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Cars.com Bolt EV first drive review

11K views 38 replies 20 participants last post by  eops 
#1 ·
https://www.cars.com/articles/2017-c...1420692448232/

The Cars.com reviewer didn't seem to love the seats (maybe he's a big boy? Who knows). Obese people won't like the Bolt's seats....check.

New tidbit is the "Hilltop Reserve" mode. If you live on a hill, activating this feature (either one time or automatically by location/GPS), it will only charge the Bolt to 90%. Good for people living on top of a hill, but useful for all of us! This feature basically allows anyone to automatically limit charging to 90%! People worried about battery longevity now have an easy way to prevent 100% charging without having to time when to pull the plug!

The Bolt EV also has Hilltop Reserve, which is not an artisanal wine. It's an innovation intended for people who charge their Bolt with the expectation of sustained downhill driving afterward. It charges the battery pack to 90 rather than 100 percent capacity. The reason is that a full battery can't capture any additional regeneration. By leaving that 10 percent open, you work toward filling it for free by driving downhill where you otherwise would have paid to charge it via cord. Owners can program the car to activate this feature once or automatically only in a particular location, such as at home, work or both.
 
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#2 ·
The article mention something that few Tesla Motor fans have realized. Since TM has sold more EVs than GM, their 200,000 unit allocation of the tax rebate will end sooner for them than for GM. GM can sell over 100,000 Chevy Bolt EVs and Volts before it ends for them. TM has passed the 100,000 mark sooner, and will probably reach the 200,000 unit limit before the Model 3 is sold, because TM is still offering the upgraded Model S 60 kWH/75 kWh versions for sale. Many of those buyers will prefer this Model S instead of waiting for the Model 3.

Therefore, no one buying the model 3 will get the full $7,500.00 tax rebate. They will be in the phase-out stage by 2018 and get just $3,500.00 or even less. By that time, the 2017 and future 2018 Chevy Bolt EV will still be a better buy than the Model 3!
 
#3 ·
Right, well, GM has sold over 110,000 units between the Volt and the Spark EV, so there are not that many full rebates left for the Bolt, either - I'd guess the first two production years at the very most (remembering that the Volt will still be sold alongside the Bolt).
 
#4 ·
Where I live is relatively flat, so that downhill regen feature is all but wasted on me. I can see it being very useful in a city like San Fran. As for those seats, apparently they're thin with less cushioning and springs. Won't really know how they feel to me until I sit inn one.
 
#5 ·
Hilltop Reserve is a good end run around the regulation that reduces the range claims to the recommended charge level. That is why the LEAF removed their 80% charge setting as the Feds made them reduce their range claims as Nissan recommended that setting for daily use.

I will use Hilltop Reserve as the default everywhere and only GM will know the secret: everyone should use this setting to have their batteries last longest.
 
#9 ·
If the Trump administration was to eliminate the $7500 Federal tax credit, which is possible given his views about global warming, the environment and the individual who will oversee the EPA, it will cause havoc on EV sales. While I am very much looking forward to taking delivery of my loaded Bolt Premiere (hopefully before Jan. 1st), there is no way I'm going to go through with the purchase if I have to pay about $45K for the car out the door.
 
#12 ·
I'll definitely be going the lease route because of this. Especially with the range dropping every year of course due to wear and what not, I'd rather be able to get another one, potentially an upgraded version down the line, without having to worry about these things.
 
#14 ·
Typical EV service is:
  • Rotate the tires every 7500 miles
  • Cabin Air Filter every 15K
Might need wiper blades?
Brakes will be good and even the tires will likely be serviceable at that point.

Anything else should be under warranty - 3/36 bumper to bumper.
 
#19 ·
I understand the battery chemistry issue, but I think I'd get more use out of the hilltop reserve if it were a nice red. Seems more like a marketing and way of pre-excusing them from long term battery issues. Exactly how high of a hill does one have to live on to charge the battery up that last 10 percent?? Seems like a very long hill!
 
#20 ·
If we assume 60 kWh usable, that's a 6 kWh buffer with the hilltop reserve setting active. You'd have to live on top of one helluva hill to actually regen 6 kWh of charge. :p

I really think the "hilltop reserve" feature was really more of a way for GM to offer a simple way for owners to not charge to 100% (and avoid having to blend the range of 90% and 100% that the EPA requires if they offered 2 charge settings). With this "optional" feature, GM can stick with the 100% 238 EPA range. :)
 
#23 ·
I think in this case, long periods of time are measured in weeks or months. Not hours or days.
Not exactly. In hot weather, 12 hours at 100% wouldn't be a good thing. In Winter it probably wouldn't make a real difference. Generally speaking, less than six hours is desirable, and no more than than three if it's hot outside or if the car's pack is on the hot side of normal.
 
#24 ·
Do have a reference or source for this? Because it runs counter to what I've experienced with my Plug-in Prius which is frequently charged to full and left to sit for days and hasn't suffered any ill effects in nearly 5 years of service. And yes, that includes sitting in hot weather. I'm still getting the same amount of range I had when the car was new. And the car gets charged every day it's used, which is 5 to 6 days a week.
 
