Chevrolet Bolt EV Dealing with a Cold Battery
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- I decided to demonstrate why EV batteries #coldgate when they are left outside and unplugged during freezing weather. Even when outside temperatures warm up, it can take a while for the battery to reach ambient temperatures, and you really need to drive for a fairly long distance before it does.
Luckily, for EV owners, there's an easy answer: Just keep your car plugged in and use it as it was intended. Even if you can't keep your car plugged in, if you start off with a full battery, by time you need to charge, the battery will likely be warm enough.
#coldgate! Love it.
Thanks for the data supported discussion. Always informative and clearly articulated. The more we can understand the "internal" behavior of the car, the better we understand the car's performance as well as its care and "feeding".
Good job and appreciated.
Good information. Always like to here more however the end statements you said(drive car normal) is what people have been saying for years. Just drive you car like you drove the car before. There was a great article about the Prius(which was my previous car) which gave you all the tips to get the most miles out of your car on how you drive. I believe it was a 15-20 point article. Each piece of advice was followed with the following statement: Or drive you car like every other car and you will have very similar results.
so good job spreading the word!
Thanks! I agree. I really wanted to let people know that 40 degrees an actually be cold as far as an EV is concerned.
Great commentary. Agreed 100%. My Model 3 will lose about 30% or more when cold soaked and it takes forever to heat up to. Like any car, just pop it in drive and go. My 2017 Volt is much better at heating up the battery quickly
Good point about cold battery. I think it probably makes sense to have a dashboard indication (maybe a blue battery icon?) indicating to the driver that full DCFC speed is not available.
I never understand people that get an EV and never wanna plug it in....
I think in the case of the guy reviewing the Mach-E, he might not have had a plug set up at home. He's an auto reviewer, but he might not own an EV himself. The truth is, even a 120 V plug would have been enough to keep the Mach-E's battery warm while leaving it low enough that he could test out the Electrify America charger.
I suppose I'm one of those people -- not so much "never wanna plug it in", but rather never remember to.... I don't travel far during the week, so never need to charge my car until latter part of the week or the weekends, so I don't have the habit to keep my car charged up....
Isn't it not good for the battery to keep the battery charged up to 100%? So I usually don't charge my car up until it hits 20-30% SOC, then plug into the level 1 power overnight to get up to 70-80%.... But then I'd forget plug it in and have that oh crap moment and have to drop by the public level 2 or DC rapid charger for a quick "juice up" to 50-60%.....
@@kamdonko Better to be plugged in than not. you can usually have your car stop charging at a lower than 100 percent level with a setting.
@@kamdonko We have been drive chevy bolt for 3 years for uber/lyft, we had 3 bolt and avg drive 200-300 miles a day. Always plug into power whenever it's possible and charge to full whenever is possible. Haven't have any problem or battery degradation as the oldest one already had 190k miles.
Totally agree with you, Eric. It is NOT a problem with the Bolt. You can just drive it as normal in very cold weather, you'll have full regen pretty much right away unless in way below freezing temps it may take a few minute drive. It will immediately accept full level 2 charge at any temp and even DC fast charge is possible at 50kw with lower battery pack temp. Other EVs that charge at higher speeds will throttle charging (when battery is not a higher temp) to what is the max on the Bolt. In my testing I found the Bolt to have a very consistent regen and charging pattern, during regular driving, regardless of temperature.
Eric, thanks for providing some cold (sic) numbers to what I had observed with my Bolt in cool temperatures. Your discussion of this issue is very helpful. BTW, did you need to add air to your tires?
Thanks! No, I am running on a couple of spares right now that don't have the tire pressure sensors installed. Just waiting on my new set of tires to arrive.
Thank you Eric, excellent descriptive analysis...j
Thanks Eric. It might be interesting to do a video of how battery heating works during pre-conditioning and also leaving the car "on" while charging.
Thanks. That's a great idea! I might record how long it takes to warm up the battery when plugged in. I've got a bit of a warm spell coming in, so it might have to wait until the end of January/February.
3.3 mile round trip to the mailbox ❤️🤣❤️
So I just bought a 2020 Bolt two weeks ago, but I only charge at work and live in a condo so I have no at-home charging. So far, it’s not bad at all!
Yeah, that's not bad. For several years, I only had access to work charging (living in an apartment). My point here is that the big fail with that Mustang Mach-E reviewer was that he left it unplugged while empty... if you charge up at work everyday, your Bolt EV should be fine sitting out in the cold over night.
