[MacApples24]

Hello everyone! I hope you guys are having a good weekend so far?! I have several questions that I have for you guys that owns a chevy bolt or EV car in general. I am currently driving a 2011 honda crz hybrid and I'm getting 37 mpg in city and 40 in highway. I'm putting down almost 70 bucks a month for gas (which I dont think its not bad at all compare to other cars i would pay more). Don't get me wrong I love my honda so much, but the only downfall is that its only 2 seats instead of 4+. I have several months left to pay it off then I want to trade it in for another car with more seats and more reliable. My question to you guys is that is it worth owning a bolt? I travel roughly 120 miles a week and maybe once every blue moon travel to seattle ( I live in a Washington state btw!) i know when you drive in cities, the battery doesn't drain as much, but in highways it would drain dramatically depending on how fast you go. Also, how much does it cost to charge your car from close to empty to full? I know it depends where you live the price will be different, but if you guys can give me an estimate then i would be much appreciate !!! another question is that is it a good idea to buy a use chevy bolt ? ive been looking and there are some that are pretty reasonable price with 20,000 to 45,000 miles in the car. my last and most important question is how does it drive in the snow? on top of that question i heard in the cold , the battery would take forever to charge. also, can I plug in my charger in my car all night to warm up the battery? like most gas cars have that plug thing to plug in to keep the gas motors warm all night. That's all the questions i can think of and i hope most of you guys can answer my questions

 

[XJ12]

@MacApples24, welcome to the forum. The Bolt is a wonderful car. But so is having no monthly payment.

Yes, you can keep the Bolt plugged so the car can manage the battery temperature. Another benefit to being plugged in, is you can precondition the car without using the battery.

The Bolt is the opposite of your Honda. It gets more mileage around town then it does on the highway.

 

[LucBorgia]

@MacApples24

TL;DR: The Bolt is a great car, very reliable, and crazy fun to drive!

Your driving pattern is a lot like my husband’s - mostly short range trips with the occasional long range adventure. An EV is excellent for this sort of driving - no more annoying stops for gas. The PlugShare app will help you find chargers and A Better Route Planner will help you plan longer trips. Before we bought our Bolt, we played around with both to make sure we could get where we needed to go.

I presume you have a garage and can install an at home charger? If so you can mostly charge at home and never have to bother with public chargers. We have a Clipper Creek home charging unit - rugged and reliable. Check with your local utility to see if they offer an EV charging rate. That can save you some money. For example from 11pm to 7am we get electrons for 1 cent per kWh so that’s when we charge up. It takes us around 4-6 hours to charge at night, depending on how much we’ve driven during the day. Your electric company may also offer a rebate for installing a home charger.

EVs tend to be most efficient at around 55-65 mph on the highway - if you have a lead foot and like to go 90, your range will take a hit I live where it’s warm so I don’t know how a Bolt will do in the snow.

Have you test driven a Bolt? The matter of the Bolt seats is rather polarizing - some people can’t stand them, others think they are fine. I’m in the seats are fine club.

You can get some good deals right now so if a Bolt fits your needs, give one a test drive

 

[sly]

Highway driving won't necessarily be less efficient than around-town driving. Town driving is stop-and-go. Even with regeneration, stop-and-go driving just isn't as efficient. I'll average 4.2 to 4.4 miles per kwh in town. On highway trips I'll average about 4.7 to 4.9 miles / kwh. I do keeps speeds down to between 55 and 60 though, not the insane speeds that have gripped most drivers.

As for driving costs: with home charging, my energy costs are about 2 cents a mile or a bit less (I live in Oregon with reasonable electricity rates). With commercial charging, energy costs are about 10 cents a mile, regardless of the charging rate. You can verify that by looking at the listed prices in the PlugShare app. I feel that that is acceptable since almost all charging is done at home.

Washington state has a pretty good charging infrastructure for travel, so I don't think there's an issue with that.

I haven't charged my car in cold weather yet, but I don't think it would have a significant impact due to the active battery conditioning in the Bolt. The Bolt manual does recommend keeping the car plugged in when temperatures are below freezing or over 90 degrees. That allows the active battery management to keep the battery within an optimal temperature range.

You will want to try out the back seats in the Bolt. Headroom is a bit tight. Good enough for small people or kids, or normal people for shorter distances on occasion, but suboptimal for most adults on long trips.

