Having road tripped for a few years one can not count on hotel charging. Hotel chargers are usually hogged by sales guys rolling in Teslas if they are functional at all. Time is better spent finding a good continental breakfast, much less aggravation.
@@thegarbone If you can find a sweet setup like they just had in Houston with dedicated EV charging that would be ideal. You are right, a lot of the hotels that list EV charging have like 1 drop and it is either in use, or blocked, or out of order. Hopefully this is starting to change.
I just did my first EV road trip and I had a very similar experience to you. I used plugshare to manually plan and A Better Route Planner to drive my route and only chose charging stations with plug scores of 9 or 10. Like you guys, I only saw a couple of EVs at chargers and they all worked great.
Love the hard work U both put into this video. I live in San Diego California where gas is $5.00/gal on regular. I just bought a Bolth EUV and is planning a 500 mile run with it and discovered UR channel. Thanks again 4 the very detailed final analysis and cost. Helps put everything in perspective.
I appreciate the video and wife and I are considering getting a Bolt EUV. One thing tho that does “bother” me when I watch EV road trip videos and I watch a lot. All people talk about is cost of gas v electricity. But they never talk about what is time worth. I bring this up because we live in NC and we take 3-5 trips a year to NY. Normally in our gas Highlander 2022 , we stop 2x. Yes it’s about 90.00 in gas and takes up about 11.5 hrs in driving / trip ( 700 miles one way ) The Bolt EUV would add almost 4hrs due to charging. To me that needs to be talked about more.
My wife and I would have stopped more frequently (by choice, not necessity) in our ice Subaru. I planned out the trip with both cars and time was about equal. However, we prefer to stop and stretch our legs compared to racing to get there. In the nearly 5 months I’ve had the Bolt, that’s the only long distance trip we’ve taken. If we were only stopping for gas and no other reason, it would have added a few hours. That was over the course of 1 week. For the other nearly 20 weeks of ownership, I’ve gotten that time back and then some by never having to go to a gas station for my work commute; never have to stand at the car to fill it up, never have to drive to a gas station. I just plug in and the car fills up while I’m at home.
Despite the 55kw charge max I love these cars. The fact that people who own them still road trip in them cause they are just not in that much of hurry. We all need to learn to slow down and not let life pass us by. The music in this video is on point.
@@MikeRadioNY Tesla Model 3. Other than the resonating sticker shock (we work at a university!), we love the car. The Bolt is supposed to replace an aging Prius that our son uses in grad school.
Not only is the cost of energy less than half as much as gas, but remember there’s a lot less money spend on maintenance! No oil change, timing belt, or transmission to worry about. That counts for a lot on long term ownership.
@@No.One357 No one said EVs are maintenance free. One still has to replace brakes, tires, perform brake flush, replace battery air filter etc plus operate the battery correctly, that being said their maintenance is a lot less than ICE vehicles
@@andrewlay88 Yup, for the VW eGolf correct? But it's not $20k for all EV batteries. But definitely $8-$10k for most. Of course I'm talking about sedans only, but like anything else one has to operate the car(and battery) correctly esp in colder conditions otherwise good 🤞
I didn't plan to watch this entire part 1, but I couldn't stop watching. Thanks for doing the video for this trip. I suspect after breakfast; I'll get though part 2.
I really enjoyed watching your road trip. You folks travel similarly to the way we do - relaxed, not too rushed. We just put a deposit down on a Bolt and we look forward to adding that to our ID.4
This trip evokes the early 20th Century adventure and romance with highly unreliable motorcars and shouts of GET A HORSE! How soon we forget, the expectation of an uneventful motorcar trip across America, began in the 1960’s at best. My grandparents drove a camper truck from Illinois to visit the brand new state of Alaska. They had no cellphones. That is the spirit of (North) America. We can do this. Thank you for sharing this journey to help ease our concerns. It was lovely to meet you.
Awesome trip details. I go through Mt Pleasant twice a week. From Sulphur Springs but now live in Winnsboro. I Just bought my oldest daughter a used 2017 bolt yesterday. My wife and I own a model S and a 3.
Oh yes, Mount Pleasant. I was born and raised in Tyler but moved to Saint Cloud Minnesota about 13 years ago. I saw you were at a Super 1 Foods and thought, 'Yep, you're in East Texas alright." Super 1 is owned by Brookshire Grocery Company, which was founded in 1928 in Tyler Texas. Brookshire's is the 800 pound gorilla in terms of supermarkets in East Texas (at least until Walmart showed up). As for the Bolt, I'm hoping to get one (or maybe a Volt) in the next year or so. People complain about the 54Kw charging speed but they fail to consider the size of the battery and efficiency of the car. I love that power blue color; I actually saw a First Gen Volt with a color like that back when they were still selling them but I don't know how common that color is for them.
My Bolt gets delivered by D&M Leasing today. Happy to see to info on this trip. I live in Allen, TX--good to see the familiar NTTA toll tag. Excited to get out and appreciate the new Bolt.
