2022 Bolt Owner Questions

ronbuckmire · Aug 3, 2021

Hello! I'm a brand new 2022 Chevy Bolt EV owner (living in Los Angeles). Our mileage is currently under 350 miles total.

We love the car overall. I have a question about charging. We only drive the car about 5-15 miles per day about 5 days a week.
Generally we plug it in overnight after we drive it so that it goes up to its maximum charge. However, I have noticed the maximum range has been decreasing. When we first got it the maximum range was around 245-ish miles when "fully charged" but that number has been decreasing steadily. Today when I got in the car the maximum range was 229 miles. What's going on to decrease the maximum range of the car on full charge over time and should I be worried? Could this decrease be related to the weather in Los Angeles over the summer?I noticed that with our previous car (Toyota Prius Plug-In) that the number of miles for a full charge seemed to go down over the summer.

I notice that on the charging screen of the dashboard there's mention of "battery conditioning" (and mine always says 0%). What is that and (what) should I do something to have a non-zero battery conditioning percentage?

Thanks!

cwerdna · Aug 4, 2021

If it's like all previous Bolts, it's a guess-o-meter. Ignore it.

https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/massive-drop-on-the-range-display-gom-guess-o-meter.35080/

https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=271853#p271853 is just as true for Bolt as it is for Leaf.

The battery needs to get too hot or too cold while in READY mode for battery conditioning to rise above 0%. See https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/battery-conditioning.33279/#post-512173. 34 C = 93.2 F, 31 C = 87.8 F. Google makes a good unit converter (e.g. Google for 27 c in f).

https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=559905#p559905 was when I saw it happen to me.

theothertom · Aug 4, 2021

You're not driving the car enough to get a good data set for the guess-o-meter. After all, it's just an estimate.
Efficiency is not so good for any EV when you start driving because it takes a lot of energy to get the car up to speed. A 5 mile drive will have lower efficiency, so your estimated range will go down. Nothing to worry about.
And, even though you have a 2022, it's not good for any EV to be continually charged to 100% unless you're going to drive it right away. Most people say limit max charge to 80-90%, especially since you don't need the range for your short trips.

ronbuckmire · Aug 4, 2021

Thanks for the quick response!

So if one should keep the charge at 80-90% of max most of the time then that would imply that one should NOT leave it plugged in when one is not driving it. For example, I left it in overnight (on my Level 1 charger) and now it is charged up to 227 miles. I'm probably not driving it today so I'll leave it unplugged.

And so when I drive it again, I should only let it charge up to ~200 miles or so not all the way up to 230?

What's the rate per hour at which it charges on a Level 1 (i.e. how do I know how long it will take to get to 85% of max?) Another question is what value should I be using for "max"? The current 227 miles or the stated max of 247 miles?

theothertom · Aug 4, 2021

I don't know for sure about the 2022 model but all other years have a setting where you can limit charge level. Look in the charging menu....it's probably buried in there somewhere. Set it for 80-90% and you won't have to worry about when you plug in, etc. Note: the setting is % battery, not miles. % battery is the important thing. Your range is dependent on a lot of things...weather, driving style, tire pressure, etc.

BoltEV · Aug 4, 2021

Congratulations on your Bolt EV! I just saw my first EUV on the road yesterday!

It is always good to have your Bolt EV plugged into the charger, so that it can be monitored and do reconditioning if necessary.

The question is whether or not to limit the charging to 100%? And that has been the debate.

With my 2017 Bolt EV, the choice was either 100% or 90% or lower and I did not like losing 10% of my capacity, so for its two years and 9 months of use, I always charged it to 100%.

With my 2019 Bolt EV, I can now reduce charging to 93% and I use this option, set only for "home charging" (the Bolt EV knows when I am home, charging by GPS) for a specific reason.

I started driving Uber full time and I really, really enjoy "one-pedal driving."

When charged to 100% the regenerative braking will not come into play, and hence I would lose my ability to one-pedal drive for the first hour or so of my Uber shift.

At 93%, I can one-pedal drive right from the start of my drive (and yes, I always drive in L and use the steering wheel paddle as necessary).

Then the Pandemic hit and I stopped driving Uber in late February 2020, but I still only charge (at home) to 93%.

120 volt charging is fine for your mileage needs: I used 120 v for my original Chevy Volt 1.0 and then as I started to drive my 2017 Bolt EV.

But as my driving for Uber increased, 120 v was just not good enough.

I had purchased a "plug-in" Clipper Creek 220 v 20 Amp L2 charger, but could not justify the cost to put 220 v in my garage for the Volt.

I then had a 220v outlet put in my garage for my 2017 Bolt EV and just love L2 charging with this Clipper Creek ever since!