Range less than 200

[SmokingRubber]

I've had my Bolt for a 6 days. This picture was taken on my way to work, my battery is at about 55% with only 106 miles left. Yesterday I was at exactly 50% and it said I had 91 miles available. That's mean I'd have approx. 182 miles on a full charge?

I have been L1 charging at home overnight but it only adds about 30 miles. My commute is about 50 miles.

I dropped the car off at Lowe's down the street this morning. They have free L2 charging (16 plugs). This will be the first time I've fully charged the battery so I'm a bit excited. I actually need to do a bit of shopping at Lowe's after work so this will work out perfect. I'm hoping there's no time limit. I didn't see any signs stating that. I plugged in there for 1 hr yesterday while I walked over to Buffalo Wild Wings, there were zero other cars plugged in. MyChevy predicts it will be fully charged at 2:00.

Checking MyChevy right now: 64% @ 121 miles = 100% would be 189 miles. That seems low for a car that promised 238 miles of range and it's less than a week old.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Chevy never promised 238 miles at 75MPH. All cars are less efficient at that speed. A range of 182 miles sounds about right from what others have experienced.

YMMV. Literally.

 

[IMAdolt]

Hard to say without knowing you're "routine" driving habits can effect range dramatically, try going at or near the speed limits most the time and make sure you're regening as much as you can and not braking hard and fast a lot.

you can get charge cords in the $500 range for home use that plug into 240 sockets up to like 32 ish amps?, that'll net you much better range recovery overnight at home, roughly 4 times.

 

[SmokingRubber]

Hard to say without knowing you're "routine" driving habits can effect range dramatically, try going at or near the speed limits most the time and make sure you're regening as much as you can and not braking hard and fast a lot.

you can get charge cords in the $500 range for home use that plug into 240 sockets up to like 32 ish amps?, that'll net you much better range recovery overnight at home, roughly 4 times.

Yes, I'm planning on getting a L2 charger for home. Also, we are installing L2 chargers here at work (Santa Barbara County offers $15k grant). This is my first EV so the charging situation has been a learning experience.

Free charging at Lowe's is now going to be my staple while I wait for L2 to get installed at work.

Question: If I dump OnStar and the built in 4G, will the MyChevy app and battery status still work?

 

[IMAdolt]

Your car needs some form of connectivity to talk to you're phone outside of Bluetooth range for battery status and climate control and so on. 4g/lte does it, I'm not sure if OnStar does it on it's own?

 

[boltage]

Question: If I dump OnStar and the built in 4G, will the MyChevy app and battery status still work?

The MyChevrolet app can get battery status and other information from the car even when you just have OnStar Basic (the free for 5 years plan) without any extra cost data plan.

In terms of range, it depends on how you drive. Higher highway speeds, using the heater, and carrying stuff on a roof rack will significantly worsen electricity consumption and range. Also, if you are smoking rubber whenever you accelerate and brake, that will cause increased electricity consumption and reduced regeneration.

 

[SmokingRubber]

The MyChevrolet app can get battery status and other information from the car even when you just have OnStar Basic (the free for 5 years plan) without any extra cost data plan.

In terms of range, it depends on how you drive. Higher highway speeds, using the heater, and carrying stuff on a roof rack will significantly worsen electricity consumption and range. Also, if you are smoking rubber whenever you accelerate and brake, that will cause increased electricity consumption and reduced regeneration.

I had to try it once

The Bolt is my commuter so no burnies or shenanigans. Smoking Rubber is a leftover from my Gran Turismo days lol. Now I'm into RC planes and cars, and 4x4ing out at the Pismo Dunes. My FJ is my only donut machine.

I didn't know there was a free OnStar plan. I think I got full OnStar for 6 months free but I'll definitely drop it down once the free bit is up.

 

[EastWestBrothers]

Take a look at the EV info screens. You should see some good efficiency information that will help you figure out why the car is showing a lower range. A couple things to look for:

1. Amount of Climate Control usage - I live a few miles from the beach and our weather is pretty mild. I generally rarely use the cabin heat or A/C, preferring to just rely on windows down in the summer (unless driving on the freeway) and seat heaters in the winter. My usage rarely shows more than 1-2% of the Climate Controls unless my wife drives the car.

2. Average mi/kWh - If you are driving efficiently, keeping your speed steady and using regen where possible, you should see somewhere around 4 mi/kWh. If you are seeing higher than that, then you should see the range increase significantly. If you are seeing lower than that, you will likely see slightly lower range. If you have a lot of hills, your range will see a hit.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the car is learning your driving style. It is adjusting the range based on your driving habits so the longer you have the car, the more accurate the range meter will get as the car is able to adapt to your driving and average consumption.

Finally, if you are driving much faster than the posted speed limit, you are going to significantly reduce your range. At around 65mph, I consistently return close to the 238 mi range just doing freeway driving. For a combined city/highway cycle, I consistently turn in around 250-260 miles using Hilltop Reserve, meaning a full charge would come in just shy of 300 mi.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Take a look at the EV info screens. You should see some good efficiency information that will help you figure out why the car is showing a lower range. A couple things to look for:

1. Amount of Climate Control usage - I live a few miles from the beach and our weather is pretty mild. I generally rarely use the cabin heat or A/C, preferring to just rely on windows down in the summer (unless driving on the freeway) and seat heaters in the winter. My usage rarely shows more than 1-2% of the Climate Controls unless my wife drives the car.

2. Average mi/kWh - If you are driving efficiently, keeping your speed steady and using regen where possible, you should see somewhere around 4 mi/kWh. If you are seeing higher than that, then you should see the range increase significantly. If you are seeing lower than that, you will likely see slightly lower range. If you have a lot of hills, your range will see a hit.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the car is learning your driving style. It is adjusting the range based on your driving habits so the longer you have the car, the more accurate the range meter will get as the car is able to adapt to your driving and average consumption.

