Saturday, January 29, 2022

Update on Chevrolet Bolt EV experience

 This is the first month when I've been enrolled in the power company off peak rate for electric vehicles, I got new batteries from the recall, and, it's been very cold. So, it seemed like a good time for a status update on my fully electric Chevrolet Bolt EV.

I got new batteries in the Bolt on December 3. It was warm that week and after I configured the car to accept a full charge, it reported I had a range of 241 miles. (The manufacturer claims a range of 238 miles.)
Over the next couple of weeks it got progressively colder and I was getting a range of about 200 miles when it was around 40 F degrees and I used the heater a little bit.
For the past month, it has been very cold. It has not gotten above freezing and we've had many days below 20 and several days below 10 or even 0. I have been experiencing a range of about 160 miles. That's a loss of 30% of the range due to the cold.
If you had told me before I bought the car that I would only have that range, I would have thought it would be unacceptable. As it turns out though, it is fine. When I first got the car, I was often anxious about whether the 238 mile range would be enough. I no longer have that anxiety. I have gotten used to plugging it in every night so every day I have the full range and am comfortable that it is plenty for my normal daily errands. In fact, I find that not only do I no longer have range anxiety, I feel better than I ever did with a gas powered car. I have absolutely no anxiety that my car is going to fail to start in the cold, or die on a cold road somewhere. The electric propulsion system is so reliable, I feel much more comfortable than I ever did, particularly compared to my beloved old Saab that had nearly 300,000 miles and might have died at any minute.
I was also worried about whether the Bolt's heater would work well enough. It turns out it too is better than the Saab's heater. It does not blow a huge amount of heat, but it heats up very quickly and warms the cabin quickly even on very cold days. Best yet, I can turn on the heater while the car is still plugged in and warm the cabin before I leave without using energy from the battery. It takes about 10 minutes to warm it up very nicely.
I also got my first meaningful electric bill this week.
The bill shows that I paid $38.15 for 284 KWH to charge the electric car between December 14 and January 14. The car reports that in the cold of the last week, which has not been above freezing and has often been below 10, I am averaging about 3.5 miles per KWH. That means that I have driven about 990 miles. My Saab gets about 25 mpg so that would have required 39.6 gallons of gas. A gallon of regular costs $3.39 this week so that would have cost $135. I saved $100 in fuel costs in one very cold month!
Just to give you a sense of how much we like the Bolt, we still have the Saab and Annie's Durango. Last week I took in the Durango for the annual inspection. The mechanic told me we had only driven it 36 miles since last year's inspection. I doubt the Saab has many more miles too.
In my opinion, EV's are the way to go!

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