Bolt EV Competitor Spec Comparison

There's a lot more to a car than a table of numbers, but I wanted to share my compilation of specs on the Bolt EV and it's competitors. In the spec sheet for the Bolt EV, GM listed it's competitors as the LEAF, i3, Focus Electric, Soul EV, e-Golf, and B250e. I also included the Spark EV, the compliance car that is in many ways a Bolt prototype; the Volt PHEV; and Tesla Model 3 (in spirit). For good measure, I also threw in the Tesla Model S 60.

I attempted to pull data from manufacturer sources whenever possible. The most questionable data is the 0-30 and 0-60 acceleration times, which can vary significantly based on source and methods. I also estimated frontal area for the cars based generally on width and height. The frontal area multiplied by the coefficient of drag yields the drag area, which can be a surrogate for high speed efficiency.

There are a few holes in the table, and likely a few errors as well. I'd appreciate any corrections and if I left out a key discriminator of interest among these cars.

Update (2/12/16): Added IONIQ, cabin heater info, anticipated changes, and corrected a few errors
Update (2/20/16): Added more IONIQ Electric info, reordered cars based on end of 2016 range, and deleted "Efficiency" row.
Update (4/3/16): Added lots of stuff, including Model 3 and other cars, more EPA, battery, automation information
Update (5/7/16): BEVs only now, separate columns for each battery/range option, added more future cars, includes my speculation in red text

Link to fullsize image of spreadsheet: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/media/20160507-bev-comparison.114929/full


Enjoy!

Thanks for putting this together. I don't see any mistakes yet.

So it looks like the closest competitor, in size, is the Soul EV. Bolt is nearly the same size externally, and a bit smaller on the inside.

Wheelbase: Bolt is 1.2 in. longer
Length: Bolt is 1.0 in. longer
Width: Bolt is 1.4 in. narrower
Height: Bolt is 0.2 in. shorter

Total volume: Bolt is 4.6 cu. ft. (4%) smaller

The Bolt and Soul EVs do look like they have similar sizes, but the Soul is the slowest to 60 in this group. I haven't driven one, but 11.2 seconds to 60 is downright pokey. That doesn't sound like much fun at all.

The Soul EV is way too slow. Motor Trend got a 9.2, but that's Motor Trend. All things considered, the Bolt really won't have competition at launch. The only advantage offered by the sub 200-mile EVs will be price.

Car & Driver just posted the Bolt EV's drag coefficient and frontal area, so I updated that and a few other things in the table in the original post.

If these drag area estimates are correct, it's interesting to note that the Bolt EV drag area is not low compared to the others. Only the Soul EV is worse. This implies that the highway efficiency will be less than the others. Comparing the Bolt EV to the Model S 60, the Bolt EV drag area is about 29% worse than the Model S. But the Model S weight is about 25% higher.

The EPA efficiency and range tests are a combination of city and highway driving. The Bolt EV will have an advantage verses the Model S in the city (lower weight), but will be at a disadvantage at high speed (higher drag area). If those effects cancel out, the Bolt EV would have a similar range to the Model S 60. That car has a 208 mi range, which is in-line with what GM has promised for the Bolt EV.

If you're interested in learning more about drag and cars, I recommend reading http://www.caranddriver.com/features/drag-queens-aerodynamics-compared-comparison-test.

I updated the table again based on feedback.

Changes include:
- Added the Hyundai IONIQ BEV; not much is known about it but it should hit the market this fall.
- Added info on cabin heating technology since that can significantly affect winter driving range.
- Added the "anticipated changes" row at the bottom that is more speculative
- Corrected a few errors

Please let me know if you see anything else that should change!

Weight, efficiency, drag and everything else are nice, but after 70,000 miles in BEVs and EREVs, the only thing I really care about is range, in cold weather and after the car is three years old. Bolt and the Tesla products are the only BEVs that I would consider, and Volt and BMW are the only EREVs.

