Going Electric: Chevrolet Bolt

Since 2008 my family and I have been a single-car household. We went through a series of sedans, then bought a minivan in 2018 when the kids’ ballet and soccer carpools turned into multi-kid drives. My eldest is now at an age where they can get their driver’s license, so last fall we started thinking about getting a second, smaller car. The idea was to find something low-cost, efficient, and reliable. I started by looking at hatchbacks and small sedans, like the Honda Fit and Mazda 3.
In the meantime my brother had been exploring fully-electric vehicles and got a Chevy Equinox EV, and while doing research he encouraged me to look at used EVs. There aren’t many smaller EVs on the market — you can thank the USA’s thirst for ever-bigger SUVs for that. That meant looking at older models like the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Bolt, and the original Hyundai Ioniq sedan.1
Used EV prices ended up being in the same ballpark as conventional gasoline cars, so we started focusing on EVs and in January we found a 2020 Bolt with fewer than 25,000 miles on it. We had our electrician hook up a level 2 charger in our driveway,2 and we joined the ranks of EV drivers.
A few notes/observations after 6+ months of use:
- We use the Bolt for most of our driving now. The van is used for long trips, hauling lots of people/stuff, or the rare occasion when both Jordan and I both need to drive at the same time.
- We gas up the van about once every 4 – 6 weeks now. Our electrical bill has increased slightly in response, although I haven’t done the math on how much we’re saving per mile switching from gas to electric.
- Home charging eliminates range anxiety for regular driving. I don’t think too much about the battery level, because it’s always charged within a few hours. Plug it in overnight and it’s ready in the morning.
- We haven’t used it on a long trip, so I don’t know how quickly (or slowly) it charges at a DC charging station. I imagine we will get a NACS (Tesla) adapter if we ever feel like using it for something other than local drives, just for flexibility with charging options.
- Cold weather reduces range, sometimes to the tune of 15 – 20%. Range is somewhere between 215 – 240 miles in moderate temperatures, but in the coldest weeks of February that was closer to 170 – 180.3
- No more oil changes, so I’m looking forward to visiting the mechanic less. Basically brake/alignment checks, fluid top-offs, and wiper blade swaps, some of which I can do at home.
- Plastic is the overriding interior aesthetic on this Bolt. I imagine that newer models include a little bit more luxury, now that the underlying battery/engine tech has matured and takes up less of the overall production cost.
- It’s fun to drive! It is small and lightweight, so speeding up/slowing down really feels like a go-kart. Flip it into the regen/one-pedal mode and it approximates the feel of downshifting a stick shift into a lower gear, especially on a winding road.
The biggest change for me is future-looking. The EV industry is facing legislative headwinds for the next several years, but I don’t think we’re going back to gas vehicles. I’m pretty sure my next vehicle would be an electric.
All of these models have been discontinued, although the Leaf and Bolt are coming back, and Hyundai has turned the Ioniq into a fuller lineup. ↩︎
A Grizzl-E Ultimate 48A model. I figured the Canadians would know something about building a weatherproof charger. ↩︎
We follow the recommendation to only charge the batter to 80% to prolong lifespan. ↩︎