Bolt EV powers down while driving, with "Minimum" 15 miles charge remaining

[SparkE]

Has GoldenZephyr's problem been completely resolved by GM?

 

[notmychevybolt]

This past weekend, I drove my three month old Bolt on a roundtrip of a few hundred miles. Charging along the way was an issue (given the cold weather in the northeast right now, a full charge displays as an "average" predicted range of about 185 miles), but I used the heater very sparingly and made sure to always leave a mileage cushion to avoid getting stranded along the side of the road due to a depleted battery.

However, on the return drive, when I was about 3 miles from home and the charge/range display showed a "minimum" 15 mile range remaining (see dashboard photo), the message "Charge Vehicle Soon" displayed and the Bolt abruptly came to a complete stop. This occurred while driving up a steep, snow-covered stretch of road, and left my vehicle stationary in the middle of its lane, an incredibly unsafe situation.

I called AAA, thinking the battery was depleted, regardless of what the range indicator showed. But they were unresponsive, and so in desperation I tried a few things, ultimately discovering that simply dismissing the useless "Charge Vehicle Soon" message using the "checkmark" button on the steering wheel restored vehicle power and allowed me to drive the rest of the way home.

So apparently what happened is that when the car reached about 8% battery power (15 miles remaining divided by 185 at a full charge), it automatically dropped into some sort of low power mode that left it unable to climb a hill. This is an insane "feature". Even with the driver able to restore full power by dismissing the warning message, programming the vehicle to essentially turn itself off while travelling at speed, is a terrible idea. Thankfully in this case, the roads were almost deserted and no one was hurt, but obviously the potential for an accident is very high when a vehicle suddenly stops in the middle of a road.

I would like to add that this vehicle behavior is not described in the owner's manual. On page 231, it is stated that at some point when the battery's charge is very low, a "Propulsion Power is Reduced" message will display and the "accelerator pedal response is reduced". However, the following sentence reads, "In addition, the remaining range value will change to LOW indicating the vehicle should be charged immediately." That never happened in my case. The "Propulsion Power is Reduced" message never displayed (though propulsion power clearly was reduced), and as can be clearly seen in the posted photo, the MINIMUM range displayed as 15 miles. That was five times the remaining distance to my home, and there was no conceivable reason for the car to shut down with that mileage remaining.

I would like a response from Chevrolet regarding this issue. Is this "normal" behavior for the Bolt? If so, can it be disabled? It's bad enough that the advertised 238-mile range drops into the 180's during the Winter, even with almost no use of the heater (only intermittently for windshield defrost purposes; otherwise I only use the heated steering wheel and front seats, at a minimal energy cost of about 1 kW). To then be denied safe use of the last 15 miles of range (dropping me to about 170 miles, if I don't want to find myself suddenly losing power while driving), for no reason I can think of (how does this improve safety or utility?), only adds insult to injury.

Guess what happens when you run out of gas in a gasoline / diesel auto??? It stops in the middle of the road!!

I would NEVER drive my electric vehicle down below 20 miles of battery charge - cuz, it might, "...run out of gas!"

BTW - Nothing in my gas car manual sez, "I will run out of gas, when it gets to just a few miles of charge - eh, fuel "!!

Get a clue, lou and stop asking everyone for life's simple answers to simple problems - oh, stop complaining about everything, too!!

;-]

 

[BillM]

Guess what happens when you run out of gas in a gasoline / diesel auto??? It stops in the middle of the road!!

I would NEVER drive my electric vehicle down below 20 miles of battery charge - cuz, it might, "...run out of gas!"

BTW - Nothing in my gas car manual sez, "I will run out of gas, when it gets to just a few miles of charge - eh, fuel "!!

Get a clue, lou and stop asking everyone for life's simple answers to simple problems - oh, stop complaining about everything, too!!

;-]

Thanks for bring that. I remember reading the page in the manual, and it doe not warn the vehicle will stop abruptly. The message could improved by adding words to the effect. “Acknowledge this, and continue emergency driving, by pressing .” It is probably almost impossible to anticipate every energy depleting situation, but it would be better to give a few seconds prior warning such as “Pull to the roadside now! The vehicle is about to stop.” The warning buzzer should also sound to ensure the driver looks at the message.

Being on hill probably increased energy consumption beyond what the computer calculated, but still it woul have been good for the program logic to better handle the situation and to give a clearer message,

 

[voodoomaster]

This be a great heads up message to the rest of us.