In addition to MPGe and range, EPA ratings should include DC fast-charge 20-80% times, at a given ambient temperature, battery temperature, etc. Consumers have a right to know (whether they realize it or not!) before making an EV purchase decision. Keep up the good work, Tom- it is vitally important!
That is actually a great idea. My older 2016 Kia Soul EV+ maxes out at 50kw charging, but for me that's not an issue because 99% of the time I charge at home overnight. When I do need to charge on the road I generally only charge to 80% unless I absolutely need the extra range to get to my destination.
Yep, you nailed it. I have a Bolt EV and only take it places a few times a year where i need to fast charge because it's painfully slow. But it was a cheap car I bought used and is a great car for daily commuting.
Tom, the replacement pack appears to roughly follow the 2020-2021 pack charging profile. The original pack on 2017-2019 with a different chemistry and lower capacity (60 vs 66kWh) stepped down after about 50-55% in 5-10kW increments. The new profile drops more often, but in 1-2kW increments. Overall, charging times seem similar. We recently completed a 7100 mile trip in our Bolt with the new pack, using EA sites almost exclusively. The experience was ok, but we are newly retired and were not rushing things. Our MO was to charge 20-60% most of the time, but had to go as high as 70-80% several times to cover gaps. Twice we had to charge to 98% which were two hour sessions...OUCH! Overall, we averaged 47kW peak speeds (temps in Feb-April were a bit low in several locations), and charged for an average of about 47 minutes per stop. While cutting each charging session by 15-20 minutes would have been a more comfortable pace, it was not horrible considering we were in no hurry. Ditto for the claim that the Bolt is a great car for commuting, and a bit painful for trips. One takeaway I have is overnight L2 at hotels would cut out at least an hour per day of waiting at DCFC stops, I really wish hotels would pay more attention to this need.
Wow! I made about a 5k trip last year May/June in a 2017 Bolt. Never Again! (if I have a choice). Did pretty much the same trip with a Model Y in Dec/Jan and even in cold & snowy weather it was glorious. I don’t intend to make any more long trips in a slow charging EV.
@ Ambient temps over 60 F, we're getting 52kw right to 57% on our '21, then the ('20-'21) step down curve kicks. This is clearly faster than this car which throttled starting @ 49%. It probably amounts to 5 more minutes on a typical charge from 20-65 %, irritating but not terrible.
I would argue it's fine for light road tripping too: upstate jaunts and- depending on State size- tri-state journeys. Anything beyond that, though, really needs a different EV.
@@Matt-dx3wo watch autoline after hours the bolt engineer was on and he explained that most of the customers he talked to don't DC fast-charge a lot so they didn't increase the charging speed the new Equinox but they're not going to upgrade the current volt battery
Honestly, the Bolt was a fantastic deal when it came out in 2017. Makes sense that the rest of the industry has moved on in the last 5 years though. GM needs to upgrade this if it wants to stay competitive in future years!
It comes down to what the priorities are for your needs. The new 2023 pricing is supposed to be $26K for the Bolt and I think $28K for the EUV. If you need a practical car.. that CAN road trip.. but you don't need to road trip often.. Seems like a great deal. If you road trip all the time.. Then NO.. not at all. The new Traverse EV. is also going to be very well priced, and have the Ultium Battery design. Its supposed to be $30K
The Bolt's recent reduction of MSRP by $6,000 changes the calculation quite a bit regarding how it competes with other cars of similar range. Yes, the slow DCFC in the Bolt is a bit of a pain on long drives, but if I can get one for $25,000, and if I take a long trip in it only once every three years (which is true for me) then the extra time spent on those occasional long drives is more than offset by the low cost of purchase. In everyday life, I charge overnight on my level 2 home chargers, and never use DCFC, except for that occasional long trip.
Bought our Bolt new in 2017. Your video mirrors my experience very close. Home charged 90%+ of the time & works great. I installed our charger. It was straightforward (of course we did 100% four house electrical when we built our house 30 years ago). I also hardwired the charger, which I highly recommend. I enjoy the information you produce to help understand the charging of each EV you test. Keep up the good work!
God Bless You Tom because I know I wouldn’t be doing it!! I love my Bolt EV but the “Fast Charging” is ridiculously slow! Tried it once when EA had free charging and only plugged in for maybe 15 minutes and was lucky to get 5% charge added! I did get entertained by asking the guy beside me about his new Mach e! You are always fair at what you review and aren’t a fan boy Tom…That’s what I like about your reviews and videos.
I've only had to DC fast charge once with my 21 Bolt, and once just because I wanted to. It honestly didn't feel that long especially because it was at a mall so I walked around and went shopping while it charged both times. I swear it was like 30 to 80 percent in like a half an hour. Otherwise all of my charging is at home. I live by Ft Hood, TX and I can make trips down to Austin and back easily without needing to stop at all for charging (which is an hour each way). I can also make it to Dallas or Houston but would have to stop to fast charge before returning home yet I dont see that as a big deal.
Many people don't really need DC fast charge, and for them the Bolt is a great car. But some people do need to frequently DC fast charge for long trips and with the Bolt it's challenging...
Great video. I too have a brand new battery in my 2019 Bolt and I've found your results ( mine from 5% to full) match in my test match yours nearly identically. Love my little Bolt and as a commuter car it is my favorite. This is, however, not an EV for a road trip without careful planning and time.
Thanks for doing the Chevy bolt. I like seeming where older cars areatwith there charging curve and how much better new cars are. Plus lots of people will be buying these used and good info to know before a purchase.
I've had my 2019 Premier since brand new and still love it. 99.9% of my driving is in town and within 100 miles, so the Bolt is ideal for me. Would like to keep it for as long as I can.
I loved my 2020 LT Bolt... I Love my November Built 2022 EUV Premier Swapped Bolt even more!! If you want to come to Dublin, Ohio, and let me tag along... you can use it to do all your tests!
Recently went on a longer trip which required a DCFC and it was painfully slow as usual. Great car unless you need DCFC. Next car will charge much quicker. Still love our Bolt just not on road trips.
When the battery was replaced in the recall, I imagine that they deliberately toned down the charge rate to protect the battery even more than it already was (even original Bolt EVs were not known for being fast charging). Still, it stinks when you have to drive long trips. Hopefully they have worked out all these issues with the Ultium battery coming up.
Good stuff Tom! I got the new battery in my 2017 Bolt a couple of weeks ago, and in my 1 fast charge to date (from 3% to 50%), I don’t think I saw over 50 kw charge rate. Outside temp was 73 degrees, so the battery wasn’t cold. I hope it improves as the battery gets calibrated. Still love the car, though. Most of my charging is done at home, and the extra miles in the bigger battery (64 usable kwh) is a bonus.
Another great video Tom. Thank you so much. We have a 2017 Bolt Premiere and are currently in the process of an MSRP swap for a 2022 Bolt EUV (a very, very slow and frustrating process). I know plenty of people keep bashing the Chevy Bolt, but we really love it. When we go on longer road trips, we have two other ICE vehicles to choose from, so slow DCFC is not an issue for us. We are thankful we have that option and we understand others may not have that option and slow DCFC rates would be a much bigger issue for them. FWIW, our Bolt just hit 60,000 miles and we have only used DCFC TWICE! We charge on our level 2 Clipper Creek HCS-50 EVSE in our garage with no issues. We look forward to swapping our 2017 for a new EUV. We feel it is an amazing commuter car.
If this is the first cycle after the battery swap, I'm wondering whether the battery needs to settle or be broken in. I believe that the GM techs stated that there was a break-in period. Regardless, after 50%, this charging profile no longer matches what I just observed in either the 2020 or 2022 Chevy Bolt EVs, which still draw 20 kW at 90% SoC. Also, battery temperature seems to be a major factor with the new, post-recall software, and I observed far less consistent charging speeds with the 2022 Bolt EV than I did with the 2020 Bolt EV I reviewed or my original battery/software 2017 Bolt EV.
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney Good to know. I'll keep an eye out for this because there shouldn't be that large of a delta between the 2022 Bolt EV/EUV and the older Bolt EVs using the same battery. GM did seem to add a lot of temperature based variance with the recall software, which I think could be the culprit.
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney It took roughly a month for our 2018 to learn the new battery pack. I also wonder if the battery was a bit too warm for optimal charging. We had a DC charging session recently and we charged a bit faster and longer at higher speeds. We added 33KWh in 40mins and went from 15% to 65% in that time.
@@newscoulomb3705 @State Of Charge this new charging profile is brutal. It really seems punishing to Bolt EV owners who might have aspirations to drive farther than 200 miles and cements the idea that the 2022-23 Bolts are nothing more than city cars or commuters.
@@anthonyc8499 Yes, except that in my experience, this specific charging profile isn't representative of the Bolt EV's typical charging profile (though "typical" no longer seems easy to define), and even the range they experienced isn't typical. I drove a 2022 Bolt EV at an average 70 mph starting at 95% battery with the AC running, and I still had 5% battery left when I arrived at my destination 215 miles later. So there seems to be a large variation on the numbers here. I'll know more when my 2017's battery is replaced, but in the meantime, I need to do a few tests on this original battery with 150,000 miles and ~8% degradation.