Very entertaining and informative video. I just bought a '23 Bolt EUV while I wait for my Rivian, Ford Lightning, and Chevy Silverado reservations to turn into actual offers to purchase. Then I have to decide which one to choose. I know the Bolt is not a road trip vehicle, but your video gives me hope that I can make it work for an upcoming 860 mile trip from NC to NY. 🙂
I was waiting for my Lightning reservation to convert too. I enjoy this car so much, I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do when Ford says I can order. The plus for the Bolt in terms of road trips is the efficiency. It uses half the power of the Lighting or the Rivian, so even though those vehicles can take a higher charge rate, they’ll take almost as long to charge because they’ll use more of the battery pack.
I have a 2022 Bolt EV and drove from WV to Arkansas (712 miles) by myself over the thanksgiving holiday. I went across Kentucky going out and got stressed because there aren’t many charging stations across KY or WV. Of course I left with a full charge from home. I drove at 65 mph. I returned across Tennessee because there are a lot more CS. The big problem I had was like you - the screens are hard to see at times. I met several nice people at the charging stations. I’m taking my second adventure road-trip back to Arkansas for the Christmas holiday. I look forward to the trip and wish you the best on your next adventure!! I enjoyed your video.
@@valueofnothing2487 they are fine. It’s not a BMW which I’ve owned two of them but it’s fine. What I have found is that when I was driving an ice car I wouldn’t stop as often as I should’ve been. Having to stop and charge is actually refreshing me and my energy level too. I’ll generally walk around in Sam’s or Walmart while charging and I’m not as tired by the end of my day as I was before. I will admit it’s not as luxurious and I can’t put the top down but I’m 65 and I really like trying to help the environment too. I recycle my plastic and cardboard and there’s plenty of room to do that in the Bolt too.
I gotta say, you Bolt EV owners sure are a patient people. Waiting nearly an hour on a charger to go from 20% to 80% to drive another 100-120 miles would be prohibitively time consuming for most drivers.
Yeah, if you want regular long trips, Tesla is the only way to go - between the comprehensiveness AND maturity (ie reliability) of the Supercharger network itself, and the in-car features for route/charging planning. I love watching the Tesla videos where you can see on the display the chargers you can reach changing color in real time as the charge comes in, and you can tap on the icon and see how many are available RIGHT NOW.
@@rogermartinez78 I was going between a Bolt and Tesla and liked all the advanced features of the Boit... even things Tesla doesnt have like vented seats, carplay, camera rearview mirror, etc... But when I used them from Turo the charging was a nightmare with broken charge stations... and I would feel "claustrophobic" with the Bolt as trips would just take too long to charge if I had to go on any road trip.... I didnt want to spend $40K for a car that I couldn't comfortably go anywhere. That being said the Bolt is an amazing car and an amazing value with great features that. used to only be found in luxury cars. Supercruise is amazing.
It you watch closely, you will notice that smart Bolt drivers do not wait to charge all the way to 80%. You spend considerably less time charging overall if you unplug around 60% and simply stop to charge more often. In the video, the times they went beyond 60%, it was because they were doing something, be it eating or talking to people, and didn't want to rush back to the car, like this was some kind of a race. Of course, those that are really concerned about travel time shouldn't be doing a trip like this in any kind of a car - EV or ICE - long distance trips like this is what airplanes are for.
6:42 It's kind of amazing to me that drivers of CCS cars just assume that a certain number of EA stations will be down. I've never even thought about a Tesla Supercharger being down.
BOLT EV & EUVs are great electric cars as daily driver but not for road trips. An hour of charging from 20% to 80% state of charge. That's an hour of wait to gain around 140miles range. I think this is great if it's only for a 350-400mile road trip (one way). Which takes only one stop to re-charge. Anything more than one stop with slow charge rate would be too much time IMO. I ordered the BOLT EUV LT over two months ago. I got a call yesterday that the car arrived. I am 500mile away from home. The dealership will hold it for me until I get home a week from today. BUT, I am still undecided (50/50). I believe it's $27, 200 + 500option + 995 destination fee + tax ($31,500 out the door without interest).
Great video My simple take is commuter to work is fine but no way would I use it for traveling .... I don’t think I could put of the inconvenience I don’t travel highways I like no planning when I travel
Electrify America and the other non Tesla chargers really need to up their game. It shouldn't be a high anxiety challenge to charge your EV. The Electrify America chargers are slow to initiate, and you can't really tell if it's going to work until it begins.. if at all. The Bolt is a wonderful little car, but it needs to give it's owners more information about state of charge.
Free charge, but still, almost one hour per charge. Meh, my time is more valuable than that. That's way too long for me personally. Thanks for the video
You don't HAVE to go 75 just because that's the speed LIMIT. It's OK to go say 65 - much better range. Like the color of the car! Tennesse looks familiar - drove through there to NC years ago, which gas was $4 a gallon. Like your style.
