2022 Bolt EUV Initial impressions

The older Bolts was limited to 7.2 kW, newer generation is 11.5 kW.

The EVSE that comes with the Bolt is only 32A, but the newer Bolts can take up to 48A.

 

cool meter!

 

Cumulative Energy meter is a nice idea.

I am going to do that to my level 2 charger as I have often wondered what the cumulative watts is and associated cost I've used charging our vehicle.

Thank you for posting your charging set up so we could see and get ideas to use ourselves.

 

Congrats on the Bolt.

I've experimented with both modes and prefer driving in D, myself. I like to coast up to stop signs and red lights.

 

Even in the Prius, I find that kind of frustrating. I always like to make my cruise-control cancellations seamless. In old conventional cars, where the cruise servo actually pulled on the throttle, it was so easy to put my foot on the pedal and find exactly the position the cruise had it pulled to, and then cancel the cruise.

With the all-electronic version, I have to blindly push the pedal down first as far as I think might be right, then cancel the cruise and see what happens.

 

Can you compare this finesse level to what it took a gen2 Prius to 'glide'?

 

Yes, the Bolt has a coolant based Thermal Management System the cools and heats the battery pack as required.
You Southerners are always leaving out the "Heats the Battery Pack also" part of things....

As the manual says leave it plugged in during really hot and cold weather.
And it will kick on the TMS when unplugged also, and use battery power to do this until it gets down to ~40%, but the temp tolerance is looser when not plugged in. I don't have the exact numbers.

I too live in a 100A service house. I get by fine with a 16A/3.3kW EVSE. And I currently have two EV's. I'll use an L1 also if needed but haven't in a long time.

(is having your EVSE hang from the cord the way to go???)

The ol' Drive in D or L debate never ends.
Regen is the act of slowing down. There is X amount of energy to recoup when slowing down.

Do it with the Brake Pedal in D, as a variable regen pedal, or do it by constantly controlling the car's motion with the Go Pedal in L.

It's your call and preference. There is no difference in efficiency.
You are the captain of this ship and control the accel and decel. Which 'Pedal Method' does not matter.
It's just however you like to control the car.
I like being able to take my foot off the Go Pedal and do a simulated coast. A chance to 'Adjust' in the seat!
Or you can select N and get a real coast.

The Bolt has Blended Brakes like the Prius. The Friction Brakes blend in after the regen is maxxed out.
Blended Brakes are great technology!

And this is not talked about much: Tesla does not have Blended Brakes.
Their brake pedal is just old school Friction brakes.
Brand T makes you adopt to One Pedal driving if you want regen. You can set a reduced regen mode, but then it's just more heat at the brakes when you step on the Brake Pedal.

 

Tesla may have the means of doing blended braking now. Early on, as those of us that drove a hybrid back then know, blended braking wasn't seemless. Brake pedal operating friction brakes only was the KISS approach to avoid reducing the number of new quirks to the driver. It is also how train controls are set up; one control for acceleration and dynamic/regen braking, and another for the friction brakes.

 

The Blended Brakes on my Bolt feel 'seemless'. You should drive some new EV's!
I didn't know tesla was doing blended brakes. That's news. Do you have a reference?
Not a fan of a dumb old friction brake pedal...

I know for a fact that the AC compressor is a variable speed DC brushless motor driven from the 400VDC pack. Just like in the Prius, but at less DC volts....

You can hear it step up through the speeds from outside. The 'radiator fans' are also brushless variable speed!

I can't imagine gm running heat and AC at the same time. No way. Especially on an EV.
I believe the latest Bolts allow selecting AC and Heat on/off independently. I'm not familiar with running it in Auto.
My legacy '17 Bolt only has one button to turn on both systems, and if I increase the temp selected too much it will start the heat.
Couldn't you select just the AC function when that is all you need?

I want a SW upgrade that gives my Bolt the newer two separate buttons on the display. But I'm dreaming...
gm, "You want new SW? Buy new car."

 

I think you are right about finding a workaround for what you have detected. Keep in mind that the efficiency target of the Prime and the Bolt are different as of EV mode of operation objectives, since one has a 8.9KW battery versus the other having a 65KW battery.The EV range is the obvious difference , but the design approch of sipping the minimum energy favors the Prime and translate a more efficient design for the Prime climate control ( S flow, eco heat/cool and the heatpump design)
Having the Prime before achieving the Bolt gives you a great perspective, and sharing your impressions is a real treat for us
Thanks

 

I can’t provide a reference, other than to point you to Tesla’s web site, the manual is available online.
Personally, after driving a Prius (gen 2) and Tesla vehicles, I far prefer the “dumb old” brake pedal over the dumb old accelerator.

As for the regen, it is blended (if you select that setting) on the accelerator pedal. This came through a SW update, so our older Model Y has this new option.

The friction brakes are used to give you consistent behavior in the event of regen loss due to a full charge or cold weather.
It does not move regen to the brake pedal.

 

But early blended systems were quirky. Skipping on them back then let Tesla save R&D costs, and avoid potential customer complaints.

Teslas having the means of doing blended braking was mentioned in a post on this site, and I see Zythryn covers what I just found in an article. The blending isn't on the brake pedal. It's on the accelerator to keep the one pedal driving braking level consistent regardless of battery state.

My understanding is that you can set up a Tesla's one pedal driving to have it come to a complete stop, and only would use the brake pedal for emergencies.

 

Well this sounds even worse than conventional Blended Brakes on the Brake Pedal.

Are you saying, You're tooling along in your tesla, you have a twitch or have to adjust the twins and take you foot off the Go Pedal it will go into,, What? Full Regen,, Plus X amount of friction brakes? How much friction brakes with your foot removed from the Go Pedal?
That sounds horrible. No thanks. That is not how I describe Blended Brakes.

I guess tesla really does demand the new driver to adopt the 1 Pedal method.
I like a Go Pedal and a Stop Pedal and a Coast you don't have to control when No Pedal is pressed.
No adoption is necessary.
What do we call that? Normal Driving?

Why no Normal Driving mode available with a tesla?

Yes, some prefer 1 Pedal. Some prefer Normal Driving.
With the Bolt you have the choice. Not so with a tesla.

 

You seem to purposely misunderstand posts you reply to.
If full regen is available, there will be no friction brakes. If full regen is not available, friction brakes will be used to make it feel as if full regen is available.

If you feel it is worse, don’t enable the option.
As mentioned before, there are various setting to basically turn off regen so you can use what you call, “normal” driving.

I had less trouble adapting to Tesla’s one-pedal driving than I did to the poor implementation oof Toyota’s blended regen.
IMO, Toyota was the forcing a change in driver behavior.

 

It has been awhile since I have driven a hybrid. Improvements over time have been mentioned here, but the brakes on my old Prius required you getting use to its differences. There was the occasional hum of the accumulator coming from the driver footwell, which was completely new. Worse was when the brakes momentarily stopped braking after hitting a bump as there was a delay between switching from regen to friction braking then.