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MT Chevrolet Bolt EV Review Update 1- Charging

3K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  jcanoe 
#1 ·
#3 ·
Lucky you. Our volt depletes its battery every day, since we charge on 110 it may or may not get charged overnight. The Bolt is awaiting an electrician to get a L2 charger, so now it's on 110 as well. Right now my charging goes like this start Monday with a full charge, charge every night and then look for a fast charger or L2 about day 3 (wed). Then Saturday night I plug it in and charge until Monday morning hoping for a full charge. Once I have a L2 at home I can charge every night no issue.
 
#4 ·
Since a Bolt in my garage would be used for about 60 miles/day, I'd simply recharge nightly at 240V. No big deal, like the Volt the Bolt EV can charge while you sleep.
 
#6 ·
Yeah, that article is enough to scare an on the fence EV buyer away...What it somewhat bring to light is how complex electrical rates are...Back when EV first hit the market, people unknowingly were signed up for the "Tier" rate plan and got hit with huge bills...In the overwhelming majority of cases, all they had to do was call/go online to change to a time of use plan however for the minority they did not have that option, only option to pay the utility company to install a dedicated meter for the EV...

But there are still people who do not understand that for the majority, overnight is significantly cheaper than daytime...You still hear that occasional story "bought an EV and my electric bill is through the roof!" simply because folks are plugging in AND CHARGING as soon as they get home from work and have no idea that most EVs/PHEVs have settings to delay the charging...
 
#8 ·
The reviewer's reluctance to fully charge the Bolt surprised me. Maybe they had experience with other EVs and were wary to not fully charge the battery else battery capacity and range would start to degrade. They should have been required to RTFM, especially the part about charging, setting charging windows and delayed charging. Even if they set a 1 hr charging window, limiting the daily charge to 6.8kwh, they would benefit from battery thermal management and the option of preconditioning while plugged in. If they were trying to simulate owning a Bolt but not having the ability to charge at home then they could have set up a minimal charging window at work during the least expensive time period that they could expect to be at the office. Lastly, the reviewer made no attempt to use CCS and DCFC, admittedly an option on the Bolt but still important.
 
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