Tom, thank you. I can not understand the poor charge curve. My e-Golf pulls 40 kW (for a large chunk of the charge curve) and my car has a 35.8 kWh gross pack and no battery cooling system - it pulls over a 1 C rate. The design of the Bolt DCFC system is a head scratcher.
@@real_mikkim nice! GM (unless GM outsourced engineering) figured out pack cooling for the Spark - but not for the Bolt - maybe it lost the engineers to another company?
Thank you for the testing and mapping of the new Bolt EV replacement battery. This shows that the sweet spot for doing long road trips with the Bolt EV is to charge in the 0-55% SOC and move to the next charger at around 100-130 miles away. The charging time would be around 30-35 minutes which is not that bad. All in all, the best way to drive a Bolt EV when doing long trips is to start with 100% SOC and drive 200 miles in the first leg (@ 70 mph you do about 3.4 mi/kWh -> for 60,8 kWh (66-5%) = 204 miles). Then you charge 30-40 mins and drive 100-110 miles legs. Bolt EV being very efficient at speeds under 70 mph, the trips would be relaxing but definitely the Bolt EV is not a road warrior car. Vacation time, every day and twice in the weekend.
The Bolt will be ideal for me since I am an around town driver being retired. Will get my Bolt EV 2LT in April 2023 when we are out of the winter months here in the Central Midwest. Looks like it would take about an hour to go from 20 percent to 80 percent on the road. Thanks and take care.
Great video - thanks Tom for the information. I have a 2019 Bolt EV, that has DC Fast Charge option - but I have never used it. I use Level 2 charging in my garage as this is my local driver. I have a Sprinter van for road trips. :-)
Thank you for running this test, seems like the replacement charge rate is worse from my prior experience with the old pack. I have a 2017 Bolt with the upgraded pack, and was curious if the DC fast charge curve improved, kinda looks like it got a little worse.
It wasn't gonna improve, even the 2022 bolt ev has basically the same charging curve. Really my only complaint with the bolt ev, is the dc charging speed. I get jealous watching these other vehicles come to an EA station and go from 10-80% in less than 30 minutes lol.
Tom, back in Oct 2019 wife and I were driving our 2019 Bolt Premier from Cape Cod to south of Tucson. On day three we were headed to an Elec. America site in Little Rock that went day THAT MORNING (I was checking in advance by then, having been stuck a couple of times that trip already)!! Had to charge up to 92% in Dickson, Forrest City AR to make an EA site 200 miles further up the road to Hope AR. One hour to reach that SoC! We drive a Tesla model Y now (doing this trip from AZ to the Cape in four days! Piece of cake.)
Good video. I saw an article today that GM is cutting the price of the Bolt to $25k. _That_ is a good deal! most suburban families have 2-3 vehicles and at least one person commutes by themselves (work, school, college). The Bolt is ideal for the second or commuter car, and that price can't be beat. This small Chevy is an absolute blast to drive- compact, light, and full of that instant electric torque people love. I'd buy one for a 'beater' if I had any room for a 4th car (don't ask).
@@TAYLORFAN50 Every Chevy Bolt that is on the road has had its battery replaced this year (or soon will) as part of the recall. Every Bolt today has an 8 year 100,000 mile warranty on the battery that started when the recall work was done. Nissan Leaf batteries, especially on Gen. 1 cars, do tend to degrade, but for the vast majority of EVs degradation is not a problem. Today there are a handful of shops that do Tesla battery repairs and one company in Europe that does battery capacity upgrades for old Leafs. These are not big businesses since there is so little demand for replacement batteries.
While it would be nice to up the charging rate, if my battery lasts longer with this charging rate (not saying it does, but if so) and/or if it is safer, I am perfectly fine with the slower rate. But I mostly use my Bolt for my 120 mile round trip commute daily, and mostly charge at home. I do go visit family from time to time, but that is one QC stop on the way down for 45+ minutes while we're eating lunch/restroom stop. Then we L2 while we are down there, and then another similar stop on the way back. As we always stopped around the same place for food/restroom when we used the ICE car for that trip, it is basically the same for us; maybe an extra 10 minutes or so, but that's just the extra charge I get so we don't go so low my wife gets nervous. I used to drive a Leaf so running low doesn't bother me at all. ;-) My wife is getting there... ;-)
@@desiv1170 The battery pack is a 1C charging battery, meaning to stay in specifications it can take up to 65kW of charging current. So GM can bump the peak rate to 65kW and still play it safe. Regardless, as long as a battery stays within its safe temperature range, there is very little degradation from fast charging.
@@seanplace8192 Yep, I know about the 1C rate, but there are other possible variables, such as cooling as you mentioned. Perhaps (and this is just a thought) that the battery cooling on the Bolt isn't as robust as it should be for higher speed charging, and that is why they are limiting it? I started with a Leaf, so I am very familiar with that type of thing. Yep, the Bolt has active cooling, but how active is it? All I am saying is for me, I can wait an extra 10-20 minutes if it means it might be better for the battery. Of course, for someone who QCs a lot, that isn't as good a situation. ;-)
I have a 2021 bolt and am waiting for my new battery. A few months ago I took my car to the dealership and they did the software update to prevent the fires. Before the update it used to fly when I charged at electrify American stations. No I'm maxing out with the same speeds as in your video. I have seen several videos that says it peaks at 55 kw but I swear it was charging faster than that.
I have a 2021 Bolt Premier and my charge rate is different. It maintains the 50 kWh range longer. Most I have seen is 54 kWh. Also it seems to ramp up quicker. It has a new battery. I heard that the 2022 is actually worse in the top part of the battery. I take many 7 hour trips. So the first leg is 2 to 2.5 hours long. Next then the next ones are between 1 and 1.5 hours legs. Max time on charging is 30 minutes. Just a little better adjustments of the curve would be a great help. But it's not a bad trip car. For me.
Perspective is different based on ones experiences. I've been driving a 100% electric Fiat for 5+ years (which I absolutely love except would like more range) that took about 3 hours to charge fully giving me 60-90 miles (depending on driving). When you say 2 hours and 20 minutes to charge and go over what is it?over 200 miles? I think wow how awesome is that! I guess most ev drivers are expecting much more already.
The Bolt seems best compared to the Leaf. Both appeared to be engineered for a 200 mile +/- round trip radius from home. The recent price reduction for the 2023 Bolt keeps the vehicle competitive. Tom do you know what the battery chemistry is for the replacement batteries? With the price reduction perhaps the chemistry has changed to LFP? Not bad for what it is and if that range and charge capability meets your needs. Perhaps this is the firming up of various EV features and price points?
Great! This is far better then I had expected from other reviews. Any news on the second fast charge of the day? People reported really slow charging on second fast charge of the day.
Got my bolt sub $20K when gas was still $3 per gallon. I have a roughly 40 mile commute both ways and it has already paid for itself easily. Carvana will give me $3000 over what I paid originally now with 30,000 miles added. It’s small, has a stiff suspension and seats, the 92mph cap is a challenge on Florida highways. But it’s SO EASY to drive in the city and my commute cost me about $1 a day. I’ve taken it on a 750 mile road trip with my dogs and had 0 issues. It got dicey at the end with the charger spacing and lack of EA presence, but I enjoyed taking my dog on walks it broke the entire trip up well.
I have a 2017 Bolt with the new battery and regularly (monthly) drive over 600 miles in one day. I know it will take a long time to charge so I take walks and have meals during charging. I find when I get to my destination I am more relaxed than I would be in an ICE. That said it's slow and It does feel to me that the charge rate is slower than the old charge curve, any chance you can find an old battery/software Bolt and do the same charge test? I've asked Chevy if they changed the charge curve with no satisfaction.
Slow charging is not always a bad thing. Heat and ramming jamming electrons into a battery pack quickly can affect battery life. Slow and steady charging is not so bad.
Two barriers for the Bolt EV are the low max charge rate of 55kw and also the fact that, at least on the original Bolt EV, the DC Fast charging port was optional instead of standard on all cars (and cannot be added later, to my knowledge). I really hope they have worked out the battery issue so that people can have peace of mind when parking their cars in their garages. Although battery fires are actually rare, they are still a big problem for wide spread adoption in the minds of the general populace. It's worth pointing out that GM has recently dropped the price on the Bolt EV, starting at under $27,000! That is about the same price as the new Nissan Leaf but with a LOT more range.
Good video with excellent data and charging info. It would be nice to know home charging KWH rates and times, which I think would be informative for those considering buying any EV. I know that would be a lengthy test, but would really be informative. Thanks again.
We just acquired a '22 Audi E-Tron and found your channel and I'm loving your content. Just subscribed but as I was going through your videos I noticed there wasn't one on the E-Tron. Any plans to do a video on that in the future? Thanks!
You and News Coulomb are going to have some interesting debates. Yesterday we charged our Leaf Plus and got 33kW @90% on an 100kW EVgo charger. Could a Leaf Plus beat a Bolt on a 1000km challenge?
