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Chevy Bolt - 200 mile range for $30k base price (after incentive)
- Thread starter FredTMC
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- bolt chevy Electric Vehicles review
According to that Chevy website, there is a Level 2/DC Fastcharge location near my home. Only problem is that DC Fast Charger is a CHAdeMO. They could at least filter by chargers that the Bolt could use.
EDIT: Every DC fast charger it shows within 5 miles of my place is a CHAdeMO.
EDIT: Every DC fast charger it shows within 5 miles of my place is a CHAdeMO.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
Seems like it includes CHAdeMO-only units. I just typed in Norco, CA and there were a couple results that were Nissan dealers. And looking at plugshare they are Nissan CHAdeMO units. If someone relied on that then they might come to the station expecting to be able to charge and then they may be in for a rude awakening. The site says it is tied to the app, so hopefully they fix this before the car actually comes out.
PlugShare
PlugShare
I already knew of two 60 kWh CCS locations within 2 miles. But I don't really plan on using them. I have Level 2 at work and home already, and if the price of CCS chargers gets reasonable for 480vac, I'll add a CCS at work.
Guess it sucks to live in the Bay Area. I'm surrounded by dairy farms and horses and apparently can't spit without hitting a CCS.
But I thought there were no 60kWh CCS's around. Did folk on the interwebbythingy fib a bit?
There are 2 within 2 miles away I've seen with my own eyes, and they are not new.
I will take a pic tomorrow, we are stopping to pick some stuff up.
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125 amps x 500 volts is 62.5 kW. But no, your pack voltage isn't high enough to ever see 60 kW. 400 volts x 125 amps is 50 kW, so most people just refer to them as 50 kW.
My point wasn't that there were no CCS in the Bay Area. (Believe there are some at Facebook's campus that I think are for employees only that show up on the Chevy search.) And there are a few CCS 5+ miles from my place. I just thought it was odd that GM's site was including solo CHAdeMO, as the Bolt cannot use that.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
I don't doubt there are some around. I was just pointing out GM's tool should exclude CHAdeMO-only stations because Bolts can't use them. If they link the same database into the app and the car, then people may be directed to a station they can't use (which is bad for obvious reasons).
Perhaps the CHAdeMOs have L2 SAE also? Dunno. Could be a bug in the database, or it could list all the places you could possibly charge at L2 or higher (25mph). You can sort by charging type, and all the CCS stuff comes to the top.
GM is limiting production to 30,000 cars a year worldwide and LG's excess capacity only allows them to expand to around 50,000 a year if GM wants to expand production. That's not going to have a significant impact on the market. Tesla plans to make more Model 3s a month than GM plans to make Bolts per year within the first year of production.
Also I don't think GM is going to make a low drag body for the Bolt. It would turn it into a completely different car and be very impractical. Tesla ended up making the Model 3 90% the size of the S instead of the original 80% the size because making an aerodynamic small car leads to a lot of compromises and the chassis of the Bolt is very small. One of the boasts of the Bolt is how much interior space there is for large people and how easy it is to get in and out. Redesigning the body to be aerodynamic will make it much more cramped inside and more difficult to get in and out.
There will probably be a few commercial Bolts around, but unless GM has a fire sale to get rid of unsold Bolts and some taxi company picks them up, there won't be many available for sale.
Mine was. While some assumptions didn't hold (gas prices fell, and have stayed lower than my model), the overall TCO was a significant factor in purchasing a car that was more than 2X the price of anything I'd ever purchased previously.
My model determined it wasn't the cheapest option of those I was considering, but on a relative scale it wasn't nearly that much more expansive overall than other options I was considering.
I'm not sure the general buying population does similarly, however.
jgs
Active Member
I suspect the mere act of being a person who comments here regularly, means you're not representative. For what it's worth, my own decision was not based on TCO – I'm a low-mileage driver, a purely financial analysis would probably tell me to get a low-range EV and rent for longer trips, or even not own a car at all.
This is sort of what I expected GM's next move to be. Take the Spark EV, and bump the 19kWh battery to 30kWh, or about 130 miles.
If anything, it would make a lot of folk correct, that the Bolt is a subcompact, really small, converted from an ICE design, with less than 200mi range, overpriced, lacking advanced features, with bad aero.
The upfitted Spark would have the performance of the i3, and the range of the newest Leaf, at price less than either.
They just completely skipped over the 130 mile area and like the Volt, just pushed the bar way up, out of reach for Nissan, Toyota, Ford, and others. Soon they will have both the best PHEV under $50,000, and the best EV under $50,000.
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
Rumor has it that the LEAF will jump into the 40 kWh battery range with the next generation. Makes good sense to me, it's just too bad that the LEAF has such a high battery degradation curve. I thought long and hard about buying a 30 kWh LEAF, but a ~ 20% chance of >30% degradation within 3 years is too much to stomach.
rxlawdude
Active Member
Unless you qualify that to "Until Tesla's Model 3 is released ...", you sound like a tool.
I always got a kick out some the bizarre slang. Tool is something useful. There was already a safe word for penis, which is Dick, like Richard Cabeza, penis-head.
When the Model 3 is released, Chevrolet could have already lost those two titles, and other more advanced cars will have taken their place.
Nobody knows what the 2018 model lineup will be. Nor do they know the Model 3 for 2018 will be under $50k. If they ship max trim models first, the game changes.
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
GM is planning to release a half-baked car without Nav complete to gain "bragging rights."
And in the meantime they have a website of charging stations that includes those the Bolt cannot use.
The world can always use more laughter.
And in the meantime they have a website of charging stations that includes those the Bolt cannot use.
The world can always use more laughter.
Pretty sure when GM releases a halo it's not what you think. Have you even driven a GM halo car?
The Bolt and Volt were not halo cars. Cars like the ZR-1, CTS-V, Z/28 were recent halo projects.
If the Bolt was a halo car, it would need 750+ EV hp, a top speed well over 200mph, and set a record at the 'ring, or dominate a production endurance racing class.
Which station did you have trouble charging your Bolt at? Just curious. I haven't seen anything but press cars.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
You don't have to have driven a Bolt to know you can't charge it at a DC station with only a CHAdeMO connector. It should not be marked as a DC station if a Bolt can't charge at it. For example you counted 19 DC charging stations in your area from that map, but by your own check you know of only 2 that are actually CCS.
I took your advice and sorted by level, but the second result down, "West Covina 205 N Citrus St West Covina" is actually a CHAdeMO only station (a Nissan dealer one at that). There are two AC Level 2 chargers available nearby, but the GM site lists those separately as a separate listing.
PlugShare
The 4th, 5th results "Sadium Nissan" and "Riverside Nissan" have exactly the same issue: DC charging listed separately from AC Level 2, but the Bolt can't charge at the DC stations because they are CHAdeMO-only.
There are 200 CCS or L2 charge locations within 21 miles of my address. There seems to be 8 Nissan dealerships within 20 miles best I can tell, and they typical have L2 also. L2 is 25mph. Some of the Nissan dealers are L2 only.
Two CCS locations are 2.8 miles from the address. One is east, the other west.
Two CCS locations are 2.8 miles from the address. One is east, the other west.
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