The setup
After several months of gently suggesting that we should get an EV, and countering my spouse’s concerns (Range anxiety, what if you want to go somewhere and it isn’t charged up?), we were driving home in our Kia Soul and went past a gas station. Out of the blue she asked, “if we had one of these always-charged up EVs, would we ever have to go to a gas station again?”
Seeing my opening I instantly replied, “Never – not even for an oil change. Well, maybe to go to the restroom.”
Her answer, “I think we should get one.” W00t!
I refreshed all my research. I had already narrowed down the possibilities to a single car: the Chevrolet Bolt. Here in very red Northeast Florida, a non-ZEV state (there is no state mandate that a certain percentage of new cars be zero-emission), none of the many Asian-manufactured EVs are easily available, which also means that none of the dealers have trained mechanics for them. The only convenient offerings are the Teslas and the Chevy Bolt. We had several objections to the Tesla:
- The closest service facility is an hour away.
- The Tesla Model 3 (the only one we would consider) is not a hatchback, which we need for the dogs. Yes, I know about the Model Y, but that is not available now.
- The Tesla Model 3 is not a compact. They are what the American auto industry calls “mid-sized” which for us means “too big”. Our garage is a bit tight.
- The Tesla driving experience is not what 70-year-olds are used to and we think it is unsafe. You should not have to take your eyes off the road to fool with a touchscreen just to change the windshield-wiper speed. My wife has never used a touchscreen in her life and is not willing to start now. All other EVs have traditional physical knobs you can find without looking for all the important driving functions.
- They are more “luxurious” on the inside than we need and hence more expensive.
The Chevy on the other hand is available from a dealer just 4 miles from our house. They have mechanics trained for the Bolt. And this dealer actually had four cars in stock! I checked the web sites of all the other Chevrolet dealers within an hour’s drive and none of them had Bolts on the lot. I think these factors are the most important considerations for people at the tire-kicking stage. The Bolt is the same length over-all as the Kia Soul.
The tease
I wanted to get to the dealer right away, as I had read there was an October promotion going on, as well as the usual end-of-month deals on offer.
So next day we walk in, intending just to sit in a Bolt and decide if was it comfortable enough (we had heard stories about the “horrendous” seats) and if it was large enough in back. I had taken measurements of the Soul interior.
The salesman said we were the first people he had encountered who walked in asking for an EV. (He had been working there just under 5 months.) While I have seen an occasional Tesla on the roads here, and saw a BMW i3 once, EVs are not widespread. The most common car style here, not counting pickup trucks, are the monster SUVs that look like hearses. The most numerous single car model in these parts is actually the Kia Soul. The EV version of the Kia Soul is maybe a year away even for ZEV-state US buyers.
He asked exactly what we were looking for. Our list was short:
- Premier trim level with leather upholstery
- DCFC or “DC Fast Charge”. For some reason, this is an option on the Bolt. Most other brands just include it. It lets you take advantage of those charging stations that can recharge your car in 45 minutes. Pretty essential if you go on any long trips.
We had picked out our preferred colors and were prepared for having to order a car that exactly met our needs. And the upcoming 2020 model adds a couple new color options. This all went out the window in the end.
Of the four cars they had on the lot, one was the Premier model, so we got in that one even though it was black and we thought the red paint job on the LT model next to it looked better. The seats were not “horrendous”. They were firmer than the very comfortable leather seats in the Soul, and rather narrow. Whether you find them uncomfortable may depend on the size of your own rear end.
I got out my tape measure and checked the cargo area. About 3 inches narrower than the Soul, and one inch shorter. We could live with that. One odd thing is that the 60/40 divided rear seat has the narrow part on the left. I had always seen it done the other way, but then this will actually be my first “Detroit” car.
After a close look, we decided that the “Mosaic Black Metallic” paint scheme was actually quite elegant.
As part of my research, I had watched some of the videos on YouTube showing complete teardowns of the Chevy Bolt, so you can see exactly how it is put together on the inside. The engineering looks solid. GM did a clever thing though – they partnered with the South Korean company LG to do all the electrical parts. And one division of LG, LG-chem, actually is one of the largest manufacturers of Lithium Ion batteries.
Then we went on a 2 mile test drive, as I wanted to experience the “one pedal driving”. The car moves very smoothly.
