Aeroshutter

[summit]

does the Bolt have aeroshutter ? the manual mentioned it but I think it's a hold-over from the Volt's manual.

I've only seen the shutter on my Volt closed a few times in early Jan 2016. I don't think it works.

Looking behind the Bolt bottom grill, I can see similar shutter, but have never seen them closed, even in the winter.

 

[NeilBlanchard]

Good question - I will try to look into this.

 

[swamplife]

had my bolt for about 8 hrs - got down with flashlight and there are indeed controlled shutters in front of the air con condenser behind the lower grill.

 

[summit]

I have never seen mine closed up, has any one ? I don't think it works. There were a few Tesla M3 parked in the lot, all of them have the aeroshutter closed shut. It was in Palmdale with 110F outside air, I guess it would be bad if there is a malfunction and the shutters stay in closed position.

 

[boltage]

Perhaps those shutters only close at high speeds, so that it is difficult to see them closed unless you mount a camera to your car and aim it to see where the shutters are?

 

[NeilBlanchard]

For the shutters to be closed, it would have to be cool enough to not be using the A/C, and not need to cool the battery.

 

[summit]

Chevy used to have an advertisement about the aeroshutter on the Volt, to improve aerodynamic. But I have only seen those shutters closed on my Volt in the first couple months of ownership.

I have yet to them closed on my Bolt, even in the winter with outside below 40F. May be they are only closed during driving and never while parking ? any one has a go-pro camera ?

My main interest is to improve aero for range extension, since I've been driving quite a few long distance trips (SanJose-LA-Palmdale). Grill blocking is an easy first step. The ecomodder.com folks have some good suggestion. And I've done this on a number of ICE vehicles (of course one has to keep an eye on the temperature)

While installing a hitch on the Bolt, I notice a huge baffle area between the battery pack and the bumper, which probably is churning up the drag behind the Bolt.