Chevy Bolt, does it family? A review.
 

Family of five here with a few weeks of Bolt use. Does it work as a miniminivan? Yes. Yes it does fine. Legroom is great, you wouldn't believe the cabin length looking from outside. And the floor is dead flat for the 2nd row, which is nice. I've always had floor hump up until this car. 3 wide shoulder room in the 2nd row is narrow, but the cabin length and flat floor helps it not feel cramped.

Caveats.. If you've got three adult sized kids, Bolt 2nd row probably isn't wide enough. Also the rear cargo space is very limited- A trade off for that nice long passenger compartment. If you have to haul cargo along with 5 passengers, Bolt probably isn't ideal. Maybe with a cargo box you can get it to work. I can't comment on multiple baby seats, but I know it will fit one in the center position. If you have 2 or 3 baby seats to run, probably Bolt isn't your best option.

To sum up, if you have 1 or 2 kids Bolt could work well. Or if you have 3 and they are not all babies or adult sized, it could work. 4+ kids, yeah go get your standard 3 row behemoth.

Interesting. It compares well, then, to the average compact or subcompact hatch?

We have had our Bolt EV since mid September, and our family of four fit in it better than any other car we have had. I am 6'-4, and my son is 6'-6"+, and my spouse has foot and knee challenges - entry and exit is the best / easiest of any vehicle we have tried.

It beats the average compact hatch I'd say. It more compares to compact "SUVs" because of the extra height. As Neil alludes to, the cabin LENGTH is really great. The 2nd row shoulder width isn't so great with 3 adults in back, but the length and height sorta make up for it. Like he says^ you can fit 4 six and a half foot tall people with plenty of knee room, which is unexpected from a car of this size. Your average compact hatchback wont do that!

With the 2nd row folded down the floor is completely flat from the hatch to the front seats for cargo. So far I have only done 120v charging and only off peak. And its fine. I suspect your average 30-50 mile a day commuter would be similarly fine without any fast charger installed.

Incentives came through @ 100% of what I was hoping to get going into this decision. That along with gas savings should cover 1/2 or more of the cost. Which is good considering its twice as expensive as a gas Civic, Jetta, Mazda3 etc. Thing is.. HOV lane access, no gas or oil errands to run, and 2x the tq, 3 factors you cannot really put a price on.

Picked up a full size spare and a jack, as the USA Bolt comes with nothing. No space saver, no pump, no jack.. nunca, zippo. That eats a little into the cargo room (which is already lacking). I have use of another larger car for non-commuter duty. I think the majority of households are similar in that they are multi-car households.

The weight is on the high side at 3500 pounds because of the battery, but I kind of view that as a benefit in the case that I get tangled up with a large vehicle. Another thought, if you are in an apartment.. I can see that as a possible deal breaker on one of these unless you have an outlet handy at your parking space.

I've got a 110 mile round trip commute (nowhere to plug in at work as of now)

do you think I could get by with just 120v charging at home?

I see your location as "Pacific" are you in Wa?


how did the tax rebate work?

I was curious about that to so found this on Bolt forum

"OK, let's do that for 12 amps. 1.440 kW charge. 5.76 miles per hour of charge.
That's why level 2 is so important. 240V * 32A = 7.680 kW, for 30.72 miles per hour of charge."

120V Charging Limitations - Chevy Bolt EV Forum

So if you had a full charge start Monday 250 miles, end of day 140 left. 10+ hours at almost 6, call it 60 miles refueled a night. 210 Tuesday morning, 100 Tuesday night, 160 Wed morning, 50 Wed night, 110 Thur morning and your be sweating it out if you make it home.

Edit: I pulled the 250 miles from memory, not sure that's right. They also said 47 hours at 120/12a from dead to full.

2 guy posted they really get 4 miles per hour so even if you had 12-13 hours per night charging you couldn't make it. You have to find a bigger charger once a week. The number above I don't think account for any charging losses.

I'd certainly go EV if I had that long of a commute just to save on fuel and maintenance cost.

That said, after spending $30k+ on a vehicle, how much extra financial burden is installing a 240v outlet?

