Chevrolet Bolt & Bolt EUV

I've posted a lengthy review of our experience with the Chevy Bolt.

"In short, we are pleased with the car. It works well for us and in the process has become our sole vehicle. We no longer operate a car with an internal combustion engine. In those circumstances where the Bolt won't meet our needs, we plan to rent a conventional car. Importantly, we haven't had to do so yet."

Driving the Chevy Bolt EV--Our Impressions
September 28, 2018, by Paul Gipe

We leased a Chevy Bolt EV in early November 2017. I've been driving the electric vehicle daily since then. We've also taken it on several round-trip excursions of 300 to 600 miles. I know enough...[more]

Paul, thanks for providing a link to this. I meant to ask you to do so or copy it here, but got busy and forgot.

Via IEVS:

Chevy Bolt EV Survey Hints At Cold Weather Package With Heat Pump

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https://insideevs.com/chevy-bolt-ev-cold-weather-package-range/

Earlier this week, new Chevy Bolt EV owner and chevybolt.org user jvandonsel posted about a survey he received from Chevrolet. The options presented in the survey hinted that a cold weather package might be in the works:

I just took an interesting survey from Chevy asking about cold-weather performance of the Bolt and how much I’d be willing to pay for various cold weather packages.

What’s interesting is that this is a peek into some of the technologies that GM is working on or considering working on. Some of the interesting ones from the survey are:

Radiant floor heating
Wiper parking heater
Heat pump
Cold weather battery pack
Heated front windshield

Having only owned my Bolt for a month, I didn’t have much wisdom to impart, but it will be interesting to see how it makes it through its first New England winter. . . .

Click to expand...

The survey, which another user posted, also lists heated steering wheels and seats as well as 200 and 300 mile EPA range and varying winter ranges of 150, 160, 195, 240 and 285 miles, as well as various combo packages including more than one of the options, with prices. None of these are guaranteed to appear, although the article notes that a survey last year included a variable charge level, which has now shown up on the 2019s.

The Bolt already offers heated seats and steering wheel as park of a cold weather package.

Erm,..."wiper parking heater"??? As for heating all of most of the floor, that's just silly. Heated pads under the footwells would be nice, though.

LeftieBiker said:

The Bolt already offers heated seats and steering wheel as park of a cold weather package.

Erm,..."wiper parking heater"??? As for heating all of most of the floor, that's just silly. Heated pads under the footwells would be nice, though.

Click to expand...

I've got that on my Forester, although it's not called that. It's a electric wire or two embedded at the base of the windshield, so that you don't have to worry about your wiper blades being frozen to the glass and tearing off, or burning out the wiper motor, and also keeps slush from re-freezing there. I got used to parking my wipers off the glass in cold conditions long before such conveniences were available, and need to do so rarely as I don't live in snow country, so it doesn't do me much good, but I wanted the heated outside mirrors (beats having to use de-icer and a scraper on them, and it's also nice in wet fog) and heated front seats that were also part of that package.

GRA said:

Paul, thanks for providing a link to this. I meant to ask you to do so or copy it here, but got busy and forgot.

Click to expand...

Guy, yes I got busy and forgot about it too.

Paul

Via IEVS:

This Chevrolet Bolt Battery Lost 8% Capacity At 70,000 Miles

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https://insideevs.com/chevrolet-bolt-battery-lost-capacity-70000-miles/

Haven't watched the video, but the author says the following:

“After 70,000 miles, I decided to review the data that I have gathered for nearly two years of driving the Bolt EV. Based on my estimates, my Bolt EV has lost a noticeable amount of battery capacity. To estimate the amount of degradation, I compared kWh used versus the battery percentage displayed at the station, and I was able to create a timeline of total estimated battery capacity.

0:47 Methodology

3:41 Degradation

4:44 Software Update affected capacity?

7:45 What can other EV owners expect?

9:30 Does DC fast charging contribute?

10:35 Does that much degradation actually matter?

13:03 My Recommendations

15:04 Closing”

Click to expand...

paulgipe said:

GRA said:

Paul, thanks for providing a link to this. I meant to ask you to do so or copy it here, but got busy and forgot.

Click to expand...

Guy, yes I got busy and forgot about it too.

Paul

Click to expand...

Thank you for a wonderful write up on the Bolt.

Being that you are in this field of evaluation electric vehicles, would you have any information on the expected lifetime of the Bolt battery before needing to face a battery replacement?

It appears that when choosing an EV nowadays, consumers need to take into account the size and durability of the battery more than anything??

Thanks

News Coulomb has a video as he is at 70,000 in his bolt and by his estimation he has lost 8%. I think my leaf is in pretty good shape and at 70,000 miles I was down 18%

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqB3od74sV0

BrockWI said:

News Coulomb has a video as he is at 70,000 in his bolt and by his estimation he has lost 8%. I think my leaf is in pretty good shape and at 70,000 miles I was down 18%

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The Bolt has about 3 times the battery size. So on a miles traveled per battery consumed basis, your LEAF is doing better.