@@voldar70 You only need 621 miles - first charge free (start full) 200 miles. 2nd charge, no problem - 180 miles. 3rd - 180 miles, now you are hot. So 60 miles short? But unlike Bolt, you are charging at 78kW to 50%. I have only driven Leaf+ 500 miles in a day; no charging speed issues unlike 40kWh pack variant.
The biggest issue with the Leaf is not temperatures, it's Chademo. Every Electrify America, the Bolt can charge at whichever stall is available, the Leaf has to wait for the one stall with the Chademo plug. At some point in a 1000 km trip, there will be a charging stop, guaranteed, where the Bolt will be able to begin charging immediately, while the Leaf is forced to sit around waiting for that one car blocking the Chademo plug to leave. And, it is at that moment that the Bolt will pull away.
Tom, is this a coincidence that shortly following your slow charging report, GM decides to lower the price of Chevy Bolt? I think they are selling it below cost, maybe to reduce inventory. A new, 2023 Bolt may have better charging characteristics. This Bolt would be a much better vehicle if it could charge at 100 or 150 kw. For now, it’s primarily a commuter car for people who charge at home. To avoid spending $8/gal for gas in LA, I’d buy a Bolt.
Hey Tom thank you for another awesome video! Is there anyway to email you with some questions? I live in NJ like you and im really considering buying a new 2022 bolt euv. I just have some concerns. Thank you
I don't get why y"all are nerding out on this, I've been driving a Fiat 500e & BMW i3 REX 1st gen for 3 and a half years. I hope to take one of these problems of someone's hands in 2-3 years, I'd even take a no DC fast charge 2017 even considering a Leaf if the price is right.
I drive from Northwest Arkansas to Texas on 1 charge. The new Bolts are fast charge just fine for our needs. The 2017 was weak sauce. The new ones are great.
When temps are high in hotter states like Arizona or if your just fast charging, the bolt makes this loud a/c whining noise. Is it normal for the bolt to do that. I have a 2022 bolt EV with 100 miles and a 2017 bolt ev with 31000 miles. I would've thought that given it's been 5 years there would've been some change with that but nope it's an inconvenient noise that's a bit embarrassing
I've found that the EVgo that charge by the minute charge way slower like 24KW (50kw chargers and higher), compared to chargers that only go by kwh fee. Electrify America, Red - charge around 51KW on my 2017 bolt with the latest 2021 battery recall work complete (ultium pack) in Michigan
One thing that was kind of impressive was the replacement from the old battery pack the new battery pack was a very minimal gain for taking out a pack of 77,000 mi on it. Very minimal degradation and maybe it's because of the slower charging? I don't know
I think the Bolt is, ultimately, a pretty decent road trip car up to about 350 miles of driving per day (maybe a little more if the terrain is really flat, maybe a little less if you're dealing with mountains and/or really cold weather). Realistically, that's only going to be one or two charging stops. It probably amounts to 40-60 minutes of charging and about 5-6 hours of driving in the day which is a decent balance and toward the higher end of most people's per-day driving tolerance. I'm glad to see EVs with better fast charge capabilities, but most people's actual road trip needs would probably be accommodated by a Bolt. That's because the road trip distance at which the Bolt becomes particularly inconvenient on road trips is pretty close to the road trip distance at which people start feeling a lot less comfortable with the trip and might start considering spreading the drive across multiple days and/or considering an alternate mode of transportation (like taking a plane/train instead of driving). Obviously there are some real road warriors out there who will totally try and drive 900 or 1,000 miles in a day--sunup to sundown. But that's simply not the norm. At distances like that, most people will instead choose to fly. Or they'll do that driving over the course of two or three days.
At 70 mph, 350 miles is about 5-5.5 hours. That’s nothing for most people. I’d say 5-600 miles is probably more the average of what most could or would drive. 8 hours during the day is pretty typical and that’ll give you over 500 miles. 500 miles in one day is not even road warrior class.
@@alexnutcasio936 I think we're talking about "tolerance" and "average" in different ways and perhaps we're both assuming our own preferences/experiences are closer to average than they actually are. I've certain done orders of magnitude more 5 hour drives than I have 8 hour drives in a single day, but that might be as much an artifact what places are 5 versus 8 hours away from my home as anything else. I do think you are wrong to suggest that 5-5.5 hours of driving and/or 350 miles "is nothing for most people" because it's decidedly not. It's pretty well in line with what people say in surveys and the types of vacations people actually take--more willing to drive for two two half days of a long weekend getaway than two full days. Re: 500 miles/8 hours of driving in a day. Washington DC to Boston is an 8 hour drive. Chicago to Memphis is an 8 hour drive. San Diego to San Jose is an 8 hour drive. I am sure there are people who would make that drive in a single day. But there are surely also lots and lots of people would select a flight instead or spread such a drive across two days. NHTSA says 8 hours is the maximum amount of time a person should spend driving in a day in order to remain safe. Suggesting that the typical, average driver is comfortable with driving the maximum amount NHTSA says is safe strains credulity. I'd do it (and have!) but I also know a lot of people who would refuse to do that much driving in a day. It's doable, but there's a reason people often select staying closer than 500 miles to home on vacation and/or to hop on a plane when they're going farther than that.
@@ZackN85 Our perspectives are certainly different and you've obviously never lived in the western US where long hauls of greater than 5 hours are de rigueur . In fact, > 8 hours is pretty common over long stretches. Think Utah, Texas, AZ etc. If you're in the eastern corridor, its just a couple of hours between major cities like Boston, NYC, Philly and DC, so we can agree to disagree on perspective. However, I vehemently disagree with the following statement: " "is nothing for most people" because it's decidedly not." Well, who's the decidedly NOT and who decided?? Where you sit depends on where you stand. I stand at the 8 hour mark being typical as it represents a "full days travel." NHTSA is not wrong. Now, the issue at hand is, does the Bolt have sufficient range to make an 8 hour trip pleasurable and easy. At 70 MPH and as a former Bolt owner, I can tell you that its not. Not only do seats suck (hard and flat) , but 70 mph is a struggle. Long Range Model S, yes. Bolt, no way as you'd be stopping about every 2.8 hours to charge. Thats just not enough driving for me nor is 200 miles per charge sufficient to "get me there."
@@alexnutcasio936 Haha. Interesting assumption. I currently live in Salt Lake City, UT. I was born and raised here and have also lived in Texas. So I'm pretty intimately familiar with western US road trip dynamics. Anecdotally, it's definitely the case that pretty much everyone here is willing to drive to St. George, UT (~4.5 hours), Yellowstone (~5 hours), Boise (~5 hours), Lake Powell (~5.5 hours) and even Las Vegas (~6 hours) in a single day. But then once you start talking about places like Denver (~8 hours), the Grand Canyon (South Rim ~8 hours), Flagstaff (~8 hours), Phoenix (~10 hours), Disneyland/LA (~10 hours), Glacier NP (~10 hours), SF (~11 hours), etc. people will much more seriously consider flying and/or dividing the drive across two days. I also found two separate surveys where respondents said a 6 hour drive or less is the ideal road trip. So I wasn’t just making it up when I said most people don’t want to drive for 8 hours in a single day. But ultimately, with regard to the Bolt, it seems like we actually agree. Regardless of whether someone agrees thinks 350 or 500 miles driven in a day is people's roadtrip preference or (soft) limit, what I was really saying is that the Bolt's slower charge rate starts making a much more significant impact on the quality of the roadtrip above ~350 miles. Trying to travel 500 miles in a day is a VERY different experience. Basically, if you have to charge more than once or twice in a day, that time tax (often 40-50 minutes) starts to really add up. Before that point, it's not all that difficult a penalty, particularly if you're fortunate enough to plan your trip to arrive at a fast charger with a pleasant enough meal option at the right time. I drive a Bolt and would happily plan a drive from SLC to Jackson, WY (~300 miles) in a single day (one charge stop, ~45 minutes). But if I were trying to make it all the way to Denver in a single day (~500 miles), it would get very frustrating in the Bolt (3-4 charge stops, >2 hours total). I'm glad new EVs charge faster than the Bolt and my next EV will definitely be something that charges faster. But I don't think Bolt owners traveling 200 or 300 or 350 miles in a day are likely to find the experience particularly frustrating. I also just find it interesting how dramatically worse the experience of driving 500 miles in a day would be as compared to a distance that's only 30 percent less.
