Tesla ModeModel 3 vs. Chevy Bolt

[rachelhikes]

The Bolt looks like a Prius in my opinion.

Maybe you mean the Prius C? The Prius C (seen below) DOES resemble a Bolt (also seen below), but the regular Prius really doesn't.

 

[ChrisH]

Maybe you mean the Prius C? The Prius C (seen below) DOES resemble a Bolt (also seen below), but the regular Prius really doesn't.

Fair. Still the same generally shape of the original Prius I would argue. Everyone has their preferences but I think hatchbacks like that are pretty ugly.

 

[rachelhikes]

At least on the Premier trim of the Bolt the rear view mirror is also camera-based so any luggage in the hatchback area doesn’t obstruct the rear view.

The issues of going above the cover are security (people can see that there's stuff in the back of the car) and safety (an accident can cause cargo above the lid to shift into the passenger compartment, rather than agains the backs of the rear seats). It isn't all about rear visibility, though there is that too. We don't really use the rear mirror camera. That feature seemed interesting at the dealer, but we ended up not liking it.

Don't get me wrong. We love our Bolt. It's been a great car.

 

[Glamisduner]

When was that?

The AC Destination chargers. Assuming the property owner is cool with it, and I'm not sure why they wouldn't be, as they aren't controlled by Tesla at all.

I don't know if they can handle the 277V AC ones, though?

The Superchargers are an entirely different deal, as your vehicle needs to identify itself and be linked via a Tesla account. That'd be a hellva hacking feat and I have little doubt Tesla would be all over it like white on rice to patch/thwart. That sort of thing would have to come via a manufacturer taking up Musk on his offer of buying into the SC network.

Last October or November, wow that's almost a year ago now!

 

[Glamisduner]

The issues of going above the cover are security (people can see that there's stuff in the back of the car) and safety (an accident can cause cargo above the lid to shift into the passenger compartment, rather than agains the backs of the rear seats). It isn't all about rear visibility, though there is that too. We don't really use the rear mirror camera. That feature seemed interesting at the dealer, but we ended up not liking it.

Don't get me wrong. We love our Bolt. It's been a great car.

Yea but sometimes you just have a tall object like a carboy full of water, or wort, or a C02 Tank, or propane tank that you don't want to play down in transport. That's where hatchback's are way better.

 

[ℬête Noire]

I don't get this mocking of the Bolt's appearance. Sure it's far from a sexy sports car looks. But it looks like a normal hatchback/wagon to me. Not weird like the Leaf or Prius or i3. The Tesla X, on the other hand, looks like an egg, Lol. That's what my non-EV friends said when the X was first released.

I've talked to one neighbour at length since I got the Model 3. "This looks really nice.... I don't mean to say bad things about your Bolt but...." *cringing face* "Why can't GM make a nice looking electric like this?"

She was really polite about the Bolt before, didn't say a disparaging word. But this is a quite different reaction, she is seriously considering the Model 3 now. Because mine was "only" $60K. Yes, she was very tentative asking what it costed and when I told her "oh, only that much, well that's not bad, I am looking to get a new car".

Yeah, among the various "punky" econoboxes it has relatively decent lines. However faint praise, it's just too close to a Spark to get out from underneath that.

P.S. Keeping in mind here "other" car is a Mercedes (might be an E-class sedan, never been close enough to the rear to read the badge but I believe it is). So is her husband's daily (E43), plus he has a Cobra and few others hobby cars.

 

[ℬête Noire]

Last October or November, wow that's almost a year ago now!

I don't understand what this is referring to?

 

[SageBrush]

If the Model 3 was made to drive, the Bolt was made to park.

I loved that sentence

 

[SageBrush]

What can I say? Patience is a virtue, and if you’ve the patience to wait for a Model 3 to drift to a stop, I’m sure that speaks well of your character. I do hope you can forgive me for being glad not to be behind you while you do this.

My character probably deserves a beating, but I've never understood the desire to hurry to a red light.

 

[SageBrush]

Yes, I can. Do it all the time. But then I’ve practiced using minimal braking on ICEs over the years as well. Admittedly, I don’t like jerky braking. I like the braking to be real smooth with not a lot of inertia and when the vehicle finally stops I want it to flow into the stop with absolutely no bump at the end. It’s just a thing I picked up as a kid from my dad.

Same here. But then I'm the heretic that turned regen to *low* in the settings.

I hope they do not take my Tesla away.

 

[SageBrush]

According to what I've ready, our Bolt tops out at a 100kW charge rate.

I think the idea is that a 100 kW rated DC charger will succeed in pushing the maximum Bolt rated 60 kW.

It is confusing.

 

[SageBrush]

I wonder what fraction of Bolts are sold without the DC option.
In truth though, just the fact that GM sells DC as an option speaks volumes.

 

[ℬête Noire]

I think there are few 277V destination chargers and I have the sense that they may not work with the Model 3.

