2022 Bolt EUV Initial impressions

I never caught mine pulling more than 2.5 amps from the wall during cabin cooling. Basically, it stopped charging and used the battery to power the air conditioner until the timer ran out or I stopped it; then it would resume charging. It was ridiculous.

I know the Gen 4 based Prime had a heat pump. I presume Tide is right that the new one also does.

No kidding!!

I hope they get it to you before production stops. It's a heckuva car for the money.

Similar but shaped differently. The cargo area has less front to back but much more floor to roof, especially if you take out the false floor. But there is extra leg room in the back seat (and the outer seats are heated on the Premier) of the EUV which makes the back seat more spacious AND allowed me to take home a 10-foot long piece of 1" PVC conduit by folding down the right rear seat and slightly flexing the conduit.

 

Got my first charging report last night. Looks about like what I expected. A week. or so ago, I changed my charge limit from 80% to 75%. Since I almost never go below 50% on any given day (outside of vacation trips), there's not much point in charging above 75%. Our trip to Ohio starts June 5. That'll mess with those charging stats.

 

Tomorrow morning we head north again in our EUV. We got this car in early September of last year and a couple months later it took us up to Michigan and back home to the Tampa area. Tomorrow we're headed for central Ohio with an overnight at Cleveland, TN. There's a Clarion Inn there that claims to have guest charging. We'll see how that works out. If they fail us, it looks like we'd have to back track about 20 miles to Ooltewah. Not the end of the world but will need to keep a reserve. We will call ahead, but that's no guarantee either.

On our previous trip I relied heavily on ABRP. That was a little stressful but not extremely. More just a matter of embarking on the unknown. For this trip, we're already familiar with the charging landscape along I-75. So, while I am consulting ABRP, I also used Plugshare to make a list of potential chargers including the location, brand, # of chargers, and distance from home (day 1) and from the hotel (day 2). I'll have a printout as well as the info in my notes app. That doesn't remove all uncertainty, but I think it will help since we'll be doing less research on the fly.

On our first trip, our first charging stop in Chiefland, FL had both chargers down. Not nice at all but we made it to the next one with no problems. This time, ABRP would have us stop at the EA in Gainesville. But PlugShare says that is closed starting today for parking lot repairs. It's a little sooner than we wanted to stop anyway. There is a ChargePoint (free for me) at the T/A truck stop south of Lake City, but they charge $10 plus $0.55 per kWh. I'd love to bypass them, but I may need to cough up the $10 just for the convenience factor with it being the right distance and having the necessary amenities.

I'll let you know when we get to the end of the trip.

 

We made it to the farm in Ohio yesterday about 7 PM. Good trip!!!

Some highlights.
Total cost of charging was $74.16; about the same as if we'd driven the Prius.

I was kind of hoping we'd be able to make it to Valdosta for the first charge. It was looking very risky so we stopped at a T/A south of Lake City for a ridiculously expensive charging experience. It's ChargePoint, but the manager there charges a flat $10 fee plut 55 cents/kWh. We got just enough to be sure to get to Valdosta and resumed driving. It was still over $17.

After Valdosta was Macon, which was our only stop longer than an hour. (We had a couple over the 2-day trip at 48 minutes for second place.) We took on 51.5 kWh due to being at 11% SOC on arrival and wanting to get past Atlanta before stopping again. Then on to Kennesaw, GA for 23.4 kWh before heading to our overnight at Cleveland, TN. 14 hours to cover 600 miles. The hotel had two destination chargers, but they were not free. I had to install yet another app and set up payment. At 37 cents/kWh, I didn't fill the battery. Just got enough to get us to Knoxville the next morning which was about 15 kWh.

Day two was much more interesting. We got to Knoxville and had the EA chargers there all to ourselves. I've learned to not trust EA chargers to keep charging, so after a potty break I came back to the car just as an Equinox was pulling in. It had most of the trim removed and was partly wrapped, but the drivers were very open to me taking pix & asking questions. Soon their coworkers pulled in. There was a camouflaged Blazer and a couple other camo cars I didn't recognize plus a non-camouflaged Lyriq. They were all on a development drive. Unfortunately, only three chargers were working and six cars, including mine, were needing to charge. I pulled out as soon as I had enough to get to Georgetown, KY. Meanwhile, a Taycan had pulled up apparently hoping to charge, but he gave up and left after about 10 minutes.



Georgetown was uneventful, but Williamsburg got more interesting. We had stopped at the Buckee's just south of Georgetown and got sandwiches. We ate as we charged there in front of yet another Walmart and noticed a technician working back in the enclosures where the cabinets are. When we got done eating, we went inside for the restrooms. We got back to find that the charger had errored out before we had enough to reach our next stop north of Cincinnati. So we moved to a 350 since no one else was there and finished charging. The tech came out of the enclosure and we talked for a few minutes. It's the first time I'd ever seen someone actually working on EA chargers ... but not the last. I told him what happened and also pointed out the the other 150 screen was looking terrible. He took lots of pictures of screens and charging handles and he also mentioned that they are planning something like 1,500 (iirc) new chargers just in eastern Tennessee. EA did not charge for the errored out charge. Didn't even send an email.

On to Cincinnati for our last charge of the trip where we had a flawless charging experience. There was another EA tech there. He was fixing one of the dispensers and actually driving an EV; a Lightning to be specific. I told him how glad I was to see that the negative press has motivated his bosses to start getting these things fixed. He said that that wasn't it. He told me that government inspectors actually go around checking the chargers now and fine the company if they don't keep them running. I'd never heard that before!! He was also pretty happy about the new equipment coming out that's easier and faster to fix. Both of us being electricians, we had a great conversation.

Anyway, we got to the farm after a 12-hour driving day, covering 500 miles and plugged in the OEM EVSE to my mother-in-law's 120V garage outlet at about 7 PM yesterday (Tuesday) and the car said it will hit 80% tomorrow (Thursday) morning. We'll have no problems keeping up with local driving and should be able to have 100% SOC for our departure next Tuesday.

I'll have another update after we get back to Florida.

We averaged 3.7 miles/kWh on day one and 3.6 on day 2. Drove mostly at the speed limit or within about 2 mph of it.

Tomorrow, I'm doing a solo trip to the Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton. I should get to finally use some more of our EVgo credit near Columbus on the way there and back. It's about 240 miles round trip and the EVgo is midway in each direction.

 

When we were charging north of Atlanta on Monday, one pulled in right next to us. It was surprisingly similar to my ice blue metallic EUV but with more metal flake and a little less blue. I didn't see any rose or gold in it like I saw in the Prius. But with both cars, the angle and color of the sunlight makes a difference.

 

Woo hoo! I'm happy for ya. Lots of Bolts out there with lots of miles. They do have their quirks and they are not all perfect. So far, after 11 months and one day and 17,250 miles, mine is trouble fee and still. feels new. I hope you have the same experience.

 

I agree on the slightly inferior comfort and ride, although it's not enough to whine about because the Prime was so comfortable that "not as good" isn't necessarily bad.

Not sure why some people don't adapt to OPD in Reverse. I see that a lot over on the ChevyBolt forum. It's identical to OPD in Drive with the sole exception being the direction of travel.

That would have been back in the early days of the Tesla. Ten years or so ago? I have no idea whether I read about it or saw a YT video or how I first learned about it. I'm pretty sure, though, that it was quite a while before I saw it abbreviated.

 

Why order when there's a good chance you can get one right off the lot? It'll take good timing, but that's what we did. It's not like you have to wait till you get off work before you can go get it when you find it.