I can certainly understand the motivations that automakers have in trying to minimize the differences between traditional internal combustion engine vehicles and new electrified models. People are often averse to change, the canonical example being the introduction of new Coke. Yet over the course of the past two decades, we’ve seen dramatic shifts in society such as how we communicate in the 10 years since the debut of the Apple iPhone. Now is the time for automakers and their retail partners to change how they handle electrified vehicles like the Chevrolet Bolt.
Problematic naming aside, the Bolt EV is in many respects one of the best products General Motors has ever built. Whether or not it is a viable product yet from a business perspective is something only GM’s accountants can answer and they aren’t talking. However, from the perspective of the average automotive consumer, there is no doubt in my mind that this vehicle should be at or near the top of their shopping list.
After first driving the Bolt for several hours last January on Tesla’s home stomping grounds in Silicon Valley, I just had the opportunity to spend a full week with it. After slowly ramping up production and availability over the course of six months, the Bolt is now available to order from Chevrolet dealers in all 50 states. Therein lies part of the rub. Chevrolet currently has about 3,000 dealers in the U.S. but aside from some dealers in California and a few other locations, most seem pretty averse to selling plug-in vehicles. Sales people often don’t understand them and try to steer customers to other products that might have higher margins. If you are at all interested in buying a plug-in vehicle and particularly a Bolt and a sales person tries to steer you elsewhere, turn around and walk away. There are plenty of Chevrolet stores and one near you will probably be glad to help. Don’t waste your time.
Despite not being able to legally sells cars directly to consumers in many states, Tesla does have an advantage with its company-owned retail stores. The staff have no other products to push and they know what EVs are all about. When you go into a Tesla store, they may try to upsell you from a Model 3 to a higher margin Model X or S, but you'll never drive out in anything that burns liquid fuel.
So why should you even be considering the Bolt when Tesla has just started building the Model 3? There are several reasons. First and foremost is the form factor. The Model 3 is a four-door sedan in an era when consumers are increasingly eschewing this body style. Personally, I wish more people would go for station wagons that have the dynamic qualities of a car with the added utility of a big opening and lots of space that can reconfigured to haul stuff.
Given the reality that Americans don’t want wagons but want SUVs and crossovers instead, what GM has provided in the Bolt is the next best thing. Chevrolet calls it a compact crossover; in reality it’s a tall hatchback, but who really cares. The Tesla is a sedan that while certainly sleek, will be much more limited in its ability to carry larger objects. If you have a young family, you should absolutely keep this in mind. In terms of total passenger volume, the two are expected to be nearly the same, with the Chevrolet having a slight edge. The Bolt however has the somewhat higher seating position that crossover buyers say they like, but it’s not so high as to be unwieldy when strapping in youngsters but the large portals give easy access.
When ferrying adults, the ample head and legroom mean two adults will have plenty of space and there is sufficient shoulder room to carry three across as long as those shoulders aren’t too broad. Either way, rear passengers will probably be more comfortable than in a typical modern airliner. While the Bolt lacks the all-glass roof of the Model 3, it does offer some of the best visibility available in any contemporary car. The windshield is broad and tall, pillars are comparatively slim and beltline sweeps down surprisingly low. The result is that the ample real volume available feels even larger thanks to the impressive amount of glass around you.
GM opted for a front motor, front wheel drive configuration for the Bolt which means that it lacks the front trunk (aka “frunk”) that Tesla has, but frankly if the Model 3’s is anything like the one in the Model S, it has limited utility anyway except for carrying a soft sided duffel or maybe a couple of backpacks. The Bolt offers 17 cubic feet behind the rear seats which can fold down 60/40. With both seats folded, the Bolt can swallow 56.6 cubic feet. making it great for an active lifestyle.
Of course having an active lifestyle means you need to be able to get to wherever you are partaking in those activities. In a Sonic or Cruze, that’s generally a no-brainer with gas stations never very far away and refueling in just a few minutes. The Bolt largely addresses this with an official EPA range estimate of 238 miles on a charge.
