Bolt No ICE

[jebatty]

Made the big move yesterday. Our new Chevy Bolt LT, well equipped, will be delivered later this week or early next week. We tried to locate one in December, no success. My wife wanted the red Bolt, which was especially difficult to find. And when I found one a few days ago at a nearby Chevy dealer, we made the quick decision, and now we will have the red Bolt and be a participant in the future rather than a spectator.

The Bolt when charged at our home will further move our household to nearly 100% fossil carbon free on energy usage. All of our household electricity already is from our net metered solar PV, and we have excess PV solar to "fuel" the Bolt. Our heating is from wood harvested from our sustainably managed wood lands. Our two cars and small engines are the only fossil carbon energy consumers in the household, and the Bolt should cut that fossil carbon by about 50%.

The 238 mile range of the Bolt should cover nearly 100% of our local driving, leaving the ICE car for road trips or trips when the Bolt is in use by the other of us. We will keep our '97 Camry, just shy of 200,000 miles, as there may be times when my wife and I are both heading on 200+ mile trips in divergent directions, and the '07 has a trailer hitch to pull our small tear drop camper trailer. We will keep our '11 Toyota, 100,000+ miles, for long road trips. Experience will tell whether it makes any sense to continue to keep two ICE cars.

 

[begreen]

Congratulations. That's exciting. I look forward to hearing your impressions. Did you decide to purchase or lease?

 

[jebatty]

We went with a purchase. The range is sufficient for the great majority of our local driving, leaving long distance road trips, often with our two dogs, to the ICE car, an '11 Toyota. My thought is that we will keep this for the long haul, and in a few years a much longer range BEV will be available and allow us to retire the ICE completely. With the Bolt, we are one big step closer to being 100% fossil carbon free for our household energy consumption, leaving only the ICE car and small engines.

We also are keeping my '07 Camry, trailer hitch equipped, for road trips when we pull our small tear drop camper trailer. The '07 is just a hair short of 200,000 miles and has little trade-in or used car value, but still many miles of life.

 

[woodgeek]

w00t!

We got our red Bolt LT 'Fiona' the day before Thanksgiving, and now have close to 4000 miles.

Our only Bolt complaints so far .....

--The name. Everyone goes 'Oh, a Volt'. Nope. They should have called it 'the Chevy Leroy', or the 'Chevy Compliance 3000'. Either would have been better.
--The front seats. They are a 'new design' that is like a slab of foam over a spring hammock. With hard metal rails on the edges. That dig into your thighs since they are 2" narrower than a normal seat. And have protruding vertical bolts under the foam. Think car seat by Marquis de Sade. There are DIY fixes...either get a padded seat cover off Amazon (which blocks the seat heater, and needs a slit for the side airbag)...or there are youtube videos for tearing down the seat, adding foam padding and restoring it. I will do the latter soon. T'ain't easy being green.

FYI, my 600 mile (round trip) NewEngland winter/blizzard road trip went uneventfully. With MIchelin X-ICE3's its a monster in the snow and ice.

 

[semipro]

Admiration and some envy on my part.
I'm looking forward to the release of a decent EV pickup truck. With all the energy-related upgrades we're doing on the house I"m always hauling stuff.

 

[jebatty]

Complaints noted. Hopefully my smaller frame and 155 lb weight will result in the seats being more comfortable. For winter tires I ordered General Altimax Arctic.

 

[begreen]

w00t!

We got our red Bolt LT 'Fiona' the day before Thanksgiving, and now have close to 4000 miles.

Our only Bolt complaints so far .....

--The name. Everyone goes 'Oh, a Volt'. Nope. They should have called it 'the Chevy Leroy', or the 'Chevy Compliance 3000'. Either would have been better.
--The front seats. They are a 'new design' that is like a slab of foam over a spring hammock. With hard metal rails on the edges. That dig into your thighs since they are 2" narrower than a normal seat. And have protruding vertical bolts under the foam. Think car seat by Marquis de Sade. There are DIY fixes...either get a padded seat cover off Amazon (which blocks the seat heater, and needs a slit for the side airbag)...or there are youtube videos for tearing down the seat, adding foam padding and restoring it. I will do the latter soon. T'ain't easy being green.

FYI, my 600 mile (round trip) NewEngland winter/blizzard road trip went uneventfully. With MIchelin X-ICE3's its a monster in the snow and ice.

That's too bad, the Volt seats are slightly stiff, but quite comfortable even on a long trip. Could they be 'bolted' in to a Bolt?

 

[woodgeek]

While the Bolt draws a lot from the Volt and the Cruze in terms of systems and parts....the seats are a 'from scratch' creation that is not compatible for swap-out.

