Bought a 2019 Bolt

[DBoon]

Just took delivery a week and a half ago. So far, I've put about 500 miles on it. I love the efficiency and the the ride - Chevy did a nice job. Some observations:

• Not sure why everyone complains about the seats. I have read that 2019 seats are improved but when I drove the 2018 model, I didn't find those seats uncomfortable either. My only guess is that heavier/wider people will just naturally not like the smaller seats found in the Bolt, regardless. Not a criticism - just reality.
• I'm getting 4 miles/kWh so far in 20-30 degree temperatures. It's not hard to get this efficiency using the heated steering wheel and heated seats (which use minimal energy) if you are doing 50-60 mph highway (my commute). At times, I turn on the windshield defroster or feet heater, using fan speed of 1 and keep heat set to 61 (minimum). We'll see what happens closer to 0 degrees. I can't imagine having an electric car without heated seats and steering wheel.
• Bolt has a pre-conditioning capability - either by timer or by remote start. You can warm up the steering wheel and seats and cabin before getting in, drawing from plugged-in power. Have tried it once since I am still working from 120V charger (arranging for L2 charger install right now).
• I saw a suggestion to get a 50W 12V electric blanket for the passenger (wife) so that the cabin heat can be kept low/off. A great idea I plan on doing. Cabin heat kills range. Cabin heat on high fan or high temperature destroys range. If you are not going far, no problem. For a road trip, bigger problem.
• Bose audio system is pretty sweet in a quiet cabin.
• I love the acceleration when I need it - very powerful and smooth. It's changed my strategies for certain merges on my commute to/from work.
• I do miss driving my stick-shift vehicle (still have it, just driving it less) - I really liked the engagement with the car using that, but I'm not replacing that with a squishy-feeling, noisy CVT transmission vehicle, and the Bolt gives me plenty of other ways to be engaged in the driving experience.
• The infotainment screen and controls below it are a nice match - I'm not a fan of the Tesla big screen with everything on it. I wish there were a few other touch-screen controls available with buttons, and I have to say that I still can't figure out why the touch screen will sometimes work with my gloves on but mostly won't.
• I don't get all the knocks on the interior - looks fine to me. Could it be more luxurious? Sure, for $5-10k more as well. That's not the decision GM made (and I think it was the right decision). In the future, I'm sure that there will be Cadillac or Buick EVs with those touches, but this is a great way to get started in the market at a really good price point.

 

[SpaceBus]

Congratulations on your purchase!

 

[jatoxico]

Did you qualify for a tax credit or rebate?

 

[jayoldschool]

Congrats. We've had a Volt for four years, and will get a Bolt in the future. You'll like L2 charging, for sure. Remember, on the Bolt, it helps to take care of the battery by not charging it completely. See GM-volt forum for more info.

 

[Dataman]

Nice Writeup. I plan on new vehicle when this one is paid for, or 2 years. I want Bigger PU Truck (Have 2014 RAM 3500) or Jeep that is loaded for Wife. Need something to go thru snows. I always get waved thru on 4 way stops. All the Bolts, Volts and Little Cars, don't know why? Oh it gets 22mpg on the Hwy (6.7L Turbo Diesel). Little car don't haul 1 Ton of Pellets. Wife has nice car (Honda S2000), but it's only for Spring-Early Fall. It don't handle ice or snow.

 

[begreen]

Congratulations dBoon. I think you will like the car more and more as time goes by. The Volt seats are a little stiffer too, but that turns out to be just perfect for my back. I can go all day driving and not get too uncomfortable. Can't say that about every car we've owned or my current truck.

 

[jebatty]

My wife and I agree with everything you say DBoon, and our satisfaction continues as we close in on the first full year of ownership (model year 2017 and one year on Feb 5 '19) and now more than 13,000 miles. We get well over the 238 mile range in summer, and 150-160 mile range in winter with temps in the -10 to +10 range, and conservative driving. 150 mile range covers all of our local, round-trip driving. Neither my wife nor I have any complaint about the seats and, in fact, we find them very comfortable.

We have the Bosch Level 2 Power Max 2 plug-in charger, installed on a 50A circuit, and the Bolt is garaged in my heated shop, so precondition is not needed. I also set the charging on hilltop reserve, except on very cold winter days when I opt for the full charge when the extra range may be needed. I also installed winter tires, which we have used for many years on all of our cars -- appreciate the extra traction and control.

To catch winter snow and salt melt in my shop I bought a piece of EPDM roofing material, 10 feet wide - 16 feet length, and fastened it to a 2 x 4 bumper around the perimeter. Drive the Bolt onto the EPDM, no mess on the floor in the shop. And a small wet/dry vac sucks up the melt from the EPDM as needed.