@@newscoulomb3705 yeah, I remember reading somewhere (maybe Bolt forums) that if the SOC is over 30% it’ll use to battery heater whenever it needs to, it only alters the temp threshold once the battery gets low. But I may be wrong
NC - plugging the Bolt into a 7.7 kw L2 will permit the cold battery to warm up beyond 40 degrees during a “remote start” event. This will supposedly run the battery heater so the battery can warm up to 60F, thus permitting a significantly faster DC starting speed if you chose to DC charge at a later point. Have you observed this (heat past 40F) phenomenon?
Hi Eric, I want to know what OBD device you're using and app?
It's just a generic wireless OBD2 adapter with Bluetooth. I don't recall the brand or name, but it was under $15. The app is Torque Pro, which needs the PIDs specific for the car. There's a post with the latest versions on the Bolt EV forums.
Thank you Eric but do not know PIDs specific for my BOLT 2017
Hi Eric, what kind of diagnostic tool are you using in the video? It shows the various cell voltages etc. Searched the net, but could not find anything?
Hi. I'm using Torque Pro. "Telek" set up some PIDs to use with the Bolt EV. Other cars might use slightly different PIDs to gather data.
I am so jealous - your car has a battery heater! We just put our Honda up for the Winter, even though nights above 32°F, since car now charges @22kW. So we switch to the 2019 Leaf, which we will put away in Summer as it loves the cold. The Leaf may be an exception to your battery temp rule of thumb.
My Ford Focus Electric has a 900 watt max battery heater, when plugged in the car will keep the battery over 50°F. I don’t believe the heater ever runs when not plugged in. It will also run if necessary during DC fast charging. Battery is about half the size of a Bolt's.
Thanks for the video! There's plenty of people who don't know how batteries work and that's totally understandable. But I've seen too many people who fancy themselves to be quite knowledgeable on the subject act like it's unacceptable that you can't leave a car for days unplugged and then drive right to a fast charger and get full charging. Like you, I'd rather deal with a slow charge after that scenario than finding the car completely dead and needing to call a tow. Perhaps we're in the minority? :D
A cold -15C (5F) Bolt battery will be warmed up by the heater to 4C (40F), acceptable level for driving. Getting to a L3 charger, it will slowly accept power, around 22KW, until the battery is heated to 14C (60F) when it accepts around 35KW. As the charging process heats it higher, the rate goes up to 55KW.
Ideally for cold weather -10C (15F), plug the car to your L2 overnight and do a precondition to heat it up before leaving. The battery will be about 14C (60F). After two hours of -10C (15F) highway driving, the battery will be around 10C (50F)
What I'd like to have is a button to heat up a the battery to 14C while driving. This would allow preheating the battery on the way to the next L3 charger. I would save charging time and money for the desired level of electrons.
I agree. It would be nice to have a manual battery heating option... Ideally up to 70 F. Obviously, there are concerns, and it probably shouldn't be available under 25% battery.
This is one of the Bolt's biggest weaknesses. Even in mild weather, say 50 degrees, and a long road trip where you'd think the car is as warm as it can be, you're not going to get 40kW. Even after sitting at the dang L3 for 15 minutes, by the time the battery starts warming, and the charge rate seems be be ramping up, you hit 50% SOC and you're back down again. This drives me nuts!
@@davidmorgan3606 I wouldn't say it's a weakness necessarily. Most of the time, it is a non-issue because the car is plugged in.
What is the app that you use for your Torque Pro so you can use it in electric vehicles ??
Torque Pro is the app. I had to pull some custom PIDs that were published to the Bolt EV forums to get it to read my car, but I haven't updated it recently. You should be able to customize Torque Pro to any EV with OBD2.
I’m experiencing this now after getting the new battery. It’s effecting my business
What will it heat to if you had it plugged in overnight? Would battery be at 59F ?
Yes, I believe so, but I would need to double-check what the temperature is on a subzero night when plugged in.
Other than the my chevy app. Is there a way to see my rate of charge and percentage remotely? I have a 2017 bolt ev lt model. Looking for an option without a monthly fee
As far as I know, it's only possible through charging provider apps when you are actively charging. Outside of that, I don't know of any apps other than MyChevy that let you se that data, but I'm also not sure that that requires a paid OnStar plan. They have a number of different plans, and the basic one that lets you see that data might not be required.