I don't see how you are spending 70 bucks a month on gas while driving only 120 miles a week. That would require a gas price of $5.40 a gallon. You must be driving farther. But if you drive about 600 miles a month, I would expect your energy costs with home charging for the Bolt to be about $10-$15 a month, depending on the season, and somewhat more for those trips to Seattle. But if you are reliant on commercial charging all the time, then figure $60-$70 a month.

There seems to be fewer things that can go wrong in an EV, but when they do, it could get expensive. You might consider getting a service contract to manage repair risk. If a computer goes out, you'd be looking at a few thousand dollars for repairs.

I have no idea how it drives in the snow. That is often greatly influenced by the tires. If you have a lot of snow where you live, you'll want an additional set of winter tires for sure. The Bolt weight is fairly evenly distributed from front to back, so there should be decent traction with the front-wheel drive. But for deeper snow, nothing beats a 4WD.

 

[davioh2001]

Macapples24 , my feedback is wait about 1 month to see what the prices are on the 2020 and 2019 Bolts and what ford offers with their "Mustang Inspired EV" set to be introduced in less than 1 month! If it really is over 300 mile range I would hope Chevy will get a better battery pack in the 2021 refresh. If they don't do a significant refresh they are suddenly 20% behind Ford's range which I don't think Chevy wants. I would think there are good deals now and even better deals a year from now as competition and production finally ramp up.

 

[sly]

Macapples24 , my feedback is wait about 1 month to see what the prices are on the 2020 and 2019 Bolts and what ford offers with their "Mustang Inspired EV" set to be introduced in less than 1 month! If it really is over 300 mile range I would hope Chevy will get a better battery pack in the 2021 refresh. If they don't do a significant refresh they are suddenly 20% behind Ford's range which I don't think Chevy wants. I would think there are good deals now and even better deals a year from now as competition and production finally ramp up.

I would certainly want to wait until the 2020 models hit the dealerships. Discounts on 2019 models should then be very attractive. As for waiting even longer, I think with any technology product you could easily get caught up waiting for the next great improvement and never buy your car. Cars will always improve. The important thing to consider is whether the current offerings can handle your use cases without problem. If they can, then go ahead with the current version. I own a 30 year old 4x4 pickup. New trucks are vastly better, but that old truck serves it's intended use case, and there is no need to upgrade just because later models are better. I expect my 2019 Bolt will suit my needs just fine for more than 10 years, regardless of how much faster new EVs charge or what their extended range is. On the other hand, if your current vehicle is working ok for you, then no need to rush to buy a new car if soon-to-be-released versions offer compelling improvements at a reasonable full price that truly serves you better.

 

[Smaldogs]

It sure is fun to drive our 2019 premier! Data from our ChargePoint 32 amp home charger.

 

[p7wang]

I would recommend lowering the charge rate to baby the EVSE, charger, and also be friendlier to the utility. One reason I do like the OEM EVE at 12A.

 

[sly]

I would recommend lowering the charge rate to baby the EVSE, charger, and also be friendlier to the utility. One reason I do like the OEM EVE at 12A.

What is your charge rate in mph at 12A 120V?

 

[p7wang]

240V @ 12A would be 2.88KW so about 12 miles per hour.
Should get you about 90-100 miles for 8 hours overnight charge.

If you don't need that many miles and have the option to lower to even 6A, that would be even better. Remember, long term steady draw is best for utility.

 

[sly]

I know I can reduce my EVSE to 16a, not sure about 12a, but in either case it would likely be a good idea. I would still get plenty of charge for the time I usually have it plugged in. On 120V, I guess it would charge at about 6 mph, usually not really enough for a single overnight stay in a campground with 120V 20a service since the Bolt can only accept up to 12a at 120V.

 

[Terry Hancock]

Highway driving won't necessarily be less efficient than around-town driving. Town driving is stop-and-go. Even with regeneration, stop-and-go driving just isn't as efficient. I'll average 4.2 to 4.4 miles per kwh in town. On highway trips I'll average about 4.7 to 4.9 miles / kwh. I do keeps speeds down to between 55 and 60 though, not the insane speeds that have gripped most drivers.

As for driving costs: with home charging, my energy costs are about 2 cents a mile or a bit less (I live in Oregon with reasonable electricity rates). With commercial charging, energy costs are about 10 cents a mile, regardless of the charging rate. You can verify that by looking at the listed prices in the PlugShare app. I feel that that is acceptable since almost all charging is done at home.

