It appears General Motors has done a pretty admirable job with the new Chevrolet Bolt so far. Though GM did get in a bit of a pickle with the claimed range for the Opel Ampera-e (the Bolt's rebadged twin) earlier this year, the early reports are suggesting the new electric car is pretty good. As a result, it's perhaps understandable to assume there'll be a fair bit of interest in the automobile, with Reuters reporting on one firm in particular that's expecting tens of thousands of Bolt sales to occur in 2017.

According to Kang Chang-beom, the vice-president of LG Chem, it's anticipated that the Chevrolet Bolt will be quite a big hit, with an estimated 30,000 sales predicted to occur next year. Though further details weren't discussed (for instance, we have no idea if the Chevy Bolt sales prediction also includes the aforementioned Opel Ampera-e), those are still impressive figures. After all, Nissan has sold on average 19,000 Leafs per year in the US and Canada since the model was introduced in its first full year of sales in 2011, with peak combined sales of nearly 32,000 units in 2014, so the estimations for the Chevrolet Bolt are quite encouraging if they're representative of how the car will catch on with buyers.

Of course, LG Chem does have a vested interest in the Chevrolet Bolt performing well in the sales charts. After all, it makes the battery packs for the Bolt and the Ampera-e, so more EV Chevrolets rolling off the production line means more money will flow into LG Chem's bank account. As we said earlier, though, the Chevrolet Bolt is looking rather promising at the moment and, whilst we'll hold back from making conclusive judgements and statements until we've tried one out for ourselves, the Chevrolet Bolt certainly appears to have the makings at this early stage of being a rather good little electric hatchback. Don't be too surprised if LG Chem's prediction ends up being accurate.