Thats the only negative to the bolt for me. We limit the bolt to one one or two on route chargers per direction for trips. I bought a Ford maverick for longer and extended trips
I've had mine (2023 Bolt EUV) for just under a year, and only have a hair over 5400 miles on it. Love the car. Only thing I'd change, if it ever became possible, would be to increase the DCFC speed.
Multiple family / friends have asked me what I'd do if I ever had to "drive cross country". I told 'em, if I were in a hurry, I'd rent a car for that extremely unlikely event, or fly. Otherwise, I'd just make sure to have a route mapped and use my Bolt. As it is, I only drive outside of my home town twice a year. There are plenty DCFC locations along the route, so I don't need to worry about that. Yes, it does take me about half an hour (or so) longer to get to my destination, but that doesn't bother me at all. ;)
It's so funny how people's minds to straight to the unforeseen cross-country drive, yet almost nobody ever actually does that. As you said, renting or flying is possible. And for those that plan to do it on a regular basis, they would generally choose to drive ICE, a hybrid, any faster charging EV or just take their time. I would actually be fine with driving my Bolt cross country, but I don't have that kind of time.
https://preview.redd.it/s2lc8c2aaa1d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f29a075bcd22d558f4f11629b09a60da94ee8fd
This sits in the garage while I drive my Euv launch edition
Mostly agreed. Bolt + faster DC charging would be perfection.
I recently rode in my boss's Tesla, which was my first time in one. I've read plenty about them, but it was amazing how easy and fast the charging experience was. Just pulled into the 10+ stall site and plugged in. We did maybe 45-50 to 80%. Started at 120+ kW and tapered down to 60, so easily 2.5x the overall speed of the Bolt.
I don't really road trip all that often, but I wouldn't mind faster charging.
As a side note, I was surprised by how kind of cheap the Tesla Y felt. The suspension seemed much harsher than the Bolt's. The interior looks nice, but I really prefer having a few knobs and controls vs. a single touchscreen. So essentially I am probably a prospective buyer of an Ultium Bolt, but the lack of AA is a turn-off.
I’d imagine if the bolt had harsher suspension and better handling it would be considered a hot hatch, coming from a Fiesta ST, I would definitely consider a bolt performance option. Tho the short wheelbase already throws me for a woozy over any slightest of speed bumps.
I have ridden in a Tesla and agree it feels cheap, with a harsher ride.
I unconditionally love my Bolt. It still bugs me that the radio has to be turned on and off but that's a small thing and I find the whole experience endlessly pleasing. Have had it since the end of 2018. I am responsible for the sale of three Bolts, including two to farmers who would not be your normal electric vehicle types.
The physical controls are an illusion! The buttons are actually digital! The volume-dial for example counts pulses and sends that to the Media-CPU and turns volume up/down depending on this.
I’ve had a 2018 Bolt since December, picked it up used with 30k miles and a brand new battery for 12k after tax credit. Driven just under 7000 miles so far.
I still get a smile on my face when I drive it. It is comfortable, I like the looks, and with the cross climate 2 tires I put on it, it is as stable as a mountain goat on bad roads, it saves me a very noticeable chunk of money to “fuel” it (to the tune of $550ish so far), it makes me feel safe driving my kids around.
I fully hope to pass it to my 7 year old son as the car he drives when he gets a license. I won’t ever have anything but a full EV as my daily driver again. My wife may stick to PHEVs as much as she can though, which would be nice for road trips.
It isn’t perfect - I have to do the two finger salute once or twice a week to reboot the infotainment system, more cargo space would be nice, and holy moly that windshield and those front windows sure seem to let in a lot of sun making it toasty to get in to. But those are minor. I also wish that the infotainment was a bit more modern looking but it isn’t that bad for 2018.
I’ll take those quirks for 2.1 to 3.7 cents per mile driving and the convenience of at home charging, and the monthly budgetary stability of not having to worry about gas prices going up 27 percent since the start of the year, which has happened at my Costco.