Unfortunately that can get you pulled over as well. Cops call it suspicious. And since they are more interested in stealing money from people through civil asset forfeiture, they are more of a danger to drivers then criminals.
I’m enjoying your video and decided to comment while watching. I currently have a Honda CRV and FIT. I put a deposit down to order a Bolt EUV to replace the FIT. I know I’ll do all of my local driving in the Bolt but watching you on the highway gives me optimism that the Bolt will also be comfortable on the highway at highway speeds and among the trucks. The hotel where we stay when visiting our family out of town has a charging station in the parking lot so I’m hoping I can use that to fill our needs for a 300 mile round trip. Great video. You seems to love your Bolt and I hope I do too. Best of luck and have fun!
Wow I m still watching your video and you’re in Nashville and your first day was over 600 miles!!! Amazing stamina!!! Yes, I am really looking forward to getting my Bolt and the fact that you have a Tesla and seem to love the Bolt speaks volumes. I’m pretty sure you can buy an adapter to use the Tesla super charge but looks like you don’t really need one. Thanks again!
The Tesla was a friend’s car, and it was high on miles, had some stuff broken, etc. We were going to borrow it for this trip, but glad we had the Bolt.
paying by the minute may cost less. But a slower charging car like the bolt is still going to pay more money for less electricity than a faster charging car that uses more electricity would. Which sounds a bit unfair to be honest.
Incredible video thanks for sharing. Now, let me do some quick math 🧮 8 charge stops 🤔 at 1 hour per stop equals too long for me. I would happily pay an extra 50 bucks to save 5-8 hours. My time is way too important to waste it charging that’s my only issue with electric cars at the moment. I was just rear ended and I’m in the market for a new car. I was thinking about the bolt but I live in a condo complex that’s from the stone ages so no charge stations and I’m a independent transporter so I was trying to figure out how I would make a bolt work. Guess I’ll be sticking to a Prius or Ionic 😩
My condolences on your 50 kWh charging sessions on a road trip. Extremely painful. On the plus side you can just stop at any CCS charger. Not worry about finding a 300 or 150…
The bolt is a cool car but it is certainly not a road trip mobile. Just because you could does not mean you should. Charging for an hour and then driving for an hour and a half is completely ridiculous. The bolt is at most a 300 mile road trip car. That would be one stop in between and then you can charge at your destination. at a certain point, you have to put a value on what your time is worth. We have two electric vehicles, a Ford lightning and a Tesla model three. They are great when it fits within your lifestyle, however, it is not plausible to stop and eat lunch every hour and a half. with the bolt, and the excruciatingly low charge speed, you are putting yourself in a position where you are just waiting and doing nothing, or you’re stopping somewhere and you’re forced to spend money instead of sitting in your car waiting for the bolt to charge.
Traffic jams don’t use that much power. The car can sit at idle pulling 1-2 kw. If it sits still for an hour, that’s 7-8 miles of range. Every time it would have to slow down or stop in a traffic jam, I’d get regen.
I wondered as to the apparently mandatory 75 mph speeds between charging stops. Speeding reduces efficiency as seen in less miles per kilowatts. Driving at 65 mph is far more efficient, legal and reduces charging time and costs. In my experience, driving 65 allows my Ioniq 5 EV to be at steady speeds which is were the 3.8 mpk cones from. Good luck.
In some locations, 75 was the posted speed limit. You are absolutely correct, and I mention in another video on a different trip, that slowing down to 65, or even 70, works wonders for efficiency.
@@SpinnerEV Going those speed makes you a real hazard. If you're not going the prevailing speed you shouldn't be on an interstate highway. Your efficiency doesn't matter much if you're creating dangerous situations.
I'm not a big fan of Jimmy Johns but I've been there before. That being said I've never seen anyone order a sprout sandwich nor have I ever heard of such a thing. I let my dinner eat the lawn.
True, but it is what it is. Until the Equinox comes out, a CCS EV capable of 150 kw is a little over $10,000 more. I’m willing to sacrifice some time at a charger and take a longer break.
@@dugintexas7908 The Bolt! With $100 per unit worth of thicker wire and $25 per unit of software changes. They could price it at $350 and make a bunch of money.
Don’t ever stop at the ChargePoint located in Paducah, KY at the GM dealership!! They charged me $7 to park and my cost to charge for 1.25 hours was $32!!!! For comparison, at the Beaver Damn rest stop in KY I charged for 1.5 hours and it was $16!!!!
We’ll likely be making the same trip in about 6 months. Currently the Tesla superchargers show as open in New York and San Jose. We’ll see if they get to the middle of the country by then.
We didn’t realize the chargers were free on this part of the trip until we were done charging at those locations. The Bolt also slows down the charge speed after reaching 50% state of charge, so topping off would take much longer.
So, I originally asked for the Qmerit/GM/Chevy credit. I am not going to use it. What is the other charger credit you can please get instead? How do I change it? Thanks. #givingtuesday2022
Does your EA account provide you with the records for each charging session when you login with the app? That would be a good reason for logging in each time, even if the charge is free. I wonder if charging sessions are free because EA is unable to reach their networks?
