Motor Trend Bolt vs Model 3 Comparison

[Jim MacInnes]

Here's a recent Motor Trend article comparing the Chevy Bolt with the Model 3. Comparison: Tesla Model 3 vs. Chevrolet Bolt - Motor Trend
It claims the Bolt can get an 80% charge from a level 2 charger in 60 minutes providing 160 miles of range. That is hard to do with a 6.6kw Level 2 charger that provides about 22 miles of range per charging hour.

 

[ZBB]

That has to be a typo or misinformed writer or editor. The Bolt will have L3 (perhaps optional), and at 50kW with some tapering, 80% in an hour makes sense. With L2 and a 6.6kW charger, an hour will get 11%...

 

[Magus]

There's this media huffing and puffing- trying to make it as a two car comparison and level ground between the cars. They are positioned differently, with the Model 3 having a bigger market. That being said, with a 200 mile range even without a supercharger network, the Bolt can work for a lot of people.

That being said, there is no comparison in features, safety, design and performance to the Model 3. Unless GM can make some drastic changes to make the Bolt in the next 1.5-2 years, the Model 3 is quite frankly superior in many ways.

 

[jbcarioca]

The Bolt has excellent potential to be a big success for GM if the charging infrastructure develops quickly enough, in my opinion. GM has joined everyone else, including Tesla, in supporting CCS. With CCS2 arriving the Bolt will have widespread fairly quick charging availability at launch or soon thereafter. Of course everyone else will benefit too. I think the Bolt is likely to be an excellent car, just as the Volt is. Both are definitely not intended to be Tesla competitors. The Leaf community is the oddity because there are no major Japanese members so far. I am not a GM fan but they're definitely producing good cars.
CCS Specification: Charging Interface Initiative e. V. (CharIN e. V.)

 

[tinm]

How about the outrageous error at the end of the article:

First deliveries of the Tesla Model 3 likely begin at the very end of 2018

Give me a break, Motor Trend. Did GM pay to have the date off by a year!?

And this seems erroneous as well:

Most of the nearly 200,000 who pre-ordered the Model 3 in the past week can expect to get their cars in 2020 as Tesla slowly ramps up production in its Fremont, Calif. factory and its Nevada battery-building “GigaFactory.”

 

[Newchurch]

Why do they compare a mini-van with a middle-class sized car?
The cars play in two different categories, I would never buy such a mini-van like Bolt (or Ampera-e in Europe) instead of a Tesla Model III.

 

[manitou820]

The Bolt is an impressive and unexpected car from GM. It was quite surprising to me that they are launching later this year. This is leaps ahead of the other low cost EV's (Leaf, Volt, i3) that have been offered for the past several years. The Model 3 is another giant leap ahead of the Bolt (hence the reason I have reserved a Model 3) but I'm very excited to see GM setup and take the risk with the Bolt. It's only good news for the future of EV's.

I should also add that there is a small chance I might lease a Bolt for 2 years prior to buying my Model 3. My current car (i3) lease is up at the end of the year and depending on where I fall in the Model 3 line I have at least an 18 month window to fill with another vehicle.

 

[mikevbf]

I saw two errors in the article which would be easy to make if you were not following the Model 3 obsessively . The AP connivence features will cost extra just like the S and X. And the all glass roof is likely not standard. It is also strange how they never put a photo of the two cars next to each other. Anyone who sees that can't help but just start laughing. Still the Bolt due to being a true hatchback will work much better for many people if they can stomach the slow charging, performance, and looks that are far below the Model 3.

 

[Dave Garaffa]

Why on earth would anyone put their hard earned dollars with a company that:

- Would ALWAY charge their suckers (err) customers (as much as they could) for anything as basic and simple as a GPS MAP upgrade.

- Would NEVER think to upgrade software to a car that was already sold even if you COULD pay for it. OH you want the new hot software GOOD see you next time you BUY a new car from us.

Lets not even bring up the ability to offer the level of autotonomus driving that Tesla is famous for.

I just don't get it.

 

[lklundin]

How about the outrageous error at the end of the article:

Give me a break, Motor Trend. Did GM pay to have the date off by a year!?

And how about this quote that makes the uninformed reader think that it was GM that engineered the optimal battery placement ?

"The Chevrolet Bolt features a fairly large 60 kWh lithium ion battery, mounted flat and low underneath the floor. This allows the battery to both lower the Bolt’s center of gravity for better handling, and function as a key structural component to the car."

GM did not at all do that for their EV1, so I wonder how they got the idea for it?

 

[RDoc]

The Bolt has excellent potential to be a big success for GM if the charging infrastructure develops quickly enough, in my opinion. GM has joined everyone else, including Tesla, in supporting CCS. With CCS2 arriving the Bolt will have widespread fairly quick charging availability at launch or soon thereafter. Of course everyone else will benefit too. I think the Bolt is likely to be an excellent car, just as the Volt is. Both are definitely not intended to be Tesla competitors. The Leaf community is the oddity because there are no major Japanese members so far. I am not a GM fan but they're definitely producing good cars.
CCS Specification: Charging Interface Initiative e. V. (CharIN e. V.)

