The Bolt EV itself is a fully adequate car for casual long-distance travel. I’m on vacation from California and I’m typing this while getting lunch and DC charging near Banff, BC in Canada.
The issue is with charging infrastructure. In most areas of the US, the DC charging (if present) is limited to big cities and perhaps nearby suburbs today. This is reflected in the PlugShare map of Texas posted earlier. If you live in many eastern or western coastal areas things are better. In my case, DC charging was added in the past that allowed for my trip to happen entirely on DC during the day and overnight charging on AC at hotels. I’m driving as much as 500 miles a day and enjoying it.
Long distance trips should be a lot easier in the Bolt as soon as next year as new charging is added. In particular, VW is funding a “clone” of the Tesla Supercharger network as part of their dieselgate legal settlement.
This is a map of the Texas area DC charging locations being added over the next year or two. All of these locations will have at least 4 charging stalls capable of 150+ kW and the ones along I-10 seem to be getting 6. Some urban locations may get up to 10 for this initial round of construction. In the Bolt, charging power is limited to 55 kW by the car but I find this adequate for getting my needed charge during a restaurant break or an occasional StarBucks fix. I rarely stand around waiting for charging to add enough miles for the next segment.
It’s possible that schedules may slip but probably not by much since the equipment is available, the money is already fully funded, and VW needs a viable charging network in place to compete with Tesla for sales of their near-term Audi and Porsche EVs coming out over that timeframe.
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