Bolt EV wheels with plastic inserts?

[columbo]

On Chevy's official Bolt EV webpage, I came across this picture and description.

The wheel. Reinvented.

Bolt EV is equipped with lightweight aluminum wheels featuring clear inserts between the spokes, giving the wheels a unique look while maximizing efficiency by reducing drag.

Do the wheels on the concept vehicle have these plastic inserts?

If so, how come no one has said anything about this, in all the hype and write-ups of the Bolt EV at the North American International Auto Show, no one noticed the 5 spoke wheels are actually very smooth?

 

[gmvoltguy]

In the first image, from the Chevy Bolt microsite, it looks like that is just a rendering, or they've applied some effect to the image so that it's easy to 'see' the plastic insert, but it makes it look like the insert has a texture on it.

In the second picture, none of those markings exist (or are visible), as it's just clear plastic inserts.

In pictures from the release at the Detroit Auto Show, however, the markings are visible - perhaps so that people would notice?

 

[picasso]

The production version of the Bolt EV has a completely different style of wheel.

There is no mention anywhere of smooth wheels, or wheel inserts that are completely smooth like the prototype had.

Either they figured they look too goofy for a production car, or the Bolt EV didn't see any range gains from them.

 

[ssspinball]

Plastic inserts? So glad they got rid of those. I can't imagine those would last long. Little plastic caps at the center seem to hold up ok, but one are much larger and likely that much more prone to breaking.

 

[Anonymous]

I personally would far prefer the concept plastic insert wheels when given a choice.

Prefer looks, ease of cleaning and efficiency.

 

[lukestuke]

In the very first picture of the Bolt EV wheel at the top of the page, it looks like the plastic is one large piece with 5 spokes, and would likely mount on the lug nuts so it wouldn't be flying off anytime soon. And this could easily be made 'unbreakable' out of plexiglass and decent thickness. I guess the thinner it is, the lighter it is, but for efficiency rotational weight only affects during acceleration, not so much during cruising.

 

[gmvoltguy]

In the very first picture of the Bolt EV wheel at the top of the page, it looks like the plastic is one large piece with 5 spokes, and would likely mount on the lug nuts so it wouldn't be flying off anytime soon. And this could easily be made 'unbreakable' out of plexiglass and decent thickness. I guess the thinner it is, the lighter it is, but for efficiency rotational weight only affects during acceleration, not so much during cruising.

Nissan was very careful about aerodynamics, and so was Tesla with the Model S. Neither one of them used a smooth wheel, which makes me think the net gains are so small that it isn't worth the ugliness! However, it would be nice if perhaps there was the option of buying the smooth wheels with the Chevy Bolt

 

[Devin]

Nissan was very careful about aerodynamics, and so was Tesla with the Model S. Neither one of them used a smooth wheel, which makes me think the net gains are so small that it isn't worth the ugliness! However, it would be nice if perhaps there was the option of buying the smooth wheels with the Chevy Bolt

Tesla did offer the Aero wheel, which offered a 6.7% improvement in range.



Less than 5% of customers bought them, so they were discontinued...

Q: Will we offer a dedicated Aero Wheel design again?
The customer take rate on our previous Aero Wheel design was so low that we could not justify continuing the production and supply chain complexity of it. In general we are working to simplify the complexity of options available and eliminate those where we see fewer than 1/20 people choosing an option. In addition, the newer Cyclone wheel captures much of the aerodynamic benefit of that the dedicated Aero Wheel design did over the standard, base 19" wheel.

 

[picasso]

Nissan was very careful about aerodynamics, and so was Tesla with the Model S. Neither one of them used a smooth wheel, which makes me think the net gains are so small that it isn't worth the ugliness! However, it would be nice if perhaps there was the option of buying the smooth wheels with the Chevy Bolt

Tesla did offer the Aero wheel, which offered a 6.7% improvement in range.

Wow thanks for sharing! How did I not know about those? ....