[badreed]

Two weeks ago, I bought a 2017 Bolt Premiere from a dealership in Ohio which installed new batteries in over 60 recalled Bolts. The dealership bought these Bolts from GM at an auction, probably recalled leases from around the country, and potential buyers waited until the batteries slowly arrived. I put the deposit down last November. I had to wait awhile, but it’s finally here!

I’m getting about half the range that the car says I should have. I drive like a granny - about 65-70 HWY. My second home is about 59 miles away, but it took 125 ”bolt miles” to get there. The route is 60% highway and the rest country roads at 45-50 mph. I didn’t use A/C or heat.

In addition, the Bolt has been plugged into my 110V outlet (probably 15A) for 27 hours, but I’ve only gained 55 miles in range. The dashboard estimate for full charge was off by 24 hrs.

Any thoughts? Is this normal? I have an electrician coming in a few days to install a NEMA 14-50 outlet, but the lousy range isn’t working for me. Does anyone else have this problem? Is there a software setting that I’m missing? There are lots of fast chargers near me as I live near major interstates, but a range of 120m isn’t enough for the pricetag.

 

[Toyotiac]

Two weeks ago, I bought a 2017 Bolt Premiere from a dealership in Ohio which installed new batteries in over 60 recalled Bolts. The dealership bought these Bolts from GM at an auction, probably recalled leases from around the country, and potential buyers waited until the batteries slowly arrived. I put the deposit down last November. I had to wait awhile, but it’s finally here!

I’m getting about half the range that the car says I should have. I drive like a granny - about 65-70 HWY. My second home is about 59 miles away, but it took 125 ”bolt miles” to get there. The route is 60% highway and the rest country roads at 45-50 mph. I didn’t use A/C or heat.

In addition, the Bolt has been plugged into my 110V outlet (probably 15A) for 27 hours, but I’ve only gained 55 miles in range. The dashboard estimate for full charge was off by 24 hrs.

Any thoughts? Is this normal? I have an electrician coming in a few days to install a NEMA 14-50 outlet, but the lousy range isn’t working for me. Does anyone else have this problem? Is there a software setting that I’m missing? There are lots of fast chargers near me as I live near major interstates, but a range of 120m isn’t enough for the pricetag.

If your driving is the first real use since the battery swap, it’s probable the GOM is quite inaccurate. In addition, if the dealer was doing a bunch of these, it is also possible they skipped the battery capacity relearn procedure to save time. It would require a few charge cycles for the car to relearn on its own. Have you checked that you can set the target charge level to 100%? (hilltop reserve off). That would eliminate the possibility of a software cap.

 

[EV Trek 37604]

How many miles per kWh are you getting? That will tell us more, plus is your hill top reserve turned on? Also are you getting a full 100% charge? All the green bars lit like this

Also charging on 120v is the slowest charge rate you get, are you charging on 8 amp or 12 amp? You have to set it from the charge screen on 120vac charging.

 

[Herbie Bolt]

With a new battery in Spring you should be getting around 400km or 240 miles. Using the heater will cut your range by 25-40% so search the site, there is a ton of information.
The factory EVSE is the slowest, set you car to charge at 12 amps instead of the 8 amps it’s most likely set to now, it will help but use the DCFCs you mentioned as needed.
The range on the display may need to relearn after the battery replacement so don’t get too worked up about it until you have charged and discharged several times.

 

[jmcbrew]

As mentioned, please give us your miles per kWh. You have a 66 kWh battery, so if you can only go 120 miles, that would be about 2 miles per kWh, which is pretty low. I just did a 243 mile trip today with me and two other fat guys. All highway miles between 65 and 70 MPH. A/C used for the return trip once it warmed up outside. I ended with 4 miles per kWh. I still have the 60 kWh batter, so I did stop to DC fast charge for 10 minutes.

 

[Voldar]

There is a procedure to follow in case the relearning of the battery wasn’t reset by the dealer. I think it's about charging the car to 100%, wait two hours then drive it to as low SOC as you can, let it sit again 2 hours then charge it back to whatever SOC you want. SOC = state of charge.

 

[buk855]

A 2017 doesn't tell you the day a charge will finish on the dash, only the time, they fixed this issue as some point as our 2020 tells you what day it will finish when charging on L1. You should also check that auto defog is turned off as it will run both the AC and heat even if it is otherwise turned off and eat your range. Don't get too hung up on the miles the Guess O Meter tells you, especially before the car learns the new battery and your diving style. As others have said there is also a chance they didn't get the software updates done correctly.
This is a fairly aggressive round trip to work in my 2017...

This works out to 113.9/31.8 or 3.58 miles/kwh, this would give you a 'safe' range of about 215 miles on a new (64kWh) battery with a little bit of reserved range. It's fairly easy to exceed 4 miles/kWh which gets you the stated range of 259 miles with the replacement battery.

If you want to check what the car thinks the battery's capacity is you can get an OBD2 adapter and use Torque with the Bolt PIDs to read it's estimate of the capacity, but you can also infer it from the energy used screen and remaining state of charge, as long as you start from a 'full' charge. It's also helpful to use Torque to see what the climate control is doing as it loves to turn on the heater when it's 70 outside and you have it on 'Auto' and the interior temp set at 70.

