That looked like a fun trip! Great to see you again. I don't need to know what your family troubles are, but I hope it all works out for you. The Bolt looks like a great car. Wish I could get one. Be well!
Mike Lynch It was a fun trip and I look forward to uploading more videos of the BOLT as I find time to do so... It most certainly is a great car with only some minor complaints. (the seats in particular) Other than that it's a solid vehicle and I hope to show it off as much as I can to whomever is interested.
Hi Bill. New Bolt driver here (had mine for almost a month now) in upstate NY. Really love the car. I always enjoy your videos. Hope everything is ok with your family.
milosamizdat that's awesome, I hope that my videos have helped to make an informed decision. 😀 Unfortunately home life is a bit upside down at the moment... I wish RUclips still allowed us to exchange private messages. 😕
Charles DeMaris Nice! And yes, it was a great day at Edaville... These will be some of the happier memories I can look back on with Ben as he gets older.
Wow. A 2-electric car family! Congratulations on your choice to go electric... I am sure that you are happy with your decision. Looks like you had a lot of fun on your get-away. Cheers, and thanks for sharing.
I wish we had a Dino Land in my neck of the woods when I was a kid. What a cool place. I’m off to check out your video of the park right now. Thanks for all the great videos!
Michael Petersen yes! It was awesome getting a chance to talk with you as well... Beautiful Model 3 you have there, and I'm surprised at how much you were able to pack in there! 😃
Really sorry to hear about the family troubles Bill :/, I hope the Patreon helps out a bit, or at least covers some of your guys' paid charging :)! I've charged a few times at the Solomon Pond Mall, the Bertucci's Pizza is pretty good!
Great video. I love my 2018 Bolt premier. I can’t wait to get my 2019 hopefully soon in the next month. Me and my wife will have full electric cars to drive around town.
I just bought a car but stumbled across your videos and this is the third road trip video of yours I watched and I love your enthusiasm for EVs, I’m strongly considering my next vehicle to be EV. Keep making these awesome videos! How has battery life been over the years have you noticed any battery degradation?
None... I've got over 50,000 miles on it and still running like new. The EPA range for the 2017's were 238 miles on a full charge, and in the summer months I can easily achieve that. It's only in the winter months where the range might drop down to about half of that, but that's not a battery issue, it's because more power is being used to keep things warm like the cabin or the battery, etc... It's been a great car, and I absolutely love driving electric! 😀
Hi Bill!! Another great video!! I enjoy your vids and all the info and tips you offer on the Bolt. I have a 2018 Premier in the same color and so far I love it. The only issue I have is with the 360 camera and one side...left...is slanted. The right side view mirror is in the proper detent position but the image is still distorted/at an angle. I'll have to get it checked at the local dealer and see what they say;)
I should test drive a premier sometime to check out the differences! I love my LT and it'd be pretty neat to see what added features I'm missing out on, but honestly don't need. (that is until I've had a chance to try them out.) 😉
Bill - you need to see what’s available for hotels with EV plugs (destination chargers) to charge overnight. Perhaps that was considered, but inconvenient or not available to you. Just a suggestion. . . Life size dinosaurs with motion and stories - a cool place! Thanks for taking us along!
Dennis Lyon oh trust me, I look for that every time I book a stay somewhere... When we took our trip from Maine to Virginia (and posted about it here on RUclips) back in April/May we were lucky enough to use our portable level 1 EVSE at each one of our overnights, but yeah it would be awesome to see more hotels offer up level 2 (and even some level 3 DC Fast Charging) for their guests! 😃
Not an EV owner but I want to be. Is there a difference in charging in the morning vs before you leave for the trip? How often do you charge to 100% and how much does that degrade the battery? Enjoying the channel.