@@newscoulomb3705 thanks. Just charging at home on level 1 for now. Would be nice to see state of charge without going outside in the cold
Hey how’re you? I just wanna ask u if u drive on L mode or you just drive on typical D mode !?
Will the battery warm while plugged into 110
I wonder how many EV owners are following their owners manual. In the Bolt manual it tells you to plug it in under 32 or over 90. I don't have torque pro so I don't have real data but I have seen low charge rates in cold weather I assumed it was a cold battery. I believe if a Bolt state of charge is too low they won't fast charge, at least I think I read that somewhere!
Yes, reading the manual goes a long way. I think you're right about the DC fast charging being unavailable if the battery is under a certain temperature, but it needs to be really cold for that to happen, as I understand it. Basically, the car would already be non-functioning.
@@newscoulomb3705 My understanding is that the battery temp has to be close to -20F for that to occur.
I wish i had a button to manually turn battery heater on to be able to heat it up before charging. Similar to tesla
*shrug* Bolt will keep the battery warm as long as it's plugged in, so for MOST owners, who are driving regularly and keeping the car plugged in at home, it'll never be an issue. There's no need for a button because it's managed automatically. Eric didn't, and it gave him an opportunity to demonstrate to video how long it takes to warm back up after a cold-soak, which also demonstrates *why* having it automatically managed by the car from the plug (instead of drawing down the battery to do it) is a good thing.
@@hellsop not quite so. It keeps battery between 0 and 10 °C while plugged in. While driving around 40-50mph battery temperature would still be below 20°C. My goal is to get temperature close to 30°C at arriving to charger station.
If you doing 70mph all the time it isn't an issue, but sometimes you just can't and have to slow charge cold battery. In this case it is a clear solution
@@hellsop
Some sort of automatic or manual battery preconditioning would be nice for DC fast charging arrivals. We lived in MN for three winters, convincing the general public, in winter extremes, to swap will be difficult with hour long DC fast pit stops on longer journeys. I do appreciate Tesla's approach, make it automatic and include the preconditioning losses into the trip info (ETA, batt% on arrival)
This is a real problem with electric cars (at least for me). I work for a railroad and typically leave my car in the lot for 48 hours at a time. No outlets available. Temps hit -20F with a -40F windchill last winter. I was looking at a Chevy Volt but I couldn't figure out if it would survive.
The Chevy Volt is a bit different because it has a gas engine. It will simply burn gas to produce waste heat if necessary. It's unfortunate the railroad can't be convinced to install some plugs in the yard. Obviously, you can't just run a cord to the shanty without permission, but with temperatures that low, I'm surprised they don't offer 120 V outlets for block warmers. Anyone with a diesel truck might not be driving home if it's left out in those conditions.
@@newscoulomb3705 Thanks for the reply! Sounds like you're familiar with the work lol. I was worried about long term battery health if they were already low and then left in the cold. Pretty sure the guys with diesels just treat and hope for the best. Usual temps in the dead of winter are 0F to 10F but can fall lower.
What tool are you using to read battery temperature?
I'm using Torque Pro.
Hey Eric, but what Bluetooth device are you using to enable tone pro?
@@coalheatman It's just a basic Bluetooth OBD2 connector.
@@newscoulomb3705 thanks BTW I'm a proud owner of a new 2020 Chevy Bolt and you had a lot to do with it so keep the videos coming so I can understand the best way to drive it...thanks again!
@@coalheatman Thanks! And congratulations! Just FYI, I haven't kept up with the Torque Pro settings, but if you are going to use it, I think some of the data is locked out for the 2020 Bolt EV.
It bites that GM chose an AC battery heater, which I believe eats into your permissible power draw (ie If a cold battery allows 22kw charging, with the battery heater active, you'll LIKELY only get 20kw. This is in contrast to the cabin heater which runs off DC, and will let you pull extra current from the charger, not to exceed 150 amps total).
Hmm. I wasn't aware of that. I've heard that the battery heater won't activate during DC charging, but I've pulled as much as 10 kW of additional power during DC charging sessions. That could be losses or rounding up, but otherwise, it adds up to more than the cabin conditioning can pull on its own. If the battery heater is AC, do you know where the conversion is happening? Out of the main junction box?
@@newscoulomb3705 Here's a link documenting a DCFC session I had two months ago. The battery heater stayed activated until 62°F (maybe it was a change for 2019?). Bolt Battery Heater while DCFC imgur.com/a/YvrXv39
Regarding the battery heater, upon revaluation, I'm pretty sure I'm wrong, both about it being AC and about it stealing power (last two screenshots with battery heater on, then off, substantiate this). I think I may have been confused by the battery heater connector at the HPDM being inbetween/next to the onboard charger connector(s).