I drive 57 miles each way to work with my 2017 and it hasn't even had it's battery replaced yet, (on order since Feb 4th) and I could still make two round trips on a charge as long as it isn't winter and I take my time.

If you are still having issues then please give us some more detailed information on what the car is reporting.

 

[Dark-Fx]

In addition, the Bolt has been plugged into my 110V outlet (probably 15A) for 27 hours, but I’ve only gained 55 miles in range. The dashboard estimate for full charge was off by 24 hrs.

There's an option to select 8 or 12 amp charging. Default is 8A. If you aren't setting your home location and use location based charging, you will have to select the 12A option every time you plug in.

 

[Herbie Bolt]

, you will have to select the 12A option every time you plug in.

If you set up location charging you only need to reset to 12 amps once every few months at the same location, every new location will need to reset to 12 amps.

 

[MikeyBolt]

I'll add to the requests for mi/kWh: that will tell you how efficient the car is. The Bolt isn't super efficient at high speed so at 70 MPH, you typically get between 3 and 3.2 mi/kWh. At your lower speed (40% of your driving), you'd probably get closer to 4 mi/kWh. So I'd expect your drive to end up around 3.4 to 3.5 mi/kWh. That'd give you a range of around 200 miles which is decent for the Bolt doing mostly highway driving.

Mike

 

[Sean Nelson]

There's an option to select 8 or 12 amp charging. Default is 8A. If you aren't setting your home location and use location based charging, you will have to select the 12A option every time you plug in.

Note that this only applies to 120V charging. Those of us who use the OEM EVSE at 240V don't have to worry about the current setting, it always charges at the 12A limit of the EVSE.

 

[EV Trek 37604]

Note that this only applies to 120V charging. Those of us who use the OEM EVSE at 240V don't have to worry about the current setting, it always charges at the 12A limit of the EVSE.

The 2017 EVSE was not a dual voltage, only 120vac. At least mine isn’t.

 

[Sean Nelson]

The 2017 EVSE was not a dual voltage, only 120vac. At least mine isn’t.

It's not labelled for dual voltage, and it's got the wrong plug for a 240V outlet, but it's the same EVSE that was delivered to European models with the appropriate 240V plug and it works fine on 240V if you come up with a way to adapt it.

I've been using mine on 240V for going on 5 years now and it saved me having to upgrade the buried line to my detached garage in order to install a higher capacity Level 2 EVSE. I have a 30A panel in the garage that the OEM EVSE works perfectly with.

 

[jmcbrew]

The 2017 EVSE was not a dual voltage, only 120vac. At least mine isn’t.

It will run at 240v 12 amps. It is just not rated for it in the US. You need a special adapter to make it run at 240v, or you can make one for about $20.

 

[EV Trek 37604]

It's not labelled for dual voltage, and it's got the wrong plug for a 240V outlet, but it's the same EVSE that was delivered to European models with the appropriate 240V plug and it works fine on 240V if you come up with a way to adapt it.

I've been using mine on 240V for going on 5 years now and it saved me having to upgrade the buried line to my detached garage in order to install a higher capacity Level 2 EVSE. I have a 30A panel in the garage that the OEM EVSE works perfectly with.

It will run at 240v 12 amps. It is just not rated for it in the US. You need a special adapter to make it run at 240v, or you can make one for about $20.

If it’s not labeled for it you shouldn’t be using it on 240v.
As a retired electrician it would be a code violation and if it shorted and burned down your house then your insurance would have a way of not paying.
I would only use one if the manufacturer had it approved and labeled as such.
Don’t cheap out and get a level 2 that is approved for 240v.
JMHO

 

[badreed]

Thanks everyone! The range seemed much better when I drove 60 miles this morning. The Bolt was charging for 36 hrs, gained about 100m during that time. Yes, it was on the 8A charge setting- I didn’t realize I needed to set it for every charge. Will fiddle with the charge location settings. There definitely a learning curve with this software.

 

[badreed]

Stats:

 

[SpicyBolt]

If it’s not labeled for it you shouldn’t be using it on 240v.
As a retired electrician it would be a code violation and if it shorted and burned down your house then your insurance would have a way of not paying.
I would only use one if the manufacturer had it approved and labeled as such.
Don’t cheap out and get a level 2 that is approved for 240v.
JMHO

This was hotly debated on the Volt forum, as my former Volt has a factory EVSE with the same capacity. It sounds pretty safe based on the research some have done, as well as on how many have adapted it for 240 v. Still, I decided to play it conservative for the reasons you suggested.

I bought a 16 amp Clipper Creek Level 2 for our Volt, and now use it for our Bolt. That too saved me from having to upgrade my buried line to the garage, since that line supports the necessary 20 amp circuit.

OTOH I'm still driving our Bolt without the software update, and even occasionally charge above 80%, so who am I to talk about risk.

 

[EV Trek 37604]

Stats:

From your stats it looks like you are running at about 3.2miles per kWh for the last 50 miles, that should give you a total range of around 200 miles, a lower miles per kWh you range will be less higher your range will be more.

 

[badreed]

Thanks for the outlet tips. I’m getting a NEMA 14-50 receptacle. Probably something like this charger Lectron® EVCharge14-50-32A - 33 A/240 V NEMA 14-50 21' EV Charger