Which options are worth having others not worth it.

[Jychevyvolt]

I pretty mad at GM for not including ACC and not making all the safety features standard on the premier.

 

[CGameProgrammer]

If they made the safety features standard, then the Premiere would cost a lot more money. This way they give the buyer the option to save money on features not wanted. Also those driver aids can be very annoying for those that don't want them. I took a brief test drive in a Premiere that had them, and when we were in traffic and the car in front of me slowed down, a really obnoxious beep sounded and bright red lights appeared on a head's-up display. It was really irritating and for a totally mundane non-emergency situation.

 

[devbolt]

The All Around View feature found in Nissan and other cars with that option is great. If you have to park in Handicapped spaces, or in tight spaces in general, it's a must-have. Unfortunately, GM has decided to try to force people to pay $4300 for their version, because it's only found in the Premiere. I had a go-round with their PR reps about that, but it isn't going to change - at least not until Bolt sales start to tank.

It's not uncommon to have certain high-end features like a 360-degree camera view only available on a higher trim. GM is hardly unique in this regard. Are you going to take other manufacturers to task for not including certain advanced features in lower trims? And while it is $4300 to go from the LT to the Premier, you are getting other advanced features included standard that are otherwise options on the LT.

 

[Nagorak]

I think the DCQC is a must have. It turns the car from a local or semi-local vehicle into one capable of traveling long distances. It seems to me that the quick charge network is already developed enough to make long distance north-south driving viable on the west coast. It can only get better from here on out. If you literally never go on a road trip then I guess you can safely skip it.

I'm uncertain about the other packages. The heated steering wheel is nice in my Leaf but it doesn't get that cold in Southern California. We're talking less than 4 months per year where it's even an issue and then you can just use the air. In northern California I might consider that more of a necessity.

The confidence package... I've used a rental car before with the backup assist. It was useful on that vehicle (no camera) but seems kind of superfluous when you already have a backup camera which does the same job better.

The side approach warning I feel like it's a solution looking for a problem. I always back out slowly, while checking both ways multiple times and I've never really had a problem. The only part that seems even useful is the lane change warning, but I'm not sure whether I'd actually trust it enough to rely on it.

The 360 camera in my opinion is really just fluff. Kind of cool but not really necessary and not providing much more than you can already get by looking around.

 

[CGameProgrammer]

The point of the heated steering wheel is to give you an efficient alternative to using heated air because heated air uses a lot of power and will deplete your battery noticeably more quickly than when not using it. Of course with this car's range you should have no problems using heat and/or AC for a regular day's driving, but to minimize electricity use or to allow for longer trips you will want to turn off heated or air conditioned air for most of the time.

 

[LeftieBiker]

The All Around View feature found in Nissan and other cars with that option is great. If you have to park in Handicapped spaces, or in tight spaces in general, it's a must-have. Unfortunately, GM has decided to try to force people to pay $4300 for their version, because it's only found in the Premiere. I had a go-round with their PR reps about that, but it isn't going to change - at least not until Bolt sales start to tank.

It's not uncommon to have certain high-end features like a 360-degree camera view only available on a higher trim. GM is hardly unique in this regard. Are you going to take other manufacturers to task for not including certain advanced features in lower trims? And while it is $4300 to go from the LT to the Premier, you are getting other advanced features included standard that are otherwise options on the LT.

If Nissan only offered Around View on the SL, I'd be tearing them a new one about it. Safety features like this should be available on more than just the high end trim.

As for it being "fluff" Nagorak, that could also be said about the extra horsepower, and the range above 200 miles.

 

[devbolt]

The All Around View feature found in Nissan and other cars with that option is great. If you have to park in Handicapped spaces, or in tight spaces in general, it's a must-have. Unfortunately, GM has decided to try to force people to pay $4300 for their version, because it's only found in the Premiere. I had a go-round with their PR reps about that, but it isn't going to change - at least not until Bolt sales start to tank.