@@ZackN85 The difference in experience between 300 miles vs. 500 miles really comes down to the first and last driving segment of the road trip. The first driving segment is powered by your home charger, and you can go 200 miles instead of 100, and without any waiting for a charger. The last segment of the trip is also special, in that it is usually safer to run the battery down a bit more at the very end of the trip than in the middle of the trip. This is because, when you reach the next charger, you're already at home and done, and don't include buffer in case of a nonworking or full charger, like you would need to do for a public charger. Thus, for a "middle" segment of the trip, you might need to charge from 25% to 75% in order to hit the next charger at 25% to allow plenty of buffer, just in case. But, the very last charging stop, it might be safe to unplug at 55% and arrive home at 5-10%, thereby making the final charging stop much shorter. When you're traveling just a little bit over the vehicle's range, it's the first and last driving segments that dominate the experience, while a "middle" segment - if it exists at all, is relatively short. But, 500 miles is about the threshold where that first and last segment start to look like a relatively small portion of the trip, and it's these "middle" segments, where you hop from charger to charger, that start to dominate. It would help tremendously if it were possible to trust that each and every charger on PlugShare will always be working and available when you get there. Unfortunately, that's not possible, so if the next charger is 40 miles down the road, you have to leave yourself enough range to be able to get there, just in case, or you're setting yourself up for big trouble if anything goes wrong. This means charging up to higher states of charge on DC fast chargers than you would ideally like to, which, in the aggregate, means more crowding at the DC fast chargers.
I had a Bolt from 2017 to 2020. My numerous road trips, especially in winter, were interesting. And further complicated by lack of DC Fast charging -- reliable or otherwise -- on my normal routes. Very disappointed that later models showed no appreciable improvement. Used my son's Jetta for a while, then got a Model 3. I really liked the Bolt, but that charge rate is a crime in 2022.
2:26 hr:min to charge! Wow. That’s an average charge rate of what, about 0.4C charge speed? Super duper conservative. What kind of cooling did General Motors design into this car’s battery cooling loops? It would be Interesting to see what temperature measurement is available for that car if you use and ODB-2 dongle and Car Scanner.
Bolt is a great overall car.. If you road trip much.. It CAN road trip.. but its just slow at it. I think the new 2023 Bolt is going to be $26K.. and the EUV $28K. That is a great deal.. as long as you don't road trip often.
On the topic of the free instillation of charging station, does anyone know how this might apply to someone who is a renter and doesn’t own the property they live on? I live in a house, but it is a rental.
So, I live in an apartment complex with no charging stations (there's a few in a nearby shopping center and at work). I'm going to use it as a commuting car to and from work mainly. Is getting a Bolt EUV a bad idea in this case? I'm considering one becasue of the upcoming '23 price drop.
Have you thought about getting a button pushing device to repeatedly push the EA Continue Button since it seems EA won’t let the screen stay on the main screen?
Frequently drive a 200-mile stretch, with a DCFC stop halfway. Adds 32 minutes most of the time, but up to 50 in winter. Not an issue. Two stops en route? Mildly annoying, at least when the 2nd one is 25 minutes or less. It gets irritating at around 275 miles, which means a long 2nd DCFC stop, or an additional short stop.
i just got my bolt 5 days ago, mine is 2017,.. no dc charging port.. why... makes no sense, but like always, im using the charger that came with it... might buy a vevor, cause its gonna be outside all the time, i will put a shade over it so the sun doesnt kill it...
I would like to underline the fact that the range test values have no reason in the graphic because of the fact that the initial Bolt EV 2017 charging curve is different from the one after the replacement. But it does have the same charging curve as the Bolt EV 2020.
Definitely not a car for frequent long trips requiring DCFC, but the positive is that batteries will last longer as they're not getting fried with high voltages.
Huh, I have a 2017 with the new battery, and the top half seems to charge way slower than mine? I'm not sure why or how that would work. Maybe I need to do a 0-100% charge test myself as a sanity check.
Tom, do you know if the Chevy bolt EV software allows you to limit the number of amps during level two charging? I plan on putting in a 30 amp circuit breaker but I would like to limit the charging rate to 24 amps. Thank you.
$26,500 for a new Bolt now Considering I was going to buy a $16,000 before the gas price shot up making the same car now $22,000 used... I'm just going to buy it new. Maybe paint it to look like Herbie
So what's a good ev to purchase based on the requirements of 100% public charging (no home charging possible) average 150-200 daily drive, with 15-30 minute windows where I can charge maybe twice a day?
Well it’s a tie on who had more fun between you and Kyle doing the bZ4X. 😉 You probably rather to a Lucid Air range test or anything with a Taycan test. 🤭
I have a 2020 Bolt which charged much faster than the 17-19 pre recall batteries. I still own the old battery and my car can charge much faster than 2hours and 20 minutes. I fear that if i accept the new battery i might be hosed over with much slower charging. This kinda sucks.
Tom, what would be the bottleneck internally on this Bolt? DC fast charging goes directly to the HV battery, is that correct? Man, that must have sucked having to wake up the screen so many times! You should have brought the dipping bird thingy that Homer used on his keyboard when he worked from home in the MooMoo 😝
To start with why spend the extra money for a Bolt or any full EV for that matter? From what I can see if you have a fuel efficient vehicle, it is not much more expensive to operate it on a cross country trip than an EV being fast charged. Frankly Fast Charging seems like a rip off. I don't see the savings which justifies purchasing a full time EV. On this video I assumed the Bolt featured would go about 225 miles (like most EVs today) on this charge which costs you $21.82 and 2.5 hours of your life that you don't get back. We have two Gen II Chevy Volts. They get an honest 40 to 45 mpg highway. We get 50 miles of battery range. So if I deduct the 50 miles from the battery which costs me $1.13 to charge at home. That leaves me 175 miles left at 42 mpg I burn (@$5.00 per gallon) $20.83 in gas + $1.13 for the charge for $21.96. If I continue on my cross country journey with just the ICE at 42 mpg and $5.00 a gallon I pay a few cents per mile more than DC Fast Charging, but after a 10 minute stop I keep going 390 miles until the next "10 minute" refuel stop. So I calculate at least with our fuel efficient Volts that our cross country trip costs us approximately 15% more than if I drive a full EV and use DC Fast Charging. If I run the trip out to the 1200 miles I regularly criss cross from Illinois to Florida I spend $150 on gas and one hotel stop or I save $30 with DC Fast Charging with maybe two hotel stops or at best arriving several hours later into the night on day two of our trip. There is no savings. I never see any full time EVs out on the interstates outside of metropolitan hubs. Traveling cross country in a full time EV is a big pain in the a$$. On our theoretical trip we arrive in Florida and I charge up the Volt at the housse. I use "Zero" gallons of gas for the remainder of our vacation, because the Volt is also an EV that can gives an honest 50 miles of range per charge. That is more than enough range for most commutes. I commuted 12,000 mile this past year and spent Zero $$$ on gas just like the snobby EV owners, but never once had any range anxiety. Why on earth would I want an full time EV? The hassles, the worries of range anxiety? You have to be high to get in one of these cars and go cross country. There is not an EV made today that can do what a Gen II Volt can do. Not one. But GM cancelled it to go all electric. How dumb🤪! They are almost as stupid as those promoting we go all electric per the Green New Deal. Until the electrical supply is embedded in the roadways or some magical battery is invented EVs will continue to be a big pain in the a$$.
My understanding is the charging bottleneck arises because of the size of the cable from the charger to the battery pack. If that's true, why couldn't Chevy offer a field service upgrade? Come on man!!
In addition to MPGe and range, EPA ratings should include DC fast-charge 20-80% times, at a given ambient temperature, battery temperature, etc. Consumers have a right to know (whether they realize it or not!) before making an EV purchase decision. Keep up the good work, Tom- it is vitally important!
That is actually a great idea. My older 2016 Kia Soul EV+ maxes out at 50kw charging, but for me that's not an issue because 99% of the time I charge at home overnight. When I do need to charge on the road I generally only charge to 80% unless I absolutely need the extra range to get to my destination.
Yep, you nailed it. I have a Bolt EV and only take it places a few times a year where i need to fast charge because it's painfully slow. But it was a cheap car I bought used and is a great car for daily commuting.
Tom, the replacement pack appears to roughly follow the 2020-2021 pack charging profile. The original pack on 2017-2019 with a different chemistry and lower capacity (60 vs 66kWh) stepped down after about 50-55% in 5-10kW increments. The new profile drops more often, but in 1-2kW increments. Overall, charging times seem similar.
We recently completed a 7100 mile trip in our Bolt with the new pack, using EA sites almost exclusively. The experience was ok, but we are newly retired and were not rushing things. Our MO was to charge 20-60% most of the time, but had to go as high as 70-80% several times to cover gaps. Twice we had to charge to 98% which were two hour sessions...OUCH!
Overall, we averaged 47kW peak speeds (temps in Feb-April were a bit low in several locations), and charged for an average of about 47 minutes per stop. While cutting each charging session by 15-20 minutes would have been a more comfortable pace, it was not horrible considering we were in no hurry. Ditto for the claim that the Bolt is a great car for commuting, and a bit painful for trips. One takeaway I have is overnight L2 at hotels would cut out at least an hour per day of waiting at DCFC stops, I really wish hotels would pay more attention to this need.
Wow! I made about a 5k trip last year May/June in a 2017 Bolt. Never Again! (if I have a choice). Did pretty much the same trip with a Model Y in Dec/Jan and even in cold & snowy weather it was glorious. I don’t intend to make any more long trips in a slow charging EV.
