2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV | CarGurus Test Drive Review
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- Опубликовано: 13 окт 2024
- Shop the new Chevy Bolt EV: cargur.us/pPC4G
A starting price less than $37,500 makes the Bolt an attractive option for electric-vehicle shoppers, especially while the U.S. government’s $7,500 EV tax credit exists. But consider its 238-mile range, spritely performance, and 5-star safety rating from the NHTSA, and the Bolt EV isn’t just a compelling offer, it’s the best deal in the EV segment.
An electric motor pairs with 60 kWh worth of batteries stored under the Bolt’s floor. In total drivers enjoy the equivalent of 200 horsepower and 266 lb-ft of torque, but the delivery of all that power is completely different from what they’d find in a gas- or diesel-powered car. Managed by a 1-speed transmission, the torque arrives instantly, meaning the Bolt EV can sprint to 60 mph in about 6.5 seconds. Additionally, aggressive regenerative braking means Bolt EV drivers can enjoy 1-pedal driving.
Chevrolet’s 10.2-inch touchscreen runs a unique version of MyLink that, along with supporting Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, allows the driver to view their energy consumption-and what’s using all that energy. Mike Perkins found this feature particularly helpful, but to learn what else Mike liked (and didn’t like) about the 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV, read his full review on CarGurus: cargur.us/pPC4h
Presenter: Michael Perkins and Olive
Cinematographer: Carl Nenzen Loven
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Miss this guy's work. Wish he would do his own car review channel.
Long range it does pretty well, too. I've owned my 2017 Bolt EV since last October and have a little over 11,000 miles. I drove from San Jose to LA last December to pick up my daughter and her boyfriend from college to come home. I started from SJ with a full battery and made two 30 minute charging stops (DC Fast Charge) at Selma (south Fresno) and Bakersfield going down highway 99 (currently insufficient fast charging on highway 5, except for Tesla). Picked up the kids and spent the night in a West Hollywood hotel where they had a level 2 charger to get a full charge for the return in the morning. Made the trip back with two 30 minute charges again (one for lunch and the other for a snack). I've been really pleased with the Bolt.
Thanks for your video. Grew up in Danville and have been thinking of returning for a trip up Diablo so your trip was fun for me. The rule of thumb that I've been told is slightly less than 1.5 kWh of battery used for every 1,000 feet of elevation gain (although you regain a lot of that when you come back down).
Bruce Kackman You regain a TON going back down, especially in the low gear. Have you noticed any battery degradation in your 11k mi?
I drive exclusively in L mode. It's easier and more power efficient.
I haven't experienced any battery degradation. Neither have others that have driven over 40,000 miles and reported no loss of battery performance.
Bruce Kackman Same. Once I switched over I never switched back.
And that's great to hear on the battery. Nissan has found the same, even with extended use in the Leaf. Hopefully people will stop worrying.
Great review, Michael! I really enjoyed my test drive in the BOLT, but the front seat backs hit me in all of the wrong places. I'm sure that in time, GM will make improvements, especially when then start to take the electric car market seriously.
Mitchell Barnow Yeah, those seats definitely need work.
Had a bolt since January and consistently get close to 300 mile range
David Duncan I don't doubt it at all!
Michael - Ever hear of HYPERMILEING ? is possible to drive a BOLT below 65 Mph and gain 300 Miles in range, and if your trips are Less than 40 Miles to work and back , the charge can last or Days.
Mark Plott Heard of it? I did it. Didn't even need to keep it below 65. As I said in the video, drive it over a week every day and never recharged once.
Michael Perkins he didn’t read the “don’t” in your comment and went full-internet-offended on you :)
David Duncan Me too. See above
My commute takes me over a mountain where the pass is at ~1800 feet. I will regularly see myself at, say, 190 miles remaining when I get to the top and then 210-220+ by the time I get to the bottom again. It's almost silly how much it regens.
Just bought a 2018 with 30k miles and a battery replaced in Aug, 2023. Got a 60k mi warranty. All for 15k$ after the state and federal tax credits. This is my first EV and I hope it lasts me at least 5 yrs. 🤞🏼
I am able to get a fully loaded premiere trim today under $40k with all in out the door price (tax included too).
In California my paid tax is definitely above $7.5k, hence I should qualify for the Fed credit plus state rebate that will bring the price down to under $30k. I think is a sweet deal.
Also my commute is 30miles one way, hence the benefit of HOW sticker helps my commute greatly I think.