I keep it on hill top mode most of the time (charges to anywhere between 85% to 91%) ...yeah, I'll only typically charge up to 100% when we do trips like this, however my lifestyle is changing soon and my commute to work is going to be a little bit longer now, and with winter coming I might find myself charging to 100% more often than not just so I know I've got enough juice to make it to work and back each day. Stay tuned as I'll be posting updates throughout the winter this winter with the car! 🙂
I was reading they make adapters to connect a telsa charger to a J1772. I hear that you can only use these with non-supercharging stations. Do you think this is a safe practice for the car, like a leaf, bolt or even Prius prime? Of course if you ask permission to use the telsa charger.
Michael Stellino yes, you are correct... There is an adapter that will work with *most Tesla destination chargers. An EV will only draw what it needs so if you hook up a LEAF to an 80amp Tesla EVSE the LEAF will only pull about 28amps (if charging at 6.6kW) or 14amps (if at 3.3kW).
Very excited to start my transition to electric. Looking to get the prius prime. Would love to get the bolt, but I can't install a level 2 charger at my condo. Hopefully next house will have a garage with a level-2 charger with a full electic car in the garage. Small steps for me! I enjoy your videos. Keep it up. I also liked your video passing over the tapzee and in NJ.
I really appreciate your videos but don't know yet if I'm ready for the Bolt. I currently drive a gen 1 Volt and regularly travel between Upstate NY and VT on a 2.5 to 3 hour drive. I'm concerned about the Bolt's capacity/performance in the harsh Winters up here.
Denis D I can tell you that coming from the LEAF which got as low as 65~70 miles in the dead of winter I personally am not too worried about the BOLT performing well as it should get well above 150 miles on a full charge, but I'll be able to report more once I get through this coming winter...
Right now, my Volt's battery takes a big hit in Winter. But I don't skimp on heat. And I'm sorry, but when it is -20 outside, a heated seat doesn't do it for me; I need some warm air.
I have a question for you. I live in St John's Newfoundland Canada. Where I live used Nissan leafs are rare but there is one used for sale and I don't know to purchase it or not since I would have to finance it. It's a 2011 leaf Sv with 90,000 kms on it and has 10/12 bars left on it's capacity for $13,000 cdn. It's well maintained and looks like new. What do you think or do you have any advice for me?
Richard Hollett ok, so let me convert this to American... 2011 Nissan LEAF Roughly 56,000 miles $9,878 U.S. Seems to me that it's roughly $2K high (USD) I'd also prefer a 2015 if you're going to go with a 24kWh LEAF... Check cargurus and kbb...it'll give you somewhat of an idea what the selling price should be. If you can get your hands on an OBD2 scanner tool I'd take that with you and LEAFSPY it when you take it for a test drive. Only then will you know the true capacity of the battery pack. Also here's a website that gets more in depth about the battery pack... pushevs.com/2018/01/29/2018-nissan-leaf-battery-real-specs/
Tesla typically gets those spots first because they pony up the cash to lease those spots before the chademo/ccs companies can get in there so they can get the prime locations. That's my theory anyways... makes sense that Tesla goes have the prime spots before anyone else does.
Do you find that driving in L can be exhusting to keep your foot on the accelerator? My family has a Volt and i find myself only putting the car in L mode when coming to a stop light or off ramp on the highway. Though if I am not mistaken the shifter on the Bolt is a little strange as the shifter goes back to the middle and does not stay in the position of the gear box.
Brett Paynter the Nissan LEAF operates in the same way. (as far as the shifter is concerned.) Going back to the center position after selecting your mode of transportation is normal for electric cars. Unlike their counterparts there is no "gear box" as most everything is digitally controlled...to switch between drive and reverse the computer simply changes the polarity to the motor. So much fewer moving parts...you could technically do away with the shifter altogether and just add a few buttons to the steering wheel or dash or something... As far as driving in L mode I like it! 😃 For inner city driving which is most of my driving anyways I leave it in L mode all the time. The only time I keep it in drive is when we take it on the interstate, but like you said I find myself popping it back in L when exiting the off ramps... It's a completely different driving experience and one that I've come to know and love! 😃
L mode is used for situations where you wish to maximize regenerative braking, which is very efficient. A desirable side effect to this is 1 pedal driving, which is a nice feature once you get used to it, and saves on friction brakes a lot. If you don’t care for the ebb and flow of one pedal driving ( accelerator pedal is rather touchy), you can also drive in D mode (behaves like a normal ICE car) and use the brake pedal to stop. When in D mode, you are still able to apply regen brakes by pulling a steering wheel paddle if you wish to stop rather quickly. For highway driving, D mode is preferred (provides a more natural slowdown when lifting your foot off the accel pedal) but either mode will behave the same when the speed control is set.