@ Ambient temps over 60 F, we're getting 52kw right to 57% on our '21, then the ('20-'21) step down curve kicks. This is clearly faster than this car which throttled starting @ 49%. It probably amounts to 5 more minutes on a typical charge from 20-65 %, irritating but not terrible.
Appreciate how you always find something positive to point out, even if the product is not the best.
I’m glad you call out the pathetic charging. It’s truly a shame, especially since Bolts seem to be sitting at EA stations quite often.
The Bolt is a great vehicle for what it was built for, a commuter!
Agreed.
classic GM... clearly many people would use this car for more if it charged faster
I would argue it's fine for light road tripping too: upstate jaunts and- depending on State size- tri-state journeys. Anything beyond that, though, really needs a different EV.
@@Necrotron well stated
@@Matt-dx3wo watch autoline after hours the bolt engineer was on and he explained that most of the customers he talked to don't DC fast-charge a lot so they didn't increase the charging speed the new Equinox but they're not going to upgrade the current volt battery
i have a 2021 Bolt that I have had for a year and 18K miles. 100% of my charging done at home. For my needs it's a great car
Honestly, the Bolt was a fantastic deal when it came out in 2017. Makes sense that the rest of the industry has moved on in the last 5 years though. GM needs to upgrade this if it wants to stay competitive in future years!
It comes down to what the priorities are for your needs. The new 2023 pricing is supposed to be $26K for the Bolt and I think $28K for the EUV.
If you need a practical car.. that CAN road trip.. but you don't need to road trip often.. Seems like a great deal.
If you road trip all the time.. Then NO.. not at all.
The new Traverse EV. is also going to be very well priced, and have the Ultium Battery design. Its supposed to be $30K
The Bolt's recent reduction of MSRP by $6,000 changes the calculation quite a bit regarding how it competes with other cars of similar range. Yes, the slow DCFC in the Bolt is a bit of a pain on long drives, but if I can get one for $25,000, and if I take a long trip in it only once every three years (which is true for me) then the extra time spent on those occasional long drives is more than offset by the low cost of purchase. In everyday life, I charge overnight on my level 2 home chargers, and never use DCFC, except for that occasional long trip.
I was waiting for this. I plan to get the bolt euv or premier this summer.
I still think it's the best car for the price. Great video.
Bought our Bolt new in 2017. Your video mirrors my experience very close. Home charged 90%+ of the time & works great. I installed our charger. It was straightforward (of course we did 100% four house electrical when we built our house 30 years ago). I also hardwired the charger, which I highly recommend. I enjoy the information you produce to help understand the charging of each EV you test. Keep up the good work!
God Bless You Tom because I know I wouldn’t be doing it!! I love my Bolt EV but the “Fast Charging” is ridiculously slow! Tried it once when EA had free charging and only plugged in for maybe 15 minutes and was lucky to get 5% charge added! I did get entertained by asking the guy beside me about his new Mach e! You are always fair at what you review and aren’t a fan boy Tom…That’s what I like about your reviews and videos.
I've only had to DC fast charge once with my 21 Bolt, and once just because I wanted to. It honestly didn't feel that long especially because it was at a mall so I walked around and went shopping while it charged both times. I swear it was like 30 to 80 percent in like a half an hour. Otherwise all of my charging is at home. I live by Ft Hood, TX and I can make trips down to Austin and back easily without needing to stop at all for charging (which is an hour each way). I can also make it to Dallas or Houston but would have to stop to fast charge before returning home yet I dont see that as a big deal.
Many people don't really need DC fast charge, and for them the Bolt is a great car. But some people do need to frequently DC fast charge for long trips and with the Bolt it's challenging...
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney Oh I get that, just emphasizing that even for day trips the Bolt is still a great car.
Great video. I too have a brand new battery in my 2019 Bolt and I've found your results ( mine from 5% to full) match in my test match yours nearly identically. Love my little Bolt and as a commuter car it is my favorite. This is, however, not an EV for a road trip without careful planning and time.
Thanks for doing the Chevy bolt. I like seeming where older cars areatwith there charging curve and how much better new cars are. Plus lots of people will be buying these used and good info to know before a purchase.
I've had my 2019 Premier since brand new and still love it. 99.9% of my driving is in town and within 100 miles, so the Bolt is ideal for me. Would like to keep it for as long as I can.
I loved my 2020 LT Bolt... I Love my November Built 2022 EUV Premier Swapped Bolt even more!! If you want to come to Dublin, Ohio, and let me tag along... you can use it to do all your tests!
Recently went on a longer trip which required a DCFC and it was painfully slow as usual. Great car unless you need DCFC. Next car will charge much quicker. Still love our Bolt just not on road trips.
When the battery was replaced in the recall, I imagine that they deliberately toned down the charge rate to protect the battery even more than it already was (even original Bolt EVs were not known for being fast charging). Still, it stinks when you have to drive long trips. Hopefully they have worked out all these issues with the Ultium battery coming up.
Good stuff Tom! I got the new battery in my 2017 Bolt a couple of weeks ago, and in my 1 fast charge to date (from 3% to 50%), I don’t think I saw over 50 kw charge rate. Outside temp was 73 degrees, so the battery wasn’t cold. I hope it improves as the battery gets calibrated. Still love the car, though. Most of my charging is done at home, and the extra miles in the bigger battery (64 usable kwh) is a bonus.
Another great video Tom. Thank you so much. We have a 2017 Bolt Premiere and are currently in the process of an MSRP swap for a 2022 Bolt EUV (a very, very slow and frustrating process). I know plenty of people keep bashing the Chevy Bolt, but we really love it. When we go on longer road trips, we have two other ICE vehicles to choose from, so slow DCFC is not an issue for us. We are thankful we have that option and we understand others may not have that option and slow DCFC rates would be a much bigger issue for them. FWIW, our Bolt just hit 60,000 miles and we have only used DCFC TWICE! We charge on our level 2 Clipper Creek HCS-50 EVSE in our garage with no issues. We look forward to swapping our 2017 for a new EUV. We feel it is an amazing commuter car.
If this is the first cycle after the battery swap, I'm wondering whether the battery needs to settle or be broken in. I believe that the GM techs stated that there was a break-in period. Regardless, after 50%, this charging profile no longer matches what I just observed in either the 2020 or 2022 Chevy Bolt EVs, which still draw 20 kW at 90% SoC.
Also, battery temperature seems to be a major factor with the new, post-recall software, and I observed far less consistent charging speeds with the 2022 Bolt EV than I did with the 2020 Bolt EV I reviewed or my original battery/software 2017 Bolt EV.
It was at least the 3rd full charge cycle.
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney Good to know. I'll keep an eye out for this because there shouldn't be that large of a delta between the 2022 Bolt EV/EUV and the older Bolt EVs using the same battery. GM did seem to add a lot of temperature based variance with the recall software, which I think could be the culprit.
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney It took roughly a month for our 2018 to learn the new battery pack. I also wonder if the battery was a bit too warm for optimal charging. We had a DC charging session recently and we charged a bit faster and longer at higher speeds. We added 33KWh in 40mins and went from 15% to 65% in that time.
@@newscoulomb3705 @State Of Charge this new charging profile is brutal. It really seems punishing to Bolt EV owners who might have aspirations to drive farther than 200 miles and cements the idea that the 2022-23 Bolts are nothing more than city cars or commuters.
@@anthonyc8499 Yes, except that in my experience, this specific charging profile isn't representative of the Bolt EV's typical charging profile (though "typical" no longer seems easy to define), and even the range they experienced isn't typical.
I drove a 2022 Bolt EV at an average 70 mph starting at 95% battery with the AC running, and I still had 5% battery left when I arrived at my destination 215 miles later. So there seems to be a large variation on the numbers here.
I'll know more when my 2017's battery is replaced, but in the meantime, I need to do a few tests on this original battery with 150,000 miles and ~8% degradation.
Tom, thank you. I can not understand the poor charge curve. My e-Golf pulls 40 kW (for a large chunk of the charge curve) and my car has a 35.8 kWh gross pack and no battery cooling system - it pulls over a 1 C rate. The design of the Bolt DCFC system is a head scratcher.
@@real_mikkim nice! GM (unless GM outsourced engineering) figured out pack cooling for the Spark - but not for the Bolt - maybe it lost the engineers to another company?
Thank you for the testing and mapping of the new Bolt EV replacement battery.
This shows that the sweet spot for doing long road trips with the Bolt EV is to charge in the 0-55% SOC and move to the next charger at around 100-130 miles away. The charging time would be around 30-35 minutes which is not that bad.
All in all, the best way to drive a Bolt EV when doing long trips is to start with 100% SOC and drive 200 miles in the first leg (@ 70 mph you do about 3.4 mi/kWh -> for 60,8 kWh (66-5%) = 204 miles). Then you charge 30-40 mins and drive 100-110 miles legs.
Bolt EV being very efficient at speeds under 70 mph, the trips would be relaxing but definitely the Bolt EV is not a road warrior car. Vacation time, every day and twice in the weekend.
