Uncool Electric Car - Doug DeMuro reviews the Bolt.

[darcane]

Originally Posted by Christopher Jordan

Chevy is so stuck on 4-doors. Volt, Spark, Bolt... blah! To interest old "muscle car" drivers, commuters who don't like crowds, younger sports car enthusiasts: same old/same old- Mustang, Camaro, Corvette, Challenger, Demon, etc.. I don't know why a 2-door Bolt or any Chevy is not available.

I want and need a big door so I am stuck with a minivan. Maybe Toyota Prius formed the EV business.

Um... EVERYONE is stuck on 4-doors... coupes don't sell, so most manufacturers have greatly reduced the number they offer. Most people assume "performance" when they see a coupe, so the majority of coupes available are sports cars.

Why create special tooling for a coupe version of a car when it won't sell?

Coupes keep coming; Sales don't | Autoweek

[JSH]

Originally Posted by vskid3

The Bolt actually uses a resistive heater, as does the i3 REx (gas tank goes where the heat pump fits on the regular i3). Not sure about others.

Preheating while plugged in helps save the battery for driving. I'm curious to see how my Volt does in the cold. I should be able to still do most of my warm weather EV trips on battery alone in the cold if I can keep the ICE from turning on to provide heat. The biggest difference is I'll probably want to plug in whenever I'm at home instead of just at night like I currently do, to keep the battery topped off and warm.

Well that sucks. The Bolt owner I talked to about a month ago said the base trim was resistance but the upper trims were heat pump. That puts a winter trip to Mt Hood out of reach.

I do preheat the cabin in my Spark but with my climate I have to run the defrosts continuously to keep the windshield from fogging up.

[sendler]

It has been posted on the Bolt forum that the range difference between normal running with the climate control set at 74F and outside temps of 70F compared to 30F is about 30%. If you get stuck in a traffic jam for 2 hours in 10F weather your heater, blower, and electronics will use 15kWh without even moving 1 mile. 1/4 of the Bolt's thankfully large battery. This would be half the battery capacity gone in a Leaf. A fact of life for traffic jams in an electric car on a long commute into NYC.