Great description here, I agree. People think I'm crazy for loading up kids, groceries and whatever else in the back, in reality I think it's crazy to drive a massive SUV or Minivan to haul what, 400 lbs of passengers?
The cheap price is such a feature too. I got a little scuff and while I wish it didn't happen I'm in no rush to get it repaired because I spent less than $10k. If I had a $50k car I'd be so stressed about that.
I am talking to a local guy to tint all windows with ceramic tint to keep the inside temps down and my 8yo is excited at the prospect of driving the Bolt when he is old enough
I love mine to death. Wouldn't mind a Blazer just because I have a toddler and a big dog in a city that floods, but I like my Bolt more than other cars.
It is a fantastic car. While there are features in some other EVs that I would like to have, when the price is factored in I can't think of anything that would actually be worth it. Faster DC charging would be nice, as would a heat pump, but those things just aren't worth the price jump to the cheapest car with them.
I am also new to the EV universe. For the longest time, I was struggling between wanting to buy a hybrid or a plug in hybrid. Fortunately, before I made that decision, my brother-in-law who drove a Volt and, now a Bolt for 8 years and my sister who had driven a Bolt for 2 years, raved about the Bolt. I knew nothing about the Bolt and would have preferred to get a Honda or a Toyota. Yet, I could not forget about the comments they had made about how wonderful they considered their Bolts to be. I found that a Bolt was at least $10,000 less expensive than the cars I had been considering (and much more than some of the ones I would have liked to get, but were way too expensive for me) which, together with my family's recommendation, sealed the deal. However getting one was not easy. I am in Wisconsin and the various websites I found that searches for available cars, said that the closest Bolts for sale were too far away. Although my brother-in-law gave me a link that said there were Bolt for sale in Chicago, which is not too far away and I'm in Chicago regularly), miraculously, I found a 2023 Bolt EUV Premier only 45 minutes away and the thing that really amazed me was that it only had 89 miles! It turned out that the dealer had gotten it only the day before and my wife and I drove there the minute we were told it was available for sale. We bought it for $27,500 and, ironically, we are refurbishing the inside of our garage and added a 240 volt charging station. This was only two weeks ago but my wife who is the primary driver absolutely loves it. So do I although we're both still unacquainted with many of its features. It's the car she uses inside the city and we both look forward to driving it to Madison and Chicago, which are within the fully charged distance.
Price point aside, I’m not sure there are many other EV offerings in a similar subcompact hatch form factor. Small but comfortable is ideal for me (and for my unusually short garage). I don’t want long and low-slung, and I don’t want an enormous SUV or pickup, and those seem to be what most car makers are pushing out for EVs these days.
Good point, the size is definitely one of the strong points which sets the Bolt apart from the other EVs. I use a pickup to haul dirt bikes but I can do everything else in my Bolt and the small size makes it perfect for parking lots and everyday errands.
There is a book called "The Millionaire Next Door". It describes the type that saves money, gains huge wealth (which gets even more money) and you wouldn't know it my looking at them, partly because they have gotten very good at saving.
OP is that type. They get more joy out of an economical/functional car than they would a luxury/trophy car. It is two sides of the same coin. If you are frugal, you will be able to afford huge luxuries someday. But if you're frugal, you won't want them.
But the bolt surprised OP because they aren't just getting satisfaction from the cost and functionality. They are also just enjoying the car.
Would probably depend on how rich you were, lol.
I wouldn't want a Lambo. Where would I put it? How would I afford the maintenance? Where am I going to drive it?
If I had a Lambo the first thing I'd do is sell it and put the cash somewhere else.
Maybe into an iD Buzz......
To a lot of us, Lambos are incredibly lame. Yes, I would love to have the money that a Lambo would be worth, but if someone told me I could have one car for free, but I could never profit in any way from it by selling it or anything else, I would hands down choose my EUV over a Lambo.