Bert it's to limit the batteries from being at a high state of charge for a long time... Batteries will last longer if they are not kept at or stored at 100% all the time.
If the bolt only had adaptive / smart cruse control.. I'm still flummoxed as to why they omit that.. Volt has it, Tesla's have it, my 2018 Nissan Leaf has it, all new EV's really have it.. Even Kia Niro EV and Kona EV's have Smart Cruze.. I really need it for all the long range driving I tend to do.. (50-100 miles one way) I could not do w/o it.. :/
Why did you delay initiation of the charge? It is not like it is below freezing with the car outside and you want the battery warmed up by charging instead of wasting standby power to keep it warm? It is also not like you are trying to avoid peak power pricing. You had it charge mid day when demand is highest; not in the middle of the night when demand is usually lowest in the summer. it seams like you are making the act of charging unnecessarily complicated and more prone to user error than if you had it start charging up right when you plugged it in.
The point of the delay is to not have the battery pack sit at a 100% state of charge for too long. The pack will last longer if you use it right away after reaching a full charge... One of the reasons your cell phone doesn't last more than 2 or 3 years is because we all have a tendency of plugging them in overnight and then they end up spending half their life at a full charge every night...not good for the batteries.
Adithya Ramachandran Where at, the Kennebunkport rest area? That's cool... Yeah, I had seen the Tesla superchargers put in the last time we drove by on the interstate. I had wanted to stop in even though they weren't showing up on PlugShare yet. Pretty cool. 😀
915 Hartford turnpike Waterford Connecticut Waterford commons New Dc charger by electrify America that is active. If you ever have time it would be cool to see a video of a electrify America charger. You probably could find out if it is working good from someone before going. Electrifyamerica.com for map
Why would you advertise when your coming back to car on your frisbee? If I knew I had 3 hours to steel your rims or vandalize your car I could get away with it
Kevin Smith the point of the frisbee is to let other good honest EV drivers know when you'll be back so that they can make an informed decision whether or not to wait around so that they can plug in or move on to the next charger if that's an option. Also these chargers are typically located in prime areas, very visible to the public and almost always under surveillance cameras... With that rationale I guess people who go to the movie theaters must have the same problem having their rims stolen all the time and cars vandalized as thieves know it's going to be several hours before the movie gets out, right?
Looks like Ben had a good time meeting Thomas and the Dinos. The Dinos thank you for driving electric.
Larry Copley yes, Ben had a most excellent time at the park...lol "the Dinos thank us for driving electric!" 😆 I needed that, thanks! ⚡🔋
You both deserve the "Very Fun loving EV driving parents" award. :)
Keith Watts I'll take it! What's the prize? A Tesla! 😆
That looked like a fun trip! Great to see you again. I don't need to know what your family troubles are, but I hope it all works out for you. The Bolt looks like a great car. Wish I could get one. Be well!
Mike Lynch It was a fun trip and I look forward to uploading more videos of the BOLT as I find time to do so... It most certainly is a great car with only some minor complaints. (the seats in particular) Other than that it's a solid vehicle and I hope to show it off as much as I can to whomever is interested.
Hi Bill. New Bolt driver here (had mine for almost a month now) in upstate NY. Really love the car. I always enjoy your videos. Hope everything is ok with your family.
milosamizdat that's awesome, I hope that my videos have helped to make an informed decision. 😀
Unfortunately home life is a bit upside down at the moment... I wish RUclips still allowed us to exchange private messages. 😕
The frisbee sign is awesome.
The cute pigtail girl in the super truck with Ben at 13:40 is my grand niece. It was a great day at Edaville! Hope you and your family are well.