@@SpinnerEV I didn't know that. I thought if you owned a Tesla and another EV, you could charge them both. Thanks for showing the road trip with the Bolt. You have helped me make up my mind to go ahead and order the 2023 model. Blessings
Too bad you couldn't get a hotel with EV charging, that would have eliminated your charge session prior to sleeping. I think all hotels should be required to have overnight EV charging available.
Watch the video...most , if not all, stops for EA have a credit card touch charge pad as well. Also you can use another phone to call EA and they can start the session on your account.
12:10 If you can manage not driving 75 -80 MPH without being tailgated, that's how to conserve in EVs or ICE cars. Stay to the right and watch the mob pass. Late at night is sometimes the only way to avoid pushy tailgaters. America still refuses to care that speed wastes energy. When shale fracking peaks and people learn that sprawling "renewables" and EVs were a luxury of the oil age, things may change.
How much do you value your time? Is it worth waiting several hours (over a trip) to charge to save $50 or so? Great to see the trip was possible and things will continually get better, but the energy cost savings isn't that much of a factor.
The time isn’t that much of a factor for me. The trip itself is part of the vacation for me and we take a lot of breaks regardless. With our gasoline Subaru, the trip would have taken about the same amount of time, because we would have stopped more frequently. That’s just us.
If you drove your car instead, would they have gave you free gas? This is like apples and oranges. You can’t compare the two if you’re getting free electricity.
How much is your time worth?? Wake up people.....ice cars give you more freedom and less time filing up!! EV road trips are longer and what are you going to do when there is no power??
Whatever money you saved in fuel, I would be more than willing to spend in order to not sit there waiting for it to charge. Time is money. Give me ICE any day.
EV owners lose freedom of choice regarding hotels, eating options etc IF trying to tie charge stops to where you want to eat or sleep. Also, why aren’t charging stations covered? I’m trying to imagine getting charged up in pouring rain, hail, snow, or baking sun. Not a pleasant experience, especially if you have to then walk a long way to a restroom or restaurant. Love EV’s for home charging and running around town but extended trips aren’t for me.
In a gas car you would have saved so much time you wouldn't have needed a hotel room. So add that cost and you didn't really save anything. EV charging still sux.
Shame on you. Buying a reliable, affordable vehicle! How are the car companies going to survive if you don't blow your money on EV vehicles costing $60,000 and up???
Sold my '19 Pruis today for more than I paid for it new, and then ordered a '23 ice-blue Bolt ev LT2 :)
I got my Ice Bolt EUV and am absolutely loving it. I wish you the same joy 😊
Enjoyed the trip. It would have saved a lot of time to book a hotel with Level 2 chargers and skip the late night stop
True
Excellent point. Let it top up over night. The challenge is finding a hotel that has level 2 and it actually works! LOL
Having road tripped for a few years one can not count on hotel charging. Hotel chargers are usually hogged by sales guys rolling in Teslas if they are functional at all. Time is better spent finding a good continental breakfast, much less aggravation.
@@thegarbone If you can find a sweet setup like they just had in Houston with dedicated EV charging that would be ideal. You are right, a lot of the hotels that list EV charging have like 1 drop and it is either in use, or blocked, or out of order. Hopefully this is starting to change.
Thank you for this video!! What a great insight to actual real world numbers when driving long distances with an EV. Safe Travels!!
I just did my first EV road trip and I had a very similar experience to you. I used plugshare to manually plan and A Better Route Planner to drive my route and only chose charging stations with plug scores of 9 or 10. Like you guys, I only saw a couple of EVs at chargers and they all worked great.
You guys are real troopers. Love these road trip stories!
Love the hard work U both put into this video. I live in San Diego California where gas is $5.00/gal on regular. I just bought a Bolth EUV and is planning a 500 mile run with it and discovered UR channel. Thanks again 4 the very detailed final analysis and cost. Helps put everything in perspective.
I appreciate the video and wife and I are considering getting a Bolt EUV. One thing tho that does “bother” me when I watch EV road trip videos and I watch a lot. All people talk about is cost of gas v electricity. But they never talk about what is time worth. I bring this up because we live in NC and we take 3-5 trips a year to NY. Normally in our gas Highlander 2022 , we stop 2x. Yes it’s about 90.00 in gas and takes up about 11.5 hrs in driving / trip ( 700 miles one way ) The Bolt EUV would add almost 4hrs due to charging. To me that needs to be talked about more.
My wife and I would have stopped more frequently (by choice, not necessity) in our ice Subaru. I planned out the trip with both cars and time was about equal. However, we prefer to stop and stretch our legs compared to racing to get there. In the nearly 5 months I’ve had the Bolt, that’s the only long distance trip we’ve taken. If we were only stopping for gas and no other reason, it would have added a few hours. That was over the course of 1 week. For the other nearly 20 weeks of ownership, I’ve gotten that time back and then some by never having to go to a gas station for my work commute; never have to stand at the car to fill it up, never have to drive to a gas station. I just plug in and the car fills up while I’m at home.
