Bolt EUV 6 month review | Driving to work
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- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- I wanted to share my thoughts on the Chevy Bolt EUV after driving it for 6 months.
Watch my 1 year review here: • Chevy Bolt EUV 1 Year ...
Check out the first Tips and Tricks video Here: • Bolt EUV Tips & Tricks...
Watch the second Tips and Tricks video Here: • Bolt EUV Tips & Tricks...
Watch a quick bonus tip here: • Chevy Bolt Super Cruis...
I ordered a Bolt EUV 2/16/23, received 6/16/23. Mine is a Premiere base in Ice Blue metallic. Most of my driving is in town, but I have made several 200 mile trips to see my parents. I did not think I would like 1-pedal driving, but now that’s all I use. For me, I just needed to get used to how quickly it slows down in order to gauge when to let off the pedal to stop at a light. The brake pedal in the Bolts does blended braking, so lightly pressing on the brake is not using the hydraulic brakes. As far as I can tell, it does this in 1P or normal modes. You can see the increase in kWh on the DIS. I have not tried 1P on trips, but next time I go see Dad, I’ll give it a try. Funny note, I get better efficiency on trips than I do around town. That might be due to extremely aggressive, unmindful drivers where I live, so I keep the car in Sport mode. This little car does very well in battle.
The LT version would’ve also been missing the heated/ventilated seats. It is getting colder here, so I’m looking forward to seeing how my cold weather strategy will affect mileage. I plan on keeping the cabin heat on LO, or off, and using the heated seats.
One problem I suggested to GM to fix was that not all the controls are redundant. For example, my car has heated rear seats, like yours. My daughter has Down Syndrome, and for a while when we first took the car to visit Mom and Dad, she inadvertently turned on her heated seat in the summer heat and sun. It would be nice to have the ability to turn that function off from the console via software. In fact, GM should make all the controls redundant through the console- like even windows. GM has good window switch designs, but everything breaks eventually, so imagine if you were able to roll down windows via the center screen in the event that a switch stopped working until it was repaired.
The EUV is saving me money even though I don’t commute as far as you do. My typical gas expenses per month in a 13 mpg F-150 was $200-250. It’s difficult to gauge due to fairly frequent long trips, but I think my new expense is more like $25/mo. I’m an electrician by trade for 30 years, part time hot rodder, and full time internet commenter- LOL. If you or anyone ever needs advice on wiring EV outlets, feel free to ask. I can at least give you advice on what to tell the electrician you hire, and how to check to make sure he/she is installing what they say. For example, Bryant and Hubbell NEMA 14-50 “industrial rated” outlets are the only ones that are made to withstand heavy duty use. I would also recommend that anyone with a Bolt immediately look into another charger rather than the one GM provides. GM’s 240v charger only allows 32 amp charging. In electrical terms, any device that pulls power for more than 3 hours is considered “continuous,” and the circuit must be built to handle 125% of the maximum load. This is because of heat retention in the circuit- current is measured in heat, breakers trip from heat, wire insulation melts from heat, and internal connections in outlets stress from heat. The reason I strongly suggest another charger is that in order to lower the stress on the electrical devices a person should be able to choose the minimum current necessary to have the car charged by the time it needs to be used. This will help the electrical equipment last longer- exponentially. When breakers go bad, no power will be transferred, and you won’t notice this until you’re in need of a charge- right? I strongly suggest a permanent mounted, hardwired EVSE if you have a garage. I also strongly suggest that it is “over-wired” with at least #6 AWG. For one, if using a NEMA 14-50 outlet, that outlet must be protected by a GFCI breaker. These breakers cost $100-300 depending on manufacturer, whereas a normal 50amp 240v is about $20. If the EVSE is hardwired, then a GFCI is not required.
Best wishes, and enjoy your EUV!!!
This is an awesome comment and super helpful! I will be trying some cold weather strategies as well and sharing my thoughts on it once I have a chance to test. Also the electrician knowledge is impressive and I will definitely check back when upgrading our charging setup in the future, thanks!
