GM and Nissan Launched Outstanding New Affordable EVs, and Nobody Bought One

Raise your hand if you are an EV fan who has been waiting for a great, affordable EV to emerge in America. If that’s you, why didn't you buy the all-new Nissan Leaf when it hit dealer floors last fall, or the all-new Chevy Bolt when it arrived at Chevy dealers in early January? Were there throngs of people crowding you out of the parking lot?

The fact is, the new Leaf and the new Bolt both offer great range, quick charging speeds, they have the NACS Tesla-style charge port, and the prices don't just put them at the affordable end of the EV market, but also the affordable end of the market - period. Why are shoppers ghosting these two great electric cars?

In all of Q1, the second quarter after the all-new Nissan Leaf went on sale, Nissan sold just 668 of them in all of America.  We did the math. That’s a single new Nissan Leaf sold per state per week. In that same period, Nissan sold 35,732 gas Sentras and 10,200 gas Versas. And the Versa was canceled last December! A canceled gas model outsold Nissan’s newest EV by 15 to 1. The old Leaf was dead as a doornail last year, and even it outsold the new Leaf by 4 to 1.

The Bolt was a little slower to market and is now only in its fourth month of sales. Still, by month four, any new model should be up and running and selling at a volume of at least half its final production rate. Yet, GM sold only 791 new Bolts in three months. This, after taking a year off to let buyer demand build up.

There are two main possibilities for this situation. Either Nissan and GM don't really want to sell these new affordable EVs, or consumers don't want them. There is a third, more ominous possibility. Maybe consumers don't want new affordable EVs, AND manufacturers also don't want them. If that’s the case, stick a fork in ‘em; EVs other than two Tesla models are done in America.

Forget the idea that there was a pull-forward of EV sales in Q1 of last year. The Bolt and Leaf barely sold then. GM sold 13 in Q1 of 2025. There was no pull-forward for the Bolt. Nissan was averaging less than 800 units per month back in Q1 2025. The truth is, nobody wanted an affordable EV last year, and making new, better affordable ones has had no impact on that reality.

I’ve driven the new Bolt. It’s a great car. My local dealer in Metro Boston had four on hand, priced before negotiations at $30K and $33K. I was the only person who had tested-driven them, according to my salesperson.

Is America's vocal minority of EV fans simply waiting for low-cost Chinese EVs? It can’t be that, because the Bolt IS a low-cost Chinese EV. 51% of its content is from China. Its EV battery is from China. Its motor is from, you guessed it, China.

A New Hope - Kia EV3, Slate, Ford New EV Truck
Perhaps America just wants a new, affordable EV that they have never seen before. If that’s the case, the new Kia EX3 looks like a very interesting model. We don't know the price yet, but speculation puts it above a $35K base price, so let’s guess $45K when it launches. Not really affordable, but maybe discounting will help.

Slate has been working on its bare-bones mini EV truck now for many years. A Slate employee told me this past month that the plan is still for it to start under $30K.

Ford is betting the farm that its new mid-sized truck with an EV powertrain is going to change the game. Many are speculating that the price will be “$30K to start,” which, when translated from EV-speak, means around $45K when launched, and then a lower-cost one will be sold at some future date. We hope Ford succeeds. Its last two trucks with green powertrains did not meet expectations for a low price point, and one is now canceled (F-150 Lightning).

Rising fuel prices hit those with moderate and low incomes the hardest, and for over a month now, we’ve been in a “crisis” that has pushed gas prices to post-pandemic highs. And still the affordable EVs didn't sell. The Equinox EV is GM’s second most affordable EV, and its sales were also down in the past three months vs. Q1 of 2025. Despite five-figure discounts.

What is going on? Why the disconnect between the high volume of social media chatter about the need for affordable EVs and the fact that shoppers and manufacturers don't really seem all that interested in them? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below. 

John Goreham is a 14-year veteran of Torque News. An accomplished writer and a long-time expert in vehicle testing, Goreham also serves as the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and has a growing social media presence. He’s also a 10-year staff writer and community moderator for Car Talk. Goreham holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an undergraduate Certificate in Marketing. In addition to vehicle and tire content, he offers deep dives into market trends and opinion pieces. You can follow John Goreham on X and TikTok, and connect with him on LinkedIn.

Image of Kia EV3 courtesy of Kia. Top of page image courtesy of Chevrolet. Other images by John Goreham