TFL Car: 2017 Chevy Bolt

Non-repair car talk
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kevm14
Posts: 16024
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

TFL Car: 2017 Chevy Bolt

Post by kevm14 »

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2tOLDwvfqbA

170 miles at top speed (92 mph). Not bad.
kevm14
Posts: 16024
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: TFL Car: 2017 Chevy Bolt

Post by kevm14 »

Did some very rough math.

The Bolt is equivalent to a car that gets 63.5 mpg using 4.8 miles/kWh, $0.18/kWh electricity and $2.33/gal gas. Which are my conditions.

63.5 mpg with that 14.9 second 1/4 mile is quite good. And it is a useful car to boot. And affordable. Economy, performance, utility and affordability. Let's see how close the Model 3 gets.
kevm14
Posts: 16024
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: TFL Car: 2017 Chevy Bolt

Post by kevm14 »

Using 3.6 miles/kWh which is a more conservative estimate, I get an equivalence of 46 mpg, which a Prius can do.

This is very sensitive to cost of gas and electricity and many parts of the country have cheaper electricity, or tiers to charge and night rates. I might even have those options.
kevm14
Posts: 16024
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: TFL Car: 2017 Chevy Bolt

Post by kevm14 »

Charging info: http://www.chevyevlife.com/bolt-ev-charging-guide/

DC Fast Charge is capable of "up to 90 miles of range in about 30 minutes" and up to 160 miles in an hour.

For home use, or perhaps if there is a 240V 32A charge out in public, that will do 25 miles of range per hour, and a complete charge from empty to full in 9.5 hours.

If you are without DC Fast Charge or the 240V 32A Level 2 charging station, you will have to use a standard 120V plug and that is really slow: 4 miles of range per HOUR. Yes, that is 60 hours to charge from empty to full from a standard 120V outlet. This is not what you would do but there you go.

Example: there are tons of DC Fast Charge places in southern New England. There's one in East Greenwhich. $5.95 session fee plus $0.20/min. Let's assume you are low and want to get to 50% charge, so 10% to 50% SOC (40% charging). We will call that 95 miles. At DC Fast Charge rates, that would take a little over 30 minutes - call it 32 minutes. Total charge for those 95 miles was $5.95 + 32*0.20 = $12.35. That is equivalent to a gas fuel economy of 18 mpg. That's....bad. More likely, you'll charge somewhere free. I think cars like the Bolt are pretty good about navigating to these places.

Still, you can see how far we need to go for this to really replace the convenience of gasoline.
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