Chevy Bolt - 200 mile range for $30k base price (after incentive)

[miimura]

Can anyone find the official progress report for 2017? I can't find the EV Corridor docs anymore on the California site?

If you watch the Localized Health Impacts reports from the CEC, you can see the site updates that the grant recipients have filed with the Commission. I keep my map updated with the currently planned sites. I have also added the CalTrans sites that were announced at the beginning of the year. However, I have no inside information about what the development state is on any of these sites. ChargePoint is the first to bring any corridor site online. It's a 50kW unit in Redding. I learned about it when someone spotted it on PlugShare.

Future State Funded Fast Charge Sites

 

[McRat]

If you watch the Localized Health Impacts reports from the CEC, you can see the site updates that the grant recipients have filed with the Commission. I keep my map updated with the currently planned sites. I have also added the CalTrans sites that were announced at the beginning of the year. However, I have no inside information about what the development state is on any of these sites. ChargePoint is the first to bring any corridor site online. It's a 50kW unit in Redding. I learned about it when someone spotted it on PlugShare.

Future State Funded Fast Charge Sites

The picture looks great. I can tell you nothing on I-15 Corridor is started except EVgo, 1 operational + 1 about complete, which is not part of the Corridor plans. ChargePoint won that contract.

 

[miimura]

The picture looks great. I can tell you nothing on I-15 Corridor is started except EVgo, 1 operational + 1 about complete, which is not part of the Corridor plans. ChargePoint won that contract.

ChargePoint also messed up the spacing between Barstow and Primm when they moved the sites. Luckily, the State has the rest stops to fill in the gaps. The rest stops that CalTrans chose across the state fill in gaps really well. The sites they chose at their regional offices are of little use except to their employees or their own fleet vehicles. As you may notice, CalTrans is the only one to propose industry standard fast chargers on US-395. I tried to look at the Electrify America map again, but they've disabled the zoom that used to work with the +/- keys.

 

[Jeff N]

No money, no DCFC from the state. I think once VW settled, they decided to halt and delay consumer level DCFC.

You read that letter I received from the State concerning the Mojave corridor nearly 2 years ago, here's the highlights:

That letter seems irrelevant to the issue of whether the state has halted or delayed consumer DCFC installations.

Have you seen any ChargePoint progress on the Mojave Corridor? Do you think it takes more than 6 months to install a state approved charger in the desert? They build entire fast food restaurants in 3 months. Many housing tracts take under 6 months. How about >21 months?

You said earlier:

they delayed our DCFC State-funded rollout,

As far as I know, that’s untrue. We’ve discussed this before. The CEC has contracts with ChargePoint and the other grantees that specify a deadline for installation and operability. That deadline is March 2020 for one of the grant batches and is likely similar for the other one which I’m too lazy to look up right now. I’m unaware of any change to the original deadlines since the grants were approved a year or two ago.

Clearly Tesla can do DCFC construction without that much trouble and has increased it over the years/months.

Do you actually know how long it takes Tesla to go from a general intent to fund new sites to design new route extensions, identify exact sites, negotiate site leases, design the site, plan grid connections with the utility, get permits, schedule construction, internally order the equipment, etc? From beginning to end for any one site it probably takes many months but they have many sites in development at the same time at different stages.

Tesla at this point has a scheduling “pipeline” in place where they can plan these various steps early on and well before they publicly announce plans for new Supercharger locations. Electrify America can do this as well.

The CEC, due to its open bid process and smaller scale, is inherently a clunkier process that exposes broader start and end dates. The individual grantees are installing a smaller set of sites and the planning processes each grantee uses when installing their set of locations are not as well developed and the people doing the work are not as experienced.

As you may notice, CalTrans is the only one to propose industry standard fast chargers on US-395. I tried to look at the Electrify America map again, but they've disabled the zoom that used to work with the +/- keys.

Yes, they need to improve their location page usability.

Here is the best map I’ve seen so far. It’s not directly from Electrify America but was extracted from one of their maps and then re-layered onto a new map by someone else over on the GM-Volt forum. It looks like there are sites along US-395 near Reno, Bridgeport, Bishop, and somewhere near Little Lake. Of course, these sites are approximate.

 

[mtndrew1]

GM’s Q2 numbers are out.

Chevrolet Bolt EV sales are down nearly 23% year over year despite the car being available in 50 states now vs. a limited rollout last year.

Model 3 is now outselling the Bolt about 4.5 to 1 despite a much higher price point and no lease program.

http://media.gm.com/content/dam/Media/gmcom/investor/2018/jul/Deliveries-Quarter-2-2018.pdf

 

[RubberToe]

Q2 2018 Bolt sales: 3,483
Q2 2018 Model 3 sales: 28,578

The long anticipated race is on. Long live the race.

