Friend of mine just got a Chevy Bolt EV

Oregon TDI · Mar 2, 2017

He and his wife have been Honda people forever. In other words, they're not car people. They've been interested in an EV with >200 mile range and decided on the Bolt. He took me for a ride in it yesterday (he drove).

My Quick Positive Impressions:

The Bolt seems amazingly quiet on the road. Not just lack of noise from internal combustion, but impressively low road noise. I was kind of shocked. My GTI probably has 10x the road noise of the Bolt.

Passenger seat very comfortable, plenty of head & leg room.

Very quick from a standing start (as expected for an EV).

Nice large touchscreen & of course digital driver display with clever graphics displaying energy flow etc.

Quick Negative Impressions

The interior trim (dashboard etc) is loaded with hard plastic parts. No matter how you spin it, it looks like plastic. A (e)Golf is far and away nicer on stuff like that.

Comes with no spare tire. No nothing under the cargo floor but a bunch of empty compartments. We suspect something got left out during dealer prep. TBD.

Well that's my takeaway from a 10 minute ride in the passenger seat.

buckwheat · Mar 2, 2017

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Honda drivers as non-enthusiast...I bought a 2013 Honda Accord Sport with a 6-speed transmission a few months ago while I bide my time waiting for one of the repaired Golf Sportwagens to show up on the market.

This Honda is very much a car-person's car. My wife typically drives it instead of the Touareg because she finds the Accord more fun to drive. Yesterday she offered my 14-year old daughter (she has a learner's permit) the choice of the Honda or the Touareg for a 20 mile drive they had to make. She chose the Honda. They don't make Car and Driver's 10-best list for 30 years straight by being non-car people cars.

Now anyone who purchases/considers a Bolt qualifies as a non-car person in my book.

Stabone33 · Mar 2, 2017

Oregon TDI said:
He and his wife have been Honda people forever. In other words, they're not car people. They've been interested in an EV with >200 mile range and decided on the Bolt. He took me for a ride in it yesterday (he drove).

My Quick Positive Impressions:

The Bolt seems amazingly quiet on the road. Not just lack of noise from internal combustion, but impressively low road noise. I was kind of shocked. My GTI probably has 10x the road noise of the Bolt.

Passenger seat very comfortable, plenty of head & leg room.

Very quick from a standing start (as expected for an EV).

Nice large touchscreen & of course digital driver display with clever graphics displaying energy flow etc.

Quick Negative Impressions

The interior trim (dashboard etc) is loaded with hard plastic parts. No matter how you spin it, it looks like plastic. A (e)Golf is far and away nicer on stuff like that.

Comes with no spare tire. No nothing under the cargo floor but a bunch of empty compartments. We suspect something got left out during dealer prep. TBD.

Well that's my takeaway from a 10 minute ride in the passenger seat.

I peeked inside a brand-new Bolt yesterday - it does not come with a spare, it had run-flats on it. Saw the same empty compartment under the rear cargo floor, covered by a cheap, carpet-wrapped particle board cover that will be completely adequate to hold groceries, briefcases, whatever. The leather on the interior was sufficently thick with soft padding, but overall the car is a bit smaller than I thought it would be from pictures on the interwebs. It looks like a perfectly cromulent commuter car.

Harv · Mar 2, 2017

Interesting. We just looked at one at the Cleveland auto show. Yea a little plasticy but the advertised 238 miles is really cool. I was pulling for the i3 but with 114 miles of range it's already dated. I think they said the home charger is 3500 bucks.

John

Oregon TDI · Mar 2, 2017

I shouldn't characterize all Honda owners as not being car people. However these are self-described "not car people". They view cars as a means of transportation. Full stop. They could not care less about anything except comfortable reliable conveyance. When they buy a car they buy the base model with as few options as possible. They have the base Bolt with the $750 hi-capacity charging option. Their CR-V is a base model with no options.

I noticed that seemingly-flimsy cargo floor cover in the Bolt too.

The Bolt of course has OnStar with cellular connectivity. Myself, I think the intelligent crash response capability of OnStar (and VW Car-Net) is a fantastically good feature. I asked him if he plans to subscribe to OnStar after the 3 month trial. "No, waste of money, that's why we have cell phones". He was completely closed to it, not interested. Well ok then. Lol.

FSJ Guy · Mar 2, 2017

The Bolt is definitely a game changer with a range of a gasoline powered vehicle. And tons cheaper than the not-yet-available Tesla 3.

$3,500 for the home charger is not bad. Remember, the Bolt is marketed to early adopters. They want it and will pay to have it. Prices will only drop from there. :- )

As for no spare, most people will not be road tripping in these cars. LOL!!

Oregon TDI · Mar 3, 2017

Apparently the vast majority of new EVs are leased, not purchased. I assume that's because the future value of a current model EV is a huge unknown due to how quickly EV technology is evolving. Leasing provides a concrete future value. If something way better in an EV is available at the end of the lease you turn in the keys and walk away.

My friends chose to purchase. They plan to drive this Bolt for a long time. Hopefully the numbers will work out for them. Meantime they're driving a very cool EV.

Oh yeah: If you lease you don't get the huge tax credit(s). But those credits are supposed to reduce the monthly lease payment.

Stabone33 · Mar 3, 2017

There's also a likely battery replacement after about 8 years of daily driving. Don't recall how many full-depth charge/discharge cycles the Li-Ion batteries have, but it's something like 1,000.