Thus far the CCS infrastructure is very limited and the working infrastructure even more limited. Moreover, as it exists, CCS isn't a practical long distance charging system. Existing stations, if they work, are so underpowered that it very significantly extends travel times. CCS2 has the potential to fix the charging time issue, but thus far it's vaporware and I'll be astonished if it has widespread availability in the US for many years. No manufacturer has made public plans for a nationwide CCS2 system like the Superchargers.

Bottom line, I find it extremely doubtful that any BEV will be able to compete with Tesla for long distance travel anytime soon. There just isn't, and probably won't be, a viable charging network.

 

[LargeHamCollider]

The author of that article is clueless, base M3 will have a 65-70kwh battery? Not a chance. Most of the 200,000 pre-orders delivered in 2020? Not a chance. No serious investigation was done.

 

[Az_Rael]

It claims the Bolt can get an 80% charge from a level 2 charger in 60 minutes providing 160 miles of range. That is hard to do with a 6.6kw Level 2 charger that provides about 22 miles of range per charging hour.

That looks like a typo, it should have been Level 3; because he goes on to correctly state a 9 hour charge time on the at home Level 2. He does note that long distance travel will be difficult in a Bolt.

The Chevy Bolt on the other hand lacks the true quick-charge capability of the Model 3. When paired with a level 2 charger, Chevy says Bolt drivers can expect to charge from nearly empty to about an 80-percent charge in about 60 minutes, which works out to around 160 miles of range. Level 2 charging – and indeed any public charging with the Bolt – will likely require joining a public charging network like ChargePoint, which typically has chargers located inside major cities, but not outside, making long-distance intercity travel difficult at best. At home charging with either car via a 240 volt outlet will likely take around 9 hours or so for either car.

 

[Az_Rael]

The author of that article is clueless, base M3 will have a 65-70kwh battery? Not a chance. Most of the 200,000 pre-orders delivered in 2020? Not a chance. No serious investigation was done.

So what are the best guesses right now as to what size battery will provide the 215 mile EPA range in the base model? 50-60 kWh? Just curious, I haven't really seen this discussed.

 

[mikevbf]

So what are the best guesses right now as to what size battery will provide the 215 mile EPA range in the base model? 50-60 kWh? Just curious, I haven't really seen this discussed.

My guess is that the Model 3 is significantly more aerodynamic than the Bolt so will need a smaller battery to get the same range or the same size battery to go further. So I think 50-60 is a reasonable guess.

 

[Snowdog]

I think it is only natural to want to make this comparison, as they are the first 200 mile EVs priced under $40K. With none others really announced.

Though I would prefer a comparison with a bit more effort/thought put into it.

 

[theganjaguru]

GM is running scared. Thought they'd eat Teslas lunch by bringing a 200 mile ev to market first. But because they're GM, they didn't think the Model 3 would be a dead sexy proper car. For roughly the same price point you can either have a fwd econobox or a beautiful rwd/awd midsize sedan. The biggest flaw with the bolt though? No network of superchargers. Just how far can you really drive a "200 mile" ev on the current anemic network of DC fast chargers?

I've noticed a slew of "Bolt v Model 3" - "Bolt is better" articles since the 3 was unveiled.
Tesla Model 3 vs. Chevrolet Bolt: Battle of the long-range EVs

I'm sure GM PR/Marketing is in damage control mode. Only people who will get a volt are model 3 owners who are at the end of the line. Unless they lower the MSRP of the bolt, it won't sell nearly as well as they had hoped.

 

[Hugh Mannity]

The article is terrible as they usually are but reading through the comments at the bottom there is all kinds of good points of view

 

[scottf200]

The Bolt has excellent potential to be a big success for GM if the charging infrastructure develops quickly enough, in my opinion. GM has joined everyone else, including Tesla, in supporting CCS. With CCS2 arriving the Bolt will have widespread fairly quick charging availability at launch or soon thereafter. Of course everyone else will benefit too. I think the Bolt is likely to be an excellent car, just as the Volt is. Both are definitely not intended to be Tesla competitors. The Leaf community is the oddity because there are no major Japanese members so far. I am not a GM fan but they're definitely producing good cars.
CCS Specification: Charging Interface Initiative e. V. (CharIN e. V.)

Something like 60% of the Volt owners are charging on 120v overnight. If you only drive 30-40 miles a day you can do the same in Model S or X or 3! People forget that for daily commuting you don't need to charge from 0 to 60kwh. It can be a daily driver and just keep it topped off at 90% for longer days.

Even with a slow L2 charger (Blink 5.4kW) I can charge 16 miles / hour into my Model X. 16 * 8 hours is 128 miles. (FYI, I added a 14-50 and charge limit to 32amps so we can do the slow charge (8 vs 12amps) on our 2016 53 mile Volt.

 

[Dustman]

I would choose the M3 all day over a Chevy product. No brainier. Even at 2x the price.

But I find both vehicles to be ugly in their own way. The M3 is better for sure than the Dolt, and it's no hideous MX, but still not good.

I do appreciate motor trend doing a "refreshing or revolting" article. Comments show the unbiased gen public is mixed.