[kuch_nahee]

Hello Everyone,
This is Sanjeev from Pleasanton, CA.

I am looking for some suggestions/recommendations here.

I bought a leased Chevy Bolt on 3/26 and has some issues with battery full recharge from a week or so. I was getting 238 for the full charge of battery for 2 weeks and one time it was 242 miles ;-)

However, from a week or so my full charge is not going more than 201 or 202 miles. There was a day when the maximum charge showed up 198.

Is there anyone of you facing same issues/challenges with the battery? I want to understand the problem here.. is it the battery problem or some settings issue?

Thanks
Sanjeev

 

[sharkvolt]

We need details:
Have the temperatures/weather changed during this period?
How many miles do you drive each day?
What average speed are you driving?
What air conditioning/heating settings were you using?
Were you climbing any hills?
Did you change the hilltop reserve setting?

These details will let us determine whether your Bolt is behaving normally, or not.

 

[DaV8or]

The estimated range can vary a lot. It all depends on your most recent driving cycles. If the last trips you made were all long distance freeway miles, then yes, your estimated range will go way down. If your last trips were just around town, or all stop and go traffic, your estimated range will go way up. Other factors include how aggressively you drive the car, how much HVAC you use, nighttime, etc. It takes your rate of consumption in the past and assumes your next trip will be similar.

It's likely your Bolt is fine. You're just getting used to how the GOM (guess-o-meter) works.

 

[NY-Rob]

Post screens snapshots of the three "Energy" screens so we can see your consumption....

 

[CWB126]

Yeah I had the same experience and had the same fears but mine went the other way and is now reporting 273-296 Max range with between 228 and 250 average range even though after 5 miles it decides to dispense with the myth and fantasy as I hop on the freeway within a mile of my home.

dont worry about it, the GOM sucks, look at the battery blocks picture to see how many cells you are depleting and bear in mind high speed = fast drain.

 

[flmgrip]

Yeah I had the same experience and had the same fears but mine went the other way and is now reporting 273-296 Max range with between 228 and 250 average range even though after 5 miles it decides to dispense with the myth and fantasy as I hop on the freeway within a mile of my home.

dont worry about it, the GOM sucks, look at the battery blocks picture to see how many cells you are depleting and bear in mind high speed = fast drain.

the GOM actually doesn't suck. it provides lots of useful information. you just have to know how to read it and understand it.


it shows you current consumption, current battery charge level and predicted max and min range based on your recent driving style and terrain

 

[kuch_nahee]

Here are the details:

Have the temperatures/weather changed during this period? - No. I live in Bay Area, CA and the temp/weather hasn't changed from last 3 weeks.
How many miles do you drive each day? - Approx 190-200 miles
What average speed are you driving? 65-75 miles
What air conditioning/heating settings were you using? - Cooling 73-75 and Heating 75-77. The cooling and heating were minimally used during these 3 weeks
Were you climbing any hills? Nope
Did you change the hilltop reserve setting? Nope

 

[kuch_nahee]

I will upload the Post screens snapshots of the three "Energy" screens later tonight.

BTW I am taking it to dealership tomorrow morning for a check up. My driving habits, miles driven, temp settings, etc has been pretty much same during these last 3 weeks. So how come it dropped the full charge miles drastically from 238-242 to 198-201?

 

[NY-Rob]

65-75mph speeds are probably the biggest factor in your range loss.

The GOM (Guess-O-Meter) has to learn your driving habits over time- it took it a while to come up with your somewhat 200mi range guesstimate.

Once you post the three energy screen caps- it will become clearer.

 

[kuch_nahee]

I am kind of confused.. what GOM has to do with full charge range? If I am keeping my car in charge for all night.. it should charge what it is supposed to be - 238 miles full charge!

Does that mean if I reset my GOM (energy details) now will make my charge range back to square?

 

[kuch_nahee]

My driving habit should decrease the mile range instead of battery range.. isn't it?

Does that mean if I drive my car in between 90-95 m/hr.. I will get 120-150 mile full charge battery?

 

[DucRider]

My driving habit should decrease the mile range instead of battery range.. isn't it?

Does that mean if I drive my car in between 90-95 m/hr.. I will get 120-150 mile full charge battery?

Yes. Just like with a gas car, higher speeds are less efficient and will result in less range on a tank (or battery charge).

The range you see displayed is not a direct indication of the battery charge, but looks at recent driving habits to make an estimate of how much range the car will have. You will also notice a higher number above, and lower number below.
From pg 115 of the user manual:

Enhanced Battery Gauge
This displays the high voltage
battery state of charge. The value in
the center is an estimate of how far
the vehicle can be driven on the
remaining charge as estimated from
driving habits and conditions
learned over several days.
The Max and Min values above and
below the display indicate the
longest and shortest possible range
as estimated from current vehicle
conditions and climate settings.
The mileage estimate and Max and
Min numbers are affected by climate
control system usage. Estimated
range may increase or decrease
based upon changes in climate
control energy consumption.
A trend bar on the far left indicates
how recent vehicle conditions and
climate settings are affecting the
learned range prediction.
When the high voltage battery state
of charge is very low the estimated
range value in the center will
change to Low. Max and Min ranges
will no longer be displayed.
Additional alerts may display and a
sound may also be heard at low
state of charge.

