Chevy Bolt production version

[PV1]

Just caught this at the bottom of the forum in the News section:

http://www.myelectriccarforums.com/some-dealerships-will-receive-chevy-bolt-shipments-next-week/

 

[JoeS]

The SF Auto Show is now going on and I assume they'll have a Bolt on display. Redwood City is close by and may be worth a trip - I'm awfully curious how their Regen paddle is implemented. A clueless Chevy dealer gave a presentation at last Saturday's EAA meeting but was unable to answer most of the questions (why do they do that?). Incidentally, their marketing now refers to the car as "Bolt EV" all in one breath, to separate it from the Volt which sounds so similar.

 

[pbui19]

hello -- all kind of info here at:

http://www.mychevybolt.com/

It's at least a 60kwh pack, with CCS Level 3 as option. I have been saving up all my shiny pennies all years and am all set to buy one as soon as I can. I was debating between an a preowned S or waiting for the 3, ultimately i decide that I am voting with my dollar and hope to nudge the evolution along. It leaves the S as the next goal post I do need some more solar panels though.

 

[PV1]

Built a Bolt on Chevy's website (now moved over to Electric category and out of Upcoming). For the base LT with red paint, DCQC, comfort and convenience package (heated seats and steering wheel), and sill plates, the total comes to $39,280.

A local dealer is supposed to let my friend know when they get one in. Reading the Bolt forum, it sounds like CA buyers will get the car late December/early January.

 

[wmcbrine]

Built a Bolt on Chevy's website (now moved over to Electric category and out of Upcoming). For the base LT with red paint, DCQC, comfort and convenience package (heated seats and steering wheel), and sill plates, the total comes to $39,280.

I just tried it... when I select "front plate mount" (needed for Maryland), the price changes to "See dealer for pricing". :roll:

 

[Phximiev]

Bolts being delivered? http://www.mychevybolt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4836&start=70#p9017

 

[JoeS]

Chevrolet has provided their Owner's Manual online for the BoltEV:
https://my.chevrolet.com/content/da...als/2017/Chevrolet/BOLT EV/Owner's Manual.pdf

In addition to seeing how their Regen paddle is implemented, I was curious as to their maintenance schedule. Here's a synopsis -

* Every 7500 miles: tire rotation and visual inspections

* Every 22,500 miles: replace cabin air filter

* Every five years: replace brake fluid

* Every 150,000 miles: drain and fill coolant circuits

Essentially zero maintenance, IMO. Those 7500 mile intervals, sadly, pander to their dealerships. Cute that the term "Hybrid" is used in many places in this manual - something about non-technical proofreading as they copied things over from the Volt manual?

 

[PV1]

Cool. Guess that means the car is now officially for sale. :mrgreen:

"Hybrid" is mentioned 9 times.

 

[mdbuilder]

I don't know, 7,500 miles to rotate the tires seems perfectly reasonable to me and not pandering to the dealers

 

[misterbleepy]

I don't know, 7,500 miles to rotate the tires seems perfectly reasonable to me and not pandering to the dealers

To me, tyre rotation seems to be a USA thing - never heard of that happening with any car I have had serviced in the UK - is it done just to even out the wear on the tyres so they all need replacing at the same time?

 

[JoeS]

I don't know, 7,500 miles to rotate the tires seems perfectly reasonable to me and not pandering to the dealers

To me, tyre rotation seems to be a USA thing - never heard of that happening with any car I have had serviced in the UK - is it done just to even out the wear on the tyres so they all need replacing at the same time?

Yep, its a USA thing, of course promulgated by everyone in the tire business. Personally, I normally just change out two tires at a time. I think my local tire shop offers free rotation if I want. Don't get me wrong, visual inspections should be done but, sorry, my opinion is that most people should have the knowledge and capability of doing things such as this themselves.

Next time I'm by a Chevy dealership I'll stop in and find out how much that BoltEV 7500 mile service costs.

 

[Phximiev]

Anyone here received one yet? http://www.mychevybolt.com/first-3-bolt-evs-delivered-to-customers-in-the-san-francisco-bay-area/

 

[jray3]

Bolt got Motor Trend's Car of the Year.
http://www.motortrend.com/awards/best-car-of-the-year/

I'll definitely have to test drive one now, as they rated it a far better-driving car than the BMW i3, which of course drives better than the i-MiEV in most attributes other than an artificial lag off the line..

 

[kaiat]

Prices are out in Norway for the European Bolt-sibling Opel Ampera-e: http://pushevs.com/2016/12/14/opel-ampera-e-price-revealed-norway/

Starts at NOK 299 900 (~USD 35 071) and there is two optional "packs" with equipment. One is the "Comfort Pack" with leather seats, Bose sound system, 17"- wheels and the rear seat is heated with a center arm. This is priced to NOK 16 900 (~USD 1 976). The other pack is the "Driver Support Pack" with rear view camera, parking assistance, traffic sign recognigition system, side blind zone alert, forward collision alert, rear cross traffic alert and lane departure warning. This is priced to NOK 12 900 (~USD 1 508).

