[RacerX00]

For argument's sake I've done the exact opposite and gone with Summer/Winters on the rubbers while throwing fuel efficiency completely out the window. I'm all about efficiency but rubber is not a place where I'll make that sacrifice because to me, personally, that's a safety thing.

I'm waiting for my EUV to dive into the summers but on the Kona (similar size, battery pack, efficiency, etc.) I went from stock, lowest rolling resistance practically on the market to a very aggressive (but still decent rolling resistant) summer tire and the change was imperceptible range-wise while completely revolutionizing traction (the Kona stock tires are far worse for traction than the Bolt stock tires). Side by side comparisons by others show no more than 5% max difference.

I kind of view this as the best of all worlds. People who need the range can squeeze those last little bit of % out of it while if you want to go for traction the sacrifices are livable.

I'll try and be conscious of all of this when I pick up the EUV and switch to summers, I'll try and be more scientific about logging the before and after and report here.

Worth noting that I also went from stock aero wheel to a Sonata, not aero rim (pictured below)

Original (now sporting winters, also those are temp license plates registered now to an Escape not owned by me, so copy them all you want!):

New:

 

[RacerX00]

I’m absolutely with @RacerX00 on the no compromises on traction when optimizing range or efficiency. That is why I accept the 15% penalty that goes along with my CrossClimate2 tires.

15% seems like a lot. That would be almost 40 miles on the Bolt. Did you measure that loss?

 

[RacerX00]

Thejeffkeeran you proposed adding a generator to extend the range of your Bolt. The issue is not the voltage of the generator, or the amps at Level 1 or Level 2, the issue is the design of the Bolt will not permit the car to be driven while charging. That is going to be your big hurdle. The only systems I have seen to supply power to an EV while driving all bypass the on-board charger and supply power directly to the main battery pack. With the high voltage and potential danger involved, I might attempt it if I had a degree in electrical engineering, but I don’t so I won’t go there. If you really need more range than your Bolt can provide, I would recommend you consider another option, such as a second car or switching back to an ICE.

Seems like a lot of trouble, if only there was a network of cables built to deliver power to convenient locations. Maybe they could put them into everyone's house and they can use the electricity for other things like computers and charging their phones.

As evtinker is explaining, for the thousands needed to have a generator that can output any kind of L2 power and the fact that you're still going to need to charge for many many hours, this becomes not a solution.

If you're struggling this hard to keep your Bolt fueled then you've likely chosen the wrong fuel, unfortunately.

I could see it making some kind of sense if you're going on like a week long camping trip and you'll have the generator anyways or something, but it just seems like a whole lot of work to put get gas back into the equation, which ditching it was the whole point, right?

If you're the rare bird that road trips all day every day like for work or something you need a car like the Ioniq 5, decent single charge range and DCFC that rivals the longer side of an average gas stop. The practical difference is 1-3 hours additional driving per day instead of waiting. I come to that by figuring in eating stops, with the Bolt, half of your rest stops are going to be just waiting while the other half will be filled with meals, bathroom, etc.

 

[RacerX00]

It's not that big of a stretch to envision an EV built to be recharged on the fly by a hitch-mounted genset. Technically, it's very feasible, and the genset doesn't have to be all that powerful, just powerful enough to extend the range of the EV to the point that it reaches the destination. I bet a 10 kW genset mounted to a hitch would be enough to get a fully charged Bolt just about anywhere they'd want to go. Assuming the Bolt can go 3 hrs on the initial full charge, 30 kWh more can be added back in that amount of time. Then, the car is charging whenever stopped for a break.

The problem is, if these trips are so infrequent, then all that hassle is pointless when one could just borrow an ICE. If those trips are so frequent, then the vehicle should have been built with an integrated hybrid drivetrain.

We're back to square 1, that it doesn't solve any problem that isn't already better solved by other means. If hitch mounted gensets were a great solution, the market would already be full of offerings. Instead, the market integrated the genset into the vehicle in the form of the Prius Prime, among others.

Wouldn't a hitch-mounted battery pack be better? Rent one on the way out of town, drop it off on the way back in. Rivian has plans for a drop in bed battery extender.

 

[RacerX00]

It appears likely a hitch mounted box could improve your efficiency/range. How much is undetermined since a controlled and repeatable test hasn't been performed.

How important achieving better efficiency is to you determines to what lengths you will go through to achieve it.

Physics pisses me off, I get the wheel covers, but adding stuff to the back shouldn't do anything. Why fluid dynamics, why?!

 

[RacerX00]

I was just trying to be funny. I watch like 53 videos a day about Aptera, I know more about this than I ever thought I would