2020 Chevy Bolt EV Highway Range Test @ 70 mph.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
- I fully charge a 2020 Chevy Bolt EV and drive it at a steady 70 mph (113 km/hr) to see how far it will go.
Some notes: The temperature was between 59 and 65 degrees during the drive, the tires were at the manufacturer's recommended 38 psi, and there was a crosswind of about 12 mph for about 75% of the trip.
I drove up and down the NJ Turnpike in a loop and ended up very close to where I started. It's important to note that no EV range test is perfect and that EV range is dependant on a lot of different factors. However, we conduct these range tests to offer EV owners a guideline as to what range they can expect to see under similar driving conditions.
When it was all over, the Bolt went 218 miles, and the vehicle was at 1% state of charge. I averaged an efficiency rating of 3.4 miles per kWh over the 218-mile trip at a constant 70 mph. The Bolt's energy display showed that I used 64 kWh of the Bolt's 66 available kWh battery.
Tom New subscriber here! Just bought myself a 2019 Bolt Premier for my Leap Year Birthday! Paid way less than any EV out there with the range....My boyfriend and I love everything about it! Looks interior, seats! Thank you for the review!
Push you’re way of living somewhere else .....
Great test Tom. Concise and worth watching the whole video. I drive my '17 Bolt from Albany NY to NJ often and it's great that I can do it without needing to stop for a charge.
Just bought a 2020 Premier for $29+K after rebates and $3K from being a Costco member-unexpected! Love it! Most used controls are knobs and buttons so I rarely take my eyes off the road for the touch screen unlike the Tesla I almost bought! I am glad Tesla has so many issues so I was able to find the Bolt!
Wow great video - perfectly edited and informative.
Thank you Tom. Interesting to see that Bolt and Leaf has almost identical efficiency, with the larger battery giving the Bolt the extra range. I am very eager to see the M3 SR+ test now, as that is other Medium range EV available nationwide in the 35-40K price range. Your LeafPlus test inspired me to try a test in my Leaf Plus here in Chicago. On a north south loop (for a bit less wind impact) even with tires at 44psi... 3.3-3.4 miles per Kilowatt hour at a pretty constant 70mph. Temp wasn’t 55-60F but essentially exactly what you achieved in New Jersey.
Further proof, I like that!
I own a 2019 Bolt and have seen similar performance in highway efficiency. I'm usually ~3.6 mi/kWh for 70mph driving and 4+ for 60-65. I would agree that your total average efficiency of 3.4 mi/kWh is likely due to the wind. Love all of your content. I also have an F-150 Lightning on order so I'm really looking forward to seeing some more content for that coming up!
You are wearing a jacket while driving in the car, and yet, you feel the need to turn on the air conditioning. I wonder if there might have been a way to feel cooler without having to turn on the air conditioner?
Very nice test Tom. I have had a 2018 Bolt EV for a bit over 2 years and really enjoy it. Only the charging speed is doggy for longer trips. Awaiting a Taycan to solve that problem, but the Bolt is a very versatile vehicle.
The Bolt is really a great little EV. I'm looking forward to seeing next year's model with the refreshed interior. I'd really like to see 100kW DC fast charging added also.
Great review! I second your opinion of the Bolt. After 5 happy years with a Gen 1 Volt Premium, we just bought a 2020 Bolt LT. The deals are incredible. For those of you thinking of getting a new Bolt this may be the time. $8,500 Chevy Customer Cash (less if financing through GM), $3,000 Costco rebate on Bolt at participating dealers. We also got GM Educator discount and dealer pitched in. LT with DC fast charging (an extra cost option!), comfort package, both Driver Confidence packages and Kinetic Blue for just over $27,800 keys in hand. We love it so far, so much roomier than the Volt with better visibility. Puncher too, this thing can scoot. Front eats may not be good for those broad of beam. I'm 6'3" and 190 pounds, and find the seats comfortable-great support, but if I were just a bit wider it might be different. Great legroom front and back. My wife is petite and loves it, great driving position and better visibility all around than the Volt. (Keeping the Volt as our second car, it has been terrific.) For you Volt owners, you'll love it. It has a bit more road noise at highway speeds and the ride is a tiny bit choppier than the Volt, but it's a kick to drive. You can charge it L1 at 8 or 12 amps, just like to Volt and it comes with a charge cord just like the Volt, so no urgent rush to get a fast charger. Bowties forever!
Great stuff Tom. Love these vids and you're on fire lately. Better content than many others have offered. The Bolt is one car I'd get if I did haven't have 3 DMP. How's the seats? Prior Bolts had horrible driver and pax seats. They look good though. How much do you think someone can score that Bolt for ? Is that Premiere?