However, for certification purposes, the car is driven through the test cycles with the transmission in Drive. In this mode, the Bolt is calibrated to provide very gentle regenerative braking when you lift off the accelerator, similar to the engine braking you get in a conventional car with an automatic transmission. You can squeeze the switch on the back of the left steering wheel spoke to get some additional regen on-demand, but generally at around town speeds, just lifting off will produce between 10 and 20-kW of energy fed back to the battery and you’ll still have to use the brake pedal to really slow and come to a stop.
The magic happens when you shift to low. This induces much stronger regenerative braking similar to what the level of deceleration you’ll get from typical braking around normal driving. At around town speeds, this will produce 30 to 40 kW of charging energy for the battery and at highway speeds, this can approach 70-kW when you completely lift off. That’s all without touching the brake pedal.
I ran the Bolt through a 40-mile test loop around Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Mich consisting of urban, suburban and highway driving, once in D and once in L. In drive, the Bolt yielded an impressive 4.6 miles per kWH, among the best I’ve ever achieved without trying to hypermile. If the car were to use its entire 60-kWh battery capacity that would come out to about 276 miles. GM won’t say how much of the battery is being utilized but somewhere around 85% to 90% is a reasonable guess which comes out to 235 to 248 miles based on my efficiency. That’s right on target with the official rating.
In L, the Bolt achieved 5.7 miles per kWh, a 24% boost in range thanks to the extra regen. Using the full capacity, that would come to 342 miles or a more likely 291 to 308 miles. Over my test loop, I only had to touch the brake pedal three times, with all of the other stops coming from just backing off the accelerator.
It does take a little bit of getting used to the high regen, but within a few minutes of driving to recalibrate your expectations, you’ll be doing single pedal driving. Frankly, this is one of the places where GM should be pushing change by making the L calibration the default mode. BMW does this on i3 and Tesla also uses more regen although not as much as the BMW and Chevy. In urban driving, using a single pedal is so much more relaxing than moving your foot back and forth all the time and unintended acceleration from hitting the wrong pedal will go away.
With well over 200 miles of range the norm and 300 miles easily achievable, most people will never be bothered by range anxiety in the Bolt. The only issue remaining is long-distance road trips. Since most drivers don’t travel more than 100 miles at a time with any regularity, there is the option of just renting a car for those occasional trips. The other solution is DC fast charging.
This is where Tesla has done something brilliant with the SuperCharger network. If you look at the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center, you’ll find that there are currently more than 1,100 DC fast charging stations with 1,400 outlets that support the SAE combo charge connector the Bolt uses. That actually compares reasonably well to the 355 Supercharger stations with 2,500 outlets at the time of writing this review.
The problem is the SAE combo chargers are heavily concentrated on the coasts where most of the low-range, first-generation EVs are. The Supercharger network is fairly evenly distributed across the entire country, making transcontinental road trips much more viable. Charging network companies need to start installing stations in the vast middle of the country where relatively few EVs exist but those that do probably need fast charging to continue on their trips.
As for daily driving, everything I experienced in my first drive was reinforced during a longer spell. With 200 horsepower and 266 lb-ft of torque, this is by far and away the most powerful small car that GM makes today. At 3,580 pounds, it’s obviously beefier than the Cruze or Sonic but the instant response of the powertrain largely overcomes this and 0 to 60 mph in the low six second range is very realistic. You’ll never confuse this with a golf cart. Similarly, the Bolt is nimble and responsive and likes to be tossed into corners although maximum grip is somewhat limited by the tires. Anyone that wanted to transform the Bolt into a hot hatch could do so with some new rubber.
Chevrolet dealers need to seriously rethink how they sell smaller vehicles to their customers. Unless someone says they need to make multiple cross-country trips a year or they live in an apartment where they don’t have access to a plug, there is no longer any reason to divert customers away from this car. It’s fun to drive, useful, good looking and driver’s don’t need to be constantly on the lookout for a plug to top it up every time they go out. Just plug it in at night and drive in the morning.
The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt starts at $37,495 which brings the net price to just under $30,000 when the federal $7,500 tax credit is included. If you live in California or other states with incentives, the price drops even lower. If you are leaning toward a compact crossover or SUV or any EV including the Model 3, you owe it to yourself to try out the Bolt and just make sure to keep the shifter in L at all times.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/samabuelsamid/2017/07/11/living-with-the-chevrolet-bolt-keep-it-in-low-sell-it-hard/
2017-07-11T12:28:00+00:00