Enjoy your Bolt!

 

[woodgeek]

I miss my 2017 Bolt, totaled 2 months ago with 16k miles. My new (to me) 2015 Volt suits my needs more, and has a little less oomph (150 EV hp versus 200 for the Bolt) when being an aggressive EV driver.

And it runs the engine just to keep it warm when temps are below 30°F.

Enjoy! 4 mi/kWh is excellent in cold weather. The Volt is running about 2.8 mi/kWh in similar temps.

 

[bholler]

Nice Writeup. I plan on new vehicle when this one is paid for, or 2 years. I want Bigger PU Truck (Have 2014 RAM 3500) or Jeep that is loaded for Wife. Need something to go thru snows. I always get waved thru on 4 way stops. All the Bolts, Volts and Little Cars, don't know why? Oh it gets 22mpg on the Hwy (6.7L Turbo Diesel). Little car don't haul 1 Ton of Pellets. Wife has nice car (Honda S2000), but it's only for Spring-Early Fall. It don't handle ice or snow.

Why is it so many guys are threatened by EVs? Of course they won't haul a ton of pellets. That is not what they are made for (at least not yet). But they make great commuter cars. And eventually they will make heavy trucks. When they do their tourque will put your deisel to shame. Have you ever driven a Tesla? The power is amazing and I have driven lots of high power sports cars the Tesla is right up there with most of them.

 

[Don.S]

Because they are idiots who want to give money away. They try to justify it by saying cars can't haul stuff or say they dont feel safe in little cars but I guess they never look at crash test ratings. Dont get me wrong I have a diesel truck for doing all my truck stuff but I also have a toyota echo for doing about 95% of my other stuff. I would love to get a electric vehicle since our hydro is pretty cheap I think compared to other places but I'm to cheap to buy one Haha.

 

[DBoon]

Did you qualify for a tax credit or rebate?

Yes, I qualified for the $7500 Federal tax credit and a $2000 NY State incentive. I think the Fed tax credit will continue at this level in Q1, and then start to phase out.

 

[DBoon]

4 mi/kWh is excellent in cold weather.

This is what I've heard. I will caution that this is not what I would get if the wife was in the car with me - 4 mi/kWh when it is 20 degrees outside requires great sacrifice of cabin air temperature, but I'm not freezing to death either - the heated steering wheel and seats do the bulk of the work to keep me warm with little electricity usage. Would have been nice if they included a heated left footrest too.

 

[DBoon]

We get well over the 238 mile range in summer, and 150-160 mile range in winter with temps in the -10 to +10 range, and conservative driving.

I can easily see getting 270+ miles in the summer driving conservatively. Sure, if I were to mash on the accelerator a lot, drive 75 mph and stop hard (limiting re-gen potential), I would get less than 238 miles of range in the summer.

 

[woodgeek]

This is what I've heard. I will caution that this is not what I would get if the wife was in the car with me - 4 mi/kWh when it is 20 degrees outside requires great sacrifice of cabin air temperature, but I'm not freezing to death either - the heated steering wheel and seats do the bulk of the work to keep me warm with little electricity usage. Would have been nice if they included a heated left footrest too.

DBoon....with all due respect....you're a nut.

I drove a Gen 1 LEAF for three years in the winter, so I know the merits of limiting the cabin temps.

But dude....you've got a 60 kWh battery now....if you're not roadtripping....bump the cabin temp to 60°F and live a little.

 

[jebatty]

But dude....you've got a 60 kWh battery now....if you're not roadtripping....bump the cabin temp to 60°F and live a little.

It took me awhile to "live a little," but I too purchased my Bolt in winter (Feb) and drove it in below 0F temps on shorter trips. Now I use heat as needed ... but, yesterday I took the ICE Camry on a 130 mile round-trip because the outside temps were -15F starting and ended up -4F by the time I returned home. Still not 100% assured that there will be no battery problem if I'm driving with temps that stay well below 0F. Today the low is -26F and rising to -3F for the high.

A welcome consolation with this really cold temps is clear skies. The PV system put out 46kWh yesterday, more clear skies forecast for today.

 

[woodgeek]

Still not 100% assured that there will be no battery problem if I'm driving with temps that stay well below 0F. Today the low is -26F and rising to -3F for the high.

I never got that cold, but I don't get it. The battery is self-heating, it never gets below the temp that would damage the battery, but also actively maintains temps that GM engineering thinks provide predictable performance/power/capacity (IIRC around 30°F). So the only problem would be higher parasitic drain when parked in the cold not plugged in (I would think less than a kW even in very subzero, windy weather), and the high-speed charging throttling back about 50%. Its not going to strand you with 100 miles on the GOM.

