alozzy said:
In a perfect world, you "rent" an EV by taking over a lease that has less than a year of payments remaining.
I'm sure you would prefer to takeover a lease on an EV, but as you only need a car for a few months until your Bolt is back on the road, why not instead takeover an ICE lease that someone desperately needs to get out of?
Or, just buy an old Honda or Toyota, drive it for a few months, and sell it for pretty much what you paid for it.
Actually, I don't care if the temp EV even has 2.x years remaining. As for "only need a car for a few months until your Bolt is back on the road", that's not the issue. It's on the road now and usable. I drove it to work today. The issue is I have no idea when I'll receive replacement modules. Nobody does, AFAIK.
Look how many Bolts were sold each year at https://gmauthority.com/blog/gm/chevrolet/bolt-ev/chevrolet-bolt-ev-sales-numbers/, which doesn't include Ampera-E in Europe. ALL '17 to '19 Bolts are having ALL their modules replaced. From my rough math, that's somewhere past 86K vehicles. If you add in the '20 to '22 Bolts which may need new modules if they can figure how how to identify which ones are defective, that's on the order of another 50K vehicles.
I've seen figures of how long GM's reimbursement rates are for dealers to either replace modules or an entire pack. From earlier recall instructions at https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2020/RCSB-20V701-3618.pdf, it's 4.3 hours to replace a whole pack and 7.3 hours to replace just row 4. If GM's making them replace all the rows but not the entire pack (so that the other hardware can be reused, which GM has alluded to more than once), it's probably going to take over 7.3 hours. Imagine how many each dealer could do a day...
I could be waiting 1+ years due to battery production rate, logistics and dealer throughput. Some recalls have taken a LONG time (e.g. Takata airbags w/some people waiting years).
Meanwhile, the car is somewhat hobbled to having basically 60% of battery usable as a precaution (keeping it between 30 to 90%) and we're being advised to park it outside (there is some ambiguity to how you interpret https://www.chevrolet.com/electric/bolt-recall). 0.6 * 238 miles = 142.8 miles. And, now w/current software, it seems DC FC tapering starts at just a bit over 50% SoC and you shouldn't as a precaution run it too low --> can't take full advantage of full speed DC FCing that normally happens from 0% to ~50ish%.
Almost all of the Bolts have caught on fire while parked and some well after charging had completed (e.g. https://electrek.co/2021/07/28/everything-we-know-about-the-chevy-bolt-ev-fires/#h-aug-16-2021-LA).
So, for now, I'm parking it outside at night to reduce wear and tear on the car from being out in the sun all day but it is still out there for a few hours until I wake up. But, then I'm taking a potential fire risk by having it indoors in the day, when I'm awake. Having it out at night increases risk of vandalism, break ins and rodent damage.
(50 feet was thrown around in https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/15/gm-advising-some-bolt-ev-owners-to-park-50-feet-away-from-other-cars.html and in the press but it seems like GM has walked that back a bit...)
Of course, this is all pointless if GM is right about 99% of Bolts not having these defects and I'm in that 99%.
And, there have been numerous reports of parking facilities and even a FANG company banning Bolts from parking there.
Yes, taking over an ICE lease is a possibility but I'd rather not. As for "Or, just buy an old Honda or Toyota, drive it for a few months, and sell it for pretty much what you paid for it.", selling cars is a pain in the butt. Private parties can't command dealer prices. If it's too old, it could be a reliability and $ headache. For a few months is kinda silly. What would I do after that?
I'm looking for an interim or permanent EV as a replacement. For interim, I'd be looking to see what's available new or used in the EV space 1.x to 3 years later.
LeftieBiker said:
My understanding is that his preference is to lease another EV and not keep the Bolt,
Yes, open to leasing a new EV or taking over an EV lease as a temp EV if GM gives me a good buyback offer. It's possible I might get almost all my $ back because of low mileage (under 18K miles) and their calculations AFAIK do NOT factor in the $7500 Federal tax credit I received. They seem to calculate it based upon the purchase price and usage for CA (out of 120K miles)
LeftieBiker said:
but that he sees no available EVs right now that he wants. Thus the lease takeover would be a stop-gap until he can lease something he really wants and can get. Correct me if I'm mistaken, Cwerdna.
Yes on the stopgap. And, it would be to see what EVs are available when that lease ends. Presumably in 1.x to 3 years, there will be even more EV choices, more of them w/faster DC FCing, etc. Some of the current new ones might be available for cheap on the used market. And, maybe this crazy chip, supply chain problem and car shortage will have subsided.
If I buy a Kona EV, presuming it doesn't turn out to be a piece of crap or I run into a buyback situation again, I'd keep it longer than 3 years.