I've had a Bolt for 18 months now. My LT now has 62,000 miles with no degredation and no repair costs. Best car I have ever owned. It is absolutely stupid how much money this car saves you.
Excellent review! I absolutely agree that the Bolt is a quite impressive car.
Quick point of perspective to bear in mind: It’s easy to mistakenly think that your day-to-day charger(s) need to be very high-powered. Remember that the size of the battery is rarely what determines how much charging capacity you need; what matters most is how many miles you *routinely* drive per day. If you take long road trips only a few times a year, and typically drive, say 25 miles a day, then you can probably get away with the plain old 120V charger that comes with it!
Gary Morrison Absolutely!
(Just to clarify, I’m not suggesting that this particular review implies that a high-powered charger is critical. However, I have seen people look at the Bolt’s large battery and conclude that they need to invest in an expensive home charger. Some folks lose sight of the fact that *most* people won’t have to recharge the entire battery capacity often, and when they *do* have to, they often can do so gradually - say adding an extra 20 miles per day more than your daily-commute needs.)
Gary Morrison No problem. Yeah - given that most people drive less than 35mi/day, plugging in when you get home from work should be plenty!
Agreed; and 5:14 is not quite accurate: 12 hours at 120v gets you more than 40 miles (it adds about 4 miles per hour).
xchopp, good info. Thanks.
I, for now at least, don’t own a Bolt. One of my coworkers has a Bolt, and I really like what I see in it! I personally drive a Toyota Prius Prime, with a mere 25-30 mile-per-charge EV range. However, charging infrastructure here in Austin TX being very good, I’m able to drive ~45 miles per day almost entirely on electric.
With that small a battery, I do need to charge often, or (eeeeeew!) switch over to the gas engine. To avoid gas almost entirely, I found it necessary to install a level-2 (240V) charger. Then again, that only cost us around $600. Not a huge deal, but potentially not needed with the Bolt’s big battery.
As a side note, one thing that’s very positive about the Prius Prime, is its efficiency. Reviewers often point out that, although it’s EV range is shorter than the Volt (not to be confused with the Bolt, the subject of this review), the Prius Prime gets considerably higher mileage on gas. That is indeed true, but what they don’t often mention is that the ‘Prime is *also* more efficient in EV operation, at around 4.8 miles/KWh. IIRC, the Volt gets somewhere around 3.7 miles/KWh typically.
The Bolt, Volt and Prius Prime are very different cars, with very different design targets in mind though, so that’s just an aside.
Should have come down at higher speed in cruise control using the one pedal and unlocking cruise control with the paddle on curves and powering out by touching resume. On Palomar 8% grade 7 miles I will get 70 and on Rincon grade second half of grade 8% down for 4 miles I get 40 miles more. My range varies around 300 to 320 depending on how many hours I charge at 120 volts at 12 Amps.
2 dudes, a dog and some gear is exactly what I want.
I'll just settle for Mike Perkins, the host of this episode!
He is HOT.
Bruce Allen Agreed!
I'm so glad you did this video, absolutely great! I've always liked this vehicle and I'm glad to see it's actually a decent vehicle.
I disagree with the complaints about the Bolt seats being too small. I also own, in addition to my '18 Bolt Premier, a '17 Lincoln MKX..full size SUV. The Lincoln front seats are just ONE INCH wider than the Bolt seats. Hardly a difference.
It's like comfort is a *subjective thing*. I haven't tested the MKX yet, but it's about more than just measured width. Sculpting, materials, bolstering can all have a huge impact.
Michael Perkins yes it is subjective. You used the term “wide enough”..... haha
Bruce Allen And still uncomfortable.
I have 2017 Bolt EV LT.
I love that car.No way I'm going back to gas cars.
The only bad things is seats.Uncomfortable.
Stepan Bugrov Agreed.
What is so clumsy about the shifter? We have a Bolt and after getting used to the shift pattern...which took about 30 minutes, no problems at all.
Do you charge the 100% all the time?
Jackson Gil I didn't charge it once during my test week.
Makes a terrific ride-share vehicle for Lyft, Uber contractors... or for Zipcar. Nice real-world review, Mike.
Daniel Gross Thanks, Daniel!
I tried it once at a car show. The performance was great, felt good to drive, but the interior was cheap feeling and the seats not comfortable.
TheGerm24 Same, though some of the textured plastics I found were quite nice.