The deal
While we hemmed and hawed about colors, the salesman took a look at our Soul trade-in, and talked to his boss. He came back with a surprise: they offered us the car we had just been driving for $11,000 off list price combining all the month-end factory discounts plus the Federal subsidy, and then our trade-in on top of that. We would effectively get a $44,000 car at half price, right there, today.
It took us about 10 seconds to decide that our concerns about paint color were not worth passing up this deal so we agreed. But we had not come prepared for this — we did not have the title for our trade-in, and we did not have the check. The salesman said, why don’t you just take this car, go get the paperwork, and come back? We quickly signed a form like the agreement you fill out when you rent a car, he put an appropriate plate on, and off we went home for the title, and to the Credit Union for the money.
Under an hour later we were back to meet with “the finance guy” and signed a zillion forms. While we were doing that, the salesman switched our old licence plate over to the new car, and we soon joined him to transfer all our stuff out of the Soul and into the Bolt. Car dealers in Florida can do car registrations so there was no need to visit the DMV to get the registration updated. A quick phone call to the insurance company and we were all set.
Then we went out to dinner. By the time we were done it was dark and raining, so I got to see how well the headlights worked. (Fine) Pulling into the garage for the first time I took very slowly, not being used to the width of the mirrors. But the Bolt Premier has this fantasic 360 degree camera system that makes pulling in and out of tight places a breeze. There is nothing particularly “EV” about this feature so I suppose other cars have something like it.
Followup
The cable that comes with the car plugs into a normal 120v outlet and can take 4 days to completely recharge. This is called “Level 1” charging, at about 1 kilowatt.
There are scare stories around about the “thousands of dollars” it would cost to install a “Level 2” charging facility at home. We already have a 240v outlet in the garage – I just need to have our electrician move it to the other side where the Bolt parks, a job I expect to cost under $300. I have ordered a Clipper Creek EVSE (Electric Vehicle Service Equipment) device for $250, which is the thing that mounts on the garage wall and looks a little like a skinny gas pump hose. This will be able to completely recharge the Bolt overnight. You can easily pay over $800 just for the EVSE, if you want Wifi remote controls and stuff.
The EVSE we chose can deliver 16 Amps at 240 Volts, or 3.8 kw. The Bolt can handle about twice that using its internal charger, but that is enough to recharge it from zero to full in 16 hours, which is plenty fast for us. An EVSE is not a charger, though they are sometimes referred to that way. The charger, that converts AC at 120v or 240v to the 350v DC the battery needs, is inside the car. The EVSE incorporates several safety features so you can’t electrocute yourself by accident.
“Level 3” charging, which is what those DCFC stations do, puts energy into the car at an equivalent rate as 10 houses use all at once, at 50 kw and higher. Obviously, you can’t do that at any sort of residential dwelling. This is hard on the batteries unless your car has active battery temperature management (the Bolt has this). Still, it does shorten battery life so the relatively gentle Level 2 charging is the sweet spot.
By the way, the Bolt is a lot of fun to drive. Though it weighs over 3,500 pounds, acceleration is instant. The Soul always had a frustrating lag pulling away from a stop, which sometimes made moving out into traffic a bit scary. And if you turn on the Bolt’s “Sport mode”, the acceleration is startling, though not as abrupt as the Tesla’s “Ludicrous Mode”. The Bolt does 0-60 mph in about 6 seconds. The loudest sound you hear is the air coming from the A/C vents.
Messages
Why do this? We did not need a new car; the Kia Soul was only 4 years old and had 14,000 miles on it. It had nothing wrong with it.
A car, like clothing, sends a message about who you are. Back when the first generation hybrids came out, I bought a Honda Insight, a little two-seater, for the same reason. I would have bought a Toyota Prius but the Toyota salesmen were not interested in selling it in those days. In fact, I was worried that the Chevy salesman would be the same way about the Bolt, but he was very good, even though I knew more about the car than he did.
- To GM and its dealers, buying this car says there is a demand for these things. Make more. Promote them.
- To everyone on the road who gets close enough to see the badge, or sees how an ordinary-looking hatchback out-accelerates everything else, see? You could be driving one of these.
- To me, it just makes me feel good. Taking my foot off the accelerator and feeling the regenerative braking kick in never gets old.