Will a Bolt get you off gas completely?

[GetOffYourGas]

I'm just curious how many people out there are tracking the Bolt with the hope of ditching gas completely. So how about it? Would it for you? Or would you still have a PHEV / ICEV in your driveway to complement the Bolt?

For me, I would still keep my PHEV (CMax Energi). Unless/until the CCS infrastructure approaches (or exceeds) Tesla's supercharging network, I just couldn't get everywhere I go with a Bolt. Especially in the winter. I'm in upstate NY, so I expect the winter highway range of the Bolt to be around 125 miles new. Probably 100 miles at end-of-life.

 

[michael]

Not a chance. I will still need a Volt occasionally, and so will my wife.

I envision one of each. A tank of gas every month or so, fine by me.

And yes, I concur with your estimates. For me, with mild weather, I'm predicting 125 miles in winter, at EOL, at freeway speeds. 98 percent of the time that will be plenty, the days it's not I take the Volt.

 

[Tallon]

Absolutely. I recently moved across the country from Miami to Denver. My girlfriend and I have no family within driving distance and no real desire to travel anywhere further than an hour away (via car). The Bolt will us 100% off of gasoline.

 

[Anonymous]

We have not bought gas in the past 8 months as we have two EV's, one is a Smart ED for a short commute, the other is a Tesla S which we drive daily and take on road trips. 35,000 km of gas-free driving in our two EV's so far.

 

[Zoomit]

I will definitely still need gas. In fact I took my Spark EV to the gas station today. Besides my other gas vehicles, I have a gas lawn mower, chainsaw, weed eater, and high wheel trimmer.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Ew! I would never want to put a gas can in the back of a hatchback, where the fumes go straight into the passenger compartment.

I ditched the gas lawn tools long ago. I have an electric lawn mower, weed wacker, hedge trimmer (although I use hand shears more often than the hedge trimmer). I even upgraded the kicker motor on my 22' sailboat to electric (Torqeedo Travel, ~4HP equivalent).

I know I'm an edge case, but my goal is to be 100% gas free. Right now, I'm tantalizingly close. The Bolt *could* get me there. The shortcomings are not in the car, but in the infrastructure. I'll probably have to wait for the third generation, when cars can go 300 miles, and CCS chargers start to fill in many more of the gaps.

 

[lukestuke]

I ditched the gas lawn tools long ago. I have an electric lawn mower, weed wacker, hedge trimmer (although I use hand shears more often than the hedge trimmer). I even upgraded the kicker motor on my 22' sailboat to electric (Torqeedo Travel, ~4HP equivalent).

More details on the sailboat please!

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Gladly. It's a 1976 O'Day 22, I sail on Oneida Lake in upstate NY. I basically use the kicker motor to get in/out of the marina, and then sail from there. If there is no wind, I just take a relaxed putt around Maple Bay. I've also used it as a trolling motor for fishing (yes, I fish off a sailboat, and yes it's as awkward as it sounds).

Here are the gory details of my story:

http://forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?threads/torqeedo-travel-1003.131151/&highlight=torqeedo

After using the motor for 5 summers, I will never go back to gas. The biggest thing is the hassle of winterizing and then bringing the motor back to life in the spring. It was time consuming and tiring. The Torqeedo jumps to life the first time, every time, whether it has been an hour or 6 months since its last use.

 

[Anonymous]

We went completely EV in June 2015 when we got our Tesla S to compliment my Smart ED (aka "commuting appliance"). We've done 35000 gas-free km in both cars. Even here in Ontario, it's easy to go gas-free with supercharging and destination (hotel) charging.

 

[BoltADrome]

Until I can buy an electric pickup, towing will always need gas. Long hauls will be impractical for the near term, without an EREV truck, which again would require gas for long distances. I average 2000 miles a year with the pickup as a second vehicle that's expected to have a job that only it can do whenever it get used. I put about 320 miles on it last month hauling stuff on 2 trips, but it may be several months before I need it again. If it was electric around town, I'd probably use it more, but an EV would be too limited when towing a camper trailer...