Great review as always. Really goofy looking proportions for the vehicle. Tall and narrow track. Does nothing to shed the whole dorky EV looking vehicle stigma sadly. If possible could you get the audio louder? Have the speakers on max and still quiet
Blake Swan Weird. Sounds good here?
You perfectly described a hatchback and the Bolt happens to be one.
great review as always
Stéphane Appreciate it!
Would have liked to test drive the Bolt but for some reason best known to Chevrolet they're not selling it in the UK, after watching the vid I'd probably go for the LT, but wish they'd come up with a simpler dash with all the major info on one screen.
To be honest, that's an innovation that I'd love for all car companies to implement. Half of cars have 3 screens to pay attention to. It's like they've forgotten that actually looking at the road is important as well.
That's why I mentioned it I'm there to drive the car not manage the computer - don't get me wrong I'm got a Luddite but there's too much tech creeping into the cabin these days. and the fact is that if you have bought a Tesla the home office can access the operating system and change the thing without you knowledge and can disable functions.
I don't understand why this car is not more famous than soul, and leaf and tesla. Had I bought a electric car I would have gotten this. The range and price eats everything and in the looks department not to shabby. But chevrolet, no electric seats, come on... Its 2018....
It's about Branding and brand perception. If this was a Honda, believe me, it would be praised and a superstar. It just has the wrong name.
Wait for the Buick Bolt or lease one of these or hope & pray a sub 40K Model 3 ever exists.
One thing is for sure. It's only going to get better!
The main problem with the Chevy Bolt is that its built as a Compliance vehicle , is doesn't offer any Performance , compared to a Model 3 RWD LR , which is close to the BOLTS price. A model 3 LR gets 310 Miles range and can use the Supercharger Network to Drive to LA and back .
Mark Plott I'll take RWD any day.
Looks good
I had once thought that Tesla might go bankrupt because of the tough competition... But then I focused on autonomous driving and what car >I< myself would want to buy... and I realized that Tesla would not go bankrupt because people WANT Tesla's self driving autonomous driving feature and Tesla is #1 as far as self driving autonomous driving is concerned!!! Of course the technology of self driving autonomous cars is in its infancy so it can sometimes result in serious disaster if you trust it too much... but nevertheless it definitely is something that needs to be developed considering the fact that at least 30,000 people die from motor vehicle fatalities in the USA alone EVERY YEAR!!! So i can't but praise Elon Musk for attempting to develop the life saving technology of self driving autonomous cars!!!
This literally had nothing to do with the bolt....
Follow me on IG for behind-the-scenes and upcoming cars: mikedperkins
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Nice review Mike, as usual. But next time, more footage of the dog please. :p
Ibby25 Working on it! 100 degrees that day, so she was hiding in the shade a lot.
More Oliveeeeeeeeeeeeeee 🐺
Fan Zou Ask and ye shall receive.
I second this! Car Gurus featuring Mike & Olive would be such a fun series
It's a paddle brake, not shifter.
You're correct, of course. But a rose by any other name ...
Donald Trump repealed that tax credit for buying an electric car. So the price already went up $7,000. Just a heads up future EV buyers.
Problem with evs is that they are one dimensional. Take them on the highway and you'll see range fall..PHEV is more versatile
the Chevy BOLT is hard to like, its just NOT a sexy car, and the Chevy Bolt is getting some competition soon by the KIA NERO EV and the Hyundai KONA EV. both perform better and both look really Great compared to the BOLT. Also the NERO has the Largest cargo volume for the Price , and best of all the NERO and KONA both use the Same battery as the BOLT. I look foreward to the KONA and NERO making the Bolt Irrevelant in 2018.
Mark Plott More competition is always good.
….ANY CREDIT FOR USE AT A CHIROPRACTOR......LOL...……;-),,,,,,,,,,
Sound on this video is fucked.
Too expensive. I'll wait
eddie pan Same Tesla 3, used models S, and this on the used market will make a great choice. By then we should know all the bugs these cars have so to speak
Nobody pays full price for a Chevy product in the past century, so I got a sweet deal
Once the federal tax credit for it disappear this car will "magically" drop in price by the same amount.
@@rxonmymind8362 agree
@Rxonmymind that is one thing Chevy (GM) is good at. Discounting less than steller products. Anyone remember Pontiac Sunfire/Chevy Cavalier. 20K car back in the day that competed against the Honda Civic. It was a little quicker worse fuel economy, less safe, and less reliable. So it wasn't unusal to get a discount of 8K-10K on a 20K car.