[NY-Rob]

We have now seen the second member recently report 90mi range on a fully charged battery and being told "no problems found" upon bringing it to the dealership for repair.

2017 Bolt EV "Fully Charged" = 86 Miles?

Well, this is a first. I've had this 2017 Bolt EV for 2 years and have seen "Fully Charged" as 250 miles in the summer, and 180 miles in winter. I am just beginning to see these numbers fall-off to 86 miles on two recent "Fully Charged" cycles, with temperatures just above freezing. I will...

www.chevybolt.org

Only 93 miles on a full charge

TLDR My Bolt only gets 93 miles on a full charge. I’m looking for some help. I’ve had my Bolt (lease) for 2.5 years, and put less than 12k on it. Up until a month ago, I got consistent 235+ miles on a full charge. Abruptly, I got 161 on a full charge, and 131 on the next. I typically recharge...

www.chevybolt.org

Are the service departments and service advisors so completely clueless that they can't deduce there is something wrong when a 238mi range vehicle is only getting 90mi range on a full charge?
The first owner was getting 3.9mi/kWh efficiency which means he was only seeing 23kWh out of his 60kWh battery pack.
The second owner was getting 4.9mi/kWh efficiency which means he was only seeing 19kWh out of his 60kWh battery pack.

Something wrong there you think????

 

[redpoint5]

It's a dead simple thing to diagnose with zero special equipment. Run the car out, or nearly so, then see how much charge it accepts. If it isn't close to 60 kWh, then there's a problem (likely with the battery).

 

[kendallg]

I've had the range issue. Posted about it before here:

And a GM buy-back investigation for my Bolt has begun

To conclude this thread, my Bolt was repurchased by GM and we were able to lease a '19 LT with all packages. After much looking and tough negotiations the price was right. It was, however, looking very much like we were going to order a Model 3. Dealers were quoting us in the $400/month range...

www.chevybolt.org

It took the Chevy dealer two visits and 38 days to finally do all the necessary diagnosis, communicate with GM and finally replace the EV battery. Those 38 days out of service lead to my car being repurchased last week. Would have cost them significantly less to run the diagnostics quicker. The problem was there and could have been ID'd on my first visit. They just didn't know what they were even looking for. This feeds into the conversation that's been had on multiple threads about GM's ability to service the Bolts efficiently throughout their full network of dealers.

When you take the car in for such range issues press them to check the EV battery and feel free to point to example such as mine to push them to take things seriously.

 

[Pigwich]

Sounds like GM / dealers don't want to honor the warranty. If they really don't want to sell these cars, why not make horror stories come true? Dealerships are notoriously full of ****, in case nobody's noticed, muffler bearings and all, and their meatheads are likely laughing as soon as these poor bastards leave the shop for having such bad luck. Lawyer up, kids. They probably have a single bad cell, which is like... $300 plus labor to replace, but nobody is qualified or brave enough to do the replacement. A quick search for cells online didn't turn up much, but LEAF cells are about $100. Torque Pro, and an OBD2 reader would get to the bottom of these issues in a real hurry. Knowledge is power. And car dealers are dirt bags.

 

[redpoint5]

It took the Chevy dealer two visits and 38 days to finally do all the necessary diagnosis, communicate with GM and finally replace the EV battery. Those 38 days out of service lead to my car being repurchased last week. Would have cost them significantly less to run the diagnostics quicker. The problem was there and could have been ID'd on my first visit. They just didn't know what they were even looking for. This feeds into the conversation that's been had on multiple threads about GM's ability to service the Bolts efficiently throughout their full network of dealers.

It may have cost GM less to adequately train the service techs in your particular case, but from the big picture, it's enormously expensive to train all/most service techs to work on what represents an extremely small portion of sales, and practically no profit. Should there be adequate training to support a product? Absolutely. The reality is that EVs are small beans, and it's cheaper to take a few lumps than to undertake the massive effort to "adequately" train people.

I see this all the time in my industry, where some seldom sold product requires support, but the techs do not get training because the product isn't common enough to warrant training everyone. Then those techs delay while they seek information on how to proceed, meanwhile get distracted by the neverending flood of issues they are more capable to address.

As an aside, these examples are why I don't really see there being a risk disparity from a service standpoint between buying a Bolt or a Tesla. Sure, there's a wider dealer network with Chevy, but what good is that if nobody knows what they are doing? The whole thing seems a wash to me. You'll see good and bad experiences with both.

I'm always sharing this technology adoption curve because it explains why things are the way they are. We're still in the "innovators" stage of EV adoption which is characterized by "risk takers who have the resources and desire to try new things".

This is also why EVs are more associated with "liberals" than "conservatives". It's the new thing, which fits with a liberal disposition. Once we're further along in the adoption curve, the association of EVs and liberals will dissolve, and it will just be "normal".

 

[fdr8cer]

Torque Pro, and an OBD2 reader would get to the bottom of these issues in a real hurry.

For sure. Definitely did the job for me.

And the GM technical bulletin attached at the end of this post makes it clear that there is a single PID code GM can read to determine if a battery cell has gone bad. It boggles the mind that neither dealership in the two cases mentioned thought to run this test.