#25 ·
The Prius PHEV (we have one of those, too) has more conservative battery management, because it isn't trying for long range. I doubt that it's at much above 90% when indicating 100% charge. The Leafs, however, charge to at least 93% and probably 95%, and they seem to suffer from degradation more when both hot and at 100% indicated SOC than they do at just one of the two. I can't document it with a link, as Nissan has kept a lid on battery stats, so Leaf drivers have been sharing info among ourselves for years. So call it anecdotal, and if the Bolt only charges to an actual 90% to extend pack life you can call it inapplicable, but in general you want to avoid having a lithium battery pack sitting around at or near 100% SOC, especially when it's hot.
 
#26 ·
The Leaf's degradation in battery pack range is probably a combination of factors, most of which can probably be blamed on the lack of active thermal management of the battery pack. Charging to 100% also has an effect, and I agree that leaving it fully charged at 100% for weeks or months at a time, especially in hot weather isn't good for the pack. But I think that if you left the pack at 100% for just a few days or maybe a week at the most, it's not likely to hurt it. If the pack was that easily damaged, I think we'd have heard some rather loud screams from people who parked at the airport and left their car attached to a charger for a week, assuming they charged to 100%. It's annoying that Nissan or Toyota refuses to explicitly state "Don't leave it at 100% for longer than X amount of time" but that's probably to cover their butts by being vague.

What are you planning on doing with your PiP? I've got over 110K miles on mine, with about 10K to 15K of that on full electric. Plan is for my wife to take it and replace her Mini Countryman. She gets a car with better gas mileage and carpool lane access. Sell the Mini and use the proceeds to pay down the loan balance on the Bolt...

Prius charges to 85% SOC. EV mode is exhausted at 23.1% SOC where it turns into a regular hybrid. I've seen the SOC in hybrid mode dip to 18% before the engine turned on to start recharging the battery.
 
#28 ·
It would be hard to find an American Leaf "Tech" who actually knows a lot about the cars. Leaf Certification takes less than one full day, IIRC, and the sales volume is low at most dealerships. The first Leaf pack chemistry, used from 2011 through March of 2013 (much to the dismay of many 2013 Leaf owners) degrades noticeably over time as well as when hot. Only in very cool climates (think Scotland) do those packs hold onto capacity at all well. I'm guessing that those earlier packs also suffer more from sitting at 100% indicated SOC. The packs produced starting in April of 2013 (I have one) resist age related degradation quite well, and resist heat somewhat better.

So it's possible that letting a newer 2013+ Leaf sit at 100% charge for a day or so wouldn't make a noticeable difference, but given what's know about lithium batteries (specifically their dislike of sitting fully charged) and what's known about Leaf packs in particular, I'm not going to try it, and I wouldn't suggest that anyone else try it. It does happen to people occasionally, but not often enough to get real stats. Hopefully this won't apply to the Bolt, which should have at 5% - and hopefully more than that - reserved.

My housemate drives the PIP, and she just bought it off-lease. It seems to have lost a bit of capacity, but will work well for her for years.
 
#29 · (Edited)
Straight from the horses mouth (Bolt EV manual), you can leave the car fully charged and plugged in for up to 4 weeks. After 4 weeks, they recommend discharging the high voltage traction battery down to 2 or 3 bars, and leave the charge cord unplugged. And disconnect the 12V battery.

It doesn't seem to say how long you can leave the car unplugged at 100% charge, though.

EDITED: It does say elsewhere in the manual:

"Do not allow the vehicle to remain in temperature extremes for long periods without being driven or plugged in. It is recommended that the vehicle be plugged in when temperatures are below 0 °C (32 °F) and above 32 °C (90 °F) to maximize high voltage battery life."

Unfortunately, it doesn't define what long periods means. I would guess that means days. Certainly not longer than a week without plugging in. If you live in Arizona, then leaving it plugged in all the time at home is probably the best thing to do, especially during the summer.
 

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#34 ·
Remember, this is the warranty and represents worse case scenarios. At least GM has set out specific terms.
Tesla specifically excludes degradation from their warranty, so it could be 50 or 60% and not be covered.

Nestled in the middle of its Warren Tech Center in Michigan, Doug Drauch, lead engineer for GM's Global Battery Systems Lab, has been testing and fine-tuning power packs since the the company's first foray into electric vehicles, the EV1. He feels the sort of excitement for battery chemistry and electronics that most people reserve for sports teams.

Drauch and his fellow engineers have built a facility capable of testing battery packs in about 99 percent of the environments a car will encounter. While there are individual machines for environmental stress tests and power cycling, the main attraction is the "Shaker," a giant machine that can re-create the X-,Y- and Z-axis vibrations of a vehicle driving on various types of roads. In addition, the company has built a custom chamber for the giant mechanical beast for environmental and power cycling trials.

The machine is so well customized, GM could re-create the charge and power draw of a Bolt EV driving on a cobblestone road in a rainforest if it wanted. If that seems like overkill, bear in mind it's part of a process that helped contribute to the car's remarkable range. "Every time we run a test, we learn something new," Drauch said.
https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/09/inside-the-factory-building-gm-s-game-changing-bolt-ev/#/
 
#37 ·
Digging into my manual and the Bolt screen today to set my Bolt charging control to Hill Top Reserve after driving down from 900 ft to 400 at full charge. That was when I realized that the regen was ineffective, because the battery was topped up. Guess I need to read through the manual, never the first thing I do, but clearly necessary going from a 2003 Jetta to a Jetson Bolt.
 
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