Charles DeMaris Nice! And yes, it was a great day at Edaville... These will be some of the happier memories I can look back on with Ben as he gets older.
Wow. A 2-electric car family! Congratulations on your choice to go electric... I am sure that you are happy with your decision. Looks like you had a lot of fun on your get-away. Cheers, and thanks for sharing.
Gordon Warlow anytime! 😊
Thanks for show as your amazing trip 👍
Francisco lobo you're welcome! 😁
I wish we had a Dino Land in my neck of the woods when I was a kid. What a cool place. I’m off to check out your video of the park right now. Thanks for all the great videos!
Ken Braasch anytime! 😀
Great video and great trip Bill! We enjoyed meeting you at the Kennebunk Supercharger!
Michael Petersen yes! It was awesome getting a chance to talk with you as well... Beautiful Model 3 you have there, and I'm surprised at how much you were able to pack in there! 😃
Greetings from Southern California. Love your videos!
Really sorry to hear about the family troubles Bill :/, I hope the Patreon helps out a bit, or at least covers some of your guys' paid charging :)! I've charged a few times at the Solomon Pond Mall, the Bertucci's Pizza is pretty good!
Brant Wilkinson thanks Brant, I'll message you over at Patreon when I get a minute to log in over there...
Great video.
I love my 2018 Bolt premier. I can’t wait to get my 2019 hopefully soon in the next month. Me and my wife will have full electric cars to drive around town.
A Alberto all electric is the way to go! 😀
I just bought a car but stumbled across your videos and this is the third road trip video of yours I watched and I love your enthusiasm for EVs, I’m strongly considering my next vehicle to be EV. Keep making these awesome videos! How has battery life been over the years have you noticed any battery degradation?
None... I've got over 50,000 miles on it and still running like new. The EPA range for the 2017's were 238 miles on a full charge, and in the summer months I can easily achieve that. It's only in the winter months where the range might drop down to about half of that, but that's not a battery issue, it's because more power is being used to keep things warm like the cabin or the battery, etc... It's been a great car, and I absolutely love driving electric! 😀
Hi Bill!! Another great video!! I enjoy your vids and all the info and tips you offer on the Bolt. I have a 2018 Premier in the same color and so far I love it. The only issue I have is with the 360 camera and one side...left...is slanted. The right side view mirror is in the proper detent position but the image is still distorted/at an angle. I'll have to get it checked at the local dealer and see what they say;)
I should test drive a premier sometime to check out the differences! I love my LT and it'd be pretty neat to see what added features I'm missing out on, but honestly don't need. (that is until I've had a chance to try them out.) 😉
Your videos are fun. I also have a Leaf and a Bolt. One suggestion I have is to try the Waze app instead of just Google Maps. I really like it.
Paul Wilson I'll have to give that a try...it's pretty cool that you're not stuck with just one kind of GPS. 😀
Bill - you need to see what’s available for hotels with EV plugs (destination chargers) to charge overnight. Perhaps that was considered, but inconvenient or not available to you. Just a suggestion. . .
Life size dinosaurs with motion and stories - a cool place! Thanks for taking us along!
Dennis Lyon oh trust me, I look for that every time I book a stay somewhere... When we took our trip from Maine to Virginia (and posted about it here on RUclips) back in April/May we were lucky enough to use our portable level 1 EVSE at each one of our overnights, but yeah it would be awesome to see more hotels offer up level 2 (and even some level 3 DC Fast Charging) for their guests! 😃
Thanks for another great video Bill! Quick question what's the temp reading on the Juicebox app 102 degree is it ambient temp or the charger temp?
Peter that's gotta be the charger temp as temperatures here in Maine haven't gone much above 90 degrees...
bmhsonic thanks Bill!
Not an EV owner but I want to be. Is there a difference in charging in the morning vs before you leave for the trip? How often do you charge to 100% and how much does that degrade the battery? Enjoying the channel.