 

[cwerdna]

The first owner was getting 3.9mi/kWh efficiency which means he was only seeing 23KW out of his 60KW battery pack.
The second owner was getting 4.9mi/kWh efficiency which means he was only seeing 19KW out of his 60KW battery pack.

Energy is measured in kWh, not "KW". You got the units correct for miles per kWh but "23KW out of his 60KW" and "19KW out of his 60KW" are incorrect.

 

[NY-Rob]

^ thank you.. corrected the original post to reflect the correct units.

 

[chadzu]

Sounds like I am in the same boat with my '17 premier. Under 100 mile range shown on full charge.

 

[psyflyjohn]

Uh Oh. This is starting to sound like the nightmare I had when my Miev battery went bad. Fought for months with the dealer before getting a new battery. If this is the case with GM, kiss the Bolt good bye....

 

[NY-Rob]

... The GM technical bulletin attached at the end of this post makes it clear that there is a single PID code GM can read to determine if a battery cell has gone bad. It boggles the mind that neither dealership in the two cases mentioned thought to run this test.

Yes, that is the truly disappointing aspect to these particular but similar cases... the supposedly "Bolt Trained" tech's were either unaware of the GM technical bulletin or were too lazy to actually perform the simple scan required to identify a bad cell.

GM spent $$$$$$$ bucks and lots of effort to build this great little EV and it seems it's greatest failing is not with the car but the dealer service network.

 

[fdr8cer]

GM spent $$$$$$$ bucks and lots of effort to build this great little EV and it seems it's greatest failing is not with the car but the dealer service network.

One problem that the dealers may be having is that their EV trained techs simply aren't getting a lot of practice fixing EVs. If it's been 6 months since you took training before you actually have a chance to put that training to use, it's not surprising you might have trouble remembering what you learned.

 

[Lin19687]

If GM did a better QC when these cars were made, many things would be better.
They need to train the techs more and better.
GM techs don't want to work on these cars and it shows.
Nice to see someone else who had an i-MiEV, wish I had kept it so when my Bolt keeps going in the shop I can still drive EV !

When my battery needed replacing I had to call GM to get the Dealer to do it. Dealer kept saying it isn't in and back ordered. 8 months later and 1 day after I talk to GM it is miraculously IN at the dealer !

 

[p7wang]

When my battery needed replacing I had to call GM to get the Dealer to do it. Dealer kept saying it isn't in and back ordered. 8 months later and 1 day after I talk to GM it is miraculously IN at the dealer !

1 day? I doubt that GM had sent the battery next day, unless the battery is manufactured in your town.

 

[Lin19687]

1 day? I doubt that GM had sent the battery next day, unless the battery is manufactured in your town.

You obviously missed the point. I waited for 8 months of calling the dealer. THE DAY AFTER I talked to GM it was miraculously AT the dealer............ in other words it was sitting there when I talked to them the day before.... They do NOT want to work on EV's that they don't get a Commission on and a job that takes ALL DAY

 

[GregBrew]

You obviously missed the point. I waited for 8 months of calling the dealer. THE DAY AFTER I talked to GM it was miraculously AT the dealer............ in other words it was sitting there when I talked to them the day before.... They do NOT want to work on EV's that they don't get a Commission on and a job that takes ALL DAY

Except that dealers do get paid for warranty work. They just get paid by GM. The problem might be that they can't rip off GM, like they can customers.

 

[p7wang]

You obviously missed the point. I waited for 8 months of calling the dealer. THE DAY AFTER I talked to GM it was miraculously AT the dealer............ in other words it was sitting there when I talked to them the day before.... They do NOT want to work on EV's that they don't get a Commission on and a job that takes ALL DAY

The most likely is that they are just incompetent. Whoever received it probably never logged it in the system as having arrived and when the tech checks the terminal (while wondering what's inside that giant box sitting next to the terminal for months now), the screen shows 'not in yet'. Then, when the management got a call from GM, they actually checked.

 

[Lin19687]

The most likely is that they are just incompetent. Whoever received it probably never logged it in the system as having arrived and when the tech checks the terminal (while wondering what's inside that giant box sitting next to the terminal for months now), the screen shows 'not in yet'. Then, when the management got a call from GM, they actually checked.

I HIGHLY doubt they 'missed' it coming in. I think you need a lift to move it, and certainly to move it off the truck.

 

[p7wang]

I HIGHLY doubt they 'missed' it coming in. I think you need a lift to move it, and certainly to move it off the truck.

Your assume would be that the specific tech was there during receiving and received the delivery.

These things happens at work some times where the item is reported as "not received" despite vendor saying they shipped it noly to find it in the warehouse. Much better now that we have tracking. Yes, it happens.

 

[Lin19687]

Except that dealers do get paid for warranty work. They just get paid by GM. The problem might be that they can't rip off GM, like they can customers.

Yes, they do get paid for the work but not what they can charge a customer and they don't get extra commission on it. I admit this was the 1st time I found out that service gets a commission.