Chevy Bolt Article: Is it really so hard to be fair or balanced?

[Tanquen]

We Drove Chevy's $37,000 Electric Bolt for a Day and Were Overcome With Massive Range Anxiety

Wow! I better sell my car now I don't think I can drive it anymore without worrying about running out of electricity.

The inability to tell how much range I really have left is still a surprising issue this far in but come on it's not that bad.

 

[Saghost]

The slant is strong with this one. But I'm not sure why it's in the Model S sub forum.

 

[bonnie]

The slant is strong with this one. But I'm not sure why it's in the Model S sub forum.

Speaking as a retired moderator, EVERYTHING seems to end up in the Model S forum.

 

[Derek Kessler]

Speaking as a writer, I'm pissed at how lazy that article is in length alone. If I were Chevy, I'd be thoroughly pissed for having loaned then a car they drive for 50 miles, filmed for a few minutes with an iPhone, and wrote a few dismissive paragraphs about.

 

[Nosken]

I think I would have some minor range anxiety, If it wasn't for the ever expanding SuperCharger network.
In a few years fast DC charging will be much more widespread for T.

 

[AndrewTX]

Speaking as a writer, I'm pissed at how lazy that article is in length alone. If I were Chevy, I'd be thoroughly pissed for having loaned then a car they drive for 50 miles, filmed for a few minutes with an iPhone, and wrote a few dismissive paragraphs about.

Yes, that's an unprofessional hack job. The Chevy media people really screwed up on this one.

 

[boaterva]

Speaking as a retired moderator, EVERYTHING seems to end up in the Model S forum.

Because 'most' people live here? (Owners of Roadsters and X's are fewer?)

Whatever happened to the forum reorg?

 

[Saghost]

Because 'most' people live here? (Owners of Roadsters and X's are fewer?)

Whatever happened to the forum reorg?

Can't speak for other people, but I mostly interact with TMC through the new/recent posts and unread watched thread links, which span all of the forums.

 

[boaterva]

Can't speak for other people, but I mostly interact with TMC through the new/recent posts and unread watched thread links, which span all of the forums.

Oh, I do also, once I found out things pop up everywhere. I think we need a common place for common things (and some of them are in the Tesla Motors forum) but a lot of people live in 'their' car's forum so there are a lot of dupes. Nothing new in that, unfortunately, and most forums with sub-forums suffer from it. Sorry to hijack this thread!

 

[bonnie]

Because 'most' people live here? (Owners of Roadsters and X's are fewer?)

Whatever happened to the forum reorg?

Whether most live here or not, not putting topics in the correct subforum makes it harder for everyone to find the info. And if you end up with dupes in different subforums, then the conversation is fragmented.

 

[BluestarE3]

To help get this thread back on track, I've asked (via Report) to have this thread moved to Electric Vehicles.

 

[Tanquen]

To help get this thread back on track, I've asked (via Report) to have this thread moved to Electric Vehicles.

Thanks and sorry. The menu in the phone app I use doesn't have any of these other forms.

 

[stopcrazypp]

The article seems quite worthless. He says he had range anxiety but doesn't really give a reasonable justification why (only said the range went down after 50 miles, which is to be expected). Did the range go down faster than predicted or what? Is the anxiety from not knowing where to charge?

The picture shows 202 miles, so it's not like it was close to running out.

 

[SageBrush]

Obviously crap article, but I wondered if the fellow did not have charging at home and did not want to chance running out of juice when he returned the car. He could have easily doubled typical consumption by driving aggressively and blasting the A/C

 

[McRat]

Yes, that's an unprofessional hack job. The Chevy media people really screwed up on this one.

I don't think the 'Chevy media people' wrote it. And I'm not sure Brian Sozzi even drove the Bolt. If he did, he made no attempt at evaluating it.

Brian Sozzi apparently knows little about cars based on his other reviews. He is stunned that cars now have power convertible tops and he thinks a 14.2 second ET today is a wicked fast street racer. So he's been out of the loop for at least a decade probably 2.

 

[Shock-On-T]

Speaking as a retired moderator, EVERYTHING seems to end up in the Model S forum.