Despite the 55kw charge max I love these cars. The fact that people who own them still road trip in them cause they are just not in that much of hurry. We all need to learn to slow down and not let life pass us by. The music in this video is on point.
Nice and realistic video on Bolt! Thank you so much. We just ordered one as our 2nd EV.
What’s your first EV?
@@MikeRadioNY Tesla Model 3. Other than the resonating sticker shock (we work at a university!), we love the car. The Bolt is supposed to replace an aging Prius that our son uses in grad school.
Not only is the cost of energy less than half as much as gas, but remember there’s a lot less money spend on maintenance! No oil change, timing belt, or transmission to worry about. That counts for a lot on long term ownership.
@@No.One357 You must be the guy who paid for the diesel fuel.
@@No.One357 Said the owner of the Jiffy Lube/ Gas Station/ Auto repair shop/ buggy whip factory.
@@No.One357 No one said EVs are maintenance free. One still has to replace brakes, tires, perform brake flush, replace battery air filter etc plus operate the battery correctly, that being said their maintenance is a lot less than ICE vehicles
Only 20K FOR A NEW BATTERY.
@@andrewlay88 Yup, for the VW eGolf correct? But it's not $20k for all EV batteries. But definitely $8-$10k for most. Of course I'm talking about sedans only, but like anything else one has to operate the car(and battery) correctly esp in colder conditions otherwise good 🤞
I didn't plan to watch this entire part 1, but I couldn't stop watching. Thanks for doing the video for this trip. I suspect after breakfast; I'll get though part 2.
Thanks!
Enjoyed watching this. My family loves taking road trips so it was fun watching the EV version of a trip.
You might have been able to skip a charge if you chose a hotel with free overnight level2 charging.
I really enjoyed watching your road trip. You folks travel similarly to the way we do - relaxed, not too rushed.
We just put a deposit down on a Bolt and we look forward to adding that to our ID.4
This trip evokes the early 20th Century adventure and romance with highly unreliable motorcars and shouts of GET A HORSE! How soon we forget, the expectation of an uneventful motorcar trip across America, began in the 1960’s at best. My grandparents drove a camper truck from Illinois to visit the brand new state of Alaska. They had no cellphones. That is the spirit of (North) America. We can do this. Thank you for sharing this journey to help ease our concerns. It was lovely to meet you.
Thanks!
Awesome trip details. I go through Mt Pleasant twice a week. From Sulphur Springs but now live in Winnsboro. I Just bought my oldest daughter a used 2017 bolt yesterday. My wife and I own a model S and a 3.
great content , keep posting.
Oh yes, Mount Pleasant. I was born and raised in Tyler but moved to Saint Cloud Minnesota about 13 years ago. I saw you were at a Super 1 Foods and thought, 'Yep, you're in East Texas alright." Super 1 is owned by Brookshire Grocery Company, which was founded in 1928 in Tyler Texas. Brookshire's is the 800 pound gorilla in terms of supermarkets in East Texas (at least until Walmart showed up).
As for the Bolt, I'm hoping to get one (or maybe a Volt) in the next year or so. People complain about the 54Kw charging speed but they fail to consider the size of the battery and efficiency of the car. I love that power blue color; I actually saw a First Gen Volt with a color like that back when they were still selling them but I don't know how common that color is for them.
My Bolt gets delivered by D&M Leasing today. Happy to see to info on this trip. I live in Allen, TX--good to see the familiar NTTA toll tag. Excited to get out and appreciate the new Bolt.
You guys are so brave
Very entertaining and informative video. I just bought a '23 Bolt EUV while I wait for my Rivian, Ford Lightning, and Chevy Silverado reservations to turn into actual offers to purchase. Then I have to decide which one to choose.
I know the Bolt is not a road trip vehicle, but your video gives me hope that I can make it work for an upcoming 860 mile trip from NC to NY. 🙂
I was waiting for my Lightning reservation to convert too. I enjoy this car so much, I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do when Ford says I can order. The plus for the Bolt in terms of road trips is the efficiency. It uses half the power of the Lighting or the Rivian, so even though those vehicles can take a higher charge rate, they’ll take almost as long to charge because they’ll use more of the battery pack.
I have a 2022 Bolt EV and drove from WV to Arkansas (712 miles) by myself over the thanksgiving holiday. I went across Kentucky going out and got stressed because there aren’t many charging stations across KY or WV. Of course I left with a full charge from home. I drove at 65 mph. I returned across Tennessee because there are a lot more CS. The big problem I had was like you - the screens are hard to see at times. I met several nice people at the charging stations. I’m taking my second adventure road-trip back to Arkansas for the Christmas holiday. I look forward to the trip and wish you the best on your next adventure!! I enjoyed your video.
Thanks!
