Here’s how much a 2020 Chevy Bolt EV has depreciated after 5 years

The Chevrolet Bolt EV is the cockroach of the electric car world. I mean that as a compliment. It is unkillable, everywhere, and despite attempts by its own parent company to put it out to pasture, it keeps scurrying back into our hearts (and driveways). Back in 2020, the Bolt was Chevy’s golden child of electrification. It had decent range, a weirdly spacious interior, and styling that said “I am an appliance, and I am okay with that.” But 2020 was a weird time for the Bolt. It was right before the massive facelift, right before the EUV, and right before the infamous battery recall saga that arguably defined the car’s legacy. Now, five years later, we have to ask: If you bought a brand-new Bolt EV in November 2020, did you lose your shirt? Or did the little electric hatch hold its ground against the onslaught of Teslas and Korean crossovers? Let’s crunch the numbers. The question We are looking at a 2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV LT. This was the volume seller, the one you see buzzing around doing Uber Eats deliveries or parked at free municipal chargers. In November 2020, a base Bolt EV LT carried a starting MSRP of $37,495. (Yes, you read that right. Before Chevy slashed prices in 2023 to under $27k, this car cost nearly forty grand. Ouch.) So, if you paid sticker price five years ago, what is that car worth today? The numbers According to current market listings in late 2025: 2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV LT (New): $37,495 2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV LT (Used, 2025): ~$14,500 Depreciation: ~$22,995 Value Retained: ~39% Percent Lost: ~61% That is a steep drop. A 61% plunge in five years is significantly heavier than the industry average, which usually hovers around 40-45% for the five-year mark. But the Bolt’s depreciation is a special case. It wasn’t just natural decay; it was assisted suicide. When Chevy dropped the price of a brand-new 2023 Bolt to $26,500, it effectively nuked the resale value of every older model overnight. If you bought new in 2020, you paid a premium for being early. If you are buying used today, you are reaping the rewards of that sacrifice. How it compares To see if the Bolt is an outlier or just another victim of the “EVs depreciate like milk” narrative, let’s look at its 2020 classmates. Tesla Model 3: The resale king of the segment. A 2020 Model 3 has retained about 55-60% of its value. It cost more upfront, but it gave you more back on the trade-in. Nissan LEAF: The Bolt’s sadder, shorter-range cousin. The LEAF has fared even worse, with some models seeing depreciation hitting 65-70% due to the scary CHAdeMO charging situation and air-cooled batteries. Hyundai Kona Electric: A very similar car on paper. The Kona has tracked almost identically to the Bolt, losing about 58-60% of its value. The Bolt sits comfortably in the “Mainstream EV” cellar—doing better than the obsolete LEAF, but getting crushed by the Tesla hype machine. The “recall” wildcard There is a massive asterisk here that makes the Bolt’s depreciation number misleading. If you are shopping for a used 2020 Bolt today, there is a very high probability that the battery inside it is not five years old. Because of the massive LG Chem battery recall, thousands of 2020 Bolts received brand-new battery packs in 2021, 2022, or even 2023. That means while the chassis has 60,000 miles on it, the most expensive component of the car—the battery—might only have 15,000 miles on it. You are buying a $14,500 car with a powertrain that is practically fresh. That is a value proposition that no depreciation chart can accurately capture. The verdict If you bought a 2020 Bolt new, I am sorry. You took a $23,000 bath, largely because Chevy decided to make the new version drastically cheaper than the one you bought. That stings. But for the second-hand buyer? This is the deal of the decade. You can pick up a 259-mile range EV with a likely replaced battery for under $15k. It shines in this department. It’s cheap to run, fun to zip around in, and now, incredibly cheap to buy. Depreciation Grade: D- (for the original owner)Used Value Grade: A+ (for everyone else)