[Mike Arkwright]

My name is Mike Arkwright. I have been an EV owner since 2013. I just purchased a 2017 Bolt after my Leaf was rear-ended by a Suburban (twice). I am the National Drive Electric Week city captain for West Des Moines, IA.
I have a couple of questions about the Bolt:
1: Does anyone know if it is possible to upgrade the Level 2 charge port on my car to a CCS port?? The dealership was clueless and suggested I call the Chevy 800 number. The 800 number operator suggested I visit the dealership!?!?
2: Does anyone know what the thread is in the inserts in the roof rails? I want to make a roof rack and need to be able to attach it. Trial and error with bolts says that it is 6mm, but the fit seems sloppier than I expect.
Thanks!

 

[BruceA1923]

Welcome neighbor, I am in Omaha.

 

[surgeonFWW]

My name is Mike Arkwright. I have been an EV owner since 2013. I just purchased a 2017 Bolt after my Leaf was rear-ended by a Suburban (twice). I am the National Drive Electric Week city captain for West Des Moines, IA.
I have a couple of questions about the Bolt:
1: Does anyone know if it is possible to upgrade the Level 2 charge port on my car to a CCS port?? The dealership was clueless and suggested I call the Chevy 800 number. The 800 number operator suggested I visit the dealership!?!?
2: Does anyone know what the thread is in the inserts in the roof rails? I want to make a roof rack and need to be able to attach it. Trial and error with bolts says that it is 6mm, but the fit seems sloppier than I expect.
Thanks!

Welcome aboard, although as a long-time EV owner, you may be able to teach us all a thing or two! I do know the answer to Q#1 and it is NO. At least this was true for 2017 & 18 Bolts. You could buy a LT with DCFC capability, but you could NOT retrofit either the Premier or LT models. I do not know the answer to #2 , but many others have decried the loss of range when you inhibit the slipstream with a roof rack. If not using it for a specific trip, it needed to be removed. Similar "loss of range" complaints were experienced by those who put a towing hitch on the rear (some even who hacksawed an opening in the rear bumper). Even a loaded bicycle rack cuts those range miles down.

 

[ai4px]

The upgrade to CCS is not possible by you or the dealer, it's a factory only thing. Not sure about the roof rails, but waiting to see the answer for thread size. Welcome to the club, you'll enjoy the car.

 

[XJ12]

there's at least one forum member (@Vasmi) trying to do a CCS upgrade on their Bolt:

https://www.chevybolt.org/forum/457051-post56.html

Thule part number https://www.euroton.si/en-us/avtodeli/thule-rezervni-del-sp-50435-screw-m6x20mm-p-770902.aspx 50435 has M6x20mm

 

[GregBrew]

I used 6mm on the rails to install a rope attachment point to stop bike rack bounce.


Don't forget the blue thread-lock!

 

[Vertiformed]

I have a couple of questions about the Bolt:
1: Does anyone know if it is possible to upgrade the Level 2 charge port on my car to a CCS port?? The dealership was clueless and suggested I call the Chevy 800 number. The 800 number operator suggested I visit the dealership!?!?

Congratulations on getting a Bolt!

But it's a bit strange that you bought it without knowing much about the car. No, you can't upgrade it to add a DCFC port. Wanting to do that is a bit like wanting to upgrade a diesel car to run on gasoline. Your Bolt has a particular “propulsion system” configuration and is not designed for DCFC. Possibly you could tear the relevant parts out of a totaled Bolt in a junk yard, much as you might be able to tear the gasoline engine out of a totaled VW Golf to put in a Gold TDI. Few people attempt such radical surgery on their cars and it would almost certainly void the 8-year “propulsion system” warranty.

Basically if thought you (or any future owner) would ever want DCFC over the life of the car, you should have paid $750 for the option. Draw a radius of about 200 miles around your home (perhaps more in summer, less in winter). That's as far as your Bolt will ever be able to drive in a day.

 

[Packard V8]

Basically if thought you (or any future owner) would ever want DCFC over the life of the car, you should have paid $750 for the option. Draw a radius of about 200 miles around your home (perhaps more in summer, less in winter). That's as far as your Bolt will ever be able to drive in a day.

