Aftermarket DC fast charge options

[rhewin]

Ok so I know this is a longshot, but previous answers to this question are several years old and I'm hoping things might have changed.

I just got a 2017 Bolt that popped up in a nearby dealership. It's in great condition and I'm loving it. Except there's one problem: once I got home I realized it didn't have DC fast charging. I didn't realize that was an upgrade so hadn't even checked. I know in the past people have said that it was a factory upgrade only, but I'm hoping that maybe there's been some progress with an aftermarket option.

Not a huge deal if not; I drive so little that even overnight Level 1 charging is enough to keep it full, but having the fast charge is kind of like peace of mind in case I ever do use the car's extended range.

 

[theothertom]

I follow the forums closely, and I haven't heard of any.

 

[cwerdna]

There is no economical method to add it.

https://www.facebook.com/ve.simonandre/posts/3442512052437823 did it but if it took them 12 hours, who knows how much the parts would be, as well?

 

[BoltEV]

Another victim of GM Marketing that wanted to be able to claim the 2017 Bolt EV could be purchased "for less than $30,000" with Federal and California incentives.

Hence the DCFC had to be "optional" and doing so increased its cost to the other 99% of us by 50-100%!

 

[rhewin]

It mostly just seems crazy to me they didn’t even think to make it an after market option. I’d probably pay upwards $1500 to add it. I get it’s a very different charging system, but without being cliche we have the technology.

 

[BoltEV]

I am sorry to see that you were burned by GM’s lack of foresight to just make the DCFC standard.

Plus I have seen very little compassion on this Forum for those in your situation (not realizing it was missing before you purchased your Bolt EV) and my position that it should be standard equipment and hence much less cost than $700 per vehicle!

I would advise you to take the vehicle back to where you purchased it and strongly protest that they failed to disclose the lack of such an essential feature.

It is one thing for GM to make it optional to begin with, but another to sell it without it and fail to disclose that fact... especially to a newbie who just doesn't know any better.

 

[Norton]

Yeah, sorry for the lack of compassion.
Pleading with the dirty dealer that sold it to you is your only hope.
Tell them you want to exchange it for one with the DCFC 'Option', if they won't take it back and give you a refund.

Or be a slime like those guys and sell it without mentioning,,, you know what..... :?

It really is a shame on Chevy for selling such a modern, capable EV and then make this important function an 'Option'.
I think they may still be doing it to this day.

 

[rhewin]

So maybe I wasn’t clear but this is a used 2017 (hence the word new in quotes). I bought it from a Volkswagen dealership’s preowned lot, so I can’t and don’t fault them at all for not knowing. It had been on the lot for 3 days and I got lucky because those things do not last around here. I’m more mad at myself for not looking/knowing better.

I drive 60 miles at most even when running extended errands, and I work from home. Since I’ve had it, Level 1 charging has kept it full (or rather 88% on hilltop reserve). I’d love to be able to take extended road trips in it, so that’s the main reason not have fast charging sucks. However it is not our only vehicle so we’re not screwed. I’ll just know better for my next!

 

[BoltEV]

I knew it was used:

I put 44.640 miles on my leased 2017 Bolt EV and enjoyed every mile!

You will miss out on what I loved:

Taking long rides to NoCal and to the South and East to a planned stop to observe, enjoy, try a new restaurant and a new DCFC (usually EVGo).

My favorite trip was accepting a “dare” to see if I coukd make it Las Vegas when, in those days’ the last DCFC was in Victorville

The results of that trip and return are posted on this forum.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[thisguy8475]

I was just burned in this same fashion. I did a ton of looking before buying and I never saw anything about his being just an option, so I'm not surprised to see others have this same experience. I was in the unfortunate circumstance to be sitting at a DCFC station trying to get enough juice to comfortably make it home the other day and couldn't figure out what was going on with the connections. It legitimately took me an hour at home that night to figure out what was happening and I'm not exactly challenged when it comes to technology or research. Fortunately I bought through Carvana, so I'll be calling them tomorrow to give them an earful about this and the missing blind spot monitoring, rear seat vents/controls, and power seats. I know that those last two aren't even options on the 2017 Bolt, but I didn't know it at the time of purchase and they advertised it as such. Hopefully I'll at least be able to snag one with DCFC and Blind spot monitoring as those are the only negatives I've found with this car in the last few days. Pretty big bummer right now.

 

[BoltEV]

Lack of an DCFC and not affirmatively explaining its absence is criminal!

 

[cwerdna]

I was just burned in this same fashion. I did a ton of looking before buying and I never saw anything about his being just an option, so I'm not surprised to see others have this same experience. I was in the unfortunate circumstance to be sitting at a DCFC station trying to get enough juice to comfortably make it home the other day and couldn't figure out what was going on with the connections. It legitimately took me an hour at home that night to figure out what was happening and I'm not exactly challenged when it comes to technology or research. Fortunately I bought through Carvana, so I'll be calling them tomorrow to give them an earful about this and the missing blind spot monitoring, rear seat vents/controls, and power seats. I know that those last two aren't even options on the 2017 Bolt, but I didn't know it at the time of purchase and they advertised it as such. Hopefully I'll at least be able to snag one with DCFC and Blind spot monitoring as those are the only negatives I've found with this car in the last few days. Pretty big bummer right now.

If you can't get pics of the inlet but have pics of under the hood, https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/how-to-find-out-if-a-used-bolt-has-dc-fast-charger.37075/#post-577370 can tell you if the car has DC FC inlet or not vs https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/how-to-find-out-if-a-used-bolt-has-dc-fast-charger.37075/#post-577362 that you discovered the hard way.