Washington state has a pretty good charging infrastructure for travel, so I don't think there's an issue with that.

I haven't charged my car in cold weather yet, but I don't think it would have a significant impact due to the active battery conditioning in the Bolt. The Bolt manual does recommend keeping the car plugged in when temperatures are below freezing or over 90 degrees. That allows the active battery management to keep the battery within an optimal temperature range.

You will want to try out the back seats in the Bolt. Headroom is a bit tight. Good enough for small people or kids, or normal people for shorter distances on occasion, but suboptimal for most adults on long trips.

I don't see how you are spending 70 bucks a month on gas while driving only 120 miles a week. That would require a gas price of $5.40 a gallon. You must be driving farther. But if you drive about 600 miles a month, I would expect your energy costs with home charging for the Bolt to be about $10-$15 a month, depending on the season, and somewhat more for those trips to Seattle. But if you are reliant on commercial charging all the time, then figure $60-$70 a month.

There seems to be fewer things that can go wrong in an EV, but when they do, it could get expensive. You might consider getting a service contract to manage repair risk. If a computer goes out, you'd be looking at a few thousand dollars for repairs.

I have no idea how it drives in the snow. That is often greatly influenced by the tires. If you have a lot of snow where you live, you'll want an additional set of winter tires for sure. The Bolt weight is fairly evenly distributed from front to back, so there should be decent traction with the front-wheel drive. But for deeper snow, nothing beats a 4WD.

I have the opposite experience. Over 300+ miles around our little village in NM. Then, when I jump on I25 and maintain cruise, even below the speed limit, I get 180 miles max in perfect weather.

 

[wesley]

Highway driving won't necessarily be less efficient than around-town driving. Town driving is stop-and-go. Even with regeneration, stop-and-go driving just isn't as efficient. I'll average 4.2 to 4.4 miles per kwh in town. On highway trips I'll average about 4.7 to 4.9 miles / kwh. I do keeps speeds down to between 55 and 60 though, not the insane speeds that have gripped most drivers.

I agree that the 55-to-60mph seems to be a good speed range for efficient highway trips. I personally set the cruise to 100km/h on the dash on the expressways, which is actually 95km/h (59mph) according to SatNav. On a warm day I get somewhere around 7.5 to 8.0km/kWh (4.7 to 5.0mi/kWh).

Town driving is different for me, though. Me and my wife seem to get about 9.0km/kWh (5.6mi/kWh), give or take about 0.5km/kWh (0.3mi/kWh) on average. That's good for around 500km (311 miles).

 

[Fivedoor]

A steady 75 mph traveling west with 2,500 ft gain in elevation got me 2.9 m/kWh with minimal use of climate control, and tires only inflated to 38 psi... forgot to bump them up before the start of my most recent long trip. I will have a travel log of the trip up soon in the proper sub forum

Average use case for me in good weather is 4.5 m/kWh on my daily commute (mostly 55 mph, a few miles of slower, 55 mile round trip). With 3.5 ish at 65 mph and 3 ish at 75 mph.

On the issue of waiting for the next improvement, I have a co-worker who has talked about Tesla for the last 5 years... I have owned 3 EV's in the last 5 years... he still drive a hybrid, in fact he just traded in his old hybrid on a new hybrid... and he is still talking about Tesla's...

Keith

 

[thursda]

Good idea jumping into the EV revolution. You'll definitely spend quite a bit less on fuel than your quite efficient current car. I drove a Bolt for two years and recently switched over to a Tesla Model 3. I enjoyed driving the Bolt very much and highly recommend it. I switched to the Tesla for a few reasons, one of the biggest being that I drive a lot, and the seats were just not doing it for me comfort-wise. Having put about 45,000 miles on the car in that two year span, the seat comfort was very important and was lacking. Having said that, if I drove 120 miles a week as you do, I probably would not have had much of a problem with the seats.

Another reason that might be important to you is driving in the snow. I ended up getting the dual motor version, which is quite adept at driving in the snow, so if you didn't get that one and instead got the standard version, which is rear-wheel drive, I'm not sure how much of a benefit you'd see.

Finally, the SuperCharger network makes occasional jaunts to Seattle quite easy. And somewhat to my surprise, I have found that the Tesla, despite being larger and heavier, to be quite a bit more efficient than the Bolt. Particularly at highway speeds, no doubt in part to the differences in the aerodynamics of the cars.