I agree, but loosing 20 miles (18%) of range from the Leaf's 84 range compared to loosing 20 miles (8%) from the Bolt's 238 range has more of an impact on usefulness of the vehicle

But nothing can touch the total cost / mile of our Leaf.

BrockWI said:

I agree, but loosing 20 miles (18%) of range from the Leaf's 84 range compared to loosing 20 miles (8%) from the Bolt's 238 range has more of an impact on usefulness of the vehicle

But nothing can touch the total cost / mile of our Leaf.

Click to expand...

An iMiev?

:lol:

GRA said:

Via IEVS:

This Chevrolet Bolt Battery Lost 8% Capacity At 70,000 Miles

Click to expand...

https://insideevs.com/chevrolet-bolt-battery-lost-capacity-70000-miles/

Haven't watched the video, but the author says the following:

“After 70,000 miles, I decided to review the data that I have gathered for nearly two years of driving the Bolt EV. Based on my estimates, my Bolt EV has lost a noticeable amount of battery capacity. To estimate the amount of degradation, I compared kWh used versus the battery percentage displayed at the station, and I was able to create a timeline of total estimated battery capacity.

0:47 Methodology

3:41 Degradation

4:44 Software Update affected capacity?

7:45 What can other EV owners expect?

9:30 Does DC fast charging contribute?

10:35 Does that much degradation actually matter?

13:03 My Recommendations

15:04 Closing”

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

You gotta watch his video to know the details. He explains everything. The software update may account for some of that 8% figure so it's probably even less than that.

Plus he explains his use case is probably near worse case scenario for the battery. He DC fast charges like crazy, charges to 100% a lot and discharges down to a really low SoC all the time.

The average Bolt EV owner will most likely see less degradation.

powersurge said:

paulgipe said:

GRA said:

Paul, thanks for providing a link to this. I meant to ask you to do so or copy it here, but got busy and forgot.

Click to expand...

Guy, yes I got busy and forgot about it too.

Paul

Click to expand...

Thank you for a wonderful write up on the Bolt.

Being that you are in this field of evaluation electric vehicles, would you have any information on the expected lifetime of the Bolt battery before needing to face a battery replacement?

It appears that when choosing an EV nowadays, consumers need to take into account the size and durability of the battery more than anything??

Thanks

Click to expand...

I begun monitoring DIC battery capacity this summer and now track it along with all the typical stuff I track with each charge. We're a year into ownership of the Bolt, 10,000 miles on the odometer and the capacity is 60.8 kWh according to the currently accepted method of reading the car's codes. There's debate about this measurement, but that's what it's showing and I'll post a chart on it eventually and compare it to the degradation we saw in our Leaf. That's probably a year out at this rate.

It's useful to note that the Bolt appears to be shipped with more than 60 kWh usable capacity. We know that the Leaf's usable capacity is less than nameplate.

Paul

I jumped into one at LA Auto Show yesterday to refresh my memory how bad the seats felt last time a year ago, and they felt exactly the same this time. Next.

Valdemar said:

I jumped into one at LA Auto Show yesterday to refresh my memory how bad the seats felt last time a year ago, and they felt exactly the same this time. Next.

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I think the Kia/Hyundai EVs would be an obvious choice for those unhappy with the Bolt's seats. And independent rear suspension improves the ride. I agree with Edmunds' assessment of the Bolt in this comparison on one of my favorite roads, except that for me, the seats are fine;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lsVDdgLXho

IEVS:

WeberAuto Examines The Chevy Bolt EV’s Battery Coolant System

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https://insideevs.com/chevy-bolt-ev-coolant-loop-video/

Someone in a FB group via screenshot pointed me to some big discounting on Bolts.

From clues in the screenshot, I found the dealer's page at https://www.martinchevrolet.com/inventory/New-Chevrolet-Bolt_EV/. Not sure how reputable the dealer is, but they are rather tempting given that GM still has the full tax credit (which supposedly will be cut in half on April 1, 2019 per https://insideevs.com/gm-federal-tax-credit-limit-200000-evs/).

If they are legit and I can't get a similar deal in the Bay Area, might actually be worth flying to LA and driving a Bolt back up.

Remember that if you want heated seats and wheel, the car has to have the Cold (All?) Weather Package.

LeftieBiker said:

Remember that if you want heated seats and wheel, the car has to have the Cold (All?) Weather Package.

Click to expand...

I'd be interested in the Premier trim level which includes leather heated front and rear seats + heated steering wheel.

It seems like Surround Vision (equivalent of Nissan Around View Monitor) is only available on Premier trim and n/a on LT (lower trim). Since I love AVM, I wouldn't want to buy a car w/o it, if I can help it. I'd also probably want the infotainment package which includes the Bose stereo + DC FC inlet.

I see one in a color I like (silver ice metallic) at Martin allegedly for $36,659.

If I have to go with a '19 e+ Leaf SL to get AVM and Bose, and let's guess that Nissan adds $4K to 6K to non-e+ SL price.... And, I doubt there will be huge incentives on e+ Leaf at the beginning.

MSRP on '19 non-e+ SL Leaf is already $36,200 + $885 destination charge.

I guess I'd be sacrificing the ability to get something similar to ProPilot Assist, but not having it is ok with me.