So, as an engineer, it seems you can safely estimate/test your parasitic drain during this extreme cold by parking the car outside unplugged overnight in your driveway, and checking the GOM before and after.

 

[DBoon]

DBoon....with all due respect....you're a nut.

Well, it really has more to do with finding what my realistic range will be in the cold IF I have to use it to go on a 200+ mile trip in the winter. Right now, I am learning that the climate control heat really kills the range (not surprisingly), and driving at >55mph when it is cold kills the range. By "kill the range" I mean if you use heat and drive 65 mph, you are probably getting 2.8 to 3 kWh/mile (170 to 180 mile range). Still good, but not 200 miles.

Until I get the L2 charger installed, I need to be pretty conservative with battery usage if I want to use the car for my daily 100 mile round-trip commute - with L1 120V charging, I can do that Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but not if I go crazy on the climate control. So yeah, I'll lighten up on this soon. When th L2 charger is installed, this issue goes away.

My driving also includes a 190 mile trip up and over the Catskill mountains and I believe that I can make this non-stop in the winter if I am conservative with climate settings, but I want to test that out with shorter trips first. I don't want to try to figure this out on the fly during my first trip through the Catskill Mountains on Rt. 17 - there are no L3 chargers on that route, but there are a couple of L2s that I could use if I had to.

So the only problem would be higher parasitic drain when parked in the cold not plugged in (I would think less than a kW even in very subzero, windy weather), and the high-speed charging throttling back about 50%. Its not going to strand you with 100 miles on the GOM.

I believe that if the car is driven often and long, the charge/discharge of the battery mostly keeps it warm. So far, with a 50 mile commute to work and siting with temps in the teens for 10+ hours, it has used about 1 kWh worst case to keep the battery "conditioned". I've read this could be 2 or 3 times that if below 0. Unfortunately, this week I won't be testing that out with a drive to work (no snow tires on the Bolt, and I'm not going to get it slathered with road salt this season if I can avoid it). But I should have some data from it sitting in a garage for 2 or 3 days, and that would be the worst-case scenario (no self-heating of the battery from usage).

 

[DBoon]

It took me awhile to "live a little," but I too purchased my Bolt in winter (Feb) and drove it in below 0F temps on shorter trips. Now I use heat as needed ...

I think jebatty is a slightly older version of me, and one of these days during a trip to visit my family in Minneapolis, I'm going to have to take a road trip up to meet him.

 

[jatoxico]

Does the summer climate control on the Bolt limit range as much? I would think so but not sure which would use most battery.

 

[woodgeek]

The effect of AC on range is much lower than heating....the COP of the AC is high, and the DeltaT is low. The capacity and cycle losses on the battery are also better, air is less dense, tires are more elastic....in warm weather your range goes to moon.

Side effect, Fall is depressing in an EV, Spring is exhilarating.

 

[begreen]

I've given up being miserly and myopic about our Volt. We just drive it like a regular car now and that proves to be quite enjoyable. The engine only comes on as a range extender and not for heat in our climate.

Side effect, Fall is depressing in an EV, Spring is exhilarating.

So true. Our electric miles drops a lot when temps drop below 50F. On the flip side our summer mileage increased last summer over previous year averages. Not sure why. It's rated at 38 miles but we were regularly getting 42 miles and that is in our hilly area.

 

[woodgeek]

My guess....tire inflation. A few pounds over the number on the door does wonders.

 

[begreen]

My guess....tire inflation. A few pounds over the number on the door does wonders.

Actually we were running a bit under our normal last summer. Discount Tire had lowered the pressure to 32# at last rotation. I got chided by OnStar about this but was too lazy to adjust until August. I bumped it up to 36 psi but didn't notice any change in mileage. Previous summers we had been running 37# and getting about 38 miles electric. It's a mystery me. I'm thinking maybe we're just driving slower?

 

[woodgeek]

Actually we were running a bit under our normal last summer. Discount Tire had lowered the pressure at last rotation. I got chided by OnStar about this but was too lazy to adjust until August. I bumped it up to 36 psi but didn't notice any change in mileage. Previous summers we had been running 37#. It's a mystery me. I'm thinking maybe we're just driving slower?

That would be the only other likely factor.

 

[semipro]

DBoon....with all due respect....you're a nut.

I drove a Gen 1 LEAF for three years in the winter, so I know the merits of limiting the cabin temps.

But dude....you've got a 60 kWh battery now....if you're not roadtripping....bump the cabin temp to 60°F and live a little.

Can't you preheat these things while they are charging?