I’ve been a Bolt owner since January, 2017 with 39,000 miles on the car already. I have also driven a 2013 Model S (no AutoPilot) on a ~2,500 mile road trip using Supercharging and spent almost two hours test driving a Model 3 in a variety of conditions. I’m a possible Model 3 customer in another 2-3 years.
However the big issue is availability of non-Tesla DC Fast Charge is still sparse so you have to plan harder to map fast chargers and it is not easily or automatically shown on the Bolt CarPlay mapping system. Also the other issue is many of the DC Fast Chargers are only two per installation and it has happened more than once to me that one or both of them are offline and then getting topped up is tricky and can leave you stranded.
This is all true today. I assume the iOS and Android smartphone software will continue to improve their EV driving/charging experience over time. As of iOS 12 I now have Google Maps and Waze choices in addition to Apple Maps.
The story around highway CCS charging is set to dramatically improve over the next year or so with good coverage on many major highways in 40 states (no Hawaii, Alaska, Wyoming, Dakotas, etc.) in the first phase. It should continue to rapidly improve much like the Supercharger network has rolled out since late 2012.
Clearly Tesla will have a substantially better charging network that is 3-4 years ahead of the CCS network for a number of years to come. However, it will soon be easy to drive a Bolt EV coast to coast at Electrify America locations.
Each location has a minimum of 4 fully independent chargers typically with redundant cables capable of charging at 150 kW or more (limited by the car’s capability). In comparison, each Supercharger space has a single cable and shares its charger hardware with an adjacent space.
C. The Bolt is 'peppy,' but only in sport mode.
Sport mode on the Bolt simply remaps the peddle response curve. The same performance is available in the regular driving mode by pushing further on the peddle.
I haven't yet got the physical mail letter for my second software update, but I've heard it's about as exciting as the first which was a patch to better monitory whether my battery will need replacing.
Actually, the dealer software updates to the Bolt EV improved how a car with a failing battery cell interacted with the driver. The first patch allowed for a modestly improved warning of imminent vehicle shutdown to make it safer to get off the road and park the car. The second update mainly improves the car’s estimate of driving range so it takes account of a failing cell early to give accurate driving range even when the battery is fully charged rather than suddenly taking account of the failing cell when the battery state of charge is much lower.
Even before the two updates GM was monitoring the battery health using the OnStar telematics built into the car and over time they improved their ability to detect failing cells and notify owners before they caused urgent vehicle shutdown events.
Ironically, some Model 3 owners also had to go into a Tesla service center to get a software update to their car’s battery management system because of some unusual problem updating it over the air.
The hatchback design can work well in throwing the seat down, but in the Model 3, the car can hold a lot AND 5 people. (I’m not super fond of the frunk, because of the two-handed closing method, but the extra space in the trunk under the regular trunk brings a smile to my face.)
I believe the Model 3 trunk is about 12-13 cubic feet. The Bolt EV storage area behind the rear seats is 16.9 cubic feet. The Model 3 frunk is about 2-3 cubic feet for a combined total of around 15 cubic feet in the Model 3.
If you’re thin, the Bolt’s seating is fine. Not so much otherwise, as the seats are quite narrow. (We’re small people ourselves.) The Model 3 is comfortable for a much wider range of people. The difference, I’m sure, is felt more and more the longer the drive.
The Bolt front seats are narrower than usual and are firm with substantial bolstering on the sides. This is a problem for some body shapes but not for others. I’m an average 5 foot nine inches and am 50 pounds overweight. I’m fine with the seats but I’m sure other car seats may be more comfortable.
The Bolt rear seats are not bolstered with excellent legroom and sit slightly higher than the front seats. The Model 3 rear seats sit lower and are more likely to result in lack of thigh support since the knees can be elevated. I have no personal experience sitting in the rear seats of either car on long trips.
Lack of supercharging means that longer trips aren’t even possible in the Bolt.
Longer trips are possible in the Bolt in areas where charging is available. As I noted, highway coverage will soon be dramatically better than it is today. But even over the last 1.5+ years I have personally driven from my home base in the San Francisco area to:
* LA (or San Diego) around 7 times each in one day of driving (~400 miles one-way)
* Oregon and Washington state a couple of times in two days of driving which is 600-800 miles one-way (a little tedious due to mostly 24 kW charging in Northern California and Oregon but that’s already changed on the California side)
* Salt Lake City and Moab, Utah (Arches National Park) in 3 days of driving which is 800-1,000 miles one-way
* Edmonton, Alberta in Canada (~1,600 miles one way) in 4 days of driving
All of that was done with DC charging and usually overnight AC charging at hotels.
I have rarely waited for someone else’s charging to complete or found unexpectedly arrived to broken hardware. It has happened but I’ve never been stranded.