Some things I noticed about my Bolt EV [LT trim]

[flamaest]

Random things I noticed about my Bolt EV:

1st off, I am keeping my Bolt given the price and range, even if it's not perfect. Having said that:

--My LT trim appears to not come with the tire sealant and compressor kit which is described in the manual.

--The j-plug charging port does not appear to have a light, like we have on the 2nd gen Volt.

--I rolled down my windows and I cannot hear any Pedestrian Safety Sound when rolling. I also witnessed my dealer driving another customer's Bolt to the dealer-prep bay and there were no sounds coming from that Bolt either. I am in California, maybe it is a region thing.

--I can easily shift from D to L, but not back to D unless I go back to N first. Perhaps I am doing something wrong. Was hoping to go back to D on-demand.

--The sun visors are VERY cheap and featureless, and the vanity mirrors are not lit and quite small. Would like to have had longer visors with a shade-extension-arm. Can anyone recommend an aftermarket shade-extension-arm for our sun visors? Does the Premier trim have better visors?

--My digital speedometer may not be accurate. It seems like it is high by 5mph after >40mph. Need to compare this to my phone's NAV GPS.

--I could have sworn there was a specific config setting to limit SOC to 80% when charging, but it appears the closest setting is to turn on Hill-Top Reserve, which may only limit SOC to ~95%.

 

[SeanNelson]

I can easily shift from D to L, but not back to D unless I go back to N first. Perhaps I am doing something wrong. Was hoping to go back to D on-demand.

Not an owner here, but my understanding is that you toggle the shift lever BACK (toward the rear of the car) to go from D to L, and BACK again (same direction) to go from L to D.

That's probably to keep the action required to shift between L and D (which is something you may want to do fairly often) distinct from that needed to go into "N". It avoids you shifting into N because you wanted to go from L to D but you were actually already in D.

 

[boltage]

--My LT trim appears to not come with the tire sealant and compressor kit which is described in the manual.

Looks like it is a $95 accessory if you want one.

http://www.chevrolet.com/all-vehicles-nav/cars/2017-bolt-ev/accessories/accessories/_jcr_content/parsys_c1/cnt_acc_catalog_c1/automatic_accessories/cnt_acc_item_c14.layer.html

The Bolt does come with a special version of Michelin Energy Saver tires with self-sealing capability. How well it works may not be that obvious. Certainly, there are kinds of damage that can exceed the self-sealing capability, but those kinds of damage may exceed what the spray-in tire sealant goo can temporarily fix. Of course, when the tires wear out, you may have to pay attention to whether to get self-sealing tires to replace them, or get regular tires and carry either a sealant kit or a spare tire.

 

[CGameProgrammer]

Random things I noticed about my Bolt EV:

1st off, I am keeping my Bolt given the price and range, even if it's not perfect. Having said that:

--My LT trim appears to not come with the tire sealant and compressor kit which is described in the manual.

There is only one manual so it does mention various things that are options, accessories, or that are only on the Premiere. As was mentioned, the kit is an accessory.

--The j-plug charging port does not appear to have a light, like we have on the 2nd gen Volt.

Correct, and the lack of a light is definitely annoying but I can still get the connector in even in darkness. But I may try to stick reflective tape somewhere to help a bit. It's a shame they didn't make the light either standard or even an option for the LT.

--I rolled down my windows and I cannot hear any Pedestrian Safety Sound when rolling. I also witnessed my dealer driving another customer's Bolt to the dealer-prep bay and there were no sounds coming from that Bolt either. I am in California, maybe it is a region thing.

I found it came on sporadically. When it was on I could hear it really easily even with all the windows closed as long as the radio was off, and I could clearly hear it turn on and off when crossing the 14 mph threshold. I disabled mine afterwards but it definitely was not always on even though it seems like it was intended to be. I think there's a bug.

--I can easily shift from D to L, but not back to D unless I go back to N first. Perhaps I am doing something wrong. Was hoping to go back to D on-demand.

As was mentioned, you're doing it wrong; just pull back to toggle between D and L. You don't need to push any button; it's just a quick tug. It's really easy to toggle between them which is nice because I do it regularly.

--I could have sworn there was a specific config setting to limit SOC to 80% when charging, but it appears the closest setting is to turn on Hill-Top Reserve, which may only limit SOC to ~95%.

It's more like 90% of usable capacity actually but yeah, I did not see a way of more explicitly limiting max charge.

 

[Airbesar]

I've heard the 80% charge discussed in the context that charging the battery above 80% proportionally takes more electricity. The two times I've fast charged, at Greenlots chargers, the displays on the charger and in the car tell you how long you need to charge until you reach 80%. Both displays will tell you when that's accomplished. However, both times, the charging did not stop at 80% and the car display tells you the charging will continue until you push the stop button or, I'm assuming, the car is fully charged. Don't know yet of a way to have the car automatically stop charging at 80%

 

[LeftieBiker]

It's not that fast charging above 80% takes a lot more power proportionately. The issue is the inadvisability of fast charging a lithium pack (or most other battery types) the last 20% - that's why the charging stations slow down the charge above 80%.

 

[SeanNelson]

It's not that fast charging above 80% takes a lot more power proportionately. The issue is the inadvisability of fast charging a lithium pack (or most other battery types) the last 20% - that's why the charging stations slow down the charge above 80%.

To be clear, it's the car that slows down the charge, not the charger.

And yeah, that last 20% takes longer, but that's just because the rate of charge is dropped - it really takes no more power than the previous 20%.