The Bolt will be ideal for me since I am an around town driver being retired. Will get my Bolt EV 2LT in April 2023 when we are out of the winter months here in the Central Midwest.
Looks like it would take about an hour to go from 20 percent to 80 percent on the road.
Thanks and take care.
Great video - thanks Tom for the information. I have a 2019 Bolt EV, that has DC Fast Charge option - but I have never used it. I use Level 2 charging in my garage as this is my local driver. I have a Sprinter van for road trips. :-)
Got my new pack in my 2017 Bolt 4 weeks ago. Love it! That 30 extra miles is a huge help for me. Downside is it takes a bit longer to charge!
Thank you. I am considering a bolt and this is a concideration
Thank you for running this test, seems like the replacement charge rate is worse from my prior experience with the old pack. I have a 2017 Bolt with the upgraded pack, and was curious if the DC fast charge curve improved, kinda looks like it got a little worse.
Same here. I thought I had a feeling the charging speed got terribley slow
Nice lol
It wasn't gonna improve, even the 2022 bolt ev has basically the same charging curve. Really my only complaint with the bolt ev, is the dc charging speed. I get jealous watching these other vehicles come to an EA station and go from 10-80% in less than 30 minutes lol.
I don't know about the newer Bolts but the early Bolts didn't even have DCFC standard. It was a $750 option!
Tom, back in Oct 2019 wife and I were driving our 2019 Bolt Premier from Cape Cod to south of Tucson. On day three we were headed to an Elec. America site in Little Rock that went day THAT MORNING (I was checking in advance by then, having been stuck a couple of times that trip already)!! Had to charge up to 92% in Dickson, Forrest City AR to make an EA site 200 miles further up the road to Hope AR. One hour to reach that SoC! We drive a Tesla model Y now (doing this trip from AZ to the Cape in four days! Piece of cake.)
Good video. I saw an article today that GM is cutting the price of the Bolt to $25k. _That_ is a good deal!
most suburban families have 2-3 vehicles and at least one person commutes by themselves (work, school, college). The Bolt is ideal for the second or commuter car, and that price can't be beat.
This small Chevy is an absolute blast to drive- compact, light, and full of that instant electric torque people love. I'd buy one for a 'beater' if I had any room for a 4th car (don't ask).
@@TAYLORFAN50 Every Chevy Bolt that is on the road has had its battery replaced this year (or soon will) as part of the recall. Every Bolt today has an 8 year 100,000 mile warranty on the battery that started when the recall work was done.
Nissan Leaf batteries, especially on Gen. 1 cars, do tend to degrade, but for the vast majority of EVs degradation is not a problem. Today there are a handful of shops that do Tesla battery repairs and one company in Europe that does battery capacity upgrades for old Leafs. These are not big businesses since there is so little demand for replacement batteries.
GM really needs to upgrade the charging rate. The Kona and Niro EV's both have the same 65kWh battery as the Bolt and they can do 70kW DCFC.
While it would be nice to up the charging rate, if my battery lasts longer with this charging rate (not saying it does, but if so) and/or if it is safer, I am perfectly fine with the slower rate.
But I mostly use my Bolt for my 120 mile round trip commute daily, and mostly charge at home. I do go visit family from time to time, but that is one QC stop on the way down for 45+ minutes while we're eating lunch/restroom stop. Then we L2 while we are down there, and then another similar stop on the way back. As we always stopped around the same place for food/restroom when we used the ICE car for that trip, it is basically the same for us; maybe an extra 10 minutes or so, but that's just the extra charge I get so we don't go so low my wife gets nervous. I used to drive a Leaf so running low doesn't bother me at all. ;-) My wife is getting there... ;-)
@@desiv1170 The battery pack is a 1C charging battery, meaning to stay in specifications it can take up to 65kW of charging current. So GM can bump the peak rate to 65kW and still play it safe. Regardless, as long as a battery stays within its safe temperature range, there is very little degradation from fast charging.
@@seanplace8192 Yep, I know about the 1C rate, but there are other possible variables, such as cooling as you mentioned. Perhaps (and this is just a thought) that the battery cooling on the Bolt isn't as robust as it should be for higher speed charging, and that is why they are limiting it? I started with a Leaf, so I am very familiar with that type of thing. Yep, the Bolt has active cooling, but how active is it? All I am saying is for me, I can wait an extra 10-20 minutes if it means it might be better for the battery. Of course, for someone who QCs a lot, that isn't as good a situation. ;-)
I have a 2021 bolt and am waiting for my new battery. A few months ago I took my car to the dealership and they did the software update to prevent the fires. Before the update it used to fly when I charged at electrify American stations. No I'm maxing out with the same speeds as in your video. I have seen several videos that says it peaks at 55 kw but I swear it was charging faster than that.
I have a 2021 Bolt Premier and my charge rate is different. It maintains the 50 kWh range longer. Most I have seen is 54 kWh. Also it seems to ramp up quicker. It has a new battery. I heard that the 2022 is actually worse in the top part of the battery. I take many 7 hour trips. So the first leg is 2 to 2.5 hours long. Next then the next ones are between 1 and 1.5 hours legs. Max time on charging is 30 minutes. Just a little better adjustments of the curve would be a great help. But it's not a bad trip car. For me.
Wonderful. FYI, charge rate is measured in kW (kilowatts). Energy is measured in kWh (kilowatt-hour).
I love the bolt but damn the charging is slow. It's one of the best EVs on the market for the price...but it's not a road tripper.
This was so informative I really enjoyed this thank you very much
Perspective is different based on ones experiences. I've been driving a 100% electric Fiat for 5+ years (which I absolutely love except would like more range) that took about 3 hours to charge fully giving me 60-90 miles (depending on driving). When you say 2 hours and 20 minutes to charge and go over what is it?over 200 miles? I think wow how awesome is that! I guess most ev drivers are expecting much more already.
Great report as always, Tom. It is also possible that the new battery needs to be broken-in before the BMS allows faster charging.
The Bolt seems best compared to the Leaf. Both appeared to be engineered for a 200 mile +/- round trip radius from home. The recent price reduction for the 2023 Bolt keeps the vehicle competitive. Tom do you know what the battery chemistry is for the replacement batteries? With the price reduction perhaps the chemistry has changed to LFP? Not bad for what it is and if that range and charge capability meets your needs. Perhaps this is the firming up of various EV features and price points?
Great! This is far better then I had expected from other reviews. Any news on the second fast charge of the day? People reported really slow charging on second fast charge of the day.
Got my bolt sub $20K when gas was still $3 per gallon. I have a roughly 40 mile commute both ways and it has already paid for itself easily. Carvana will give me $3000 over what I paid originally now with 30,000 miles added. It’s small, has a stiff suspension and seats, the 92mph cap is a challenge on Florida highways. But it’s SO EASY to drive in the city and my commute cost me about $1 a day.
I’ve taken it on a 750 mile road trip with my dogs and had 0 issues. It got dicey at the end with the charger spacing and lack of EA presence, but I enjoyed taking my dog on walks it broke the entire trip up well.
I have a 2017 Bolt with the new battery and regularly (monthly) drive over 600 miles in one day. I know it will take a long time to charge so I take walks and have meals during charging. I find when I get to my destination I am more relaxed than I would be in an ICE. That said it's slow and It does feel to me that the charge rate is slower than the old charge curve, any chance you can find an old battery/software Bolt and do the same charge test? I've asked Chevy if they changed the charge curve with no satisfaction.
This definitely seems slower than before
Slow charging is not always a bad thing. Heat and ramming jamming electrons into a battery pack quickly can affect battery life. Slow and steady charging is not so bad.
Two barriers for the Bolt EV are the low max charge rate of 55kw and also the fact that, at least on the original Bolt EV, the DC Fast charging port was optional instead of standard on all cars (and cannot be added later, to my knowledge). I really hope they have worked out the battery issue so that people can have peace of mind when parking their cars in their garages. Although battery fires are actually rare, they are still a big problem for wide spread adoption in the minds of the general populace.
It's worth pointing out that GM has recently dropped the price on the Bolt EV, starting at under $27,000! That is about the same price as the new Nissan Leaf but with a LOT more range.
Good video Tom... love the graph comparison!
Good analysis. Looking forward to the 2022 model update video.
Charging is just BRUTAL in a Bolt. I own 2 and goddamn it takes FOREVER.
Hi Tom. Great informative video as usual! I would like to see the range test video you refer to but I can't seem to find it. Is there a link anywhere?
Here: ua-cam.com/video/cT77-gPsZ60/v-deo.html
Good video with excellent data and charging info. It would be nice to know home charging KWH rates and times, which I think would be informative for those considering buying any EV. I know that would be a lengthy test, but would really be informative. Thanks again.
This car basically has a 40 KWH usable battery pack. It isn’t practical to ever charge more than that amount. How fast can it charge at home?
We just acquired a '22 Audi E-Tron and found your channel and I'm loving your content. Just subscribed but as I was going through your videos I noticed there wasn't one on the E-Tron. Any plans to do a video on that in the future? Thanks!
