Bolt EV 3D printed aero wheel inserts

[ninj4geek]

Hey everyone, I don't post here often, but I figured this may be of interest to some of you.

I have a 2017 Bolt EV, purchased a year ago. New battery on the recall 10 months ago. Super happy with the car.

In an effort to eek out every possible inch of range in a road trip situation, I was going to develop a solution for the Bolt's excessively open wheels, taking inspiration from specifically the EV01+ wheels for the Bolt. I don't exactly want to spend that kind of money on new wheels.

In a search for Bolt wheel 3d models to work with, I actually found that a fellow owner had the exact same idea.

I printed it as-is in PETG but I thought it was a bit too flexible to hold on at speed (would have been fine in ABS, but I didn't want to fool with setting up my printer for that at the moment), so throwing in a 5mm tall cross-brace in Tinkercad it was. They hold on at over 70 mph.

I have the driver side done, and did testing with that side only (needed to get more filament, but was eager to see what even one side would do, if anything)

Tested on a 25 mile highway loop at 65 mph

Run 1 at 4am to minimize traffic variables
A, No plates: 3.50 mi/kwh
B, W/ plates: 3.55 mi/kwh
(1.4% improvement)

Next day, run 2 at 3am
A, No plates: 3.59
B, W/ plates: 3.67
(2.2% improvement)

Not certain why run 2 was overall higher, but both having shown an improvement is promising.

I didn't do a subsequent A or B run like I wanted, day 1 ran out of time, day 2 was needing sleep.

I will do this again with a full ABAB test once I have the other side ready to go.

Cheers

(Edited for autocorrect)

[freebeard]

For the lurkers:


www.printables.com/model/194550-chevy-bolt-ev-wheel-fill-plate

[Tmugz88]

Originally Posted by ninj4geek

Hey everyone, I don't post here often, but I figured this may be of interest to some of you.

I have a 2017 Bolt EV, purchased a year ago. New battery on the recall 10 months ago. Super happy with the car.

In an effort to eek out every possible inch of range in a road trip situation, I was going to develop a solution for the Bolt's excessively open wheels, taking inspiration from specifically the EV01+ wheels for the Bolt. I don't exactly want to spend that kind of money on new wheels.

In a search for Bolt wheel 3d models to work with, I actually found that a fellow owner had the exact same idea.

I printed it as-is in PETG but I thought it was a bit too flexible to hold on at speed (would have been fine in ABS, but I didn't want to fool with setting up my printer for that at the moment), so throwing in a 5mm tall cross-brace in Tinkercad it was. They hold on at over 70 mph.

I have the driver side done, and did testing with that side only (needed to get more filament, but was eager to see what even one side would do, if anything)

Tested on a 25 mile highway loop at 65 mph

Run 1 at 4am to minimize traffic variables
A, No plates: 3.50 mi/kwh
B, W/ plates: 3.55 mi/kwh
(1.4% improvement)

Next day, run 2 at 3am
A, No plates: 3.59
B, W/ plates: 3.67
(2.2% improvement)

Not certain why run 2 was overall higher, but both having shown an improvement is promising.

I didn't do a subsequent A or B run like I wanted, day 1 ran out of time, day 2 was needing sleep.

I will do this again with a full ABAB test once I have the other side ready to go.

Cheers

(Edited for autocorrect)

I've been trying to locate the grill inserts from an EV Spark to install on my 2014 non ev Spark. And, have considered just trying my hand at 3d printing .

[ninj4geek]

Have you considered using pool noodles or something similar?