65 mph, I'm surprised you're not road kill.
@@DavidScott-e5m I know. I’ve upped my mph to 68 or 69. 😂
So the seats are comfortable? I heard it's a bit spartan in the interior.
@@valueofnothing2487 they are fine. It’s not a BMW which I’ve owned two of them but it’s fine. What I have found is that when I was driving an ice car I wouldn’t stop as often as I should’ve been. Having to stop and charge is actually refreshing me and my energy level too. I’ll generally walk around in Sam’s or Walmart while charging and I’m not as tired by the end of my day as I was before. I will admit it’s not as luxurious and I can’t put the top down but I’m 65 and I really like trying to help the environment too. I recycle my plastic and cardboard and there’s plenty of room to do that in the Bolt too.
I gotta say, you Bolt EV owners sure are a patient people. Waiting nearly an hour on a charger to go from 20% to 80% to drive another 100-120 miles would be prohibitively time consuming for most drivers.
Yeah, if you want regular long trips, Tesla is the only way to go - between the comprehensiveness AND maturity (ie reliability) of the Supercharger network itself, and the in-car features for route/charging planning. I love watching the Tesla videos where you can see on the display the chargers you can reach changing color in real time as the charge comes in, and you can tap on the icon and see how many are available RIGHT NOW.
The bolts built in nav doesn’t tell you where and when to charge???
But some of us are not Tesla fans, I don’t like the minimalist interior of the Tesla!
@@rogermartinez78 I was going between a Bolt and Tesla and liked all the advanced features of the Boit... even things Tesla doesnt have like vented seats, carplay, camera rearview mirror, etc... But when I used them from Turo the charging was a nightmare with broken charge stations... and I would feel "claustrophobic" with the Bolt as trips would just take too long to charge if I had to go on any road trip.... I didnt want to spend $40K for a car that I couldn't comfortably go anywhere. That being said the Bolt is an amazing car and an amazing value with great features that. used to only be found in luxury cars. Supercruise is amazing.
It you watch closely, you will notice that smart Bolt drivers do not wait to charge all the way to 80%. You spend considerably less time charging overall if you unplug around 60% and simply stop to charge more often.
In the video, the times they went beyond 60%, it was because they were doing something, be it eating or talking to people, and didn't want to rush back to the car, like this was some kind of a race.
Of course, those that are really concerned about travel time shouldn't be doing a trip like this in any kind of a car - EV or ICE - long distance trips like this is what airplanes are for.
6:42 It's kind of amazing to me that drivers of CCS cars just assume that a certain number of EA stations will be down. I've never even thought about a Tesla Supercharger being down.
This past summer was rough, but our trip was smooth at least.
BOLT EV & EUVs are great electric cars as daily driver but not for road trips. An hour of charging from 20% to 80% state of charge. That's an hour of wait to gain around 140miles range. I think this is great if it's only for a 350-400mile road trip (one way). Which takes only one stop to re-charge. Anything more than one stop with slow charge rate would be too much time IMO. I ordered the BOLT EUV LT over two months ago. I got a call yesterday that the car arrived. I am 500mile away from home. The dealership will hold it for me until I get home a week from today. BUT, I am still undecided (50/50). I believe it's $27, 200 + 500option + 995 destination fee + tax ($31,500 out the door without interest).
The wait didn’t really bother us, and the car is a great value.
Great video
My simple take is commuter to work is fine but no way would I use it for traveling .... I don’t think I could put of the inconvenience I don’t travel highways I like no planning when I travel
Electrify America and the other non Tesla chargers really need to up their game. It shouldn't be a high anxiety challenge to charge your EV. The Electrify America chargers are slow to initiate, and you can't really tell if it's going to work until it begins.. if at all. The Bolt is a wonderful little car, but it needs to give it's owners more information about state of charge.
I'm your 900th subscriber. Good info.
Thanks!
Free charge, but still, almost one hour per charge. Meh, my time is more valuable than that. That's way too long for me personally. Thanks for the video
Guessing on long trip it is possible to modify charging level higher 80 %. Back to 80 in case of stopping overnight at hotel.
You don't HAVE to go 75 just because that's the speed LIMIT. It's OK to go say 65 - much better range. Like the color of the car! Tennesse looks familiar - drove through there to NC years ago, which gas was $4 a gallon. Like your style.
Unfortunately that can get you pulled over as well. Cops call it suspicious. And since they are more interested in stealing money from people through civil asset forfeiture, they are more of a danger to drivers then criminals.
I’m enjoying your video and decided to comment while watching. I currently have a Honda CRV and FIT. I put a deposit down to order a Bolt EUV to replace the FIT. I know I’ll do all of my local driving in the Bolt but watching you on the highway gives me optimism that the Bolt will also be comfortable on the highway at highway speeds and among the trucks. The hotel where we stay when visiting our family out of town has a charging station in the parking lot so I’m hoping I can use that to fill our needs for a 300 mile round trip. Great video. You seems to love your Bolt and I hope I do too. Best of luck and have fun!