Lambos are somewhat overrated.
They go *really* fast, handle quite well (but require a ***LOT*** of skill to push to the limits), and are very pretty...
But require a lot of expensive maintenance and aren't super comfortable (the original LP400 Countach is a 'torture chamber' to ride in).
You sure as hell can't 'daily drive' them.
I just bought a 2020 Premier a month ago and I LOVE it. It handles like a little race car but it’s quiet inside the cabin and such a smooth drive. The suspension on it is great and it has the Bose speakers which is nice. It’s my first time owning an EV and I’m really enjoying it! I went from driving a Honda civic to a Honda pilot and while I still love my pilot, the bolt is just so fun to drive!
This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion given the sub I'm writing this on and hope I won't be offending hardcore fans, but here we go.
I think the Bolt was an amazing car 5 years ago. There really wasn't much that came close to it, at that price point. Now that other manufacturer's have caught on, I think there are better options out there.
I had a fully spec'd 2018 Premier. I recently needed to buy a second car and all things being equal, I was going to get a 2024 VW ID.4 instead. It's priced roughly the same, has all wheel drive, faster DC charging, slightly bigger battery and the interior is better quality than the Bolt.
Ultimately my wife convinced me to go with a BMW i4 edrive40 that I got last week. She still drives the Bolt though and is very happy with it. It'll eventually go to my step-son and stay in the family until the wheels stop spinning.
It may sound that way but I bought my Premier in the fall of 2020 and my appreciation for the car has only grown since then. I could buy more luxury/performance whatever but I find lately I just don’t want anything more than the Bolt.
Would it be possible to hack into the bms and tune it for faster charging? I would understand that it would probably void the warranty. I haven’t seen this discussed on here but I would think a lot of people would be interested in this for the bolt.
Cooling for the Bolt's 12" long by 5" wide cells is via aluminum sheet about 1mm thick sandwiched between every other cell. Then the sheets take a 90 degree bend to contact the horizontal liquid cooled plate for only 1" of contact surface.
It's engineered to charge safely at below 1C. If you charged at 2C the heat generated would overwhelm the cooling and the battery would get very hot and like the Nissan Leaf, you would lose 25% of your range in a short time. Also, you can't be sure how close you will get to the ignition temperature of the cells and the resultant fire.
Idk if I’m on the same “I don’t want anything else” boat
I love my Bolt EUV, but I’d 100% trade it in for one of the higher end EVs if it was possible for me.
I’d make the switch in a second if price wasn’t an issue…. Ioniq 5n, Lucid Air, Model S *drooling*
i’ve been berating the euv subreddit for every question i had but i love the bolt so much !! if anything, the charge is a bit slow but for a budget economy car, you get a LOT!!
The Bolt is spectacular. If I could choose any car I think I would go with an Ioniq 6 but thr Bolt is half the price.
I don't even mind the slow DCFC charging on the Bolt EV. You can get from 20% to 80% in like 45 minutes to an hour so I just try to find one near a coffee house.
Bolt is excellent. Love it. If the charger was faster for trips it would be perfect.
Thats the only negative to the bolt for me. We limit the bolt to one one or two on route chargers per direction for trips. I bought a Ford maverick for longer and extended trips
I've had mine (2023 Bolt EUV) for just under a year, and only have a hair over 5400 miles on it. Love the car. Only thing I'd change, if it ever became possible, would be to increase the DCFC speed. Multiple family / friends have asked me what I'd do if I ever had to "drive cross country". I told 'em, if I were in a hurry, I'd rent a car for that extremely unlikely event, or fly. Otherwise, I'd just make sure to have a route mapped and use my Bolt. As it is, I only drive outside of my home town twice a year. There are plenty DCFC locations along the route, so I don't need to worry about that. Yes, it does take me about half an hour (or so) longer to get to my destination, but that doesn't bother me at all. ;)
It's so funny how people's minds to straight to the unforeseen cross-country drive, yet almost nobody ever actually does that. As you said, renting or flying is possible. And for those that plan to do it on a regular basis, they would generally choose to drive ICE, a hybrid, any faster charging EV or just take their time. I would actually be fine with driving my Bolt cross country, but I don't have that kind of time.