I'm very curious to see how the Ioniq BEV will fill out the chart once details are released... later this year will definitely get interesting for us electric vehicle nerds

Breezy said:

The only advantage offered by the sub 200-mile EVs will be price.

Click to expand...

I would consider RWD an advantage. As all EV drivers already know, these cars are torque monsters at any speed and RWD lets the car handle all that torque without adding nasty torque steer. Quite a fun combination. I know the drive train engineers try to minimize torque steer, but there's only so much they can do.

That said, FWD is not a deal breaker for me.

I agree--RWD handling dynamics are more preferable. I'm guessing the Model 3 will be RWD which will be a significant difference to the Bolt and other longer range EVs like the LEAF2 or IONIQ.

More info on the Hyundai IONIQ Electric was released.

http://insideevs.com/hyundai-ioniq-has-a-28-kwh-battery-105-miles-real-range/

So I updated the table. I reordered the cars based on anticipated available EPA range at the end of this year when the Bolt EV will first be available. I also deleted the "efficiency" row that was misleading.

I edited the first post in this thread but here's a link to the new table: http://i.imgur.com/hxqdRSQ.png

Thanks for the update and the link.

Zoomit said:

I also deleted the "efficiency" row that was misleading.

Click to expand...

I do miss the mi/kWh values; that is handy for calculating expected daily electricity usage and for some reason my brain can get around that more easily than MPGe. That said, were your values the same as MPGe assuming 34 kWh / gal of gasoline? If so it's easy enough for me to recalculate them.

The old tables are still available but the calculation I did to determine mi/kWh was not consistent with the MPGe conversion. I could add it back in by using the standard conversion, but then it's a duplicate of the EPA rating.

What's the preferred metric (obviously not MPGe): mi/kWh or Wh/mi? The later is what Tesla uses and is more intuitive to me.

Zoomit said:

TWhat's the preferred metric (obviously not MPGe): mi/kWh or Wh/mi? The later is what Tesla uses and is more intuitive to me.

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What I like about mi/kWh is that a higher number corresponds to higher efficiency. Also, (mi/kWh) x (energy in battery) = miles of available range.

...but what I dislike about mi/kWh is that a higher number corresponds to higher efficiency. The real metric of concern is energy used for a given distance of travel. Here are two articles that argue about how MPG is misleading. The same logic applies to mi/kWh.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=5211495&page=1
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/the-illusion-of-miles-per-gallon/

I'd suggest the calculation is almost as intuitive as well: energy in battery [Wh] / Wh/mi = miles of available range

Try convincing a typical consumer that a lower number = better. Not going to happen! :lol:

I don't get it...lower prices are better. Lower electricity bills are better. Lower energy used is better.

In all seriousness, which metric to use for efficiency is not a simple question. It deserves a separate thread.

I'll leave with a few more data points that might be interesting. The customary units for efficiency in many parts of the world is equivalent to Wh/mi. More specifically it's L/100km as used in most of Europe, China, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Canada and the UK use either L/100km or MPG.

Also, the window stickers on new ICE cars in the US now indicate both MPG and gal/100mi. The labels for electric cars show both MPGe and kWh/100mi. http://www3.epa.gov/carlabel/electriclabel.htm

Of course kWh/100mi is the same data as Wh/mi except that it's only two digits left of the decimal point instead of three. A car might have an efficiency of 34.1 kWh/100mi or 341 Wh/mi.

On the next revision of the table, I'll add both mi/kWh and Wh/mi, which are straight conversions from MPGe.

Zoomit said:

... I wanted to share my compilation of specs on the Bolt EV and it's competitors. ...

Click to expand...

Very nice! Do you want to share the source for the table? I would like to share a version of it on electric car community.
https://plus.google.com/u/1/communities/108210213911566330785

Thanks so much!

Thank you for this great sheet! Not sure where you got the interior dimensions, but is the Front Hip Room measurement available? I'm comparing the size of the Bolt to my current Ford Escape and am amazed how close the sizes are! I'm a big guy and am excited that I should fit comfortably in the Bolt!