Chevrolet Bolt

[DaveinOlyWA]

The charge to 100% debate has to be "fully" realized. There is a time element that is included. Yes, its "always" bad to charge to 100%, period. But that bad is mitigated when its time at 100% is short. We ALL have bad eating habits but we survive because we do it in moderation (or die)

My vacation just completed last night is a perfect example. If I lived and ate the way I did over the past week, I would be dead in a year or two, tops. But I don't and TBH, my job is likely what keeps me alive.


So its a balancing act but an easy one. If you are going on a trip and your first leg can be a longer one, then charge to 100%. The small hit to your pack is fine. Just don't make a habit of it. I have tried this on my 40 and found that the car easily outlasted me. This resulted in very short charging stints while I took care of personal needs. Once, I stopped at 65% due to a "coffee issue" Not sure it worked better and I "know" it won't when I have to start paying for charges.

So I left home with 60% one time and stretched my first stop out (almost a disaster) so I could get a good 30 min QC. Unfortunately the bathroom I had planned to used was closed and luckily I was able to make it to another a block away. It was a close call!

[DougWantsALeaf]

So why did Nissan take out the 80% charge limit? I thought they found that only ever going to 80% caused other priming issues.

[cwerdna]

So why did Nissan take out the 80% charge limit? I thought they found that only ever going to 80% caused other priming issues.

Probably this:
https://insideevs.com/news/317213/2013- ... gs-system/
https://insideevs.com/news/320736/2014- ... -84-miles/

If you look at other sub-100 mile EVs around model year '14, you'd see that 75 miles doesn't look that competitive but 84 looks a lot better. Examples: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do ... 2&id=33640.

Probably 95+% of the people shopping for a sub-100 mile EV back then wouldn't know the above backstory but would see 75 miles vs. the others if they looked at the above .gov site, Monroney stickers, car shopping sites, automakers' product pages, etc.

Most other BEVs models back then (and still?) don't provide any sort of charge % limiter. Tesla has for ages and we wonder why they don't get bitten by the stupid 80%/100% averaging rule or something like it.

[GRA]

So why did Nissan take out the 80% charge limit? I thought they found that only ever going to 80% caused other priming issues.

Probably this:
https://insideevs.com/news/317213/2013- ... gs-system/
https://insideevs.com/news/320736/2014- ... -84-miles/

If you look at other sub-100 mile EVs around model year '14, you'd see that 75 miles doesn't look that competitive but 84 looks a lot better. Examples: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do ... 2&id=33640.

Probably 95+% of the people shopping for a sub-100 mile EV back then wouldn't know the above backstory but would see 75 miles vs. the others if they looked at the above .gov site, Monroney stickers, car shopping sites, automakers' product pages, etc.

Most other BEVs models back then (and still?) don't provide any sort of charge % limiter. Tesla has for ages and we wonder why they don't get bitten by the stupid 80%/100% averaging rule or something like it.

They didn't get bitten because they didn't include a sentence in the owner's manual (as Nissan did) specifically calling 80% "long-life" mode. The RAV4's EPA range also got penalized by this. Chevy calls the 90% charge limiter "Hilltop Reserve mode", with AFAIA no reference to any battery life-extension benefit.

Of course, there are workarounds for the Bolt (and others) to choose pretty much any max charge range you want, in the Bolt's case from 40% up: http://www.mychevybolt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5811

[cwerdna]

^^^
And, in '19 Bolt, hill top reserve is gone and replaced by a limiter that lets you select 40 to 100%, in 5% increments. There still is the priority charge to 40% thingy but I've never used that.

[cwerdna]

Thanks to an FB post, I learned of the changes coming (not many) to the Canadian 2020 Bolt: https://www.gmfleetorderguide.com/NASAp ... 892&type=0. Unknown if the US changes will be the same/similar.

[LeftieBiker]

From that link:

Chevrolet Truck Bolt EV

Deletions

(G9A) Green Mist Metallic exterior colour
(GKO) Shock exterior colour

New Features

(GHC) Oasis Blue exterior colour
(GLL) Cayenne Orange Metallic exterior colour (additional charge)
(RIA) All-weather floor liner, LPO

Changes

(AVJ) Keyless Open on front doors replaces (ATH) Keyless Open on all 4 doors; The passive entry system can still be programmed to unlock all doors at once with one press or with two presses of the front door buttons
(UVB) HD Rear Vision Camera replaces (UVC) Rear Vision Camera
(UV2) HD Surround Vision replaces (UVH) Surround Vision
(TL7) High gloss Black grille replaces (TUR) Dark Silver grille and (TUS) Black grille
(UHY) Low Speed Forward Automatic Braking is now called Automatic Emergency Braking

[cwerdna]

^^^
Yep. The keyless entry downgrade seems like a way to cut costs. My Bolt has lock/unlock buttons on the 4 door handles whereas it's only on 2 of them on my '13 Leaf. (During Gen 3 Prius, you could get 1-door (standard) or 3-door SKS (optional). Gen 2 Prius had either NO SKS or 3-door SKS (2 front doors + hatch.))

It's good that they'll be upgrading the cameras. Bolt Surround Vision image quality is awful compared to my '13 Leaf.

I'm not surprised about shock green. It's not a color I'd want and those might've languished at dealers.

Side note: I've seen a few reports on Bolt forums and Bolt FB groups of shattered front cameras for Surround Vision probably because GM didn't put them in a very good spot (front of the bumper w/the entire camera lens/bubble facing forward). I can't recall any report of shattered front cameras on Leafs w/Around View Monitor, which has been available since model year '13 as part of the premium package for MY '13 to '17.

Yesterday I finally had time to buy some plexiglass and drill two hills and mounted it using my front plate screws: https://www.chevybolt.org/forum/515-diy ... amage.html.

The front camera is $125+ for the part vs my under $5 piece of acrylic. We'll see if my protection holds up or has bad side effects (e.g. causing probs w/the front plate bracket or a big efficiency hit).

[cwerdna]

Discounting has gotten better on Bolt in the Bay Area but not quite as good as before.

https://www.chevroletoffremont.com/Vehi ... rice%7Casc seems to be showing $9.5K off MSRP on LTs and I saw about $10.5K MSRP on Premiers.
https://www.concordchevrolet.com/Vehicl ... search=new is showing $11K off MSRP on both trims, it seems.

[cwerdna]

https://www.chevroletoffremont.com/Vehi ... rice%7Casc decided to discount 2 base Bolt LT’s with no options (not even DC FC inlet) a bit more off than the others (about $11.5K off), so they're openly advertised at just under $26K. The rest of the LT’s aren’t as heavily discounted. My guess is that it’s a teaser to try to get you there to upsell you to a more expensive/more well-equipped car.

I took a peek at Premiers and those are almost $10.5K off, starting at $32,179.

Keep in mind Federal tax credit on GM EVs/PHEVs is now only $3750.