Finally, if you are driving much faster than the posted speed limit, you are going to significantly reduce your range. At around 65mph, I consistently return close to the 238 mi range just doing freeway driving. For a combined city/highway cycle, I consistently turn in around 250-260 miles using Hilltop Reserve, meaning a full charge would come in just shy of 300 mi.

Just to clarify, steady speed and keeping the posted speed limit are less important than the actual speed. Some areas have posted speed limits of 75MPH or more. I don't know what they are where the OP lives, but the first picture shows his speed as 75MPH. Regardless of the posted speed limit, driving steady at 75MPH without climate control can definitely yield a range of 200 miles or less.

To the OP - I agree that you should look at your efficiency. You can reset it at any time. Or look at your "since last full charge stats" and divide miles traveled by kWh used. The Bolt has about 60kWh usable, so an efficiency of 3.15 miles/kWh would yield your 189 mile range.

 

[SmokingRubber]

I consistently drive at 70-75. I can reduce that to see what happens. It's hard to believe that just a extra few miles per hour dropped my efficiency from 4.0kwh to 1.3kwh (thats what MyChevy says).

I'm giving it it's first full charge right now, and I'll be extra gentle on the ride home. Still, I use mild AC and moderate stereo volumes already. Is there an efficiency RESET button so I can "trip meter" my commute?

 

[GetOffYourGas]

I consistently drive at 70-75. I can reduce that to see what happens. It's hard to believe that just a extra few miles per hour dropped my efficiency from 4.0kwh to 1.3kwh (thats what MyChevy says).

Woah. 1.3 is really low. You'd have to be cranking the heat and pinning it at the speed limiter to see numbers like that.

I'm giving it it's first full charge right now, and I'll be extra gentle on the ride home. Still, I use mild AC and moderate stereo volumes already. Is there an efficiency RESET button so I can "trip meter" my commute?

Yes, you can reset / view this on the Driver Information Center. See page 134 of your owner's manual on how to view and reset that number whenever you want (you reset it manually, it is not linked to "last full charge")

 

[EastWestBrothers]

Remember that air resistance increases exponentially so while it only seems like a few miles per hour, the faster you go, the far greater the air resistance gets. Add to that the fact that the Bolt's drag coefficient is pretty high, the higher the speed the less efficient the car becomes.

 

[SmokingRubber]

I don't even know if the heat or the seat heaters work. Haven't tried them. I had to pass a few slow pokes yesterday out on Hwy1 but I usually have cruise control set to 65 out there.

Hopefully 1.3 is the norm.

 

[BoltHighTension]

It looks like you're getting around 3 miles/kWh at the speeds and conditions you are driving at the moment based on your first photo.

 

[globecanvas]

We normally get 4.5-5 mi/kwh or more driving around town, which translates to 275-300 miles of range.

However, my wife does a 2 hour round trip highway drive once or twice a week, and that always brings the average down to 3.5-4, which would translate to 210-225 miles of range if that were the only kind of driving we ever did.

So efficiency is definitely greater for town driving than highway driving.


PS. please don't take a photo of your dashboard when you are going 75 mph!

 

[SmokingRubber]

It's fully charged right now and it says I have 188 miles of range. My lifetime efficiency is listed at 0.8 mi/kwh. Yesterday my efficiency was 1.3 since full charge and 1.0 lifetime. It appears my lifetime number is going down.

 

[boltage]

I didn't know there was a free OnStar plan. I think I got full OnStar for 6 months free but I'll definitely drop it down once the free bit is up.

https://www.onstar.com/us/en/plans-pricing.html shows all of the OnStar plans. The free-for-5-years Basic plan (default if you do not buy any other plan after the 3-month trial of Guidance ends) gives Advanced Diagnostics, Smart Driver, Remote Access (where you can see charge level and a few other things in the app), and At Your Service.

 

[boltage]

It's fully charged right now and it says I have 188 miles of range. My lifetime efficiency is listed at 0.8 mi/kwh. Yesterday my efficiency was 1.3 since full charge and 1.0 lifetime. It appears my lifetime number is going down.

There is a bug in the current version of the MyChevrolet app where it shows much worse efficiency than actual (even if accounting for charging losses). If you have only been getting 1.0 miles per kWh, your actual range would be around 60 miles.

However, driving 70-75 mph will result in reduced efficiency and range. My tests show that, on a flat road with no wind and no traffic limitations, driving 65 mph on cruise control consumes 18 kW (no heat or AC, no roof rack). This converts to 216 miles for 60 kWh. Higher speeds will give worse efficiency and range.

The 30 kW shown in your 75 mph photo would convert to 150 miles for 60 kWh, although if your road is not perfectly flat, it may have been fluctuating.

 

[SeanNelson]

Remember that air resistance increases exponentially so while it only seems like a few miles per hour, the faster you go, the far greater the air resistance gets.

A lot of people don't seem to "get" exponential increases. But it's really significant - it means that while 75mph is only about 1/3 faster than 55mph, you need almost twice as much energy to push the air aside at that speed.

 

[globecanvas]

Remember that air resistance increases exponentially so while it only seems like a few miles per hour, the faster you go, the far greater the air resistance gets.

A lot of people don't seem to "get" exponential increases. But it's really significant - it means that while 75mph is only about 1/3 faster than 55mph, you need almost twice as much energy to push the air aside at that speed.

More than 2.5x as much, for the record. Power required to overcome aerodynamic drag increases as the cube of the velocity. Doubling the speed requires 8 times the power; increasing the speed by a factor of 75/55 requires increasing power by more than 2.5x.