Bolt versus Leaf: Am I crazy?

Toby said:

What is hurting is the decision to keep Chademo in recent years.

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Definitely. Absolute stupidity on Nissan's part. I presume it was a decision born of a desire to not compete with the Ariya

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My Bolt is in its first winter. I've learned that the programming is particularly protective of the battery pack temperature only when the car is connected to shore power so my wife and I have adopted the habit of always plugging in the car during the summer and winter when it is home. The shore connected protection is very good: In the winter it keeps the pack above 40F, and in the summer at 82F. Since the car is plugged in daily, it also lets me set the Max charging limit to a lower value without compromising utility. It is a minor inconvenience I am willing to put up with in order to give the battery pack a very easy life that I hope will be repaid in long life and minimal degradation. I summarize this as belonging to the 60/60 club: 60F average pack temp, 60% average SoC.

So how much energy does the Bolt use from the wall just to keep itself warm or cool? What is the overall miles/kWh efficiency when you factor that energy use into the calculation?

GerryAZ said:

So how much energy does the Bolt use from the wall just to keep itself warm or cool? What is the overall miles/kWh efficiency when you factor that energy use into the calculation?

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I have some data from our summer. If the car returned home with a pack about 90 - 92F, it would consume about 1 kWh to cool down to 82F. The energy consumption figures are from noting the power draw on Torque Pro, and for how long the conditioning continued.

I don't know about the winter; and in any case it will be a huge YMMV. One person reported on his experience in Canada during a 24 hour day when the ambient was 6F average. The car consumed 6 kWh over that 24 hour period while parked. I think (but am not sure) that heating in this case is a COP of around 1.0, so you can calculate heat flux

40F = 278 K
6F = 259K

As about 13 watts per K*hour. The car does have a 'chiller', so summer energy consumption will be quite a bit less for the same heat transfer. My vague memory of the Canadian graph is that the conditioning happened quickly, so I doubt the fixed costs of having the car on for the conditioning is over 10% of total energy. Consider that a guess.

If the car is not plugged in, power drain is close to zero unless the pack temperature is quite high or quite low. Moreover, if the car is not connected to shore power and the pack SoC is ~ 25% or less, no pack conditioning takes place.

Once the Bolt gets past the consumer reports review hit due to the battery replacements, I think sales will continue to move up. It's really the only sub 30K 200+ mile ev out there.

DougWantsALeaf said:

Once the Bolt gets past the consumer reports review hit due to the battery replacements, I think sales will continue to move up. It's really the only sub 30K 200+ mile ev out there.

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You are probably right about that. One other thing, they need to improve the Bolt's comfort.

One other thing, they need to improve the Bolt's comfort.

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That's for sure. Instead of designing it for Spartans, they should have at least offered an optional "Buick Bolt" with nice, cushy French style suspension. Instead, they left designing the seats to a guy who literally looks like a Jockey...

^^

Those who have owned both 1st and current Gen Bolts say the comfort is considerably improved.
My only experience is our 2022 Bolt, and I have no complaints