You and News Coulomb are going to have some interesting debates. Yesterday we charged our Leaf Plus and got 33kW @90% on an 100kW EVgo charger. Could a Leaf Plus beat a Bolt on a 1000km challenge?
The short answer : NO. After 2 DCFC charges, the Leaf will "hotgate" because the battery would be too hot to sustain rapid charging.
@@voldar70 You only need 621 miles - first charge free (start full) 200 miles. 2nd charge, no problem - 180 miles. 3rd - 180 miles, now you are hot. So 60 miles short? But unlike Bolt, you are charging at 78kW to 50%. I have only driven Leaf+ 500 miles in a day; no charging speed issues unlike 40kWh pack variant.
The biggest issue with the Leaf is not temperatures, it's Chademo. Every Electrify America, the Bolt can charge at whichever stall is available, the Leaf has to wait for the one stall with the Chademo plug. At some point in a 1000 km trip, there will be a charging stop, guaranteed, where the Bolt will be able to begin charging immediately, while the Leaf is forced to sit around waiting for that one car blocking the Chademo plug to leave. And, it is at that moment that the Bolt will pull away.
Tom, is this a coincidence that shortly following your slow charging report, GM decides to lower the price of Chevy Bolt? I think they are selling it below cost, maybe to reduce inventory. A new, 2023 Bolt may have better charging characteristics.
This Bolt would be a much better vehicle if it could charge at 100 or 150 kw. For now, it’s primarily a commuter car for people who charge at home. To avoid spending $8/gal for gas in LA, I’d buy a Bolt.
Hey Tom thank you for another awesome video! Is there anyway to email you with some questions? I live in NJ like you and im really considering buying a new 2022 bolt euv. I just have some concerns. Thank you
I don't get why y"all are nerding out on this, I've been driving a Fiat 500e & BMW i3 REX 1st gen for 3 and a half years. I hope to take one of these problems of someone's hands in 2-3 years, I'd even take a no DC fast charge 2017 even considering a Leaf if the price is right.
I drive from Northwest Arkansas to Texas on 1 charge. The new Bolts are fast charge just fine for our needs. The 2017 was weak sauce. The new ones are great.
I wonder if GM is worried about fires caused by fast changing and is software prohibited.
When temps are high in hotter states like Arizona or if your just fast charging, the bolt makes this loud a/c whining noise. Is it normal for the bolt to do that. I have a 2022 bolt EV with 100 miles and a 2017 bolt ev with 31000 miles. I would've thought that given it's been 5 years there would've been some change with that but nope it's an inconvenient noise that's a bit embarrassing
I've found that the EVgo that charge by the minute charge way slower like 24KW (50kw chargers and higher), compared to chargers that only go by kwh fee. Electrify America, Red - charge around 51KW on my 2017 bolt with the latest 2021 battery recall work complete (ultium pack) in Michigan
I bought a used 2017 Bolt and this the exact reason I took it back after 5 days. SORRY charging time.
One thing that was kind of impressive was the replacement from the old battery pack the new battery pack was a very minimal gain for taking out a pack of 77,000 mi on it. Very minimal degradation and maybe it's because of the slower charging? I don't know
You really should review the Emporia evse it's very popular and energy star rated and UL listed
I think the Bolt is, ultimately, a pretty decent road trip car up to about 350 miles of driving per day (maybe a little more if the terrain is really flat, maybe a little less if you're dealing with mountains and/or really cold weather). Realistically, that's only going to be one or two charging stops. It probably amounts to 40-60 minutes of charging and about 5-6 hours of driving in the day which is a decent balance and toward the higher end of most people's per-day driving tolerance.
I'm glad to see EVs with better fast charge capabilities, but most people's actual road trip needs would probably be accommodated by a Bolt. That's because the road trip distance at which the Bolt becomes particularly inconvenient on road trips is pretty close to the road trip distance at which people start feeling a lot less comfortable with the trip and might start considering spreading the drive across multiple days and/or considering an alternate mode of transportation (like taking a plane/train instead of driving).
Obviously there are some real road warriors out there who will totally try and drive 900 or 1,000 miles in a day--sunup to sundown. But that's simply not the norm. At distances like that, most people will instead choose to fly. Or they'll do that driving over the course of two or three days.
At 70 mph, 350 miles is about 5-5.5 hours. That’s nothing for most people. I’d say 5-600 miles is probably more the average of what most could or would drive. 8 hours during the day is pretty typical and that’ll give you over 500 miles. 500 miles in one day is not even road warrior class.
@@alexnutcasio936 I think we're talking about "tolerance" and "average" in different ways and perhaps we're both assuming our own preferences/experiences are closer to average than they actually are. I've certain done orders of magnitude more 5 hour drives than I have 8 hour drives in a single day, but that might be as much an artifact what places are 5 versus 8 hours away from my home as anything else. I do think you are wrong to suggest that 5-5.5 hours of driving and/or 350 miles "is nothing for most people" because it's decidedly not. It's pretty well in line with what people say in surveys and the types of vacations people actually take--more willing to drive for two two half days of a long weekend getaway than two full days.
Re: 500 miles/8 hours of driving in a day. Washington DC to Boston is an 8 hour drive. Chicago to Memphis is an 8 hour drive. San Diego to San Jose is an 8 hour drive. I am sure there are people who would make that drive in a single day. But there are surely also lots and lots of people would select a flight instead or spread such a drive across two days. NHTSA says 8 hours is the maximum amount of time a person should spend driving in a day in order to remain safe. Suggesting that the typical, average driver is comfortable with driving the maximum amount NHTSA says is safe strains credulity. I'd do it (and have!) but I also know a lot of people who would refuse to do that much driving in a day. It's doable, but there's a reason people often select staying closer than 500 miles to home on vacation and/or to hop on a plane when they're going farther than that.
@@ZackN85 Our perspectives are certainly different and you've obviously never lived in the western US where long hauls of greater than 5 hours are de rigueur . In fact, > 8 hours is pretty common over long stretches. Think Utah, Texas, AZ etc. If you're in the eastern corridor, its just a couple of hours between major cities like Boston, NYC, Philly and DC, so we can agree to disagree on perspective. However, I vehemently disagree with the following statement: " "is nothing for most people" because it's decidedly not." Well, who's the decidedly NOT and who decided?? Where you sit depends on where you stand. I stand at the 8 hour mark being typical as it represents a "full days travel." NHTSA is not wrong.
Now, the issue at hand is, does the Bolt have sufficient range to make an 8 hour trip pleasurable and easy. At 70 MPH and as a former Bolt owner, I can tell you that its not. Not only do seats suck (hard and flat) , but 70 mph is a struggle. Long Range Model S, yes. Bolt, no way as you'd be stopping about every 2.8 hours to charge. Thats just not enough driving for me nor is 200 miles per charge sufficient to "get me there."
@@alexnutcasio936 Haha. Interesting assumption. I currently live in Salt Lake City, UT. I was born and raised here and have also lived in Texas. So I'm pretty intimately familiar with western US road trip dynamics. Anecdotally, it's definitely the case that pretty much everyone here is willing to drive to St. George, UT (~4.5 hours), Yellowstone (~5 hours), Boise (~5 hours), Lake Powell (~5.5 hours) and even Las Vegas (~6 hours) in a single day. But then once you start talking about places like Denver (~8 hours), the Grand Canyon (South Rim ~8 hours), Flagstaff (~8 hours), Phoenix (~10 hours), Disneyland/LA (~10 hours), Glacier NP (~10 hours), SF (~11 hours), etc. people will much more seriously consider flying and/or dividing the drive across two days. I also found two separate surveys where respondents said a 6 hour drive or less is the ideal road trip. So I wasn’t just making it up when I said most people don’t want to drive for 8 hours in a single day.
But ultimately, with regard to the Bolt, it seems like we actually agree. Regardless of whether someone agrees thinks 350 or 500 miles driven in a day is people's roadtrip preference or (soft) limit, what I was really saying is that the Bolt's slower charge rate starts making a much more significant impact on the quality of the roadtrip above ~350 miles. Trying to travel 500 miles in a day is a VERY different experience. Basically, if you have to charge more than once or twice in a day, that time tax (often 40-50 minutes) starts to really add up. Before that point, it's not all that difficult a penalty, particularly if you're fortunate enough to plan your trip to arrive at a fast charger with a pleasant enough meal option at the right time. I drive a Bolt and would happily plan a drive from SLC to Jackson, WY (~300 miles) in a single day (one charge stop, ~45 minutes). But if I were trying to make it all the way to Denver in a single day (~500 miles), it would get very frustrating in the Bolt (3-4 charge stops, >2 hours total).
I'm glad new EVs charge faster than the Bolt and my next EV will definitely be something that charges faster. But I don't think Bolt owners traveling 200 or 300 or 350 miles in a day are likely to find the experience particularly frustrating. I also just find it interesting how dramatically worse the experience of driving 500 miles in a day would be as compared to a distance that's only 30 percent less.