Basically, GM decided to make the cabin quite roomy (like a cross-over or small SUV), but for whatever reason, they needed to make it 3" narrower than one normally would make such a vehicle. So they made the front bucket seats 2" narrower than any normal car seat. So rather than sitting 'between' the structural supports on the edges of the seats, your behind and kidneys are pressing against the structural bolsters. They also made a HUGE back seat legroom choice (which is nice), but did that by thinning the seat backs of the front seats (like on recent aircraft) minimizing the amount of padding in the backs.

So, huge and roomy cabin and back seats (I can straighten my legs in the front, and I haven't done that in any car since I was a kid) in a car whose footprint in length and width that of a compact car! Its like a Tardis that way. But a lot of the space-saving 'magic' comes at the expense of the thing in the middle of the cabin...the front seats.

Smaller people tend to say they're ok.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Congratulations.

My husband and I just benefitted from the Bolt in an unusual way. A recent major relocation required us to add a second car to our family for my husband’s commute (previously he used metro/biking/walking and carpooled, and we have only owned one car for all our married life). We were able to get a used 2017 LEAF from a Chevy dealership at the end of November, and its range is just fine for our normal needs, though substantially less than the Bolt’s. Our whole family doesn’t even fit in the LEAF, so it will be the faithful minivan for whole-family excursions. We love the LEAF for commuting and errands, and are glad some other driver bought it new, let it depreciate substantially, and traded it in to get more range.

We’ve really enjoyed the all-electric vehicle, and I love that my kids are learning about this technology early. My older kids now play a new version of the punch-buggy game by trying to spot the occasional electric car.

 

[jebatty]

Congrats on your decision to get a Leaf. I tend to think that the move to an electric car is and will be accompanied by a shift on how a person or family uses a car, a shift to more thoughtful and intentional decision on driving, rather than just jump in the car and go. Being thoughtful and intentional may also be accompanied by an enhanced conservation ethic for transportation.

The Leaf just didn't have the range for us. The nearest "large" towns/cities (10-25,000 population) are 45 to 75 miles away, the one we usually travel to is the 45 mile city, and we needed a vehicle that could handle the round trip, especially in winter with reduced range. Charging stations also are scarce in our rural area, but that will change, probably slowly.

 

[begreen]

I wish I could say I was that conscientious, but for me having an electric car that runs on the sun has been liberating. I use it more now and have been known to go for joy rides in the country pursuing my hobby in photography. With our ICE vehicle I am much more frugal. That said, we only put about 6-7k miles on the Volt and about 3-5k miles on the truck a year. The rest of the time we try to use public transportation.

 

[jebatty]

I wish I lived in an area with public transportation, but then again I don't. Our rural area has trees, lakes, space, clean air and water (so far), and everything is a distance away. Except the local bar and a country store with gasoline and LP available, 6 and 3 miles away. If I lived in a metro area, which I did until 1997, bicycle, bus and now light rail would be my preferred travel.

 

[spirilis]

I wish I could say I was that conscientious, but for me having an electric car that runs on the sun has been liberating. I use it more now and have been known to go for joy rides in the country pursuing my hobby in photography. With our ICE vehicle I am much more frugal. That said, we only put about 6-7k miles on the Volt and about 3-5k miles on the truck a year. The rest of the time we try to use public transportation.

I too have had no shame about taking a random trip to the grocery store, or driving to the country for the heck of it...

The real problem I've found is the C-Max Energi I bought, initially for myself (wife was using the Focus Electric since she drives more), is now my wife's daily driver (citing it's roomier and sits higher, more comfortable seating position for the driver, as a "hard" reason why she needs to drive it) meaning I get the Focus Electric all the time and she ends up using a lot of gasoline (as she never goes out of her way to charge in public, only at home, and it doesn't support DCFC)... Should've just sprung for a Bolt ;-)

 

[jebatty]

Bolt scheduled for delivery Monday. In addition to a Bosch Level 2 40 amp charger for our home, I'm getting a Level 2 16 amp charger with a 6-20 plug. I have wiring already in my garage for the 6-20, and it would be quite easy to put in a 6-20 receptacle in the garages of our adult children to allow charging at their homes when we visit. A Level 1 charger would be very slow.

 

[spirilis]

Level 2 everywhere. Any time I talk the ears off of others about EVs I mention.... if you want to do something NOW, pencil in looking at adding 240V circuits to your garage or near the driveway.

 

[jebatty]

The Level 2 16 amp charger with a 6-20 plug is intended to be taken along in the car when visiting family. A 240V 20 amp circuit often is easy and inexpensive to add, especially if the breaker panel is close by, also usable for 240V tools, etc. A 240V 50 amp circuit, not so easy or inexpensive.

 

[DBoon]

Hi jebatty, congratulations on the new Bolt. I am expecting to purchase one of these to replace my Sonic hatchback in a couple of years as that winds down, and will be interested in how you like the seats over time.

