2022 Bolt EUV Initial impressions

Not bad, not bad.

 

Enjoy the trip.
I've been ICE free over three years now and the confidence in the Bolt is what gave me the reason to add another.

 

now that i have one, i'm hankering for a road trip, but i have nowhere to go

 

No Florida this winter?
.

 

hopefully, but i'm not that adventurous. i'd like to try a few hundred miles in the summer and build up to it

 

Sometimes, it takes time. I went from gassers to VW TDis, to the Prius, to the Plug-in Prius, to the Volt, to the Spark EV and finally, to the Bolts, which built my all electric confidence.

 

agreed, and you have to be a traveler, and have a willing partner (if you have one)

contrary to what a lot of ev evangelists would have you think, a lot of preperation goes into long distance ev travel. you have to want it.

it's nothing like driving 5 or 600 miles a day in a gasser. someday it will be, but for now, you need apps to find charging stations and use the chargers. you need route planners. you need to plan more stops.
you need to plan the weather. you need to be prepared for the occasional broken charger or unavailable due to in use.

 

At least nowadays, you don't have to go through something like the Donner Party did. Although, some anti-EVers think you do.

 

there was one video where a lady took her 250 mile tesla out through the rockies and got stranded at a hundred miles in a blizzard

 

Better drive bet 9p and 6a

 

Unfortunately, I can’t pick and choose when to drive

 

You make the classic case for long distance travel in certain circumstances

 

You have an ideal situation where you have two wonderful, efficient vehicles and can pick the one that best suits your lifestyle/choice for the trip.

 

Indeed , this really illustrate that ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL !

 

Indeed.

I've been driving 1,000 mile one-way trips for years traveling to/from south Texas to the Rockies with ICE, HEV and PHEV vehicles.

Since 2016, I've also been researching how BEV travel would do on these trips. These 1k legs take us about 12 hours to cover and with a 6 a.m. departure time, most travel occurs in daylight hours. Our stops are mainly dictated by restroom cleanliness or food choices not by charger availability (typically none) or fuel prices. The routes using Tesla planner or the others (ABP, etc) require different, longer routes that stick to the interstate vastly limiting route choice. How much longer? 19 hours. That means a hotel stop and two days travel. That's a hard no.

These routes are driven at 75-80mph (legally) and cost about 10.5 cents/mile (Sienna hybrid with 500+ mile hwy range FTW). My old Mazda 5 which only gets 24mpg at those speeds cost about 12 cents on its last and final trip.

But for us travel costs are secondary compared to time and comfort (middle seats with ottomans, video display and mini-fridge).

 

Yep, we love the bolt, but that’s why we take the hycam to Florida

 

All that engine drone though