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I was thinking that soon (in the next few months) I might be ready to move to a pure BEV so I test drove a Bolt this week. Really nice car: has everything I want as far as features, comfort, etc. The one thing that took me by surprise was that it felt noticeably slower off the line than the Volt. I knew that the numbers suggested that the Volt was slightly faster 0-30 but it was really noticeable. It seemed like it took the Bolt 4-5 seconds to apply full power off the line whereas the Volt ramps up to its full 120 kW much faster and pulls much harder from the start.
The opposite is true at speed and passing power is much better in the Bolt above say 40 MPH. But I find myself needing 0-30 more often than 30-60 or 50-70 because the times when I find it difficult to merge are congested roads between lights where you have to get rolling from a start so you can be moving quickly. Higher speed country roads tend to have much larger gaps so pulling out is easier and if you get to 30 in just a couple of seconds, you are already going half of the traffic speed and the cars behind you aren't bearing down on you as quickly.
So my question is this. I didn't have time to spend a lot of time on the test drive. Is there a mode (Sport maybe) in the Bolt that gives it more grunt off the line? What about if you turn off traction control? I even watched the power meter and you could see it SLOWLY ramping up power when you floor it from a stop and it looked like it took forever to reach max power (160 kW). My Volt doesn't do that, or rather, it does it but it reaches max 120 kW a lot faster than the Bolt.
At this point, that turned me off a bit plus I'm not a fan of the Bolt body style. It felt a bit like driving a micro minivan. I've just about decided to wait a year or two to see if GM comes out with a sporty EV.
Mike
The opposite is true at speed and passing power is much better in the Bolt above say 40 MPH. But I find myself needing 0-30 more often than 30-60 or 50-70 because the times when I find it difficult to merge are congested roads between lights where you have to get rolling from a start so you can be moving quickly. Higher speed country roads tend to have much larger gaps so pulling out is easier and if you get to 30 in just a couple of seconds, you are already going half of the traffic speed and the cars behind you aren't bearing down on you as quickly.
So my question is this. I didn't have time to spend a lot of time on the test drive. Is there a mode (Sport maybe) in the Bolt that gives it more grunt off the line? What about if you turn off traction control? I even watched the power meter and you could see it SLOWLY ramping up power when you floor it from a stop and it looked like it took forever to reach max power (160 kW). My Volt doesn't do that, or rather, it does it but it reaches max 120 kW a lot faster than the Bolt.
At this point, that turned me off a bit plus I'm not a fan of the Bolt body style. It felt a bit like driving a micro minivan. I've just about decided to wait a year or two to see if GM comes out with a sporty EV.
Mike