Right, 110 miles daily is too much for a standard outlet. One thing of note that should work for you- The included charger will run on 240 volts! All you need is an adapter and you can charge at 12a 240v with the standard slow charger. I have a 240v outlet, but I haven't done it yet as I'm fine without it. IIRC adapters are $50 to $80, or you can roll your own for like $30 in parts.

To sum up, you can charge twice as fast if you happen to have 240v dryer outlet.

I am in socal, state is $2500 here, plus costco executive members get $700 through chevy, and my local electric gives $450. Fed should still be $7500.

I recently did this.

100' of 10/3 wire rated for direct bury and 30a
(1) 12 slot, 100a panel
(1) 8' ground rod
(1) 30a breaker
15' #6 ground wire
10' conduit
1.25" x 18" drill bit for holes in the house/garage
Misc stuff

= roughly $250

The L2 charger was $300 from the dealer.

Yes, even at 120V 12A (the Bolt EV can be toggled between 8A and 12A on 120V EVSE units), it would take too long to charge 110 miles. That could take 20-24 hours. And that is not counting when / if you use the heater or A/C.

If you get a 240V 32A EVSE, you could recharge in about 4 hours. We are able to share one Level 2 (240V) EVSE between two electric cars.

By the way, we really love our Bolt EV - it is the best car we have ever owned; even if it didn't have an electric drivetrain.

No what I say is this, you can charge at

********TWO HUNDRED AND FOURTY VOLTS**********

At 12amps on the included charger. Yes the "110v charger" charges at 240 volts! Really. I know, I doubted it too but it does. That doubles you to 8 miles per hour.

Say you get home from work at 7pm, and leave for work at 7am, that is 96 miles per night. That would work out fine for a 110 mile commute. Total out of pocket less than $100 for the prong adapter cord, assuming you have the electric clothes dryer outlet.

My parents put in a 240v outlet, I think it was $1000 total to have an electrician do it right. Theirs needed to be in just about the worst place on the property relative to the source.

Understood - but that is still about a day to charge. We have a L2 240v 32A (actually capable of 40A) EVSE, and typically, our Bolt EV charges for 4-5 hours every 3-4 days.

I paid about $700 for the EVSE and it cost about $100 for the 50A breaker and the cable. I installed it myself.

I hear you, was not trying to be smart with the asterisks. I think the 240 capability of the included charge cord could be SUPER IMPORTANT for some people out there car shopping. Included 240 capability never gets mentioned or marketed by Chevy. Wanted to try to draw attention to it, and spread the word.

May seem slow, but 240x12 amps its still twice as fast as the advertised max charge rate, which blows my mind they would not tout it. The real world max 8 miles of range per charge hour should cover 90% of commutes where as the 4 mile nominal max only covers maybe 60%. IMO its a big deal..

Update.. car still doing five with 1 to 5 people inside. Blasting up steep hills fully loaded is no problem. The rear seating is actually more comfortable than some much longer vehicles due to the Bolt's height. Some sportier cars make tall people knees into a sharper than 90 degree angle because of low seat height. I hate that. Not a problem here.

I have used the 240 outlet and it seems to be more than double the speed of a 12a120v outlet. For what reason I am not sure, but I can get well over 100 miles of range overnight. Again.. this is with the factory included charger.

The conversation efficiency from 240v AC to 350-400v DC is much more efficient than with 120v AC and less charger cooling system run time.
So the conversation is more efficient and you use half as much power on tuning pumps and fans.

I have the duosida 16 amp charger it gives about 3.8kw.
And when that's not fast enough I found a portable 10kw CHADEMO unit.

I have read results which show not more than a couple of percent difference between the two voltages in losses. I suspect my "120v" supply is less than half of the voltage of the 240 in this particular building. I haven't verified this but the outlets are at the far end of the property compared to the source.

Charger cooling cutting in to the charge time is a variable I had no idea existed. I guess that could be it too.

I have tried fast charge a few times. There are plenty within a few minutes drive of me but 99.75% I stick with affordable night rate at home, to try to make this relatively expensive car pencil out versus lower priced gas competitors.

In any case I must say, the factory dealio works better than I ever would have thought at both voltages. I use nothing else, and if it were broken or stolen I would get another. Living in an apt or condo with only a 120v outlet is not necessarily a deal killer for the Bolt. The charger would still be able to get me what I need daily on 120. Same goes for anyone else with a reasonable distance commute.