But some might say DCFC is akin to the Range Extender option for the BMW i3. It changes some of the variables at the extremes, but isn't applicable for 99% of average user daily driving requirements.

The BMW REx is a real and expensive complication. Many US buyers with range anxiety bought it. Some chose the BEV.

The question is why GM ever built Bolts without DCFC. The added cost of DCFC at time of manufacture is antshit. Honda determined thirty-six years ago with their first Accord, it was less expensive to install all the little bits on all the Accords than to try to keep track of which got them and which didn't. The only options were AC and automatic transmission. It's the car which made Honda a profitable auto manufacturer.

jack vines

 

[Mike Arkwright]

Hi Vertiformed. Since I purchased the Bolt used, I did not have the option to order it the way I wanted it. There are not a lot of 1 year old Bolts on the market. I realize that there woukls be some upgrading of the charging hadware, but the battery pack and drive train would be unchanged.

 

[Mike Arkwright]

Thanks surgeonFWW. My plan would be to only have the roof rack on when I need to haul something over sized.

 

[Vertiformed]

Hi Vertiformed. Since I purchased the Bolt used, I did not have the option to order it the way I wanted it. There are not a lot of 1 year old Bolts on the market. I realize that there woukls be some upgrading of the charging hadware, but the battery pack and drive train would be unchanged.

Ah, this makes a bit more sense. Nothing in your post indicated that you were buying the car used, and there are (probably still) some dealers that have "new" 2017 cars they haven't sold.

The battery-management-system is part of the battery unit. It controls the charge process. It's possible that if you swapped out the other hardware the BMS would recognize it and be happy to fast charge, but possibly/probably not. Possibly lots of firmware updates are needed (BMS, infotainment, etc.). Worst case, GM only qualifies some batteries to be DCFC capable. If you don't have a DCFC Bolt, charging it with DCFC would void the warranty.

 

[silverone]

2: Does anyone know what the thread is in the inserts in the roof rails? I want to make a roof rack and need to be able to attach it. Trial and error with bolts says that it is 6mm, but the fit seems sloppier than I expect.
Thanks!

The threads for the roof rail attachments are M6.

I went through the effort of creating some 3D printed mounts to allow an EMT conduit crossrail to mount to these and it works fairly well. There is a bit of whistling if unloaded, so I typically just mount them when I need to carry something.

 

[Schneedog]

Hello

My name is Mike Arkwright. I have been an EV owner since 2013. I just purchased a 2017 Bolt after my Leaf was rear-ended by a Suburban (twice). I am the National Drive Electric Week city captain for West Des Moines, IA.
I have a couple of questions about the Bolt:
1: Does anyone know if it is possible to upgrade the Level 2 charge port on my car to a CCS port?? The dealership was clueless and suggested I call the Chevy 800 number. The 800 number operator suggested I visit the dealership!?!?
2: Does anyone know what the thread is in the inserts in the roof rails? I want to make a roof rack and need to be able to attach it. Trial and error with bolts says that it is 6mm, but the fit seems sloppier than I expect.
Thanks!

I'm a new Bolt owner as well, purchased 11/5/18. I found an article in Geekwire both informative and fun. Search in geekwire.com and you should be able to find Tim Ellis's article. Apparently I'm too new on this site to post a link directly.

At the bottom of the article are links to a Yakima roof rack system that will work for the Bolt. The author also talks about the energy drain a christmas tree caused.
Best of luck!

 

[Franks2017]

The threads for the roof rail attachments are M6.

I went through the effort of creating some 3D printed mounts to allow an EMT conduit crossrail to mount to these and it works fairly well. There is a bit of whistling if unloaded, so I typically just mount them when I need to carry something.

I like the way your 3D mounts look! Just what I’m looking for. I already have the Yakima round bars from a previous car so I just needed roof rail mounts for them. I was going to just install some heavy duty L brackets with u bolts.

So what would it take ($?) to obtain a set from you?