Thanks. I really do love the car, and it was very comfortable on that trip. That round trip seems doable
Wow I m still watching your video and you’re in Nashville and your first day was over 600 miles!!! Amazing stamina!!! Yes, I am really looking forward to getting my Bolt and the fact that you have a Tesla and seem to love the Bolt speaks volumes. I’m pretty sure you can buy an adapter to use the Tesla super charge but looks like you don’t really need one. Thanks again!
The Tesla was a friend’s car, and it was high on miles, had some stuff broken, etc. We were going to borrow it for this trip, but glad we had the Bolt.
I know. It's like climbing Mt. Everest or going 20,000 leagues under the sea.
paying by the minute may cost less. But a slower charging car like the bolt is still going to pay more money for less electricity than a faster charging car that uses more electricity would. Which sounds a bit unfair to be honest.
FYI sprouts are super easy and cheap to grow. Lots of videos on RUclips
Incredible video thanks for sharing. Now, let me do some quick math 🧮 8 charge stops 🤔 at 1 hour per stop equals too long for me. I would happily pay an extra 50 bucks to save 5-8 hours. My time is way too important to waste it charging that’s my only issue with electric cars at the moment. I was just rear ended and I’m in the market for a new car. I was thinking about the bolt but I live in a condo complex that’s from the stone ages so no charge stations and I’m a independent transporter so I was trying to figure out how I would make a bolt work. Guess I’ll be sticking to a Prius or Ionic 😩
My condolences on your 50 kWh charging sessions on a road trip. Extremely painful. On the plus side you can just stop at any CCS charger. Not worry about finding a 300 or 150…
Sometimes it’s even comped by ea because the charger can only do 50 kWh, so it can be a plus
The bolt is a cool car but it is certainly not a road trip mobile. Just because you could does not mean you should. Charging for an hour and then driving for an hour and a half is completely ridiculous. The bolt is at most a 300 mile road trip car. That would be one stop in between and then you can charge at your destination. at a certain point, you have to put a value on what your time is worth. We have two electric vehicles, a Ford lightning and a Tesla model three. They are great when it fits within your lifestyle, however, it is not plausible to stop and eat lunch every hour and a half. with the bolt, and the excruciatingly low charge speed, you are putting yourself in a position where you are just waiting and doing nothing, or you’re stopping somewhere and you’re forced to spend money instead of sitting in your car waiting for the bolt to charge.
I would get a full charge each time, worried about running out of power if there were a bad traffic jam.
Traffic jams don’t use that much power. The car can sit at idle pulling 1-2 kw. If it sits still for an hour, that’s 7-8 miles of range. Every time it would have to slow down or stop in a traffic jam, I’d get regen.
Was he using the one pedal regen option?
I wondered as to the apparently mandatory 75 mph speeds between charging stops. Speeding reduces efficiency as seen in less miles per kilowatts. Driving at 65 mph is far more efficient, legal and reduces charging time and costs. In my experience, driving 65 allows my Ioniq 5 EV to be at steady speeds which is were the 3.8 mpk cones from. Good luck.
In some locations, 75 was the posted speed limit. You are absolutely correct, and I mention in another video on a different trip, that slowing down to 65, or even 70, works wonders for efficiency.
@@SpinnerEV Going those speed makes you a real hazard. If you're not going the prevailing speed you shouldn't be on an interstate highway. Your efficiency doesn't matter much if you're creating dangerous situations.
I'm not a big fan of Jimmy Johns but I've been there before. That being said I've never seen anyone order a sprout sandwich nor have I ever heard of such a thing. I let my dinner eat the lawn.
Electrify America is your best bet and stop every 50 miles its cheaper that way
50kW charging was a lot of power - in 2012. Nowadays, 150kW would be a more reasonable baseline.
True, but it is what it is. Until the Equinox comes out, a CCS EV capable of 150 kw is a little over $10,000 more. I’m willing to sacrifice some time at a charger and take a longer break.
Sure, find a car for under or around $30k that charges at 125kw or faster... Ill wait here for ya
@@dugintexas7908 The Bolt! With $100 per unit worth of thicker wire and $25 per unit of software changes. They could price it at $350 and make a bunch of money.
Don’t ever stop at the ChargePoint located in Paducah, KY at the GM dealership!! They charged me $7 to park and my cost to charge for 1.25 hours was $32!!!! For comparison, at the Beaver Damn rest stop in KY I charged for 1.5 hours and it was $16!!!!
Yikes
I'm sure this trip would go a lot different now that Tesla has opened up their chargers to other vehicles.
We’ll likely be making the same trip in about 6 months. Currently the Tesla superchargers show as open in New York and San Jose. We’ll see if they get to the middle of the country by then.
Lol she has the I want to talk to your manager hair cut 😅😅😅
If going by cost, why not stay longer at the free stations and charge a max so you pay less at the next charger?
