[idaho]

I've owned a '13 volt, a '15 volt, and currently have a '17.

Why would someone buy a bolt over a volt? Am I missing something?

I'm on the battery 95% of the time, can take long trips when I want, and have no problem if I forget to plug it in.
Almost forgot - I have more room in the volt.

Plus, the bolt cost more. I don't see the appeal of the bolt....

 

[volt spain]

Check with Steverino , who has both, lucky him.

 

[saghost]

Some people are really annoyed when the engine comes on (I was). Some of them even go to great lengths to avoid having it come on. The Bolt is a quicker car and smoother (though aside from the chuggle, Gen 2 is said to be a lot better than Gen 1 was.)

For the vast majority of drivers, you'd have to forget plugging in for a few days to have an issue with a Bolt or Tesla.

 

[Neromanceres]

I've had a 2013 Volt and currently have a 2017 Volt. My wife is getting a 2018 Bolt EV and we have test driven the Bolt several times now.

There are advantages to both cars and at the end of the day you have to look at your usage case.

The Bolt EV has more passenger space and is a better packaged vehicle than the Volt. With the DC charging infrastructure in our area it will be very rare when we need the security of the gas engine in the Volt. The Bolt EV will end up being our primary vehicle. The faster 7.2KW L2 charging speed allows for taking advantage of public charging infrastructure better than the Volt. And as others have stated the Bolt EV is a faster and better performing car than the Volt.

Of course the Volt is a sporty and great looking car. The longer wheel base and softer suspension gives a more cushy ride than the Bolt EV. The seats in the Volt are better padded and wider. The Volt is also less expensive and can be optioned up with adaptive cruise control (not yet available on the Bolt EV).

 

[jeff_h]

I've got both and would choose the Bolt hands down -- the only place where I like the Volt better is the comfort of the seats and that's been discussed in various threads already.

 

[bjrosen]

I would love a BEV that had enough range so that I could go anywhere but the Bolt isn't it, range is too short and there aren't enough CCS chargers. I'm only 55% electric in my 2017 Volt so I'm using the engine way more than I would like. I'm hopeing that the 2021 EV platform will be good enough, but the Bolt isn't for me.

 

[DonC]

On the practical side, one thing in the Bolt's favor is room. The back seat in the Bolt EV is very comfortable. Would not want to ride in the back seat of a Volt.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Why would someone want a Bolt?

Well, someone who drives more than the electric range of the Volt on a regular basis, and wants more electric vs gasoline range, that's who.

Seems simple to me...?

 

[gaulfinger]

Why choose one or the other? Get both! For us, the Volt is short on headroom and too low slung for easy ingress/egress. The Bolt fixes all that, plus it's quicker and more fun to drive.

But the Bolt still comes up short for trips over 200 miles, at least until the charging infrastructure fills in some large voids. So we squeeze into the Volt for long trips -- for which it excels in all ways but form factor.

 

[edk-austin]

We also have both (and I've driven a g2 Volt). Some people, like my wife, just like the styling and form factor of Bolt better. She doesn't like ducking into Volt, likes the small CUV styling of Bolt. Bolt has more room (although narrower front seats), better headroom, easier access to hatch items. She also likes the higher seating position of Bolt for better visibility. I was surprised by that. For a small car, you do sit fairly high. Found myself looking down on cars I didn't expect to. And my wife is loathe to visit gas stations.

Range hasn't been an issue yet. At one point we were considering a TX to CO drive, but given the current state of CCS/L2 stations, I would not do it with Bolt. On the other hand, for 100% of her driving so far (5 months), there is no range anxiety, no gaming of always be charging, no worries with where to charge next.

 

[MikeyCVolt]

Some people are really annoyed when the engine comes on (I was). Some of them even go to great lengths to avoid having it come on. The Bolt is a quicker car and smoother (though aside from the chuggle, Gen 2 is said to be a lot better than Gen 1 was.)

For the vast majority of drivers, you'd have to forget plugging in for a few days to have an issue with a Bolt or Tesla.

The Volt actually has more torque and is faster than the Bolt 0-30. The Volt just falls flat after about 40 MPH. That's OK with me because 0-30 is where I need it most and I like the styling of the Volt better. Having said that, I got the Volt due to price and because I wasn't sure if I was ready to go full EV. After having driven the Volt for less than 3 months, I don't think I can ever buy another ICE vehicle. So if I had to do it again, I'd be giving the Bolt a much longer look even though I'm not a fan of the styling.

Mike

 

[Steverino]

Different tools. The Volt is a sedan, the Bolt a higher, CUV form factor. The Volt is good for shorter drives or really really long drives. The Bolt is great for short or medium trips.

The Bolt is quicker than the Volt, and actually way more fun to drive. I'd rather drive the Bolt than the Volt if I had to choose. The Bolt has way more headroom front and back and more legroom in the back, and sits 3 in the back, plus high cargo space. My Bolt also has more tech than my Volt (like the camera rear view mirror), but it's 6 years newer, so you'd expect that.

Having a Volt and a Bolt is perfect for our two car family. One complements the other.

If I could have only one car, it would be the Volt, but it's a close call. I could live with the Bolt and rent a car for the few times I make an extended road trip outside it's range.

 

[JC Volt]

We have 2 Volts now but thinking of going to a 1 Volt/1 Bolt arrangement. The Bolt has even lower maintenance (never an oil change, fuel filter, or engine air filter replacement). Also fewer parts to fail as the vehicle ages.

 

[hellsop]

I would love a BEV that had enough range so that I could go anywhere but the Bolt isn't it, range is too short and there aren't enough CCS chargers. I'm only 55% electric in my 2017 Volt so I'm using the engine way more than I would like. I'm hopeing that the 2021 EV platform will be good enough, but the Bolt isn't for me.

