GM Is Over the Moon About Chevy Bolt’s EV Heritage in Lunar Rover

Here’s something Tesla can’t match: The all-electric vehicle technology that powers the Chevrolet Bolt EV has a heritage all the way back in the first electric-powered lunar rover, which climaxed the mission of Apollo 15 in July, 1971—one month after Elon Musk was born.

GM and Tesla, of course, are leading the competition to introduce and adopt mass market-priced all-electric vehicles to the US market. Bolt was first out of the gate in limited US markets this year, and availability is spreading, while Tesla recently has had to admit that true volume production of its Model 3 won’t begin until next year.

Seeking to keep Model 3 in its rear-view mirror, GM now is promoting the fact that its mastery of all-electric propulsion goes back a half-century ago when NASA engineers were putting together the iconic Lunar Rover.

“Working at light speed, GM, in cooperation with partner companies, developed, designed and tested the Lunar Rover,” the company stated in a press release. “Engineers from GM helped create a revolutionary electric-motor drive system, suspension, mesh wire wheels and a unique drive controller adapted for lunar gloves.”

GM cited the many unknowns about developing the rover, including varied terrain, extreme temperatures and the effect of reduced gravity. While the extremes encountered by Bolt won’t be the same, the company cited a “connective thread” between its work on the Lunar Rover and pushing the boundaries of automotive technology for Bolt.

Not surprisingly, given the span of more than a half-century between the two vehicles, differences between the Lunar Rover and Bolt abound. The Rover’s range was 57 miles, about in line with the generation of all-electric passenger cars that brought us up to the era of Bolt and Model 3; Bolt’s all-electric range is 238 miles. Rover held two astronauts; Bolt holds five people without the space gear. And Bolt’s top speed is 92 mph, while the utility-minded Rover maxed out at 8.7 mph.

Thankfully, there’s at least one other huge difference: While the price tag for one Lunar Rover was $38 million in US taxpaper dollars, Bolt is available for a sticker of around $30,000 after federal incentives.

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