We didn’t realize the chargers were free on this part of the trip until we were done charging at those locations. The Bolt also slows down the charge speed after reaching 50% state of charge, so topping off would take much longer.
I just drove 900 miles a day for 3 days straight cross country. Simply not possible in Bolt right now. It would 6 days
Curiously the owner is upspeaking. (The habit of talking in question marks).
Come to California gas here today is $5.15 for regular :-(
Total time of the trip charging and driving minus the overnight stay?
I don’t recall off the top of my head, but I put it up in a graphic in part 3
What camara do used to recored the vedio?
This one was done with a GoPro Hero 7 Black.
So, I originally asked for the Qmerit/GM/Chevy credit. I am not going to use it. What is the other charger credit you can please get instead? How do I change it? Thanks. #givingtuesday2022
The only other one I know of is a $500 credit usable at EVgo public chargers. I had to ask my dealership to set it up.
Hey y’all pass thru my city I see six flags😊
Does your EA account provide you with the records for each charging session when you login with the app? That would be a good reason for logging in each time, even if the charge is free. I wonder if charging sessions are free because EA is unable to reach their networks?
I only got records when we paid for the charge
As you guys also own a Tesla (I think I heard you say that), could you not have charged the Bolt at the Tesla stations?
We could have borrowed the Tesla, but currently only Teslas can charge at their super chargers
@@SpinnerEV I didn't know that. I thought if you owned a Tesla and another EV, you could charge them both. Thanks for showing the road trip with the Bolt. You have helped me make up my mind to go ahead and order the 2023 model. Blessings
Thanks! Enjoy it. It’s a great car
Too bad you couldn't get a hotel with EV charging, that would have eliminated your charge session prior to sleeping. I think all hotels should be required to have overnight EV charging available.
Would be nice.
46 min to charge??? Are you kidding me???
I'm wondering what happens if you lose your cellphone along the way? can you find charging another way?
Watch the video...most , if not all, stops for EA have a credit card touch charge pad as well. Also you can use another phone to call EA and they can start the session on your account.
12:10 If you can manage not driving 75 -80 MPH without being tailgated, that's how to conserve in EVs or ICE cars. Stay to the right and watch the mob pass. Late at night is sometimes the only way to avoid pushy tailgaters. America still refuses to care that speed wastes energy. When shale fracking peaks and people learn that sprawling "renewables" and EVs were a luxury of the oil age, things may change.
How much do you value your time? Is it worth waiting several hours (over a trip) to charge to save $50 or so? Great to see the trip was possible and things will continually get better, but the energy cost savings isn't that much of a factor.
The time isn’t that much of a factor for me. The trip itself is part of the vacation for me and we take a lot of breaks regardless. With our gasoline Subaru, the trip would have taken about the same amount of time, because we would have stopped more frequently. That’s just us.
Than don’t buy one, what exactly is the need for your comment?
Doing it in an EV adds excitement. Road tripping in an ICE is boring - people have been doing it for the past 100 years.
Don’t believe everything Kyle Connor or Brandon flasch say about ea
How many hours you wasted waiting to get charged it could have been a decimation already
If you drove your car instead, would they have gave you free gas? This is like apples and oranges. You can’t compare the two if you’re getting free electricity.
How much is your time worth?? Wake up people.....ice cars give you more freedom and less time filing up!! EV road trips are longer and what are you going to do when there is no power??
Well what is more common. A place in the US with a 120 volt plug. Or one selling gas? Because yep you can charge on 120volts.
Whatever money you saved in fuel, I would be more than willing to spend in order to not sit there waiting for it to charge. Time is money. Give me ICE any day.
love the bolt just not the slow charging , i wont buy one thanks for this
EV owners lose freedom of choice regarding hotels, eating options etc IF trying to tie charge stops to where you want to eat or sleep. Also, why aren’t charging stations covered? I’m trying to imagine getting charged up in pouring rain, hail, snow, or baking sun. Not a pleasant experience, especially if you have to then walk a long way to a restroom or restaurant. Love EV’s for home charging and running around town but extended trips aren’t for me.
Now if it was 10 degrees outside, would you still want to walk 1/2 mile to Taco Bell. What if you have a disability?
I likely wouldn’t road trip when it was 10 degrees outside.
You kind of have to like Walmart to drive a Chevy Bolt.
In a gas car you would have saved so much time you wouldn't have needed a hotel room. So add that cost and you didn't really save anything. EV charging still sux.
Shame on you. Buying a reliable, affordable vehicle! How are the car companies going to survive if you don't blow your money on EV vehicles costing $60,000 and up???
🤷🏻♂️
@@SpinnerEV I don't understand?
GM will be dead in a few years. Look at their debt load and lack of profit margins, meanwhile Tesla is swimming in cash and market share.
You are a serious Tesla fan, I do however fail to agree with your comment!
I gather you ignored the 40 billion profit by GM in the 1 st quarter of 2023?
Seems like a lot of wasted time waiting for the car to charge. Can’t wait for these cars to charge faster and go further.