![\"tavel_bolt\"](\"http:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/2d56ffea67e6f63b43e8c8210e9338b2143cc16e\/c=516-0-3612-2322&r=x404&c=534x401\/local\/-\/media\/2016\/12\/10\/DetroitNews\/B99474156Z.1_20161210135515_000_GFH18VCSS.1-0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV<\/a> just won Green Car of the Year. It\u2019s the first green vehicle under $40,000 to travel 200 miles on a charge. It gets a $7,500 federal tax credit because the government wants us to live green.<\/p>\n But the all-electric Bolt EV is really more hot hatch<\/a>than tree hugger.<\/p>\n Like other five-door hot rods \u2014 Ford Focus ST<\/a>, VW GTI<\/a>, Honda Civic Type R \u2014 it\u2019s lightning-quick off the line, a blast to drive through the twisties, and looks cool. Which makes sense once you\u2019ve met its chief engineer, speed freak Josh Tavel.<\/p>\n Tavel grew up in a racing family. He began flogging dirt bikes in kindergarten. He was driving a 1978 Porsche Turbo at age 14. (\u201cI had to cheat the rules a bit,\u201d he says). He was autocrossing at 15.<\/p>\n A rising GM talent at 37, he is determined to bring performance to the green segment. Like Elon Musk, Tavel does not see battery power and performance as mutually exclusive. Tavel engineered the Bolt EV as a mini-Tesla Model S. Talk EVs and the planet isn\u2019t in his vocabulary \u2014 he touts electrics\u2019 inherit performance benefits: Instant torque and a low center of gravity.<\/p>\n I sat down with the Long Island native at Orion Assembly north of Detroit (where the first Bolt EVs are rolling off the line this month<\/a>) to talk dirt bikes, Daytona and Bolt.<\/p>\n Q: Your first car?<\/b><\/p>\n Tavel:<\/b> A Porsche 944. I started racing BMX in kindergarten. I\u2019ve raced motocross. I\u2019ve shattered both tibia so I can barely walk anymore. When I was 3 years old, my parents say I would sneak out the screen door into the garage and sleep under my Dad\u2019s Trans Am. Cars are a a magnetic thing for me.<\/p>\n Q: Education?<\/b><\/p>\n