 

[semipro]

The Level 2 16 amp charger with a 6-20 plug is intended to be taken along in the car when visiting family. .

Many houses have 240 VAC clothes dryer outlet installed. Can you simply carry an adapter from that to your 6-20 with a suitable extension cord?

 

[jebatty]

a 240VAC dryer outlet could work with an adapter, if needed, but there may be a long extension cord needed to get from that outlet to the car. Also, the outlet behind the dryer might be difficult to access. Still worth considering.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

a 240VAC dryer outlet could work with an adapter, if needed, but there may be a long extension cord needed to get from that outlet to the car. Also, the outlet behind the dryer might be difficult to access. Still worth considering.

We’ve found that our situation allows us to use the 120V charging regularly. There was only one time when we didn’t use the LEAF for an errand because it hadn’t had sufficient time to charge, and those were unusual circumstances because of family visiting.

Our garage opens right into our laundry room, and there is an unused dryer outlet high on the wall a few feet from the cat flap. That has been our plan for 240V, but we don’t own the Level2 charger. (The Chevy dealership is supposed to provide one, and I think we need to make a phone call to remind them. We do have it in writing.) We also have a Nissan dealership where we can quick charge for free in 30 minutes as long as it’s during business hours. I’ve done that once.

Jebatty, I will be interested to hear if your thoughts on intentional driving change as you live with the Bolt. I would think that people who are buying EVs at this point were already quite thoughtful about when and how to use a car.
We certainly were, but we will go to a lot of trouble to ensure that we choose the LEAF over the van now. (Three of our children require car safety seats, and moving them is a lot of trouble. We are also not the type of people who want to buy extras.)

I bet you’re getting pretty excited at this point.

 

[woodgeek]

I got a 16A 120/240V portable like @jebatty, (mine was $175 on FleaBay) and made up a number of adapters for it to common US 240V outlet types. My portable EVSE has a 'normal' 120V 5-20 plug on it, so I can use a 'normal' 12AWG 100' heavy-duty extension cord with it.

Most cords are good for 240V, so @jebatty can just swap out the two ends of a cheap cord with a 6-20R and 6-20P.

240V @ 16A = 3.8 kW, through a 100' extension cord.

The portable EVSE lives in the Bolt 24/7, but the cord and adapters are in a heavy 'go bag' that lives in the garage, and that I throw in for road-trips.

Sadly, my sibs all have gas dryers.

 

[woodgeek]

We’ve found that our situation allows us to use the 120V charging regularly. There was only one time when we didn’t use the LEAF for an errand because it hadn’t had sufficient time to charge, and those were unusual circumstances because of family visiting.

Our garage opens right into our laundry room, and there is an unused dryer outlet high on the wall a few feet from the cat flap. That has been our plan for 240V, but we don’t own the Level2 charger. (The Chevy dealership is supposed to provide one, and I think we need to make a phone call to remind them. We do have it in writing.) We also have a Nissan dealership where we can quick charge for free in 30 minutes as long as it’s during business hours. I’ve done that once.

1. The Chevy-branded EVSEs (made by clipper creek) if they give you one of those are dual voltage, and will work at 120 or 240V and 12A. You just need to make an adapter from your dryer plug to NEMA 5-15R.
2. Charging at 120V is about 10% less efficient than at 240V...so this will cost you an extra $30-50/year depending on how far you drive.

 

[georgepds]

I^2R

Beware of long extension chords with high current


I know the Volt manual says just don't do it

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I got a 16A 120/240V portable like @jebatty, (mine was $175 on FleaBay) and made up a number of adapters for it to common US 240V outlet types. My portable EVSE has a 'normal' 120V 5-20 plug on it, so I can use a 'normal' 12AWG 100' heavy-duty extension cord with it.

Most cords are good for 240V, so @jebatty can just swap out the two ends of a cheap cord with a 6-20R and 6-20P.

240V @ 16A = 3.8 kW, through a 100' extension cord.

The portable EVSE lives in the Bolt 24/7, but the cord and adapters are in a heavy 'go bag' that lives in the garage, and that I throw in for road-trips.

Sadly, my sibs all have gas dryers.

Do they then not have outlets for electric? That may be a dumb question, but it is our owning a gas dryer that causes us to have the unused electric outlet. I suppose it depends whether the electrician gave them an option, but I would think the wiring would be there. (Electrical wiring is so not my thing. Please don’t laugh at me.)

 

[woodgeek]

I^2R

Beware of long extension chords with high current


I know the Volt manual says just don't do it

The cord I have is rated for the voltage and the current I am using, has 80°C insulation, and dissipates 80W of heat (over 100') running at 16A.



It does not even get warm.