362 pages of speculation over the big GM move to beat Tesla to the market by a few months. Model 3 outselling the Bolt 8-1. Only going to get bigger going forward.

The ONLY thing the Bolt had going for it was the lower price. The end of the Federal EV incentives is going to make the Bolt an even more expensive car. And there is also the possibility that Tesla will in the not too distant future start actually producing the smaller battery Model 3. Game, Set, Match.

Even if Tesla never produces a single smaller battery Model 3, they will be outselling the Bolt 10-1 for the foreseeable future.

RT

 

[mtndrew1]

Q2 2018 Bolt sales: 3,483
Q2 2018 Model 3 sales: 28,578

The long anticipated race is on. Long live the race.

362 pages of speculation over the big GM move to beat Tesla to the market by a few months. Model 3 outselling the Bolt 8-1. Only going to get bigger going forward.

The ONLY thing the Bolt had going for it was the lower price. The end of the Federal EV incentives is going to make the Bolt an even more expensive car. And there is also the possibility that Tesla will in the not too distant future start actually producing the smaller battery Model 3. Game, Set, Match.

Even if Tesla never produces a single smaller battery Model 3, they will be outselling the Bolt 10-1 for the foreseeable future.

RT

To be fair the Model 3 numbers include Canada and the Bolt numbers do not include a substantial number of cars sold in South Korea.

Nevertheless the point remains that the Model 3 is clobbering the Bolt. Add anything close to a $35k config and a lease program and the Model 3 might be outselling things like Accords.

 

[RubberToe]

Well, looks like I spoke too soon...

GM is stepping up to the plate, and has announced a 20% increase in Bolt production coming in the 4th quarter:

GM says it is increasing Chevy Bolt EV production by ‘more than 20 percent’

File this under the popular category: Once the legacy automakers get serious, they will simply be able to duplicate exactly what Tesla did, and then CRUSH Tesla with production volume... NOT

If the 20% had instead been 20x, then this might have been an indication that GM is finally "getting it"...

RT

 

[mtndrew1]

Well, looks like I spoke too soon...

GM is stepping up to the plate, and has announced a 20% increase in Bolt production coming in the 4th quarter:

GM says it is increasing Chevy Bolt EV production by ‘more than 20 percent’

File this under the popular category: Once the legacy automakers get serious, they will simply be able to duplicate exactly what Tesla did, and then CRUSH Tesla with production volume... NOT

If the 20% had instead been 20x, then this might have been an indication that GM is finally "getting it"...

RT

Well they’d better have some tweaks, deals, or something in store because my coworker bought a 2017 last month that had been on the lot the better part of a year. In Los Angeles. For $9,000 off.

The demand for this car at retail price in the US just isn’t there.

 

[scottysize]

362 pages. Must have been quite a conversation. I'll add my 2 cents. When I got my configuration email last Thursday night, I drove 75 miles to find the only Chevy Bolt in the DFW Area. I looked that car all over. Test Drove it. Everything. I was impressed, but not at $43,000. (It was loaded out.) and it doesn't have Enhanced auto pilot, which is a deal breaker for me. I drive 100+ miles every day on a very tough stretch of freeway and Autopilot is a must. However, the car seemed to be ok. We have a Leaf, so I'm an experienced EV owner and the Bolt is ok. Then I went to my local Tesla and was in love at first sight with the Model 3. They had my exact color I wanted sitting between an X and S. I never even looked at either of them. I was so enamored with the over all look, feel, and clean lines of the 3. I got in it and sat there playing with the screen, doors, windows, etc. I was in it for quite a while. So long in fact that a family was waiting patiently on me to get out of the damn car. I LOVE everything about the 3. The seats alone are 100 times more comfortable than the Bolt's Premium package. I am sold and went home and ordered my model 3 immediately.

So: In summary, you cannot compare the Bolt / Leaf to a Model 3. It's not even close. Neither will come close to the Model 3.

 

[mtndrew1]

362 pages. Must have been quite a conversation. I'll add my 2 cents. When I got my configuration email last Thursday night, I drove 75 miles to find the only Chevy Bolt in the DFW Area. I looked that car all over. Test Drove it. Everything. I was impressed, but not at $43,000. (It was loaded out.) and it doesn't have Enhanced auto pilot, which is a deal breaker for me. I drive 100+ miles every day on a very tough stretch of freeway and Autopilot is a must. However, the car seemed to be ok. We have a Leaf, so I'm an experienced EV owner and the Bolt is ok. Then I went to my local Tesla and was in love at first sight with the Model 3. They had my exact color I wanted sitting between an X and S. I never even looked at either of them. I was so enamored with the over all look, feel, and clean lines of the 3. I got in it and sat there playing with the screen, doors, windows, etc. I was in it for quite a while. So long in fact that a family was waiting patiently on me to get out of the damn car. I LOVE everything about the 3. The seats alone are 100 times more comfortable than the Bolt's Premium package. I am sold and went home and ordered my model 3 immediately.