It's not uncommon to have certain high-end features like a 360-degree camera view only available on a higher trim. GM is hardly unique in this regard. Are you going to take other manufacturers to task for not including certain advanced features in lower trims? And while it is $4300 to go from the LT to the Premier, you are getting other advanced features included standard that are otherwise options on the LT.

If Nissan only offered Around View on the SL, I'd be tearing them a new one about it. Safety features like this should be available on more than just the high end trim.

Leaf has 3 trim levels, Bolt just 2. Around View is optional on both the SV and SL trims and costs $1570 (along with an upgraded stereo). Bolt's Surround Vision is standard on the Premier.

I agree that having a surround vision system will make it easier to park in tight spaces, but you can get most of that functionality by using your side mirrors and the backup camera. Something I've been doing for years with other cars.

 

[CGameProgrammer]

The Premiere also has a front-facing camera whose image can be viewed directly just like the backup camera; it's not only for the overhead view. That can help too when parking.

 

[devbolt]

The Premiere also has a front-facing camera whose image can be viewed directly just like the backup camera; it's not only for the overhead view. That can help too when parking.

That's true. I'm so used to not having front parking sensors, or a camera, that I may have trouble adapting to all this new fangled stuff.

 

[EldRick]

I think the DCQC is a must have. It turns the car from a local or semi-local vehicle into one capable of traveling long distances.

Not really unless you enjoy two hours charging for every three hours spent driving. You may be thinking of the Tesla, where charging is 30-45 minutes...

 

[SparkE]

I think the DCQC is a must have. It turns the car from a local or semi-local vehicle into one capable of traveling long distances.

Not really unless you enjoy two hours charging for every three hours spent driving. You may be thinking of the Tesla, where charging is 30-45 minutes...

Your calculation is off. The Bolt has a max charge rate of 80 kW (there are no CCS chargers currently installed that can provide that, although both EVgo and ChargePoint have announced installs for this summer). However, using a 50 kW charger, providing a continuous rate of 45 kW, would give you 30 kW in 40 mins, enough to drive about another 2 hours at reasonable freeway speeds (60-65 mph).

 

[CGameProgrammer]

It's well been reported that a 60 minute DCFC charge gives you 180 miles of range (unless the battery gets to 80% full at which point it slows down). So it's more like one hour of charge for every 2.5 hours of driving, but after 2+ hours of highway driving I like a nice break anyway, so it's really not much of a problem. Obviously it's nowhere near as good as a regular car for long trips but the point is it can do them if you have the fast-charge option. It cannot if you don't.

 

[Nagorak]

Obviously the charging could be faster, but even with its shortcomings I still find the DCQC of more value than the other options. It's great people think the other things are of value. If it makes you happy and you can afford to pay the small amount more then more power to you. I guess this is why they have different options in the first place.

 

[boltage]

Looking at inventory searches, it looks like most arriving on dealer lots around here are either LT with no options, or Premier with all options except the extra cost colors.

The possible configurations:

$37,495: LT with no options
$38,050: + Comfort and Convenience, including heated seats, leather wrapped heated steering wheel, auto-dim rear view mirror
$38,545: + Driver Confidence, including rear cross traffic alert, rear parking assist, lane change alert
$41,780: Premier, including the above options, leather seats, roof rails, rear camera mirror, rear armrest, cargo area false floor, turn signals on mirrors
$42,265: + Infotainment, including premium stereo with subwoofer, rear USB charge ports, wireless device charging
$42,760: + Driver Confidence II, including low speed forward automatic braking, automatic high/low beam headlamps, lane keep assist, forward collision alert, following distance warning, front pedestrian braking

Standalone options for any of the above:

$750: DC fast charging
$395: extra cost colors (cajun red, kinetic blue, orange burst)

Some comments on the features:

* Heated seats can help your electricity economy and range in cold weather. Turning on the heater noticeably reduces the range remaining shown on the dash, while using the heated seats does not.
* The speed of the DC fast charging is not as fast as the Tesla one. For a long trip, probably about a 3 to 1 ratio of time driving at highway speeds to charging on a DC fast charger. It probably makes most sense if you anticipate some day trips between 1 and 1.5 times the range.