Since most people get rid of cars before the 5-year point, that won't be a problem for the first owner, but resale/trade may be significantly reduced. Which means secondhand owners will basically get cheap, disposable cars to drive for a couple years before they're scrapped and batteries recycled. Unless Tesla or GM or a third party like Batteries Plus

come up with a cheap replacement program.

Oregon TDI · Mar 3, 2017

The Bolt buyers previously owned a Civic Hybrid that was about 8 or 9 years old. They said the Civic's battery was showing signs of not charging back up fully. They traded the Civic in on a new CR-V. The dealer gave them decent trade-in value. I'd be curious to know what the dealer ended up doing with the Civic.

Anyways eight years on a car is arguably long enough to reasonably declare it at end of useful life for many owners. Or maybe not.

Sez a looney tune that buys a new car every year!

FSJ Guy · Mar 3, 2017

There are dedicated hybrid wrecking yards now and they rebuild the battery packs. You can get rebuilt packs for MUCH less than a new pack from the manufacturer. The number of these shops will only increase as hybrids and EVs become more popular. I even see Priuses in U pick n Pull yards, now! Minus the battery packs, of course.

In 10-15 years, I predict we will see mass market EV conversion kits. Just like we have turn key fuel injection conversion kits on the market today.

Oregon TDI · Mar 14, 2017

My friends drove out to the coast & back in their new Bolt. This is the trip info: 163 miles, with 80 miles left. No hypermiling, going with the flow of traffic. In fact he said they deliberately passed a few other cars. Impressive.

nickm · Mar 16, 2017

The bolt is great and probably 99% of what the small Tesla will be assuming that thing ever gets built. A real e car from a real car company, yet people arent yet hammering down the doors to buy one...hmmm.

I suspect a proper e golf will do well. Typical stubborn vw buyers with think electric is utter garbage at first, then two years down the road they will buy one, at which point everyone not buying an e-vw will be an idiot to them.

Oregon TDI · Mar 17, 2017

The range on the 2017 eGolf improved to 124 miles, from 83 or something like that. But there are dozens of leftover 2016 eGolfs sitting on dealer lots in OR & WA. Looks like VW hasn't actually released the '17.

FSJ Guy · Mar 17, 2017

IMHO, ANY car (fossil fuel or electric) needs to have a range of at least 200 miles to be seriously considered.

nickm · Mar 17, 2017

I agree, once they get the e-golf over 200 or 250 miles of normal driving, then it'll be for real. I'd certainly buy one for commuting with that range.

83 mile range is ok, but really restricts things to urban buyers (who typically have no facilities to plug in due to street parking), so I'm not sure who it would really appeal to.

nickyt · Mar 17, 2017

nickm said:
83 mile range is ok, but really restricts things to urban buyers (who typically have no facilities to plug in due to street parking), so I'm not sure who it would really appeal to.

I need a electric range of at least 200 also. How about this? >

Solandri · Mar 18, 2017

nickyt said:
I need a electric range of at least 200 also. How about this? >

I once calculated how much electricity you'd generate if you covered your car in solar panels. It works out to something like 6 miles of additional range if you leave the car parked in the sun all day. That's why the solar panel option on the Prius only powers a small fan to blow the hot air out of the car, instead of trying to recharge the battery.

EV's really need to be plugged into the power grid (where unfortunately the electricity they use is almost entirely generated by coal or gas), or backed up with a massive home solar/wind generation system. If you covered your home with two dozen 165 Watt panels (basically a 4 kW system), at the U.S. average capacity factor of 0.145 that translates into (24 panels) * (165 Watts/panel) * (24 hours) * 0.145 = 13.78 kWh. Or, ignoring charging losses, enough to drive a Bolt (EPA 28 kWh / 100 miles) 49 miles.

BeemerMikeTX · Mar 18, 2017

Solandri said:
EV's really need to be plugged into the power grid (where unfortunately the electricity they use is almost entirely generated by coal or gas), or backed up with a massive home solar/wind generation system. If you covered your home with two dozen 165 Watt panels (basically a 4 kW system), at the U.S. average capacity factor of 0.145 that translates into (24 panels) * (165 Watts/panel) * (24 hours) * 0.145 = 13.78 kWh. Or, ignoring charging losses, enough to drive a Bolt (EPA 28 kWh / 100 miles) 49 miles.

24 hours? :wink2:

BeemerMikeTX · Mar 18, 2017

FSJ Guy said:
IMHO, ANY car (fossil fuel or electric) needs to have a range of at least 200 miles to be seriously considered.

The big obstacle to wide-range acceptance (and market) for EVs is the combination of range AND recharge time. If your fossil-fuel car can only go 150 miles on a tank, in 10 minutes you can fill it up and get another 150 miles, so short range is not a big obstacle. Even the Tesla fanboys reluctantly acknowledge that although their $150k P100 can go 300 miles on a charge (woo-hoo!), at the end of that 300 miles they have to sit for at least an hour at a supercharger station to get another 300 miles (boo-hoo). Until EVs can solve the range/recharge time obstacle, they will be limited to people's 2nd, short-range commuter car.

Now, one way to solve the range/recharge time obstacle is hybrids, but that adds complexity (and cost). And that brings us back to ICE, and specifically diesel ICE to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

Ragman · Mar 18, 2017

You could put a wind turbine on top of the car so the faster you went the more power you would generate?

BeemermikeTX you guys are getting ripped of with the "solar capacity factor of 0.145" is that an average for 12 months?

They have a solar car race here from Darwin to Adelaide, the cars average over 90kph on only solar energy.

Friend of mine just got a Chevy Bolt EV

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