Chevy Bolt EV - 238 Mile Range $30K after incentives

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by ksa8907

I mean no offense, but that is a fairly common price point for a lot of people. When you (they) are looking at cars in the 20 to 30k range, a phev or ev can be a reasonable compromise to avoid gas costs.

Yes, the median price of a new car in the US is $35,000.

Furthermore, the average age of a new car buyer is nearly 50. I imagine older car buyers are less likely to purchase an EV, or anything else radically different than what they are used to. That's bad news for me, since I only buy used and want the new technology features.

I think a gen I Leaf will be perfect for me though. I don't need more than 50 miles range for local trips, which is what an EV is meant for, and I have many ICE vehicles for hte longer trips.

[oil pan 4]

Only until the credit goes away.
Then an economy car costs 30,000 to $40,000.

[NeilBlanchard]

We drove our Bolt EV 197.6 miles round trip, on Sunday.



The actual charge was about 40.8kWh, so that works out to 4.84 miles / kWh (aka 163.2MPGe), which pretty good. We used the A/C on the trip home, and this trip includes a fair bit of elevation changes.

Also, the Bolt EV has a very efficient charger - there is only about 8% loss.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Also, the Bolt EV has a very efficient charger - there is only about 8% loss.

Pollen season, Neil?

That charge efficiency is much better than my PiP, which is about 75% efficient on 120v, and 85% efficient on 240v. I'm assuming you charge at the full rated speed of the charger on 240v?

[NeilBlanchard]

Yes, we have a JuiceBox Pro 40, which is 240v up to 40A. The Bolt EV has a 32A 7.2kW charger (as does our e-Golf). The actual charge may have been slightly higher than 40.8 - I looked at the EV JuiceNet when the charge was above 99% (the Bolt EV blinks the dash light 4X from 99-100%) and it was about 40.4kWh. We then got a power blip, which reset the JuiceBox, and the entire charge registered as 0.38kWh.

And yes, it is full-on pollen season.

[oil pan 4]

I'm putting a circuit that will continuously handle 80 amps of 240v power going to the garage as part of a 125 amp welder power install.
I can get use to this not buying gas thing and will try and get my wife to buy some kind of plug in car when she buys another car in 2 to 3 years.

[NeilBlanchard]

Here's the dash screen this morning, with a full charge:



This is with three drivers, over 1600 miles. 103 miles over EPA (for the median estimate), which is about 43% improvement.

[cowmeat]

That's a pretty amazing range, Neil!

How hard are you working to get that range?

I can sometimes get my estimated EV range up to 50 miles (2012 Volt sets the default at 35 miles of range) but since my commute is only 38 miles and I charge it for free at work it's hard to stay the course. Normally it's showing between 45 and 48 miles of estimated range after a charge with my normal driving habits

[NeilBlanchard]

As I said, this is not just me, but also my spouse and our 20 year old son. My son does a majority of the miles, actually, since he drives it when he works on the north shore. And those trips are largely on highways.

We bought the Bolt EV, while we are leasing a 2017 e-Golf - so the lease limits how far we can drive it per day, on average. Whenever we need to go farther than the ~32 miles on a given drive - we use the Bolt EV.

I put it into neutral to coast, and since the e-Golf coasts by default, my co-drivers have learned to like coasting, too. That is basically the only thing we do differently. It came with excellent Michelin tires - it coasts very well, indeed. The extended average on our e-Golf (about 3,500 miles?) is 5.6 miles / kWh (which has the equally excellent Bridgestone Ecopia tires).

[NeilBlanchard]

My brother and I installed the EcoHitch on their 2017 Bolt EV:











It took us about 2 hours. The hardest part was unclipping the two rear wheel arch trim - and one of the two plastic clips on the lower edge of the bumper cover broke, and I had to repair it with some electrical tape.

We varied from the instructions in one important way - shown in the lat 2 pictures. We left a 1.5" connecting strip to strengthen the bumper cover; making a hole, rather than cutting out the whole slot. This is now the third hitch my brother has installed - first on an i MiEV, and the second on his i3 REx. The i3 was MUCH more difficult.

We have over 20,000 miles on our Bolt, now. It is great not having to stay under the lease mileage budget!