We talked about this months ago. It's not the Bolt's fault that you live on the rough end of what charging network there is and want to drive further into the "wilderness" rather than to New Jersey. It's not a flaw in the car.

 

[viking79]

We talked about this months ago. It's not the Bolt's fault that you live on the rough end of what charging network there is and want to drive further into the "wilderness" rather than to New Jersey. It's not a flaw in the car.

Correct, it is not the Bolt EV's flaw, the flaw with it is the charging rate is too slow. However, if GM wants to sell cars, they need to help address the charging network. WI is pretty good, IA doesn't really have any public CCS. However, there are plenty of Tesla superchargers, so in 2 years when I replace my Volt, it is a hint on which one I will buy if that hasn't been remedied by then. As much as I like Madison, I don't want to make that my only long distance trip option (with the Bolt EV it is the only place I could reach with comfortable amount of range remaining, at least 3 seasons).

 

[Slotracer577]

Why choose one or the other? Get both! For us, the Volt is short on headroom and too low slung for easy ingress/egress. The Bolt fixes all that, plus it's quicker and more fun to drive.

But the Bolt still comes up short for trips over 200 miles, at least until the charging infrastructure fills in some large voids. So we squeeze into the Volt for long trips -- for which it excels in all ways but form factor.

This. I prefer driving the Bolt as it never goes to gas and it has better visibility. I also like the smaller outside size. And the biggest difference is the door sill is lower so I can comfortably rest my arm there.
The Volt has better seats and does long trips far better than the Bolt. The ideal car would be a Bolt with a 30kwh battery usable and an ice backup. With the volt seats.

 

[solar_dave]

Really with my wife's gas anxiety a bolt might be perfect combination with a Volt. Problem is our Volts are so cheap to maintain and operate it is a real no brainer to just sit where we are on the 6 and 7 year old Volts and see what happens. The wife's total gas consumption life time is like 35 gallons and about 30% of that was the dealer fill and another 30% was her mistake of filling it all the way up. She loves her Volt. We use mine for the long hauls and it only has like 350 gallons burned it, mostly all from several long trips. It still has a lifetime 165mpg reported.

Not that a pure EV wouldn't be in the cards at some point, but financially it just doesn't make sense with our early Volts.

 

[rhodomel]

I've owned a '13 volt, a '15 volt, and currently have a '17.

Why would someone buy a bolt over a volt? Am I missing something?

I'm on the battery 95% of the time, can take long trips when I want, and have no problem if I forget to plug it in.
Almost forgot - I have more room in the volt.

Plus, the bolt cost more. I don't see the appeal of the bolt....

At this old age, the Bolt is the easier car to get into and get out of. I wish there's a CrossVolt or EREV version of the Chevy Bolt.

 

[bjrosen]

Correct, it is not the Bolt EV's flaw, the flaw with it is the charging rate is too slow. However, if GM wants to sell cars, they need to help address the charging network. WI is pretty good, IA doesn't really have any public CCS. However, there are plenty of Tesla superchargers, so in 2 years when I replace my Volt, it is a hint on which one I will buy if that hasn't been remedied by then. As much as I like Madison, I don't want to make that my only long distance trip option (with the Bolt EV it is the only place I could reach with comfortable amount of range remaining, at least 3 seasons).

I don't think GM ever intended the Bolt to be anything other than a second car. They recognized that the CCS infrastructure would be sparse in the Bolt's time frame so they cheaped out on the Bolt's DC charging capabilities. They are targeting the 2021 to introduce a slew of second generation Boltec cars, those will be the "real" EVs with adequate range and presumably DC charging speeds that are comparable to Tesla's. GM is taking a long term approach to EVs because it's in their interest for the transition to be gradual. CCS is an industry standard and in the long run standards always win over proprietary solutions even if those proprietary solutions are initially much better. I'll give a couple of examples from the 1980s. In local area networking the Apollo token ring network was 20% faster and also more efficient than the first generation of Ethernet but Ethernet was an open standard so it's with us today, the fastest version today is 100,000 times faster than the 1980 version, Apollo the company is long gone as is there network. Also in the 1980s there were many proprietary operating systems most of which were better than Unix, DEC's VAX VMS was vastly more capable at the time. Today DEC is long gone, your phone is either running Linux (Android) or Unix (Apple). In the long run the same thing will happen with DC Fast charging. In 15 years there will be CCS chargers everywhere and they will have much faster charging rates than Tesla's current superchargers. Tesla's proprietary network will get shut down in favor of the standard CCS network (assuming Tesla survives that long). The doesn't mean that Tesla won't have an advantage in the short term. If I were buying a BEV today and it were possible to get a Model 3 I'd choose that over a Bolt. In three years time the world will change, there will be a much wider choice of BEVs because not only is GM targeting model year 2021, so are the Axis powers, and companies like Charge Point will have had time to roll out a lot more CCS chargers. At that time my guess is that Tesla's network will be better placed but there will me more CCS chargers. When that generation of cars becomes available I'll look at the Plugshare map to see if there is adequate coverage in the places that I want to go, if the CCS network is good enough then I'll replace the Volt with a BEV assuming that I can get one with > 350 miles of range. I periodically look at Tesla's map and it will hit the good enough level next year so I know that a Tesla will be doable, what I don't know is if they will still be in business then and if there will be other deal breakers in their cars.

 

[TheBlueFlash]

No more oil changes, engine air filters, spark plugs, drive belts, etc. Bolt has far fewer maintenance expenditures (basically just rotating tires until a coolant flush at 150k miles). Add that to the higher seating position, more passenger room, more cargo room, roof rails (for bikes and cargo boxes)...it makes a lot of sense in my opinion.