The nearest one to me is 277V and yes the Model 3 works with it (now, it was a stealth update some time back), it's actually apparently more reliable on it than the S or X. I don't know exactly how many are like this but they are going to be at least semi-common in facilities that are 3-phase, so larger malls and such, that's where the number comes from.

The patch improvements were aimed at improving the car’s behavior while driving the car.

....in the 0.01% of vehicles that have cell failure problem. Again, this is absolutely nothing like the Tesla patches (the next one isn't either is my understand, although as I've said I haven't got the letter yet). These are recalls, not upgrades.

 

[ℬête Noire]

I think the idea is that a 100 kW rated DC charger will succeed in pushing the maximum Bolt rated 60 kW.

It is confusing.

Yes it is. A cynic would say intentionally so. I started in on the purchase process thing "yeah, I need to get that, no brainer, future proofing for resale". The more I dug the more I shook my head. The actual peak charge rate, the charge rate curve. What it'd practically look like to road trip, even assuming good L3 placement down the road, what that was going to cost. In 5 years nobody is going to buy a 2017 Bolt in this area thinking "yeah, this is something I want to make a trip in", even with the DCFast.

Of course since you're buying off-the-lot you're dealing with sorting through a selection what they've got available in inventory but I felt good, and still do, about saving the $750. It's a commute-from-home car.

 

[ℬête Noire]

Here is a map fragment showing (only) approximate Electrify America locations around Texas that are planned for completion within the next year or so:

Source?

Because that looks a lot like someone did a fuzzy trace-over of the SC network (and skipped AE off Sawmill in the The Woodlands?).

 

[ℬête Noire]

Source?

Because that looks a lot like someone did a fuzzy trace-over of the SC network (and skipped AE off Sawmill in the The Woodlands?).

@Jeff N

So I was intrigued and dug a bit into the details, did spot checks about places I know a bit about. It's not even a fuzzy trace-over. First I looked over West to something that struck me as odd, at the Junction of I-10 and I-20. That's nothing out there but scrub. If you squint maybe the dot is a bit West, there's a gas station West of the Junction. Only it's only a gas station, not a restaurant stop or anything. Then on the route going Houston to Dallas, though this is kinda hard to read because of the very poor quality of the image due to compression stomp, both those dots look again look like they're off. Maybe 15-20 miles from being near civilization, and the kicker is one's off in one direction and the other is off in the opposite direction.

It's like someone without local knowledge of what they were doing just dropped regularly spaced dots down on the highways that happened to pop out at a very high zoomed up level, without thinking about the huge gaps this creates in actually getting from one place to the next.

This map looks like faked trash, that's the good scenario. If it's not it's my worst fears about EA made manifest.

 

[Jeff N]

Source?

Because that looks a lot like someone did a fuzzy trace-over of the SC network (and skipped AE off Sawmill in the The Woodlands?).

This map looks like faked trash, that's the good scenario. If it's not it's my worst fears about EA made manifest.

Um, I said the map shows approximate locations.... They are still in the process of signing leases for exact locations that match these approximate high-level planning locations for the ~300 highway DC charging clusters. It also shows the 17 communities that will get ~186 community DC charging clusters.

The map I embedded is a more readable version of an official map put out by Electrify America. Someone (not me) scraped the locations and layered them onto a better map showing more details about the highways and towns.

Here is the earlier map again, an equivalent cropping of an official EA map, that full official EA map taken from a document I no longer have handy, and the equivalent but even harder to read map on EA’s website.

That last map is on this page:
Welcome to Electrify America | Commitment

 

[ℬête Noire]

Um, I said the map shows approximate locations....

So it's imaginary crap you tried to shovel on us. "Approximate". LOL

Just look at the differences between the 1st and 2nd map there in your post, that's not the same at all (dot counts are even off). It was someone just plopping shopped dots down on a zoomed out Google road map or something. And a doc you don't have anymore? As in it's defunct?

Come on, don't insult our intelligence like that. Go shovel your road apples somewhere else if you're going to be like that.....

 

[rachelhikes]

I've never understood the desire to hurry to a red light.

I certainly wouldn't accelerate to a red light, but yeah, I prefer to reach my spot in the line of cars reasonably quickly and then stop, so that whoever is behind me doesn't have to watch me keep creeping forward after they pull up behind me. I think traffic at a light works better that way for all concerned.

The only exceptions that come to mind are those infrequent, happy occasions when you know that by the time you reach a red light, it will turn green, and so it makes more sense to go up to the light slowly, but not come to a full stop, and retain as much of all that hard-won kinetic energy as possible.

 

[LonestarV]

I certainly wouldn't accelerate to a red light, but yeah, I prefer to reach my spot in the line of cars reasonably quickly and then stop, so that whoever is behind me doesn't have to watch me keep creeping forward after they pull up behind me. I think traffic at a light works better that way for all concerned.

The only exceptions that come to mind are those infrequent, happy occasions when you know that by the time you reach a red light, it will turn green, and so it makes more sense to go up to the light slowly, but not come to a full stop, and retain as much of all that hard-won kinetic energy as possible.

This is where TACC really shines, IMO. Set it and forget it.