@@thelondonbroiler Not sure if Torque shows it, but Car Scanner ELM OBD2 app shows Battery heater (W) and Cabin heater (W) consumption, separately.
@@thelondonbroiler Okay. I was going to have to go back and check some of my logs. I know there was something quirky about the battery heater not operating during DCFC, which I think is a mistake if true. I can understand why GM designed it that way, but I think that would be a mistake.
Just as a note the battery heater in the Bolt EV runs off the high voltage DC buss. Just like the main cabin heater and AC compressor. You can see this in the weber auto teardowns.
Owning a Bolt I can say everyone speaks of less to maintain, but from my testing just maintaining the battery temps year round will run approx 600 dollars, Compared to the Ice Focus it replaced, the Focus used about 680 dollars last year total in gas for me. Will see but have a feeling after I run this car a year the combined charging will put it well above my costs to run that Focus on a yearly basis.....so not as efficient for me and my driving habits. I like the Bolt, but reality is, it will not save me money.
My napkin math puts the Ford Focus more economical to run unless you drive over 6k miles/yr, over 6k miles a year the Chevy Bolt will pull ahead.
@@SarahStuff-p5u Yeah, those numbers seem high to me, unless you need to condition the battery every day. Also, 6,000 miles a year is less than half the national average driving, so it's pretty safe to say that the Bolt EV would save most people money.
@@newscoulomb3705 Just speaking a bit of reality to the situation, I do hear people say the EV takes less to maintain and after my Bolt is fully charged, solid green light...it continues to draw 1kw of power while it is plugged in....assuming that is to maintain the battery, will be testing soon to see if it continues that 1kw drain over a 24hr period ....if it does that would be 4.80 dollars per day maintain costs. I really doubt it is that high, I hope at least.
@@SarahStuff-p5u That's fair. I'm just saying it would be a narrow use case where the EV would be as expensive or more expensive. Also, you can leave the Bolt EV unplugged. The battery management system gets a lot stingier when it's unplugged.
@@newscoulomb3705 More people drive less than 6k a year than is imagined, Averages include people who drive Uber and such...pushes that number quite a bit higher than Median, which prob is closer to 30-40% drive around 6k or less per year.
I’m assuming this in in regards to the TFL “review”?
No, this is in reference to an Autoblog story written about the Ford Mustang Mach-E. The reviewer left the car out overnight, unplugged, and almost empty in 40 F weather. He then drove less than 20 miles to an Electrify America charger and complained that the Mach-E was only charging at 30 kW.
I'll give actual useful information to everyone that is struggling with cold weather issues. For one, the trickle charger (110v charging) WILL NOT warm up the battery. So don't think that can be plugged in and save you. 2, if you have enough battery charge to waste, then accelerate and Regen as MUCH as possible while driving to quick charger. This will bump up the battery temp pretty fast but you need a solid 20minutes minimum to do this. And I mean 100kw+ acceleration and 50-60kw Regen. Once you get to a quick charger, your speeds should be at least 35-40kw(assuming battery is under 50% soc). Huge timesaver but insane that you have to go this far to get the battery up to a decent temp for quick charging as the battery heating system WILL NOT get your car up to decent temps for quick charging. It is only there to make the battery warm enough to operate, not make your life convenient.
Yes, that is one method for warming the battery. Also, you're right that the battery heater is designed to warm the battery up to operating temperatures, but those are still at least 10 F to 15 F lower than ideal DC fast charging temperatures.
Most people use 240 V at home, so the 120 V trickle charger isn't as much of a limitation. For people in cold climates, a 120 V isn't likely to work for people's basic driving, and preconditioning would pull more power than the 120 V EVSE can provide.
Have you had the cold weather charging update done on the Bolt EV? I believe you might still have to ask for it specifically. It should increase the cold temperature charging speeds by at least 50%.
Also, something to consider is that GM has been adding a preconditioning button to their newer EVs, and they've hinted at retroactive updates for the Bolt EV. Hopefully, that's one of the changes they make.