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Until I can buy an electric pickup, towing will always need gas. Long hauls will be impractical for the near term, without an EREV truck, which again would require gas for long distances. I average 2000 miles a year with the pickup as a second vehicle that's expected to have a job that only it can do whenever it get used. I put about 320 miles on it last month hauling stuff on 2 trips, but it may be several months before I need it again. If it was electric around town, I'd probably use it more, but an EV would be too limited when towing a camper trailer...

Good point. As a home owner, and a boat owner, I have use for a truck a few times a year. Probably fewer miles than you, though. Up to this point I have always found it makes more sense to simply rent/borrow a truck the few times a year I need one than to own another vehicle for only 1000-2000 miles/year. But technically even renting an ICE means I depend on gas at least a little.

And if you want to go deeper, I'm completely dependent on gas for my food supply (farm equipment is out of my control) and most of the stuff I buy (shipped at least partially by truck, again out of my control).

I guess the point of my original question was about your personal "fleet" of vehicles and power equipment. It sounds like a few of the more hardcore enthusiasts may be able to ditch the ICEs on their property, but most of use will still rely on them for those edge cases.

 

[summit]

The Bolt will further diminish asymptotically toward zero gasoline consumption. I drive a BEV but bought a Volt for the wife, because she wouldn't drive an EV otherwise. So yes, the plan with the Bolt is to relinquish the Volt to the occasional use status (to join our gas guzzling Prius)

It depends on one's objective. Everything requires more effort toward the extreme. But if reducing dependent on fossil energy is the objective, there are other low hanging fruits as well.

 

[laev]

We have a car and a full size 4 by 4 truck buying an electric vehicle will help us relieve some gas issues but we're not getting rid of our truck so no buying one electric vehicle is not going to get us off gas

 

[JPWhite]

I see the Bolt as part of a gas free existence. I hope to combine the Bolt with a Model 3.

Step one is to replace my worn out LEAF with the Bolt.
Step two is to get the Model 3 and ditch the Altima.

Then we will be gas free with the exception of the riding mower and trimmer.

It's a bummer since the Altima should be first to go being 4 years older, but the Altima should continue just fine for the next two years without major expense. The LEAF needs a $6,000 battery, so rather than waste money on that I'll put the $6,000 into the Bolt.

 

[NeilBlanchard]

The Bolt EV will probably ween my family off of gasoline!

 

[michael]

No, but my present fleet (Ford Focus electric and two Volts) has reduced my family consumption to an acceptably low level. Three people, total about 40,000 miles per year, about 150 gallons a year. At least half that was used on long trips where we wouldn't have taken a Bolt anyway...a Volt was much easier to use.

 

[oilerlord]

Gasoline, yes. Diesel, no.

We recently picked up a lease-returned Mercedes EV for a steal. Even with it's smallish 28kWh battery, it's still a great city car. We make the trip from Alberta - Arizona and back every year with our TDI wagon, and while it may be possible to do that with the Bolt, the lack of fast charging infrastructure in remote locations would make a 200 mile EV unsuitable for those trips.

Sadly, there is still a use for the TDI with it's 600+ mile range, and 5-minute "diesel recharge" time.

 

[Geo]

It depends on how much fast charging gets installed in the next year or so.

Generally, I'm already off of gasoline in the Los Angeles area. My RAV4 EV has enough range for that. The car, however, doesn't make sense on long road trips because it lacks fast charging. (Though I could get a third party CHAdeMO installed to help with that). It is nice to be able to do a 400-500 mile trip by driving instead of flying.

The Bolt would allow for those sorts of trips, though there will still be limitations. I could easily get to the Bay Area, Las Vegas, San Diego, Central Coast, Yosemite. But, as it currently stands, places like Mammoth and Phoenix are still out of reach due to lack of fast charging. I suspect that will change as more 200+ mile range cars get on the road.

 

[sam]

No it will not get me off of gas completely because I will still have one vehicle that is gas powered but it's a small step towards something good

 

[ssspinball]

Currently we have an EV with range extender and a regular gas car. I plan to replace the former with a BEV next year and the latter in 2 years with a large battery hybrid like the Volt. We will get rid of the Volt once the DC charging situation is further along than it is now.

I already own a lithium battery trimmer (2 cycle is nasty business!) and will replace my gas mower as soon as the lithium mowers come down about 30% in price and/or my gas mower gives me any issue. That will leave only the snowblower as I have so far not been impressed with what's available for electric snowblowers.