Norwegian Opel-dealers have been taking orders for some time and although no numbers have been provided by Opel, it is estimated that some 1500-2000 reservations have been made.

 

[JoeS]

Stopped by the local Chevy dealer today and took a test drive in the BoltEV.

A few specific comments -

The regen paddle increases regen the longer you hold it, rather than be paddle-position sensitive. Good strong regen the longer you hold it, all the way down to stopping the car. I've always liked the concept of fingertip control over regen, and this BoltEV's method works.

The 'creep' seems to be more aggressive than the i-MiEV's, and it can't be turned off (according to the salesperson). After driving the Tesla without creep, I now prefer the zero-creep feature.

With the back seats down, the floor is 'almost' flat but the rear hatch opening height is about an inch less than the i-MiEV's. Dunno what the total volume is with the back seats down, but it should be comparable to the i-MiEVs, and there's the bonus of additional storage underneath the rear floor.

The loaded car I drove had cameras and sensors that boggled my mind: front camera, rear camera, and a different rear camera showing aft view on rear-view mirror (switchable between 'normal' mirror and display). Bunch of other features shown on their options list that I didn't have time to play with.

That 238-mile range takes away any lingering naysayers' objections to BEVs. I just looked at PlugShare and it looks like CCS has exploded on California's N-S highways whereas CHAdeMO is still slow in expanding. With CCS in place, an occasional long trip in the BoltEV will be easily doable.

All in all, a very favorable initial impression based on just a brief exposure to the car.

 

[jray3]

Thanks for that summary JoeS. I sure hope your assessment of DCFC deployment is a false indicator of CCS victory, but with Nissan now going it alone on CHAdeMO; CCS dominance seems inEVitable.
Are there any indications that CCS gear is more reliable, or was glitchiness just the nature of early DCFC equipment of any flavor (other than TESLA)?

How would you assess the heft and handling of a Bolt? With your love of ultralight cars plus Model S experience, you'd certainly know the difference.

 

[JoeS]

I just looked it up: the BoltEV weighs 3580 lbs. Sure did not feel that heavy at all and certainly felt more like a small car. With so much weight in those 60kWh batteries, I bet she'll be hard to turn over!

I just had feedback from a Bolt owner regarding 'creep' - evidently in a different mode it is not present. Didn't have a chance to experiment and the salesguy was clueless... hmm, maybe I ought to read the manual first. :roll:

Looking at PlugShare comments, CCS had its share of early-adopter issues. Suspect it's pretty stable by now. The only trouble I had with CHAdeMO was when I was a guinea-pig for local startups trying to evaluate their setups on my i-MiEV; otherwise, my i-MiEV CHAdeMO has always worked fine.

 

[jray3]

Thx again Joe- I've never had a problem caused by the car, but regardless of the maker, CHAdeMO stations around here have poor reliability. The Nissan-branded units by Sumitomo have had issues with their thermostats. They use a relatively small external air filter that needs regular cleaning, but the thermostat failures often don't seem related to actual temperature.
The Blink DCFC are often vandalized. (Smash the touch screen and it won't initiate a charge even though it has read your card, it just can't receive the 'charge to 80%" instruction!)
The dual standard EVGo units locally have stopped prematurely many times after just 1-2 minutes of charging. Just enough time to head inside for a quick meal.... This happens to LEAFs and SOULs as well.
All units with the heavy 1st gen metal CHAdeMO handles seem to fail eventually due to a wonky latch. Aerovironment's West Coast Electric Highway network in WA has not replaced their handles, when EVen Blink has managed to do that.
The Signet FC50 dual standard units that were installed at KIA Soul EV dealers around Seattle have often had communication issues- simply failing to read the key fob. :roll:
I'd say that today the odds of successfully getting a DCFC session on the first try around the Seattle region are only a hair better than they were during the depths of the Blink bankruptcy. We have gained some stations, lost a few, and have terrible reliability (especially at the dealerships).

 

[PV1]

On the QC front around me, the Signet units were very unreliable when they were first put in. A software upgrade fixed many of the issues along with some hardware swaps. Now, they can mostly be relied on. The sole Eaton unit I've used has been the most reliable and fastest unit available, but the one in Altoona has broken down multiple times. The tall and skinny Nissan unit had some temperature issues during 95+ degree weather, but otherwise works okay (old-style handle certainly is clumsy to use compared to the newer ones). The two EVGo units I've used both worked fine for me, but they've apparently been having issues, too. However, most of the issues have been with the charging hardware, so I doubt CCS vs. CHAdeMO would make much difference other than communication errors. Given my experience with PLC (power line communication, which is what CCS uses), I imagine they had quite a few issues early on.

So, how similar in size are the Bolt and i-MiEV? Early reviewers were saying the car is bigger than it appears, but I can't see it being much bigger than the i-MiEV or i3.

 

[Phximiev]

For those who like to read, the mychevybolt.com forum is really heating up. The initial enthusiasm is infectious!