@@thundermighty - sure bro, I’d love to help gather resources and data for a presentation and installation. It might take me a few emails to do so. The nature of electrical installations can be complicated to where I might try to give a layman’s advice, but with caveats. For example, above I wrote that #6 is the minimum wire for EVSEs, but only for NEMA 14-50 outlet installations or hardwired up to 50 amp! Over that would require larger wire, and people who want to take advantage of something like Ford’s 80 amp EVSE that allows the vehicle to be used as a home backup battery would need much larger wiring. The State Of Charge channel has done an expose’ on NEMA 14-50 outlet damage from improper wiring featuring a QMerit “qualified” electrician. In this, they showed, but nobody mentioned that QMerit’s installation advertisement actually shows them smiling and shaking hands after an indoor outlet box was installed on the outside of a customer’s house! Many people will be installing EVSEs where there will not be a government electrical inspection required. That’s why I continuously write long posts on every channel that comes across my YT feed. I don’t want anyone to have a house fire as a result of some lackluster “qualified” electrician. People should know basics, like where to find wire size printed on the wire, so that they can inspect the materials themselves to at least be able to verify the correct materials they are paying for are being used. Also, it is logical that EVSE using 50 amp outlets should be replaced periodically, and anyone who can follow simple instructions can do this safely instead of needing to pay an electrician. My location is not ideal for installing a hardwired EVSE- yet- so if that is the route you go, I’d like you to send me pics of the terminals so that I can give correct advice as well as point out NEC required labeling on the device. We’ll have to do it through email, so sometime message me here, and please go in and erase my email after you enter it so that I’m not inundated with political and corporate bots.
For Tesla chargers they don’t recommend GFCI breakers
Amazon sells sun visor extenders to do exactly what you were expressing you needed. Found it in 2 seconds
Fair point, but I would like to have things work well without buying an add on.
You could use a ball cap and turn it sideways to block the sun.
I like the thought process.
One of my big complaints about the Bolt is the visor not completely covering the window. Was very happy to find it does on my new Model Y. Super pissed, though, that the MY doesn't have top down 360 view. For a car coding $20,000 more.
I agree, had the side windows tinted, problem solved.
One great thing about Tesla is the OTA updates. Since I got my car, they've added a form of 3D Parking Assist, similar, but not as good as, the Bolt has. But getting better.
The visor slides bro
Yeah, it slides but not ask the way to cover the window if you have kind legs and have the seat back far. The Tesla covers the while window.
I may be wrong, but the sun visor thing is more a "Where You Live/Where You're Going Problem" and not a Bolt EUV problem.
It’s definitely a me problem, but figured it was still worth mentioning.
It's a Bolt problem. My Honda visor telescopes to cover more area
Good morning! How much are you spending to charge a month if you don’t mind me asking. I have a Similar drive about 145 miles a day. I am still waiting for them to do the home charging outlet for me to charge at home. I am just wondering how much more your electricity bill went up from what you were paying before? How much do you also pay per KWh in your state?
Sure thing, I’m actually working on a more in depth video on the topic, but I’m at $0.09 per KWh with $0.14 KWh peak where I live and (with solar on my house) went from a surplus and standard $25 a month fee to be connected up to an average of $50-$60 a month. That’s with charging from about 25%-40% up to 100% 2 to 4 times a week. Hope that helps.
Hope you can sell it before the warranty goes out. $15K to replace the battery pack. Nope!
Honestly I can live with that, cheaper than a new car 😅
The battery is warrantied for 8 years by GM. Do you worry about how much it costs to replace a combustion engine in your car?
8 year 100k mile warranty
Are you not going to consider the savings from charging instead of pumping gas?
What kind of warranty do you have on your current car? How much is a new motor and transmission?
@@John-md9hn You are funny! I have a beautiful gas guzzling 2004 Lexus GX470 I bought in 2020 for only $7000. 230K miles and likely 1/4 of it's life span. I only drive 5000 miles a year and only need gas every two weeks. There will likely NEVER be a need to replace the engine or trans as this vehicle is rated for 500K to even 1mil miles on the engine and trans with normal maint. And even if I had to replace the engine or trans the cost would NEVER be more that the car is worth like this EV mess! Imagine an 8.5 year old EV that was kept up nicely and the battery fails and cheaper just to but a used car as the repair is double the value of the car? Total madness! There is a good reason the EV market is slowing to a halt in 2023. All of the early adopters have bought one and the other masses simply refuse to pay the high price, long charge times, and long term potential costs. I will keep my Lexus in perfect shape for another 20 years as you go through 3-4 more EVs. LOL! BTW. You can still get some nice compact gas cars new for $15K! Good luck!