What I don't get is 220 out of a 260 rated battery pack. Given the fact you probably didn't have to run heat or AC, it's still 16% less than rated, even accounting for wind etc. We know that HVAC would reduce that 220 even further. Even EPA ratings in gas ( ICE) cars aren't off by that much, maybe 5-10%.
Oh, how fast did it charge??
Some wind...going up or down hills..there are variables. The car will certainly do 260 miles but the conditions here must not have been correct.
@@darrenorange2982 I'd really like to see how a Bolt can go 260 miles at 70 mph - and not all downhill! There's always some variables that are difficult or impossible to control. My friend did this exact same test in North Carolina last week and got about 5 miles more than I did.
ICE vehicles disclose city/hwy gas efficiency. For whatever reason for EV's there is just one number. I've not looked into the EPA testing standards, but my guess is the range estimate is some combination of city/hwy driving. ICE vehicles do better at highway speed and worse at low speeds. EV's are the opposite, you get better range driving at slow speeds and worse range at highway speeds. That is why when you're highway driving an EV you'll always be below that EPA range number. Personally I'd like to see new car stickers for EV's disclose an EPA city range and an EPA highway range. At this point, most people buying EV's know how EV's work and did their research. As more EV's become available, more less informed buyers may enter the market and I could easily see people buying an EV that says range is 300 miles and then wondering why they ran out of juice after only driving 200 miles at 80mph.
@@darrenorange2982 My neighbor has a 2019 BOLT and he says he's never gotten rated mileage even in city or highway, so 259 is probably rated at battery in a lab , just like ICE cards are rated in lab and then when you get them out on road, they never or rarely get what EPA or manufacturer says. We know that even the Tesla and the Nissan Leaf do not get rated, only real world.
@@SWFan77 Very true. I also have a diesel car and it does incredibly well on highway at 55 MPG, even at 75-80 MPH. IN the city cycle, eh, not so well, maybe 35-40. My 3 DMP does not do well on highway runs at greater than 70 MPH and really suffers at 75-80, where most traffic is running. Rated, is just that, rated. Real world, probably most cars are 15-25% less than rated. If you're looking for a true 400 mile range car, then buy one with 500 mile range. Weather, pax load, traffic, elevation, tire inflation and condition all make a difference. I know hypermile guys in their Prii who bump draft trucks 3 feet off the ICC at 75 MPH which is just plain stupid.
Feels crazy to say this, but I'm glad the highways near me are 55mph. Yay longer range! 😄
God I'd never get anywhere lol.
Speed limit where I live is 80, and everyone goes 85 to 90.
Trying to get across Texas at 55 mph would be a nightmare.
Yeah that's about as fast as I drive too. I wish someone would test at that speed.
Assuming you drive 10k miles a year. You are spending 40 hours extra in your car driving at 55 rather than 70. In terms of money you are only saving few extra bucks. Now ask yourself how much you value your time?
Running a 2020 Bolt in Alaska. It’s really cool. I also have a 2017 GMC Yukon for long distance and other adventures.
I test drove the Chevy bolt and the Toyota Prius in south Texas weather. It was 100 degrees on both those days of test driving these cars. The Chevy bolt failed in keeping me cool. I had it set to 65 degrees and never felt cool during the drive. I was sweating the whole drive. It felt more like 75 degrees. We gotta have AC down here folks!! The Prius blew my mind! My glasses fogged up after the drive. That AC was 🥶 !! I want to buy the Prius just because of that. It’s months later after that test drive and I still dream about the Prius lol.
I'd be curious to see if the newest (refreshed) Bolt EV would do in this range test; and the Bolt EUV.
I would have guessed your test would have achieved a higher number than Kyle's. I usually get better efficiency on the NJ Turnpike than I do through North Carolina. Perhaps I just have lower average speed in NJ.
keep in mind that Kyle actually drove the car till it essentially stopped moving. I'm sure that would make some difference. Although I think Kyle ran at 75 mph. But he said he had a heavy head wind. And even though you get the tail wind on the way back it doesn't really completely make up for the loss of efficiency on the first leg.
Great range test.. can you do this same range test for Hyundai Kona Electric and Kia Niro EV, given they have similar EPA ranges? Then we can do some serious comparisons...
When will Chevy release the reminder of the battery 🔋 for use it’s capped out at 93% that I have access to.
