Our Year With the Chevy Bolt Was Off to a Glitchy Start (Update: It Works, and Was an Easy Fix)

But don't worry, it was a simple fix

written by Steven Ewing
edited by Kathleen Clonts
6/22/2026
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What's new: The Chevy Bolt in our One-Year Road Test fleet was having tech troubles.
Why it matters: The issues started the day we brought the Bolt home from the dealer. Other owners have experienced similar problems.
Edmunds says: Thankfully, the fix was easy.

Update, July 9: Our Bolt was accidentally delivered to us without having its OnStar Basics plan activated, which is normally done at the time of purchase. A standard feature on all 2025 model year and newer vehicles, Basics includes automatic crash response, remote commands, Google Maps, Google Assistant, audio apps and more. This is what caused the issue with our data connection, though it doesn't account for the infotainment system needing to be reseat.

Installing OnStar Basics was a cinch — two clicks of the OnStar button and a brief conversation with a representative. Everything is now working in our Bolt as intended. The rest of the story's text is unchanged.

I picked up our 2027 Chevy Bolt from the dealer at 4:00 p.m. on a Monday. By 5:00 p.m., it was already broken. So on this brand-new car with only 15 miles on its odometer, the central infotainment screen went completely blank, as did the digital gauge cluster. "Oh, cool," I thought. "It's our Blazer EV all over again."

Before calling the dealer, I tried to fix the problem myself. I turned the car off — which requires you getting out, walking away and locking it, since there's no on/off switch — and back on again. I let it sit for an hour. I let it sit for three hours. I let it sit overnight. At one point, I got a warning notification to try and do the factory reset, which I did, but that didn't fix anything.

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A quick aside, for as much grief as we've given Chevy's cars for having the headlight controls buried in the central touchscreen, I was pleasantly surprised to see that, even with the rest of the screen not working, the headlight on/off/auto switches were still functional. The backup camera worked, too.

I took the Bolt back to the dealer where I bought it. A service adviser asked, "Whoa, only 20 miles on this thing, what you do to it?!" I think he thought I'd laugh. I then waited for 30 minutes while two different dealership employees tried to find, and I quote, "the guy who knows what to do with these electric things." A technician took the Bolt away, I'm told they performed a hard reset using a USB stick, and I headed home. The service didn't cost anything — nor should it have.

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"OK, one small glitch," I thought. "No big deal. Things happen. Cars are complex. It was annoying, but it's done." Then I combed through some forum posts to realize other owners were having similar problems with their brand-new Bolt EVs. And then, three weeks later, the Bolt broke again. Managing editor Keith Buglewicz posted a photo in the Edmunds Slack chat of the Bolt's nav screen, but the map was completely blank.

"Hopefully it will figure itself out after I park and shut off the car for a bit," Buglewicz said. Two hours later: "Bolt is still showing a white screen." Awesome. Two days later: "OK, this thing is weird. I think it needs a trip to the dealer. Maps are back but there's still no data connection, and resetting didn't work."

From here, I'll let my pal Keith explain what's up.

"Since there’s no CarPlay or Android Auto in GM's EVs, the Bolt relies entirely on the Google Built-In system. That system requires some sort of internet connection to work, and our Bolt's connection is wonky at best. When I first got into the Bolt there was no map. Nothing. I could add an address if I wanted to, but there was nothing but a blank screen, and there was no data connection of any sort so voice programming and even traffic info was a no-go. Luckily I know my way home, and the next day the map was back, but with only a 2G connection. That gave me a map to look at and traffic info, but was otherwise functionally useless for anything else."

"After it lost its connection again on my next start, I decided to try using my phone as a hotspot. Maps and traffic data loaded faster, but the rest of the system was locked out. I'd tap the steering wheel button for voice commands, it would listen for input but never actually execute a command. I had to tether my phone every time I got in the car, unless it randomly found a 2G signal somewhere, about every 10th start."

So — you guessed it — the Bolt will be heading back to the dealer.

"It's a bummer," Buglewicz said. "I like the Bolt's driving experience and quirky-but-cute styling. But this is ridiculous, especially for a brand-new car with less than 1,000 miles on it."

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by Steven Ewing

Steven Ewing is Edmunds' director of editorial content. An automotive journalist for more than half of his life, Ewing's been on staff at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog, Motor1.com, CNET, and he was the U.S. correspondent for Top Gear magazine. He's also contributed to publications like Automobile magazine, Car and Driver, The Drive, Jalopnik, Porsche Panorama, and more. Ewing has worked in the automotive industry since 2003. From testing prototype cars in the Arctic Circle to spilling a beer on a Formula 1 driver at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (oops), he's always got an interesting story to tell.

edited by Kathleen Clonts

Kathleen Clonts has worked in the automotive industry since 2014 and has copy-edited thousands of vehicle reviews and stories about cars and the auto industry in that time. Kathleen is the Edmunds editorial team's copy chief and previously worked as the senior copy editor for Automobile magazine.

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