Bit off topic, but I actually think it's a mistake to have everything split by Model S / X / 3.
It seems that the vast majority of posts are model-agnostic, (eg. battery, interface, supercharging, autopilot) and people just post in whatever model they happen to be driving.
So if you drive an X and your media player has a bug, you post it in Model X / User Interface, but if you have the same bug and drive an S you don't post it there.
So the X guy with a bug has to search the S forum and vice versa.
Combine, my brothers, combine!

 

[gregd]

The article certainly seems to be missing its "page 2" where the issue of why the anxiety occurred would be revealed, but it got me thinking...

Perhaps it's the history of legacy EVs limited range that is at fault, where an accurate and in-your-face running estimate of remaining range was critical to one's being able to manage the car's meager resources. With modern generation EVs getting well over 200 miles per charge, such a display is not only unnecessary most of the time, but watching it drop, mile by mile, electron by electron, as you drive could certainly build an anxiety in someone with little EV experience (apparently such as the author). Perhaps it's time to return to the small, off to the side, coarsely labeled "Full - Empty" indicator, instead of the precise counters we have in most BEVs today? At least, for what the car displays during most of the driving experience. Internally, of course, it knows better. When charging needs to be addressed, the car could pop up a reminder, directions, or other helpful information. The rest of the time, why do we need the car to make us so obsessed about it?

 

[McRat]

The article certainly seems to be missing its "page 2" where the issue of why the anxiety occurred would be revealed, but it got me thinking...

Perhaps it's the history of legacy EVs limited range that is at fault, where an accurate and in-your-face running estimate of remaining range was critical to one's being able to manage the car's meager resources. With modern generation EVs getting well over 200 miles per charge, such a display is not only unnecessary most of the time, but watching it drop, mile by mile, electron by electron, as you drive could certainly build an anxiety in someone with little EV experience (apparently such as the author). Perhaps it's time to return to the small, off to the side, coarsely labeled "Full - Empty" indicator, instead of the precise counters we have in most BEVs today? At least, for what the car displays during most of the driving experience. Internally, of course, it knows better. When charging needs to be addressed, the car could pop up a reminder, directions, or other helpful information. The rest of the time, why do we need the car to make us so obsessed about it?

IIRC, all the GM EV/EREVs have the option to simplify the instruments to conventional bar graphs, or show detailed energy info.

What I found crazy is the author naturally assumed EV buyers shop at Whole Foods and eat tofu at Save the Whales rallies. The author did not notice the difference between the Bolt's electromotive powertrain and a conventional multi-speed automatic. Huh?

The performance characteristics are the biggest advantage of an EV over an ICE, and he did not even notice it at all? This is why I wonder if he lied about testing it. I've spent the last 4 years driving 70-90% of the time with single speed EVs, And this weekend I spent 8 hours driving an ICE with an 8-sp automatic with lots of umphh, completely state-of-the-art for an ICE. It was irritating. 5 years ago, I would have said the ICE was amazing.

How did he not notice that difference? I can tell in the first 100 feet. He says the Bolt was "silent". Meh, no quieter than the ICE I drove this weekend, I've driven both. You didn't know the ICE was running unless you looked at the tach. But you COULD feel it shift, and hunt between gears going up and down mountain grades. I finally had to shift it to Manual mode before I went nuts. The lack of Regen when using Adaptive Cruise Control makes an ICE a terrible platform for ACC technology.

But even without ACC, you do notice that the EV is more consistent, quicker to respond, more 'engine braking', more 'grunt', than ICE platforms have.

So has he really driven ANY EV? I have my doubts. He quotes Range Anxiety simply because he's read a lot about it and has made assumptions. He doesn't sound like he could actually explain it. Seriously, he notes that you can check your EV range with your cellphone. Uh, or you could look at the dash instead?

 

[gregd]

Agreed. Guess I gave him too much credit.

{sigh}

 

[vgrinshpun]

I love author's idea of what a real life test must address: warming his buttocks with electric seat heater in the middle of June in the Greater NYC area, while running A/C to keep them from sweating.