Bolt drivers...

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dtam83

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2018
Messages
10
Is it just me or are Bolt drivers just the worst when it comes to public charging? I'm currently next to a Bolt who's parked in two EV charging spaces. So often they park in the middle spot and use the left charger. I've also had a Bolt owner unplug me. Don't know if it's just my bad experience but other leaf and i3 drivers seem to have good charging etiquette.
 
Never had a problem like that. There are quite a few Bolts and other GM vehicles at the free public L2 charging I use on Fridays and weekends.

I had a run in maybe a year or two ago with an unfriendly and selfish Leaf driver. That guy intentionally used LOCK (instead of AUTO) at the above place his '13+ Leaf charging lock even though he knew the definitions of all 3 charging lock settings. And, he didn't return promptly to his car after it was done. I bypassed his lock on his completed car to either plug myself in or another car that came, since nothing else was available. Let's just say he was unfriendly after I showed him how to bypass and explained the situation.
 
Wow, that's ridiculous. An EV driver should know better than to do these things - public charging is still such a rare and precious commodity that we all need to do our best to share.

Please don't throw all Bolt drivers under the bus here. I drive a Bolt instead of a 2018 Leaf largely because I use the extra range regularly (once a month or more). But I don't feel entitled to public charging points.
 
I rarely use public charging, but one location I regularly pass I often see a bolt parked in the middle. I haven't looked specifically, but is there a weird charging location that they would have to do that to make the cord reach? But if that is the case couldn't they use the other spot or back in?
I guess in a center post EVSE with two spots, does one work better for the Bolt, the right one?
 
The charge port is right in front of the driver's door. Similar to a Volt or one of Ford's EVs. Unless the EVSE is more to the right and has a short cord, there shouldn't be a need to park in the middle.
 
Going to get worse before it gets better. As EVs go mainstream you are going to have to deal with the non-sense of the general public far more than the initial enthusiasts for the past 7 years.
 
I charge at work and there is a range of etiquette between the different users. There is one Bolt owner among us and he is conscientious enough to realize that his car could take one of the 4 available slots all day due to the capacity of his battery, so he tries to charge when there are all the slots aren't full and unplug or limit his charging otherwise.

Our 2 chargers each split 6.6kW between 2 plugs. So far, we have about 15 EV's using the 4 plugs and it is going pretty smoothly. There is an extension cord available now since there are few owners who don't seem to move their cars when fully charged but lately everyone seems to be getting along.

I rarely charge publicly but haven't had any issues yet while doing so.
 
Sorry to hear your experience. We've had our Bolt for about a month now & finally charged it away from home for the first time yesterday. It was to make sure our fast charge port actually works :) ! Boy, there are so many EVs now, we were lucky to score that dedicated parking space. Maybe that's part of the problem where the OP frequents? The charging station was in front & even to the right side of the front passenger fender. Cord was plenty long to reach though. Even no need to back in.

In comparison to the LEAF that we had:

The LEAF's front-of-car charging port is definitely better placement for charging than the Bolt's driver-side front. I can see why Bolt drivers would prefer to park on the right side of a charging plug if available. Definitely NO excuse to take 2 parking spaces though!

With this only experience, I do like the CCS fast charge handle better than the CHAdeMO. It is so much less wieldy & heavy.

The Bolt's 60 kWh battery is just awesome!! Left the house yesterday, not 100% charged, went 130ish miles (almost entirely freeway) & came home with the range of our former fully charged 2011 LEAF remaining! Except for long range trips, our needs won't require too much public charging.

Hope that the OP has better experiences with Bolt drivers charging in the future.
 
Maybe it's just the combo bolt lyft drivers. Just had an experience two minutes ago, guy charged for an hour, I go back out to switch from slow to fast charging, the guy starts charging again...while already at 89%. Ok, I've done it...But if I see someone else needs it I let them go. I ask if he needs to continue and he kind of ignores me. Some people have no etiquette
 
It's you. ;)

You find good and bad folks driving all kinds of cars. I had one Bolt driver that got to a DC charging location before me where the second unit was out of commission. He had been charging for some time, and could easily make it to another charging location (he was going to have to stop again before his destination anyway), but he was a newbie and didn't have confidence, which left me stuck for a while. I got finally got the notification that his session ended, but he restarted it before I could finish the mad dash from Mickey D's to try and start my own charge. He finally realized he was overdoing it and with a little consultation about locations (I had already visited the station he would have to stop at next) to reassure him, agreed to move on and let me start charging so I could finish my very long day.

It's the ones that use charging spaces as parking spaces that really earn my ire (and get a note on their windshield).
 
Yeah, it's me or it's the area.

I have one leaf in front of me with dealer plates that the last time I charged, finished charging but never came out for the 30 minutes I charged. That car also locks the plugs so you couldn't unplug them when they were done. (I know because I was going to be nice and put them on the lvl2 free charger)

I have one leaf that finished charging 10 minutes into my charge which started 45 minutes ago.

I have a bolt in front of me that was using the ccs plug on the charger I'm plugged into, my charge started immediately since they were done.

So yeah, my area just has too many inconsiderate and uber/lyft drivers
 
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