@@newscoulomb3705 I have an off grid system with no available 240v charging. (Unless I add an autotransformer to get 240v). I am limited to 110v which I tried doing 16+amp charging but this car also will not allow more than 12amps because it assumes you are using their trickle charger and I can't override it. But the car IS capable of everything I am having issues with but the software is just pure crap. I honestly was looking for a video of someone that figured out a way to force heating up to decent temps or another way to get the car to charge at a decent rate in winter. Once it gets under 20f I give up on quick charging because nothing I do can get the battery warm enough
@@fookschool The software in the Bolt is actually rock solid. It's been one of the most issue-free EVs ever released. The problem is with the parameters, which can and need to be adjusted.
My preference is for a user-controlled battery conditioning button with basic parameters. If 80 F, cool battery to ~75 F.
My point about 120 V is that it isn't an issue for most people. Also, as you noted, you can run 240 V @ 12 A through the stock EVSE, which is enough to keep up with preconditioning (even if only barely).
@@newscoulomb3705 I've been driving EVs since 2013. I still have a Nissan leaf that beats the bolt in every aspect except total power and range (and no quick charging). But even on power GM went wimpy on the throttle response. The Kona EV is guilty of poor throttle response as well but at least it shines in basically everything else. I get glitchy screens almost every other time I start the car. Sometimes it will lock up the reverse camera on the screen or go completely black. When sniffing data on the OBD2 port, if you pull too much information the cars subsystems start to freak out and you have to restart the car. How is that stable great software? I have never had any of these issues with the leaf or Kona EV. Tons of things that should be on the software are just plain missing or incomplete. The keypass which was a pain to get set up but a promised feature nonetheless was cancelled because it was glitchy and unreliable as well. At this point I'm unsure we are even talking about the same car. Are you sure you want to call locked parameters not part of the software? I'm not saying this is the worst car, summer is ok and the glitches don't really bother me, but it clearly could be a lot better without a single piece of hardware added. The software just isn't up to par with other vehicles. And I'm not even comparing it to Tesla which is leagues above. I'm comparing it to vehicles in the same price range.
@@fookschool Yes, I think we are talking about very different cars at this point because I've had nearly opposite experience. Of the three EVs, the LEAF has by far the worst throttle response I've experienced in any EV. The Kona Electric is the best of the three, but it's almost too much (it spins the tires on acceleration and is almost unmanageable on slick surfaces). The Bolt EV's throttle response in Normal is anemic compared to Sport, but it is still better than the LEAF's. The Bolt EV's traction control makes it a little slower off the line than the Kona Electric, but the trade off is less wheelspin.
Certain versions of the Bolt EV's software were glitchy, yes, but those were later model years with patches that were released to correct them. I've never had the reverse camera stuck on, and in six years and over 150,000 miles, I can count on one hand the number of times the Infotainment screen has frozen and needed to be rebooted (which can be done while driving). And that includes several years where my OBD2 reader was plugged in 100% of the time pulling data logs.
What model year and build date is your Bolt EV?
Well if it’s on charger and putting power to heat up the battery the EV should have been able to DCFC at the recommended advertise speeds
Hey I was wondering what you think about the new Aptera. I am blown away by the claimed stats if they can pull it off. 1,000 mile range capable, AWD capable and 3.5 sec to 60 capable. And with enough sun (it has solar panels) you won't need to charge if a 30-40 mile commute. I also love the looks. Looks best in black IMO. I have one on order and hope it will share my garage with my Tesla Model 3 Performance some day.
I'm reserving judgment until it actually comes out. Ultimately, though, it's a small commuter car, so I'm not sure why anyone would want 1,000 mile range in it. I think it's actually classified as a motorcycle. If it gets more people in EVs, that's great, but it's not something I personally would be interested in.
Fantasy
One of the worst things for EV adoption right now, especially here in the US, is biased car reviewers who know nothing about EVs (other than that they don't burn dinosaur squeezings, therefore they are terrible) being handed the keys to EVs to "review." Even the almighty Tesla, with its much stronger battery heating system and ability to preheat the battery if navigating to a supercharger, would not have received peak charging speeds in the idiotic situation that reviewer set up. And it was clearly a setup, a biased story designed to try and put negative (fake) news out against a new EV that is turning heads. Or the reviewer was a complete moron that should not have been reviewing an EV in the first place.