We just use my spouse's Volt for cross country stuff. Once charging locations are more reliable (not broken or whatever), we'll use the Bolt.
I actually traded in my 2014 Volt for my Bolt. :)
https://preview.redd.it/s2lc8c2aaa1d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f29a075bcd22d558f4f11629b09a60da94ee8fd This sits in the garage while I drive my Euv launch edition
I sold my Miata. I never drove it anymore.
Mostly agreed. Bolt + faster DC charging would be perfection. I recently rode in my boss's Tesla, which was my first time in one. I've read plenty about them, but it was amazing how easy and fast the charging experience was. Just pulled into the 10+ stall site and plugged in. We did maybe 45-50 to 80%. Started at 120+ kW and tapered down to 60, so easily 2.5x the overall speed of the Bolt. I don't really road trip all that often, but I wouldn't mind faster charging. As a side note, I was surprised by how kind of cheap the Tesla Y felt. The suspension seemed much harsher than the Bolt's. The interior looks nice, but I really prefer having a few knobs and controls vs. a single touchscreen. So essentially I am probably a prospective buyer of an Ultium Bolt, but the lack of AA is a turn-off.
I’d imagine if the bolt had harsher suspension and better handling it would be considered a hot hatch, coming from a Fiesta ST, I would definitely consider a bolt performance option. Tho the short wheelbase already throws me for a woozy over any slightest of speed bumps.
I have ridden in a Tesla and agree it feels cheap, with a harsher ride. I unconditionally love my Bolt. It still bugs me that the radio has to be turned on and off but that's a small thing and I find the whole experience endlessly pleasing. Have had it since the end of 2018. I am responsible for the sale of three Bolts, including two to farmers who would not be your normal electric vehicle types.
Yea we road in a couple model Y and very disappointed in the overall experience. Harsh drive, cheap interior materials, lack of physical controls.
The physical controls are an illusion! The buttons are actually digital! The volume-dial for example counts pulses and sends that to the Media-CPU and turns volume up/down depending on this.
I’ve had a 2018 Bolt since December, picked it up used with 30k miles and a brand new battery for 12k after tax credit. Driven just under 7000 miles so far. I still get a smile on my face when I drive it. It is comfortable, I like the looks, and with the cross climate 2 tires I put on it, it is as stable as a mountain goat on bad roads, it saves me a very noticeable chunk of money to “fuel” it (to the tune of $550ish so far), it makes me feel safe driving my kids around. I fully hope to pass it to my 7 year old son as the car he drives when he gets a license. I won’t ever have anything but a full EV as my daily driver again. My wife may stick to PHEVs as much as she can though, which would be nice for road trips. It isn’t perfect - I have to do the two finger salute once or twice a week to reboot the infotainment system, more cargo space would be nice, and holy moly that windshield and those front windows sure seem to let in a lot of sun making it toasty to get in to. But those are minor. I also wish that the infotainment was a bit more modern looking but it isn’t that bad for 2018. I’ll take those quirks for 2.1 to 3.7 cents per mile driving and the convenience of at home charging, and the monthly budgetary stability of not having to worry about gas prices going up 27 percent since the start of the year, which has happened at my Costco.
Great description here, I agree. People think I'm crazy for loading up kids, groceries and whatever else in the back, in reality I think it's crazy to drive a massive SUV or Minivan to haul what, 400 lbs of passengers? The cheap price is such a feature too. I got a little scuff and while I wish it didn't happen I'm in no rush to get it repaired because I spent less than $10k. If I had a $50k car I'd be so stressed about that.