@@ZackN85
The difference in experience between 300 miles vs. 500 miles really comes down to the first and last driving segment of the road trip.
The first driving segment is powered by your home charger, and you can go 200 miles instead of 100, and without any waiting for a charger. The last segment of the trip is also special, in that it is usually safer to run the battery down a bit more at the very end of the trip than in the middle of the trip. This is because, when you reach the next charger, you're already at home and done, and don't include buffer in case of a nonworking or full charger, like you would need to do for a public charger. Thus, for a "middle" segment of the trip, you might need to charge from 25% to 75% in order to hit the next charger at 25% to allow plenty of buffer, just in case. But, the very last charging stop, it might be safe to unplug at 55% and arrive home at 5-10%, thereby making the final charging stop much shorter.
When you're traveling just a little bit over the vehicle's range, it's the first and last driving segments that dominate the experience, while a "middle" segment - if it exists at all, is relatively short. But, 500 miles is about the threshold where that first and last segment start to look like a relatively small portion of the trip, and it's these "middle" segments, where you hop from charger to charger, that start to dominate.
It would help tremendously if it were possible to trust that each and every charger on PlugShare will always be working and available when you get there. Unfortunately, that's not possible, so if the next charger is 40 miles down the road, you have to leave yourself enough range to be able to get there, just in case, or you're setting yourself up for big trouble if anything goes wrong. This means charging up to higher states of charge on DC fast chargers than you would ideally like to, which, in the aggregate, means more crowding at the DC fast chargers.
I had a Bolt from 2017 to 2020. My numerous road trips, especially in winter, were interesting. And further complicated by lack of DC Fast charging -- reliable or otherwise -- on my normal routes. Very disappointed that later models showed no appreciable improvement. Used my son's Jetta for a while, then got a Model 3. I really liked the Bolt, but that charge rate is a crime in 2022.
Thank you!
200 miles for 20 $ is a dream come true
2:26 hr:min to charge! Wow. That’s an average charge rate of what, about 0.4C charge speed? Super duper conservative. What kind of cooling did General Motors design into this car’s battery cooling loops? It would be Interesting to see what temperature measurement is available for that car if you use and ODB-2 dongle and Car Scanner.
Bolt is a great overall car.. If you road trip much.. It CAN road trip.. but its just slow at it.
I think the new 2023 Bolt is going to be $26K.. and the EUV $28K. That is a great deal.. as long as you don't road trip often.
My kids bought a 2022 EUV from a dealer but can't get Qmerit to do anything. Is there anything I can tell them.
On the topic of the free instillation of charging station, does anyone know how this might apply to someone who is a renter and doesn’t own the property they live on? I live in a house, but it is a rental.
So, I live in an apartment complex with no charging stations (there's a few in a nearby shopping center and at work). I'm going to use it as a commuting car to and from work mainly. Is getting a Bolt EUV a bad idea in this case? I'm considering one becasue of the upcoming '23 price drop.
Have you thought about getting a button pushing device to repeatedly push the EA Continue Button since it seems EA won’t let the screen stay on the main screen?
Frequently drive a 200-mile stretch, with a DCFC stop halfway. Adds 32 minutes most of the time, but up to 50 in winter. Not an issue.
Two stops en route? Mildly annoying, at least when the 2nd one is 25 minutes or less.
It gets irritating at around 275 miles, which means a long 2nd DCFC stop, or an additional short stop.
Hi, I wanted to know total how much kWh charged since it is purchased. Where to see in app or car settings?
i just got my bolt 5 days ago, mine is 2017,.. no dc charging port.. why... makes no sense, but like always, im using the charger that came with it... might buy a vevor, cause its gonna be outside all the time, i will put a shade over it so the sun doesnt kill it...
Do you happen to have the CAN bus logs from this DCFC? I am looking for logs of GMLAN 6 and 1 while its charging through ccs.
Thanks!
Do you know if there is any improvement on the charge speed on 2023 Bolt and Bolt EUV
I would like to underline the fact that the range test values have no reason in the graphic because of the fact that the initial Bolt EV 2017 charging curve is different from the one after the replacement. But it does have the same charging curve as the Bolt EV 2020.
Definitely not a car for frequent long trips requiring DCFC, but the positive is that batteries will last longer as they're not getting fried with high voltages.
Hi, I am thinking about buying an EV, can you recommend the best app to find all tesla and non-tesla charging stations?
As a bolt owner, I completely agree. Love this car, but the fast charging is really disappointing.
Huh, I have a 2017 with the new battery, and the top half seems to charge way slower than mine? I'm not sure why or how that would work. Maybe I need to do a 0-100% charge test myself as a sanity check.
On road trips, I take along my 240v/50amp Juice Box Charging Cable
in case I need an emergency L2 charge at a RV Park.
Tom, do you know if the Chevy bolt EV software allows you to limit the number of amps during level two charging? I plan on putting in a 30 amp circuit breaker but I would like to limit the charging rate to 24 amps. Thank you.
$26,500 for a new Bolt now
Considering I was going to buy a $16,000 before the gas price shot up making the same car now $22,000 used...
I'm just going to buy it new.
Maybe paint it to look like Herbie
So what's a good ev to purchase based on the requirements of 100% public charging (no home charging possible) average 150-200 daily drive, with 15-30 minute windows where I can charge maybe twice a day?
Well it’s a tie on who had more fun between you and Kyle doing the bZ4X. 😉 You probably rather to a Lucid Air range test or anything with a Taycan test. 🤭
How much was the price for the battery?
I have a home charger can I alternate for Evgo credit ?
I have a 2020 Bolt which charged much faster than the 17-19 pre recall batteries. I still own the old battery and my car can charge much faster than 2hours and 20 minutes. I fear that if i accept the new battery i might be hosed over with much slower charging. This kinda sucks.
I think since GM got Burned....pun intended on battery fires they have the charge curve set to taper down much sooner to prevent fires.
Isn't slower charging better for battery life?
Tom, what would be the bottleneck internally on this Bolt? DC fast charging goes directly to the HV battery, is that correct?
Man, that must have sucked having to wake up the screen so many times!
You should have brought the dipping bird thingy that Homer used on his keyboard when he worked from home in the MooMoo 😝
So what competes on price with the Bolt?
Hi
Do you think chevy will upgrade dc fast charging in future?
I really like the bolt, but the dc speed is a deal killer
If you need to DC fast charge often. Many people won't need to.
If you do every day commutes of 250 miles, without the chance to charge at destination during the work hours, yes. If not, don't you worry !
Damn, not much reason to even stop at and pay for any charging over level 2 in a Bolt, is there?
To start with why spend the extra money for a Bolt or any full EV for that matter?
From what I can see if you have a fuel efficient vehicle, it is not much more expensive to operate it on a cross country trip than an EV being fast charged.
Frankly Fast Charging seems like a rip off.
I don't see the savings which justifies purchasing a full time EV.
On this video I assumed the Bolt featured would go about 225 miles (like most EVs today) on this charge which costs you $21.82 and 2.5 hours of your life that you don't get back.
We have two Gen II Chevy Volts. They get an honest 40 to 45 mpg highway. We get 50 miles of battery range.
So if I deduct the 50 miles from the battery which costs me $1.13 to charge at home. That leaves me 175 miles left at 42 mpg I burn (@$5.00 per gallon) $20.83 in gas + $1.13 for the charge for $21.96.
If I continue on my cross country journey with just the ICE at 42 mpg and $5.00 a gallon I pay a few cents per mile more than DC Fast Charging, but after a 10 minute stop I keep going 390 miles until the next "10 minute" refuel stop.
So I calculate at least with our fuel efficient Volts that our cross country trip costs us approximately 15% more than if I drive a full EV and use DC Fast Charging.
If I run the trip out to the 1200 miles I regularly criss cross from Illinois to Florida I spend $150 on gas and one hotel stop or I save $30 with DC Fast Charging with maybe two hotel stops or at best arriving several hours later into the night on day two of our trip.
There is no savings.
I never see any full time EVs out on the interstates outside of metropolitan hubs. Traveling cross country in a full time EV is a big pain in the a$$.
On our theoretical trip we arrive in Florida and I charge up the Volt at the housse. I use "Zero" gallons of gas for the remainder of our vacation, because the Volt is also an EV that can gives an honest 50 miles of range per charge. That is more than enough range for most commutes. I commuted 12,000 mile this past year and spent Zero $$$ on gas just like the snobby EV owners, but never once had any range anxiety.
Why on earth would I want an full time EV? The hassles, the worries of range anxiety? You have to be high to get in one of these cars and go cross country.
There is not an EV made today that can do what a Gen II Volt can do. Not one.
But GM cancelled it to go all electric. How dumb🤪!
They are almost as stupid as those promoting we go all electric per the Green New Deal.
Until the electrical supply is embedded in the roadways or some magical battery is invented EVs will continue to be a big pain in the
a$$.
My understanding is the charging bottleneck arises because of the size of the cable from the charger to the battery pack. If that's true, why couldn't Chevy offer a field service upgrade? Come on man!!