 

[SeanNelson]

I think the DCQC is a must have. It turns the car from a local or semi-local vehicle into one capable of traveling long distances.

Not really unless you enjoy two hours charging for every three hours spent driving. You may be thinking of the Tesla, where charging is 30-45 minutes...

How do you figure? The Bolt EV is supposed to charge at a rate of 90 miles in 30 minutes or 80% of total capacity in an hour. If you figure 80% of a 200 mile range for freeway driving at 65MPH, that's one hour to charge for each three hours of driving.

Now I know it's not going to satisfy people who are used driving more than 600 miles at a clip. But not everyone is like that. If you're touring at a relaxed pace then an overnight charge followed by three hours of driving followed by charging during lunch followed by another three hours of driving is not at all unreasonable.

 

[stevewa]

I think the DCQC is a must have. It turns the car from a local or semi-local vehicle into one capable of traveling long distances.

Not really unless you enjoy two hours charging for every three hours spent driving. You may be thinking of the Tesla, where charging is 30-45 minutes...

How do you figure? The Bolt EV is supposed to charge at a rate of 90 miles in 30 minutes or 80% of total capacity in an hour. If you figure 80% of a 200 mile range for freeway driving at 65MPH, that's one hour to charge for each three hours of driving.

Now I know it's not going to satisfy people who are used driving more than 600 miles at a clip. But not everyone is like that. If you're touring at a relaxed pace then an overnight charge followed by three hours of driving followed by charging during lunch followed by another three hours of driving is not at all unreasonable.

Having had a LEAF with CHAdeMO for 5 years I would not consider a Bolt without CCS. The problem is if you decide you need it later you cannot add it on. It has to be installed at build time. Of course the same is true for most of the advanced options as well. If you are buying you also may care about resale value, and having CCS ability will be a plus (or not having it will be a minus) at sales time.

With the exception of one dealer in the Portland area nearly all the configurations I've seen online have included CCS, I think due to the advanced state of the charging network here, and a surprising amount of savvy at the dealerships as to what makes for an easier sale.

One concern I have is that we have a significant number of Blink CHAdeMO stations which will probably never see a CCS upgrade, but we are also starting to see merchants like Walmart who started out installing Blink and now are switching to EVgo instead. So from my perspective CCS is already more available here than CHAdeMO was when I got my LEAF.

 

[HotPotato]

I've now read one Bolt review in which the reviewer found the cloth seats terrible because of the lack of padding, but the leather-trimmed seats better, because the leather trim better covers the hard plastic seat frame. I don't want leather, but I'm now wondering if the terrible seats are a way to force typically plumper Americans to have to opt for the Premiere, or at least the leather trim...

FWIW, my experience was the opposite. I found the cloth seats much softer and more comfortable. But neither covering is going to change the basic design: that narrow frame is going to dig into your butt every time you get in or out of the car, and dig into your ribs every time you drive it. $5 says next year's Bolt comes with an option for a comfort seat.

 

[SeanNelson]

With the exception of one dealer in the Portland area nearly all the configurations I've seen online have included CCS, I think due to the advanced state of the charging network here, and a surprising amount of savvy at the dealerships as to what makes for an easier sale.

I drove through Portland in the fall and I was really impressed with "Electric Avenue", the block downtown that's chock full of fast DC chargers. When I get my Bolt EV later this year I'm sure I'm going to end up driving down there from Vancouver at least once or twice.

 

[EldRick]

Meanwhile, here in 2107, I'm told that all the Chargepoint chargers along I-5 are 25kW, so the 3:2 travel:charge ratio is probably not a bad guess, at least in Oregon.

 

[SeanNelson]

Meanwhile, here in 2107, I'm told that all the Chargepoint chargers along I-5 are 25kW, so the 3:2 travel:charge ratio is probably not a bad guess, at least in Oregon.

Yeah, I was quite disappointed to see all those low-powered DC chargers in Oregon and northern California. I'd sure like to see them upgraded sooner rather than later.

On the other hand checking out the chargers did motivate me to get off the Interstate at Dunsmuir, which I found to be quite an interesting little place.