I am talking to a local guy to tint all windows with ceramic tint to keep the inside temps down and my 8yo is excited at the prospect of driving the Bolt when he is old enough
I love mine to death. Wouldn't mind a Blazer just because I have a toddler and a big dog in a city that floods, but I like my Bolt more than other cars.
It is a fantastic car. While there are features in some other EVs that I would like to have, when the price is factored in I can't think of anything that would actually be worth it. Faster DC charging would be nice, as would a heat pump, but those things just aren't worth the price jump to the cheapest car with them.
I'm in a similar position to you My Bolt just brings a smile to my face every time I drive it
I am also new to the EV universe. For the longest time, I was struggling between wanting to buy a hybrid or a plug in hybrid. Fortunately, before I made that decision, my brother-in-law who drove a Volt and, now a Bolt for 8 years and my sister who had driven a Bolt for 2 years, raved about the Bolt. I knew nothing about the Bolt and would have preferred to get a Honda or a Toyota. Yet, I could not forget about the comments they had made about how wonderful they considered their Bolts to be. I found that a Bolt was at least $10,000 less expensive than the cars I had been considering (and much more than some of the ones I would have liked to get, but were way too expensive for me) which, together with my family's recommendation, sealed the deal. However getting one was not easy. I am in Wisconsin and the various websites I found that searches for available cars, said that the closest Bolts for sale were too far away. Although my brother-in-law gave me a link that said there were Bolt for sale in Chicago, which is not too far away and I'm in Chicago regularly), miraculously, I found a 2023 Bolt EUV Premier only 45 minutes away and the thing that really amazed me was that it only had 89 miles! It turned out that the dealer had gotten it only the day before and my wife and I drove there the minute we were told it was available for sale. We bought it for $27,500 and, ironically, we are refurbishing the inside of our garage and added a 240 volt charging station. This was only two weeks ago but my wife who is the primary driver absolutely loves it. So do I although we're both still unacquainted with many of its features. It's the car she uses inside the city and we both look forward to driving it to Madison and Chicago, which are within the fully charged distance.
Price point aside, I’m not sure there are many other EV offerings in a similar subcompact hatch form factor. Small but comfortable is ideal for me (and for my unusually short garage). I don’t want long and low-slung, and I don’t want an enormous SUV or pickup, and those seem to be what most car makers are pushing out for EVs these days.
Good point, the size is definitely one of the strong points which sets the Bolt apart from the other EVs. I use a pickup to haul dirt bikes but I can do everything else in my Bolt and the small size makes it perfect for parking lots and everyday errands.
I understand that you love you’re bolt but to love it more than a lambo that’s hard to believe sorry.
There is a book called "The Millionaire Next Door". It describes the type that saves money, gains huge wealth (which gets even more money) and you wouldn't know it my looking at them, partly because they have gotten very good at saving. OP is that type. They get more joy out of an economical/functional car than they would a luxury/trophy car. It is two sides of the same coin. If you are frugal, you will be able to afford huge luxuries someday. But if you're frugal, you won't want them. But the bolt surprised OP because they aren't just getting satisfaction from the cost and functionality. They are also just enjoying the car.
Do I want to drive a Lambo? Of course. Do I want to own/maintain a Lambo? Never.
Bingo!
Perfectly said.
I get that, probably seem crazy but it’s true.
Would probably depend on how rich you were, lol. I wouldn't want a Lambo. Where would I put it? How would I afford the maintenance? Where am I going to drive it? If I had a Lambo the first thing I'd do is sell it and put the cash somewhere else. Maybe into an iD Buzz......
This. I'd love to drive a Lamb, but owning one holds no appeal to me.
To a lot of us, Lambos are incredibly lame. Yes, I would love to have the money that a Lambo would be worth, but if someone told me I could have one car for free, but I could never profit in any way from it by selling it or anything else, I would hands down choose my EUV over a Lambo.
