Took the Bolt EV plunge
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Looking forward to your insight...if you post a weekly summary over the next few weeks/months of ownership that'd be awesome. I think a Bolt is in our future but I'm interested in hearing some real world stories.
Nice! The $3k MD incentive helps pulling the trigger, eh?
Great color. I recently added a Bolt also. Just can't give up my 2011 Volt though. I'm keeping it. Over 100k electric miles and still going strong. So far the range on the Bolt has been above expectations. And not just a few miles over 238. I'm seeing 280 estimates and max range over 300 miles. Longest trip so far was 190 miles round trip. Still had 65 miles left on the guessometer when reached home.
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Yup....I'd love to get some of my tax $$s back.Nice! The $3k MD incentive helps pulling the trigger, eh?
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255 Posts
It was interesting today. Had to use drive since L was making the wife motion sick. You could see by the usage when I made the change. The m/kWh dropped a bit without all the regen from L. I don't get all that great range, but my trips always have a lot of elevation change. Love the power.
The regen from L isn't supposed to increase your m/kwh OVERALL compared with D. Something else did that. Maybe even just having the extra body in the car, and different climate control demand from that. Remember also that regen is 30% less efficient than not having to slow down in the first place.
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Yeah, I keep seeing people gushing about regen, happily talking about all the "free power" they get from it. Whereas the reality is that every watt you get back from regen represents a net loss due to having to burn through even more watts to get back up to speed.
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i agree more testing is needed, but I could see a clear drop in miles/kWh. After using D for a couple days as L causes passenger motion sickness, I hate the mimicking of an automatic transmission in D. I wish gm allowed it to be turned off.
I agree that the added weight (used loosely.) likely affected your range more than normal. In fact, I've taken several drives to LA alone and know that I always use about 4-4.5 gallons when it's just me. It's been that way since I bought the car. However I just recently took my same usual drive with 2 others in my Volt and I used over a gallon more. In fact, I think it was 5.6 gallons when I got home which is a significant increase but the added weight of two more people apparently made the impact.
You just need practice.
I get used to the L regen in the Bolt on weekends, then go back to my Volt on weekdays. Monday is interesting what with expecting more slowing when lifting, and Saturday takes a bit of readjustment as well, in the opposite direction.
Once you stop lifting the pedal so quickly the Bolt in L can be very smooth. Well, as smooth as the short wheelbase allows, but pedal operation wise it can be nice, once the technique is learned as muscle-memory.
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My hypothesis so far is that the blended brakes provide less regen than low. I need to do a little more testing, but I think it will show up on the display. I know with the paddle I can see 70 kW of regen. I think with brakes alone it tops out lower. Our town likes to make you hit every light red, so the net amount of energy should be the same since I am coming to a complete stop.
Regarding two people, there were two people in the car the whole drive. The difference was driving across town one way vs the other for a total of about 20 miles. When looking at the m/kWh per 5 mile increments the first 10 miles were higher than the second 10 after the driving style change.
So far I have 2500 miles in just over a month, I am pretty smooth with the one foot driving. Problem is the immediate shift from go to stop with no coasting in between. Personally I don't mind a bit and now after driving in L, don't like the programming in D or the volt as well as the bolt in L.
Regarding two people, there were two people in the car the whole drive. The difference was driving across town one way vs the other for a total of about 20 miles. When looking at the m/kWh per 5 mile increments the first 10 miles were higher than the second 10 after the driving style change.
So far I have 2500 miles in just over a month, I am pretty smooth with the one foot driving. Problem is the immediate shift from go to stop with no coasting in between. Personally I don't mind a bit and now after driving in L, don't like the programming in D or the volt as well as the bolt in L.
Based on MANY discussions prior to the Bolt's release, it doesn't have "blended brakes" in the same way that the Volt does. It uses electric braking (regen and counter torque) unless you actually manage to push the pedal far enough down to activate the actual hydraulics at the end of pedal travel, which engage the friction brakes (or you set the parking brake which also engages friction). And it's a LONG way down there -- you have to push through the ENTIRE electric braking range to get to that point so the pedal's nearly on the floor. Most people's "panic stops" won't even get that far until they're basically pushing themselves up out of the seat stepping so hard.
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