I keep it on hill top mode most of the time (charges to anywhere between 85% to 91%) ...yeah, I'll only typically charge up to 100% when we do trips like this, however my lifestyle is changing soon and my commute to work is going to be a little bit longer now, and with winter coming I might find myself charging to 100% more often than not just so I know I've got enough juice to make it to work and back each day. Stay tuned as I'll be posting updates throughout the winter this winter with the car! 🙂
I was reading they make adapters to connect a telsa charger to a J1772. I hear that you can only use these with non-supercharging stations. Do you think this is a safe practice for the car, like a leaf, bolt or even Prius prime? Of course if you ask permission to use the telsa charger.
Michael Stellino yes, you are correct... There is an adapter that will work with *most Tesla destination chargers. An EV will only draw what it needs so if you hook up a LEAF to an 80amp Tesla EVSE the LEAF will only pull about 28amps (if charging at 6.6kW) or 14amps (if at 3.3kW).
Very excited to start my transition to electric. Looking to get the prius prime. Would love to get the bolt, but I can't install a level 2 charger at my condo. Hopefully next house will have a garage with a level-2 charger with a full electic car in the garage. Small steps for me! I enjoy your videos. Keep it up. I also liked your video passing over the tapzee and in NJ.
I really appreciate your videos but don't know yet if I'm ready for the Bolt. I currently drive a gen 1 Volt and regularly travel between Upstate NY and VT on a 2.5 to 3 hour drive. I'm concerned about the Bolt's capacity/performance in the harsh Winters up here.
Denis D I can tell you that coming from the LEAF which got as low as 65~70 miles in the dead of winter I personally am not too worried about the BOLT performing well as it should get well above 150 miles on a full charge, but I'll be able to report more once I get through this coming winter...
Right now, my Volt's battery takes a big hit in Winter. But I don't skimp on heat. And I'm sorry, but when it is -20 outside, a heated seat doesn't do it for me; I need some warm air.
Great to see you guys and your road trip bill
Mark Fitzpatrick I'm glad I was finally able to upload it for everyone...
Love this videos
fento r thanks 😀
How much did the charge cost? Can you calculate the cost/mile; Thanks
I have a question for you. I live in St John's Newfoundland Canada. Where I live used Nissan leafs are rare but there is one used for sale and I don't know to purchase it or not since I would have to finance it. It's a 2011 leaf Sv with 90,000 kms on it and has 10/12 bars left on it's capacity for $13,000 cdn. It's well maintained and looks like new. What do you think or do you have any advice for me?
Richard Hollett ok, so let me convert this to American...
2011 Nissan LEAF
Roughly 56,000 miles
$9,878 U.S.
Seems to me that it's roughly $2K high (USD)
I'd also prefer a 2015 if you're going to go with a 24kWh LEAF...
Check cargurus and kbb...it'll give you somewhat of an idea what the selling price should be.
If you can get your hands on an OBD2 scanner tool I'd take that with you and LEAFSPY it when you take it for a test drive. Only then will you know the true capacity of the battery pack.
Also here's a website that gets more in depth about the battery pack... pushevs.com/2018/01/29/2018-nissan-leaf-battery-real-specs/
Tesla typically gets those spots first because they pony up the cash to lease those spots before the chademo/ccs companies can get in there so they can get the prime locations. That's my theory anyways... makes sense that Tesla goes have the prime spots before anyone else does.
Do you find that driving in L can be exhusting to keep your foot on the accelerator?
My family has a Volt and i find myself only putting the car in L mode when coming to a stop light or off ramp on the highway. Though if I am not mistaken the shifter on the Bolt is a little strange as the shifter goes back to the middle and does not stay in the position of the gear box.
Brett Paynter the Nissan LEAF operates in the same way. (as far as the shifter is concerned.) Going back to the center position after selecting your mode of transportation is normal for electric cars. Unlike their counterparts there is no "gear box" as most everything is digitally controlled...to switch between drive and reverse the computer simply changes the polarity to the motor. So much fewer moving parts...you could technically do away with the shifter altogether and just add a few buttons to the steering wheel or dash or something...
