miles of driving range on a full charge at a cost of $35,000.