[WopOnTour]

Condition: Some customers may comment of a full charge level NOT indicated on the instrument panel (IP) charge level indicator after a complete vehicle charge event. The top indicator bar will not be illuminated.

Cause: This condition may be caused when "Hill Top Reserve" is turned ON. Hill Top Reserve enables the regenerative braking efficiency to be maximized when driving from higher elevation immediately after charging. Please refer to the Owner's Manual for more information.

Note: When turned on, this feature will stop the charge before the battery is full, allowing space for energy from regenerative braking.

Correction:Check to see if the Hill Top Reserve is turned on. Press the Green Energy button > Energy settings >Hill Top Reserve. Press the on/off button to activate or deactivate.

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WOT

 

[ClarksonCote]

Hey WOT, any insight into why they limited this capability to Hilltop reserve?

In other words, I'm surprised they don't have a general "Only charge to 90%" or "Only charge to (specify SOC)" setting, not only for hilltop reserve, but to help prolong the battery a bit more as opposed to having it always topped off.

Also, I'm kind of surprised there's no "hilltop reserve mode engaged" indicator on the dash to help make the driver aware of why the 90% charge is present instead of 100%.

 

[saghost]

Wait. So GM just issued a service bulletin to tell people that if you set the car to not fully charge the battery, the car may not fully charge the battery??

I would have hoped that drivers would be smart enough to figure that out...

 

[BAZINGA]

Glad I live in the FLATLANDS aka Illinois and don't have to worry about such things. Highest point in my county is 631 feels ASL. Maybe that's why my GOM hovers around 60 miles most of the year.

 

[bro1999]

I would have hoped that drivers would be smart enough to figure that out...

That is assuming people actually RTFM.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Wait. So GM just issued a service bulletin to tell people that if you set the car to not fully charge the battery, the car may not fully charge the battery??

I would have hoped that drivers would be smart enough to figure that out...

Well, a visual indicator would be helpful: like a yellow top bar to indicate that it won't charge that bit.

(And of course that only works as long as Hilltop Reserve is exactly equal to the top bar. I presume it's 10 bars and Hilltop is 10%).

 

[saghost]

Glad I live in the FLATLANDS aka Illinois and don't have to worry about such things. Highest point in my county is 631 feels ASL. Maybe that's why my GOM hovers around 60 miles most of the year.

GM didn't present it this way, but if you know you're not going to need the full range before your next charging opportunity it's probably wise to turn on hilltop reserve even if you live in the flat lands.

One of the big unknowns with the Bolt is battery degradation. It's a new chemistry, not shared with any other car AFAIK, and GM is using more of the pack than ever before, too. That doesn't mean it'll certainly have bad degradation - it just means we have no history to go on.

All lithium chemistries I know of suffer worse from cycling to very high and very low states of charge, and generally they suffer more sitting at high states of charge, too (especially at higher pack temperatures.)

Using Hilltop should reduce the stress on the pack compared to not using it, though we don't know how the pack will fair in either case yet.

 

[WopOnTour]

Wait. So GM just issued a service bulletin to tell people that if you set the car to not fully charge the battery, the car may not fully charge the battery??

I would have hoped that drivers would be smart enough to figure that out...

I believe their concern is that the setting might have inadvertently been set to ON, creating a perceived charging condition.

The fact that a bulletin has been issued, actually indicates there HAS been dealer visits for exactly that occurance

WOT

 

[wordptom]

The Bolt’s Energy Detail screen displays how energy is being used "since the last time the high voltage battery was fully charged."

If you turn the Hill Top Reserve charging option on, will the completion of such a charge reset the counter, even though the battery has not been "fully charged?"

If not, Bolt drivers who live at the top of a hill who want to reset the Energy Detail Screen will need to turn off the Hill Top Reserve setting and fully recharge their batteries in order to do so.

If not, some Bolt drivers might choose to leave Hill Top Reserve turned on all the time even if they don’t live on hills (e.g., for battery life considerations, as saghost mentions)... the Energy Detail screen would never reset, serving instead as a "lifetime ev mileage" display (total distance traveled / total energy used).

 

[devbolt]

The Bolt’s Energy Detail screen displays how energy is being used "since the last time the high voltage battery was fully charged."

If you turn the Hill Top Reserve charging option on, will the completion of such a charge reset the counter, even though the battery has not been "fully charged?"

If not, Bolt drivers who live at the top of a hill who want to reset the Energy Detail Screen will need to turn off the Hill Top Reserve setting and fully recharge their batteries in order to do so.

If not, some Bolt drivers might choose to leave Hill Top Reserve turned on all the time even if they don’t live on hills (e.g., for battery life considerations, as saghost mentions)... the Energy Detail screen would never reset, serving instead as a "lifetime ev mileage" display (total distance traveled / total energy used).

I have mine set to use Hilltop Reserve every time I charge and the energy detail screen resets itself each time after a charge.

Via the OnStar site or the myChevrolet app you can see your lifetime stats. The app shows lifetime efficiency (miles per kWh) and total miles drain. From those two values you can easily compute the total kWh used over the lifetime of the car. (total miles / miles per kWh = total kWh consumed).