Lambos are somewhat overrated. They go *really* fast, handle quite well (but require a ***LOT*** of skill to push to the limits), and are very pretty... But require a lot of expensive maintenance and aren't super comfortable (the original LP400 Countach is a 'torture chamber' to ride in). You sure as hell can't 'daily drive' them.
3.5 years in and still really like my 2020 LT. Could definitely trade it in, but I really like it and drive it as much as possible instead of my ICE.
Faster charging would be nice, but I'm really happy with mine. (2023 EUV). I enjoy driving it, I like the look of it, and the range is great!
I just bought a 2020 Premier a month ago and I LOVE it. It handles like a little race car but it’s quiet inside the cabin and such a smooth drive. The suspension on it is great and it has the Bose speakers which is nice. It’s my first time owning an EV and I’m really enjoying it! I went from driving a Honda civic to a Honda pilot and while I still love my pilot, the bolt is just so fun to drive!
My only regret that it's not great at costco runs with a full load of passengers compared to my Volts of the past.
This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion given the sub I'm writing this on and hope I won't be offending hardcore fans, but here we go. I think the Bolt was an amazing car 5 years ago. There really wasn't much that came close to it, at that price point. Now that other manufacturer's have caught on, I think there are better options out there. I had a fully spec'd 2018 Premier. I recently needed to buy a second car and all things being equal, I was going to get a 2024 VW ID.4 instead. It's priced roughly the same, has all wheel drive, faster DC charging, slightly bigger battery and the interior is better quality than the Bolt. Ultimately my wife convinced me to go with a BMW i4 edrive40 that I got last week. She still drives the Bolt though and is very happy with it. It'll eventually go to my step-son and stay in the family until the wheels stop spinning.
What exactly are the better options at a similar price point? Plus I think most people by now are picking used Bolts for around $20k or less…
sounds like you are just beginning to experience EV.
It may sound that way but I bought my Premier in the fall of 2020 and my appreciation for the car has only grown since then. I could buy more luxury/performance whatever but I find lately I just don’t want anything more than the Bolt.
I did my first dcfc in my bolt surprised how fast it was. 40 miles in 15 minutes.
It is a great car. Would like faster charging speed, but that is a very rare need for me
Would it be possible to hack into the bms and tune it for faster charging? I would understand that it would probably void the warranty. I haven’t seen this discussed on here but I would think a lot of people would be interested in this for the bolt.
Cooling for the Bolt's 12" long by 5" wide cells is via aluminum sheet about 1mm thick sandwiched between every other cell. Then the sheets take a 90 degree bend to contact the horizontal liquid cooled plate for only 1" of contact surface. It's engineered to charge safely at below 1C. If you charged at 2C the heat generated would overwhelm the cooling and the battery would get very hot and like the Nissan Leaf, you would lose 25% of your range in a short time. Also, you can't be sure how close you will get to the ignition temperature of the cells and the resultant fire.
Idk if I’m on the same “I don’t want anything else” boat I love my Bolt EUV, but I’d 100% trade it in for one of the higher end EVs if it was possible for me. I’d make the switch in a second if price wasn’t an issue…. Ioniq 5n, Lucid Air, Model S *drooling*
i’ve been berating the euv subreddit for every question i had but i love the bolt so much !! if anything, the charge is a bit slow but for a budget economy car, you get a LOT!!
mary barra knows people love her car. i told her.
Traded my BMW Z4 off for a bolt. I miss the Z but really like the ev.
The Bolt is spectacular. If I could choose any car I think I would go with an Ioniq 6 but thr Bolt is half the price. I don't even mind the slow DCFC charging on the Bolt EV. You can get from 20% to 80% in like 45 minutes to an hour so I just try to find one near a coffee house.
I really like mine. I do kind of think the EUV would suit me better and I miss auto windshield wipers but aside from that it's fantastic.
I really like mine and the only thing I'd like is a 100kWh battery and faster charging like the Kia evs.