Powering the Bolt in its petrol guise is the new 1.2-litre Revotron turbocharged engine. As in the Zest, the engine gets three different drive modes: Eco, City and Sport. Switch among these modes, and you will notice a slight difference in the engine’s demeanour, depending on the mode you select. The 1,193-cc four-cylinder engine produces 90 PS when it’s spinning at 5,000 RPM with 140 Nm of peak torque being generated from 1,500 RPM up to 4,000 RPM. As a result, driveability is quite decent even though the engine does suffer from turbo lag. While there is sufficient grunt for Indian driving conditions, the Bolt’s powerplant is actually the old 1.2 unit, now with forced induction. What the Bolt really needs is a modern four-valve-per-cylinder engine with variable valve timing to achieve optimal combustion. We hope this is the direction that the company’s engineering department will head in.
On the go, the first thing you notice is how pliant the ride quality is, especially over rough roads and low to medium speeds. The suspension does a fine job of isolating the passengers from the road shocks. But dealing with dips on the highway at relatively higher speeds results in wallowing moments. Yes, the Bolt’s suspension set-up is soft. While that makes for a very comfortable drive, especially on Indian roads, the handling abilities of the car do take a hit. There is quite a bit of body-roll, which we discovered on the climb to the Sajjangarh Palace for the photo shoot.
The electrically assisted steering, meanwhile, is light and makes for easy manoeuvring even if it’s lacking in feedback. The angle of the steering wheel, however, is odd since it’s neither vertical, as in other passenger cars, nor is it horizontal as in a truck. It’s somewhere in between, which makes it difficult to get the oh-so-perfect driving position that you desire. In fact, when I did manage to find the comfiest of driving positions, the top of the tacho and the speedo got hidden by the top of the steering wheel.