I realize a dual-motor Model 3 is quite a bit more than a used Bolt, and I am certainly not trying to dissuade you from going that route. I think you would be safe getting one that didn't have more than 50,000 miles on it. Waiting until the new 2020 models are introduced is also a good plan, to snatch up some 2019 inventory at a bargain price. I truly doubt that you would be disappointed in the purchase of a Bolt!

 

[reaelec]

To address your questions regarding driving the Bolt in snow and general cold weather, I have leased a bolt since August of 2017 and live in Pennsylvania. I have found that the Bolt handles very well in the snow. The key thing to take into consideration is the reduction in range when temps drop. Temps where I live range from 0 to 40 degrees F during a normal winter. A full charge in this temp range will produce about 140 miles of range instead of the 250 miles I get in the summer. The car is kept in a unheated garage overnight while charging at 240VAC/16A. Overall I highly recommend the Bolt. My lease will be up in August and I am considering getting another one.

 

[sly]

I recently made a 110 mile trip in my Bolt. Temperature was 34 degrees. I preheated the car while plugged in, but kept the climate control on auto at 68 degrees, so the heater was running most of the time. The trip was mostly on flat freeway with the cruise control set at 55 mph. My efficiency was 3.9 miles/kwh. Not bad I think. That would be a full charge equivalent of 234 miles.

 

[sasunde]

For your driving, the Bolt should be fine. Contrary to one comment, I found the headroom in the back seats to be fine - except that the roof does curve down sharply on each side and you can contact it if you are a bobble-head.

The battery for the 2017-2019 bolt is 60 kWh. For the 2020, it's 66 kWh. If you charge from empty to full, it'll cost 60 (or 66) x cost/kWh. Realistically, you will rarely if ever go down to empty and normally, you should not charge to 100% unless you are leaving on a long trip in order to preserve the battery life.

I don't know what you pay for electricity or if you have variable rates or other charges. Where we live, the basic charge is 12.3 cents/kWh. That would mean about 4 cents/ mile compared to 12 cents per mile for my gasoline car. I have rooftop solar and I produce more energy than I use, so the utility buys it back at the wholesale rate of 4.58 cents/kWh. So, any charging just reduces the amount of energy I can sell back to the utility.* I usually get 4.3 miles/kWh driving a combination of highway and city. On a long trip, driving at 70+ mph, climbing up into the mountains or heading into headwinds, it can be a lot less, like 3.3 miles/kWh. So, it costs me about 1-1.5 cents per mile. Using public chargers on trips has a huge range of costs. Many level 2 chargers and a few level 3 chargers are free. The most expensive level 3 charger I've seen was in Buena Vista, CO, which charged $1.39/kWh + 10% tax during peak hours (4-10 pm). Mostly, they charge by the minute (21-35 cents/min). (I was also charged $25 for 7 kWh at an RV park once, when I was desperate and the owner knew it.)

*However, if one has rooftop solar, our solar-hostile electric association charges a demand fee based on your maximum power usage during the month. So, if I ever use my level 2 charger at night, I'll get an extra $32 surcharge on my bill.

 

[p7wang]

*However, if one has rooftop solar, our solar-hostile electric association charges a demand fee based on your maximum power usage during the month. So, if I ever use my level 2 charger at night, I'll get an extra $32 surcharge on my bill.

Use your OEM EVSE and it will draw only 12A. If you have a 32A EVSE, set it to charge at 16A... that will lower your surcharge. This is what I was telling folks on charging EV. Use lower amp over longer period and you utility will appreciate it.

 

[JohnnyEV]

The cost to operate depends on how heavy your foot is, the weather and your cost per kWh to charge. With a lead foot and normal 60-80 degrees weather, I get 3-4 miles / kWh. Driving slower and with a light foot you can get 5+ miles / kWh. (if electricity cost you $0.10/kWh, this equates to $0.02/mile) Winter does draw some juice for heating the cabin and drops the battery efficiency, so in my case I lose about 20% range in the cold winter season. I live at 4,000 ft elevation so I do get snow and it is fairly cold and with hills you lose a little bit of efficiency. If you normally only drive less than 140 miles / day, you don't have to worry about the "weight of your foot" or" heating' as long as you can charge each night and preheat while plugged in to the charger. However, if you preheat in the winter and still want the maximum range, I recommend a level 2 charger at 40A because the cabin heater can draw 8kw and the battery heater (when it is very cold) can draw 2kw.