As far as driving in L mode I like it! 😃 For inner city driving which is most of my driving anyways I leave it in L mode all the time. The only time I keep it in drive is when we take it on the interstate, but like you said I find myself popping it back in L when exiting the off ramps...
It's a completely different driving experience and one that I've come to know and love! 😃
L mode is used for situations where you wish to maximize regenerative braking, which is very efficient. A desirable side effect to this is 1 pedal driving, which is a nice feature once you get used to it, and saves on friction brakes a lot. If you don’t care for the ebb and flow of one pedal driving ( accelerator pedal is rather touchy), you can also drive in D mode (behaves like a normal ICE car) and use the brake pedal to stop. When in D mode, you are still able to apply regen brakes by pulling a steering wheel paddle if you wish to stop rather quickly. For highway driving, D mode is preferred (provides a more natural slowdown when lifting your foot off the accel pedal) but either mode will behave the same when the speed control is set.
what's the point of the delayed charging for a specific departure time?
Bert it's to limit the batteries from being at a high state of charge for a long time... Batteries will last longer if they are not kept at or stored at 100% all the time.
Which APP are you using to review charging rate at minute 3:39?
It's the app that communicates with my JuiceBox Pro...now called EV JuiceNet
You should definitely pick up Marky Mark in your bolt.
love it, love EVs.
I feel the love...thank you! :)
If the bolt only had adaptive / smart cruse control.. I'm still flummoxed as to why they omit that.. Volt has it, Tesla's have it, my 2018 Nissan Leaf has it, all new EV's really have it.. Even Kia Niro EV and Kona EV's have Smart Cruze.. I really need it for all the long range driving I tend to do.. (50-100 miles one way) I could not do w/o it.. :/
Why did you delay initiation of the charge? It is not like it is below freezing with the car outside and you want the battery warmed up by charging instead of wasting standby power to keep it warm? It is also not like you are trying to avoid peak power pricing. You had it charge mid day when demand is highest; not in the middle of the night when demand is usually lowest in the summer. it seams like you are making the act of charging unnecessarily complicated and more prone to user error than if you had it start charging up right when you plugged it in.
The point of the delay is to not have the battery pack sit at a 100% state of charge for too long. The pack will last longer if you use it right away after reaching a full charge... One of the reasons your cell phone doesn't last more than 2 or 3 years is because we all have a tendency of plugging them in overnight and then they end up spending half their life at a full charge every night...not good for the batteries.
I see 2 tesla M3's and 2 bolts here regularly.
Adithya Ramachandran Where at, the Kennebunkport rest area? That's cool... Yeah, I had seen the Tesla superchargers put in the last time we drove by on the interstate. I had wanted to stop in even though they weren't showing up on PlugShare yet. Pretty cool. 😀
bmhsonic: Dude. I'm in the western suburbs of Detroit 😆.
Supercharging here is plentiful. CCS...not so much.
Adithya Ramachandran oh, lol... well still, right on! 😉
Model 3 in the wild
Aaron Williams pretty cool, right?
Neeto man....
TRY to HELP you 😁
Cute family.
Tesla is #1
PaulBodyBuilder I'd love to get a Tesla someday...can't wait to see what the Model Y looks like! 😃
915 Hartford turnpike Waterford Connecticut Waterford commons New Dc charger by electrify America that is active. If you ever have time it would be cool to see a video of a electrify America charger. You probably could find out if it is working good from someone before going.
Electrifyamerica.com for map
Why would you advertise when your coming back to car on your frisbee? If I knew I had 3 hours to steel your rims or vandalize your car I could get away with it
Kevin Smith the point of the frisbee is to let other good honest EV drivers know when you'll be back so that they can make an informed decision whether or not to wait around so that they can plug in or move on to the next charger if that's an option. Also these chargers are typically located in prime areas, very visible to the public and almost always under surveillance cameras... With that rationale I guess people who go to the movie theaters must have the same problem having their rims stolen all the time and cars vandalized as thieves know it's going to be several hours before the movie gets out, right?