I tried this today with my 2020 Bolt which I’ve owned for 3 months and 2500 miles. I drove it down to 1% and calculated my usable battery capacity to be ~64kWh. Is the entire stated capacity of 66kWh supposed to be usable? If so I have 3% degradation already which doesn’t seem right. For those interested in the details I got 232 miles of range of which all but ~5 miles was driven on the freeway at 70mph. My efficiency was 3.64 miles/kWh. The outside temperature was low to mid 80’s, and I had the AC set on auto at 73 degrees, which consumed about 3% of the energy. There was very little wind.
Peter Wright FYI, your range will be lower the faster you drive. You will get better range when driving at lower speeds in town, despite start/stop traffic, if you drive in L mode.
Nice. What would make this video even better is to give us the experience of charging the car from that 1% state of charge. How long to get back to 80%, 100% etc. Also the actual elevation info on the trip. Now, somewhat please do a real road trip test from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
Great video Tom, did you also do a range test for city driving?
No, I really just do the 70mph highway range tests because I can set a constant speed you can't do that in city driving so every city driving test will have different results.
Tom Moloughney Makes sense. Thanks!
As Tom said, it's pretty much impossible to actually measure real-world city driving. But for instance, my wife's commute to work is on 30-40mph roads with stops, and lights, etc and she gets 320 miles in the summer and 200 in the winter (she likes to use the heat) on our '17 with a 60kWh battery. Prior to that, she drove a minivan on that same road which got terrible gas mileage in those conditions with all the stop and go.
Great test Thanks.
Why did the 2020 make it so much farther than the 2017 with a new battery?
Most likely because of the temperature. We did the 2017 with battery replacement in the winter when it was much colder. Battery & ambient temperature make a big difference.
How are the seats in the new Bolt? I tried the old one and couldn’t take it after just a few minutes.
Not any better. They're getting a refresh in 2021, though.
I thought the battery allowed you to use all the capacity. Interesting
Virtually every EV has a buffer.
It's to protect the battery and so user doesn't get stuck.
Typically 5-10 mostly even top and bottom.
This is not really different than regular gas vehicles nowadays where it tells you you're out of gas when you still have one or two gallons
One problem! You didn't use the HAVC. So this isn't real world test in my opinion.
He says he had hvac on .
How long to fast change
I"m surprised to see 3.4 miles a kwh. I easily get in this kid of weather closer to 3.6. Summer time 3.7-3.8 at that speed. My 2019 in summer will do about 240 miles at 70mph
My friend Kyle Conner did this exact 70 mph with a 2020 bolt last week and averaged 3.47 mi/kWh Here's the link:
th-cam.com/video/VyP_6saDDGE/w-d-xo.html&feature=emb_title
I have a 2020 Bolt and only get between 3.4 and 3.5 when driving at 70mph with outside temps between 60 and 75 with wind at 10mph or less and negligible elevation changes. I've seen several tests by other TH-camrs and so far all of them doing the 70mph test have come in around 220 miles. So far the only time I'm able to get a consistent 3.6 is driving around 65 mph.
@@SWFan77 Sure I'm just saying from personal testing. You can do much better in certain conditions. 10-15 mph head wind makes sense for 3.4 to 3.5 that is about what you would get doing about 80mph.
Do you drive in L on the highway?
If you use cruise control L changes nothing
My Bolt lifetime is 2.1mi/kwh for 29,299 miles.
I only get 3.3 in summer driving gently. So 3.5/.6 is really good.
I've done better than this driving 75 in my 2019. Mind you I live in SoCal. I average 3.9mi/kWh at 75 and 4.0 at 70. Overall with 75% freeway driving over 18,000 miles I've averaged 4.1mi/kWh.
I wouldn't be surprised if your overall consumption is indeed 3.9 mi/kWh, that's close to what I averaged in the week I had this Bolt for testing. The Bolt can easily get well over 4 mi/kWh in low-speed driving.
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney I got 3.9 at 100% 75mph (Vegas with one stop in baker).
The 4.1mi/kWh is over 18,000 miles or driving which is approximately 75% freeway.
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Suggestions: buy or get a mic with wind suppression. Take off your jacket so you can turn off A/C. Drive at 60 to 65 mph max. You have no idea how to drive an EV obviously. I get almost 270 miles in my Bolt without trying hard.
Thanks for the suggestion. I just bought a better mic, which I'll be using from now on, so sound will be better. Of course the Bolt will go further if I drove slower that 70 mph, without the A/C on, Captain Obvious. The point of the test is how far will the car go at a constant 70mph. We do this test with all EVs at the same speed so they can be compared. Not the sharpest pencil in the box, I see.🙄