So: In summary, you cannot compare the Bolt / Leaf to a Model 3. It's not even close. Neither will come close to the Model 3.

If the same car had an MSRP of $35,000 including adaptive cruise control would you have seriously considered it?

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Well they’d better have some tweaks, deals, or something in store because my coworker bought a 2017 last month that had been on the lot the better part of a year. In Los Angeles. For $9,000 off.

The demand for this car at retail price in the US just isn’t there.

What spec? A lot of the sitting 2017 inventory has been LTs without DCFC.

 

[mtndrew1]

What spec? A lot of the sitting 2017 inventory has been LTs without DCFC.

Loaded Premier with DCFC.

 

[roguenode]

I'll be trading my Bolt in for a Model 3 soon and be glad to do so. The looks, interior, AWD, and charging network will all be big pluses over the Bolt for me. That being said, the Bolt does a few things better than Tesla. The rear-blind spot warning in the side mirrors is much better than Tesla's solution. Apple CarPlay/Android Auto is superior to the mapping and nav Tesla provides. In addition, I can easily send destinations from my desktop or phone to the car and also have destinations I have saved/favorited show on the maps. Even better is I can cache data locally so when the car has not LTE or even no GPS signal, like many of the mountain roads I drive, it still works. Our model S 100D just shows a blank map in those same areas. The one-pedal driving is also better than Tesla's regen imo. I also like the rear view camera showing in the mirror. It's wider, unobstructed view is great.

In the end, the model 3 advantages far outweigh any the Bolt has, but I've been driving emissions free (my home is wind powered) and getting the quiet, instant torque that is so great with EV's. I'd take the Bolt over ICE any day. The more EV drivers the better.

 

[scottysize]

If the same car had an MSRP of $35,000 including adaptive cruise control would you have seriously considered it?

Not after seeing/sitting in the Model 3. I was seriously considering the Bolt until I actually saw/sat in the Model 3 and it was all over.

 

[FlatSix911]

Well, looks like I spoke too soon...

GM is stepping up to the plate, and has announced a 20% increase in Bolt production coming in the 4th quarter: GM says it is increasing Chevy Bolt EV production by ‘more than 20 percent’ File this under the popular category: Once the legacy automakers get serious, they will simply be able to duplicate exactly what Tesla did, and then CRUSH Tesla with production volume... NOT

If the 20% had instead been 20x, then this might have been an indication that GM is finally "getting it"...
RT

Increased production of 20x does not equate to increased demand of 20x ...

GM says it is increasing Chevy Bolt EV production by ‘more than 20 percent’
Deliveries in the US this year have been down to just over a 1,000 units per month.
GM stopped releasing monthly sales results and it is instead now focusing on quarterly deliveries, like Tesla.
The company released its second quarter results today.
Chevy Bolt EV deliveries in the US were down 22% year over year to 3,483 units during the period or about 1,161 units per month.

 

[Jeff N]

Time lapse video charging a Bolt EV at peak power.

Watch a Bolt EV at a ChargePoint Express 250 charge at up to 55 kW

 

[diamond.g]

So now that Nissan is doing a Nismo Leaf, do we think that Chevy will come out with a SS Bolt?

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Time lapse video charging a Bolt EV at peak power.

Watch a Bolt EV at a ChargePoint Express 250 charge at up to 55 kW

Here's the direct YouTube link:

When you post a link to an article that you wrote that you posted on your own website, you should declare your interest and use an accurate description.

It's not a time lapse video, it's a link to an article which has a link to a video.

 

[Jeff N]

It's not a time lapse video, it's a link to an article which has a link to a video.

The descriptive text for the link said:

Watch a Bolt EV at a ChargePoint Express 250 charge at up to 55 kW

It was obviously a link rather than a directly embedded video.

It was a link to an article on a web page that embeds the video. Alternatively, the link could have been to the descriptive YouTube web page hosting and embedding the same video.

Either way, the description of the link was accurate. The URL of the link itself was plain to see for anyone who cared.

I chose to make it a link because the embedding page contains extended technical details and background context about what the video shows and where it was taken. I like context.

When you post a link to an article that you wrote that you posted on your own website, you should declare your interest.....

I have routinely mentioned my authorship on TMC in the past when linking to my own articles. I did not omit this vital information due to ulterior motives. For the record, I also created the video which was uploaded to a YouTube account I control.