 

[kuch_nahee]

I see.. I like the example of gas car average.

In gas car, it gives you the average from your past speeds and aggregate of average speed BUT you can still get more mileage per tank if you are driving economically next time. For example, if my Prius average mileage is 45 miles/hr but if I make a trip with a full tank of gas with driving not more than 65 miles/hr.. it is gonna give me more miles per gallon for that particular trip.

So eventually the gas range doesn't matter for my next trip.. correct? I will anyways get 238 miles anytime if I am driving 65 miles and if I continue driving like that my average range will bump up accordingly.

 

[DucRider]

I see.. I like the example of gas car average.

In gas car, it gives you the average from your past speeds and aggregate of average speed BUT you can still get more mileage per tank if you are driving economically next time. For example, if my Prius average mileage is 45 miles/hr but if I make a trip with a full tank of gas with driving not more than 65 miles/hr.. it is gonna give me more miles per gallon for that particular trip.

So eventually the gas range doesn't matter for my next trip.. correct? I will anyways get 238 miles anytime if I am driving 65 miles and if I continue driving like that my average range will bump up accordingly.

The 238 miles of range is not an absolute number, it is a rating based on tests done in laboratory conditions. It is like the mpg rating on a gas car. Lots of hard acceleration, high speeds, and overall aggressive driving will diminish both an EV's range and gas cars mpg (and range, but with a large tank most people don't notice). Similarly, lower speeds, slow acceleration and little braking will greatly increase an EV's range. They actually LIKE heavy traffic!

The Bolt is rated at 217 miles of highway range. That test is done with a maximum speed of 60 mph and an average speed of just 48. The low 200's you are reporting seem quite normal for 65-70 mph speeds.


Driving an EV is different. The screens with miles/kWh show you how efficiently you are driving (kWh is a measure of how much energy the battery holds and are similar to # of gallons in the tank of a gas car). The battery gauge in the right of the display is the equivalent of your fuel gauge. Many drivers rely on that as much (or even more) than the cars range estimation. If your gas car had a "miles to empty" display, you would notice that it would also change based on recent driving speeds and conditions. On a full tank it might say 450 miles one time, then only 410 after the next fill up.

 

[kuch_nahee]

Here are the pics of energy consumption.

 

[Sean Nelson]

I am kind of confused.. what GOM has to do with full charge range? If I am keeping my car in charge for all night.. it should charge what it is supposed to be - 238 miles full charge!

An electric car is no different than a gas car - how far it will go on a tank of gas / fully charged battery depends on how you drive it. If you drive it at high speeds with a heavy foot it's just not going to go as far as if you drive it gently.

The 238 miles is not an absolute figure - it's what you can expect from the car if you drive it in exactly the same manner as is prescribed by the EPA test. If your specific driving style and conditions don't match that of the EPA test (and nobody's does) then you're not going to get exactly 238 miles of range.

Complaining that the car doesn't show 238 miles of range is the same as complaining that a gas car doesn't get as many miles per gallon as shown by the EPA test. In 99% of the cases, it's not the car's fault, it's the fault of the driver or of the conditions he's driving in.

 

[Sean Nelson]

So eventually the gas range doesn't matter for my next trip.. correct? I will anyways get 238 miles anytime if I am driving 65 miles and if I continue driving like that my average range will bump up accordingly.

You will not always get 238 miles - it depends on how you drive and what the conditions are like. The range indicator is telling you the range you can expect to get if you keep driving the way you've been driving in the past. Chances are that you're actually going to get at least a bit more or less actual range because no two drives are the same.

 

[DaV8or]

I think the important thing I'm finding out is, if you want to make the "mileage in the middle" so to speak, you really need to pay attention to the little bars on the left with green going up and yellow going down. In a perfect world, you never want to see the yellow bar, but that's not practical. What you can do is, pay attention to what activates the yellow bar and try to minimize it's growth.

Of course I bough this car specifically because it had more battery capacity than I would need on a regular basis, just so that I could drive it like a "regular" car and not care how I drive. I charge mine to Hill Top so I typically only see about 190 something. I have yet to fully charge it to see if I get the magic 238! I doubt it.

 

[kuch_nahee]

what does the "reset" button means in the first pic?

 

[techmoewilly]

Hello Sanjeev
I had a similar issue for the the Bolt LT when I first leased mine.
When it was fully charged it would only show a Max range of 210 miles. This is on a normal day of about 60 degrees and I only had 70 miles on it from driving back from the dealer on day 1. In addition to this odd fully charged range number, the heater alert kept coming on and alerting to say the Heater needed service. They were actually both related and the only person who knew how to fix it was a GM tech from Detroit who had just happened to be at the dealer the 2nd week the car was with the dealer. Yes 2 weeks later it was someone from Detroit who did a reboot of one of the modules in the system and it has been normal since. The dealer technician didn't know what exactly what was done because it was done on his day off. I'm not at all happy with the GM/Chevy rollout of the Bolt but I have it for another 3 years and will have to deal with it. I'm going to try and get a full report of what they did and try and post it. I was so upset with the whole repair process and time it took that I just grabbed my keys and left the service dept. If this was a server or network gear the OEM would have it fixed within 24 hours, it would be great if car dealers worked like the tech industry they are trying to be like with the EVs.