Chevrolet Bolt EV 2026 Review: Can the new powertrain save it?

This is a car review, not a home energy story, but the Bolt EV does have one feature worth knowing about if you're weighing electric vehicles alongside home upgrades: vehicle-to-home power. The 2026 Chevrolet Bolt EV, when paired with GM's Energy system, can send power from its battery back into your house. Chevrolet switched the Bolt to an LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery, a chemistry that's safer and holds up longer over repeated charging cycles, which matters if you plan to use the car's battery for things beyond driving, like backup power during an outage.

The rest of the review is about driving experience rather than home energy: the Bolt is rated for 262 miles of range, charges from 10 to 80 percent in about 33 minutes at a fast charger under normal conditions, and carries a price around $34,190 in the US for the higher trim tested (the reviewer suggests the lower trim is the better buy, and recommends looking for a price under about $32,000). The car also has a NACS charging port, the same plug type Tesla uses, plus a "Plug & Charge" feature called Energy Pass that starts a charging session automatically without an app or card.

None of this changes anything about home weatherization, heat pumps, or rebate programs. If you're comparing EVs partly for their ability to power a home during an outage, the vehicle-to-home compatibility is the detail to note; everything else here is standard car-buying information.