[John EV]

What I have been reading on our forum is the Bolt battery is degrading faster than I was led to believe. Should I contact the dealer and ask for service? A year ago I was getting 230 miles per charge. March, 2020 my Bolt will be 3 years old.

What is a OBD11 and how to use it to troubleshoot my battery? My name is John and I am knew to the group.

Thanks for all the good post!

 

[Packard V8]

John, have you been charting your estimated range over seasonal changes? Up here in the winter, 170 miles would be exceptional.

jack vines

 

[surgeonFWW]

We have mild winters but I consider 170 miles to be my winter max. In the summer, I plan for a 240 mile max range. My Bolt EV is now 32 months old, with 30.4 K miles. From summer to summer and from winter to winter, I have seen little loss of range, certainly less than 5% total. I charge only to HTR when at home. I have charged DCFC over 20 times in the nearly 3 years.

 

[Jcray]

My 2017 Premier with 39k mikes is at around 180 mikes on a full charge. Personally, I take it with a grain of salt as I end up doing a lot of freeway driving at 70-ish MPH or so, use the HVAC periodically (the mornings here are around 35 degrees Fahrenheit) and I know that kills the range. So when I get in, I figure this history is what that range is based on. If I did more in-town, street driving, I would assume the range estimate would be much higher.

 

[PLP]

Guys,
one thing is very wrong with EV talks.
We talk about "range". This is not correct. It is same wrong as saying I get to drive 250 miles on a full tank.
It makes no sense and no comparison can be made.

One should say how many kWh the battery takes, or what is being reported by whatever app you use.
Just like one should calculate how many miles drove on how many galons from full tank to the next full refill.

Same thing applies here.

If you tell me you got 170 miles... I can tell you my Fiat gets 45 miles.
But I get 45 miles on winter (25 F ambient, 70 F inside), while on summer I get 70-80 miles.
And then the battery will take 17-19 kWh to refill to 100%.


And before, BEFORE it hits 3 years - take it to your Chevy service so that they can document your possible battery problem.


Finally, addressing your problem.
What changes happen within the last 12 months?
Driving style? Tires? Location?

If you use Level 2, do you have access to app reporting energy use? Get some data on how many kWh you use to recharge for the next two refills.

 

[ZoomZoom]

Guys,
one thing is very wrong with EV talks.
We talk about "range". This is not correct. It is same wrong as saying I get to drive 250 miles on a full tank.
It makes no sense and no comparison can be made.

One should say how many kWh the battery takes, or what is being reported by whatever app you use.
Just like one should calculate how many miles drove on how many galons from full tank to the next full refill.

I don't see any problem with talking "range" when we're talking about the same car on this "Bolt" forum. I understand the 2020 model is a pinch different. But the point of the OP is that their perception is that they are getting less range with things being about the same (non-scientifically) from year to year. This is a BOLT forum, and the principle discussion is going to be the Bolt. We have other Forum topics that are 'off-topic' to discuss the range of other cars too. We have one user, one, who regularly drives a unique scenario (he's really old, avoids the freeway, drives slow, accelerates even slower, can detect free L2 charging from 1000yds, is in a different country who gets 5.3+ mi/kWh regularly. This one example is why no comparison is really going to be valid unless the same route, same environmental factors, same temp and same traffic conditions exist day to day, year to year. We just take the range estimates like we take our GOM or Onstar reports.

 

[PLP]

I don't see any problem with talking "range" when we're talking about the same car on this "Bolt" forum.

I completely understand the point of saying that "my range dropped".
The problem I see is the lack of details, or more exactly - data that can be quantified.
If I say my range dropped - there are several things that may happen. Low tire pressure, alignment issues, ambient temperature, binding brakes, and dozens of other factors including battery failure.
Now, if I say that I used to get 200 miles on one charge, but now it is 100 miles... and battery used to take 48 kWh to charge from 10% to 90%, but now I get 24 kWh - the answer is simple - battery is corrupt (software/algorithm/cells...). From this point now on we can talk details.

And it does not matter what EV we are talking about.
Yes, it is Bolt, but same principle applies to all BEV (and ICE) when comes to troubleshooting.

In my Fiat after cleaning brakes and lubricating sliders/pins - I got about 0.2 mile/kWh more using same driving style. Who would think...


Therefore, for now - I would ask for more details. Maybe read from the trip summary what is the mile/kWh result. How much charge needs to be added to replenish battery from level A to level B.

 

[ZoomZoom]

@PLP Every day I drive it's different enough to make the details meaningless in the discussion of a 'range has dropped' discussion. The weather, traffic, acceleration, or maybe the route. Heat, HVAC might be on or not from one day to the next. If we want to talk about battery degradation, you need a dongle ODB thingy and look at battery volts, I think. Anything else means nothing in terms of a discussion. But if after 3 years, all things being somewhat similar you notice, and perceive, 40 miles less on a full charge.....well to me that's worth noting.

I understand your points, you're not wrong in my eyes. But for me, since the variables from day to day are so different, I get nothing out of miles/kWh unless the poster specifically drives the same route, same temps, same settings, same traffic. Any variation screws that up.