That being said, my experience with the Bolt is that it's thermal management is really geared towards maximum efficiency, not maximum charging speed. If the vehicle isn't plugged in, it heats the battery only to the minimum temperature necessary to allow proper vehicle performance, then turns the battery heater off. The battery will still charge at that temperature, but nowhere near the maximum speed. Even if the plug in the car overnight, allow the heater to preheat the battery as much as it will allow, then drive the vehicle through cold temps until needing to fast charge, you won't get maximum charging speed at that point unless you were really driving fast. The energy lost to heat in the battery during normal driving is not very much, and although the size and insulation of the battery will keep the ambient temperature from dropping the battery temperature too much, it's very unlikely that it will heat up enough just from driving to go from the 60ish degrees that the heater preheats the battery to up to the 75 degrees needed for optimal charging speed. In my experience, you'll get about 35kw, slowly ramping up to almost maximum speed as the battery warms up, then you'll hit the 50% taper and drop to 38kw (on a 2017-2019 Bolt).
Stupid GM has rear axles on back order -_- My car has been at the shop for over a month it's a rough time!
As EV drivers we are as of now prepared and aware of these issues and how best to charge the cars and how they should act and how they are designed to act. The problem is from a "lay person's" view that kind of thinking shouldn't be necessary. Even though i am an EV driver (Bolt just like yours) having to do any kind of calculus isn't going to be acceptable to "mainstream" BEV adoption. Basically in my mind 3 things have to happen before your average dummy car buyer will go in on an EV
1. Charging the battery from empty to full has to take 10min or less. Maybe 15. As dumb as it is people can only think of how an ICE car has worked for the past 120 years and if it doesn't fuel up pretty much exactly like an ICE car its a non starter.
2. The car has to behave in terms of basic operation exactly like an ICE car. This goes back to my first paragraph if people have to do any kind of extra calculus about how to operate and refuel their car they won't be sold on EVs. To most people and these journalists that aren't heavily imbedded in the EV world these types of consideration about temperature and Lithium chemistry, charging curves etc...is going to be a non starter. Because with an ICE car there are no considerations except do i have enough gas to get to a station and does it start. Anything beyond that is too much work and frankly except in extreme weather circumstances it shouldn't be. To most people a car should be you jump in no matter what crank it and 2 seconds later the car needs to be moving.
3. That ol" chestnut... range. Until an EV can go 300-500 miles per full charge at 70-80mph widespread adoption isn't going to happen. I know, I know that the mythological American road trip is rare compared to everyday driving cycles but for some reason the idea of just jumping in a car and driving 1000 miles in a day or two is so ingrained in the American experience that it is going to take a while to get that notion out of the general population's head.
So, I guess the TLDR is run of the mill car users and buys are expecting cars to work flawlessly w/o caveats 100% of the time.
That's why I tried to explain in this video that you don't actually need to do anything special with these EVs. Just keep them plugged in (like the Owner's Manual says) and don't let them sit out at night empty.
Where we might disagree on this is that there have to be some differences accepted and acknowledged by the consumer. You're speaking specifically about winning over the laggards, who represent maybe the last 15% of consumers. If we have 85% of consumers buying or driving, we'll get to those individuals demanding zero concessions eventually.
The main reason I don't care to deal with laggards right now is, most of them are moving the goal posts. When EVs have 10 minute recharges, they'll demand 5. When EVs have 400 miles of range, they'll demand 500. And it will keep going on and on. It's simply not worth the energy when we have a majority of the population interested in but not yet driving EVs.
If my Volt is at home, it's plugged in.
They have engine heaters for diesel engines. Why not a heater for EV batteries? Am I a genius or what?
Even the Nissan LEAF has a battery warmer (despite not having active cooling), so that is pretty much a universal standard for EV batteries at this point. The problem is less about whether the EV battery has a heater and more about how and when that battery heater is activated.
The Bolt EV was designed maximum efficiency, and as along as the battery is over 40 F, there isn't much the system needs to do to heat the battery. The problem is, at those temperatures, you can't charge at max speeds on a DC charger, so at some point, the heater needs to be activated. So the breakdown is in software, not hardware.
Your explanation doesn't excuse the poor cold performance of the bolt....my wife's Kona EV gets higher efficiency in winter AND will charge 2.5x the charge speed. Thermal management of the bolt EV is absolute garbage. I'm sitting in my stupid bolt right now in 37f temps charging at 22kw. Started at 19kw. This is the absolute worst for winter.
Pesky cat!
This helps prove that the current EV is a loser and nothin but a novelty. If they become practical I will get one.
Happy New Year John! Glad to see that you're still spreading the good word 😆
Are you saying EVs in California have reduced greenhouse gases so much that now California is too cold for EVs? Lol