Good info, I've never seen my 2017 Bolt EV Premier charge above 48 kW even in warm temps! In Minnesota winter I rarely get to 40 kW even if I've been driving for a while. Fortunately I rarely have to fast charge. Thanks for the wonderful video!
Thanks for the feedback. Usually during spring and summer temperatures here in the mild Pacific Northwest, my Bolt will typically charge about 49-50kw at single digit SOC then pick up to 51-55kw depending on whether or not it is having to use the battery heater/chiller, or if I'm running the heat or AC. The maximum rated current allowed through the connector is limited to 150A, so while using the heat or AC doesn't affect your charging speeds at less than peak speeds, it will limit the peak current going into the battery if the battery management is allowing peak charging speeds. Hopefully that makes sense.
Solid video, Kevin. Please make more. Its nice to see other Bolt owners documenting their experiences! Here in Northern Virginia, I have an Electrify America station that does not go past 30kW of charging speed. A few hours south of me, I found a station that went up to 49kW.
Interesting. Is the charging station itself limited to 30kw or is that what you experience with your vehicle? The lowest power EA station I've seen in my corner of the NW is 50kw, but I can definitely imagine that they may put lower power chargers in some areas if the infrastructure just can't handle the higher power. Having fast charging in some capacity is still better than nothing. 50kw may not be terribly high charging speed on a modern EV, but it is still a massive amount of electricity! I definitely have more videos on the way, but my partner and I just moved into a new house a couple weeks ago, so that has slowed down the editing process a bit. Thanks for watching!
This is why in a Tesla, when you navigate to a Super Charger, the car starts conditioning the battery before you get to the Super Charger. It will condition even in moderate temps after driving for an hour (70F ambient). It seems Tesla is quite far ahead of other manufacturers in many aspects. I rented a Model 3 Standard Range+ in January in Florida. This is when I learned what range anxiety really meant. When you have a 175 mile drive at night and you start the trip with 54 mile surplus range and watch that surplus decline as the trip goes on, range anxiety becomes a thing. We ended the trip with 15 miles range instead of 54. The Tesla is pretty clever, it will tell you if you continue to drive at current speed, you will not make it to your destination. Slow down a bit and the warning goes away.
Tesla definitely has better trip planning than many other EVs, although some like the Mach E, ID3/4 and the Volvo/Polestar models are pretty close. The ability to preheat the battery when the vehicle knows you are going to a fast charger is definitely nice and was a necessity for Tesla, especially the older ones as their temperature requirement for peak charging speeds was quite high.
Good advice. My e-Golf certainly has slowdown issues when too hot, but since I rarely use DCFC in the winter, I have not noticed a cold slowdown. One of these days I need to try DCFC before the weather warms up.
Yes, the ideal temperature range for maximum speed charging is pretty narrow, and on vehicles like the e-Golf and the Leaf without a strong cooling system, they will thermal throttle at high temperatures too. Thanks for watching!
No problem. E-Golf And Leaf do not have battery cooling (or heating) - they are passively cooled or heated through conduction to car body or convection of air flowing under car.
I think it depends on individual circumstances. For myself and my partner, our electric vehicles have been far more practical than an internal combustion vehicle for 99% of the driving we do, which is our daily commute. We both drive about 2,000 miles a month (4,000 miles total), most of which is commuting to/from work. Our electric vehicles work brilliantly for this and nearly pay for themselves just with the energy savings. Of course, some adjustment is required, and it really helps to have an at-home charging solution, but the occasional slight inconvenience of charging during long road trips (which are few and far between) is vastly overshadowed by the cost savings and convenience of charging overnight at home during our daily use.
@@wrenchingfool5284 nearly pay for themselves? That is hilarious. I have no problem with the EV. In fact, I am interested in the concept, but they are not practical. They are however a novelty and the only reason some buy them. Hopefully the industry will work out the problems with them.
I had a 2017 Chevy Bolt That I sold and bought a 2018 Ioniq for this very reason. Yesterday I was at 71KW at Electrify America! This is a big problem for the Bolt and really kills the benefit and expense of a larger battery pack in general. I have been able to go farther and charge faster in the 28K Ioniq than the 60Kw Bolt for this reason..Even the 21 Bolt is still slow!
I definitely agree that the Bolt’s slow DC fast charging is a problem for long trips. It was especially disappointing to see that the new battery they started using in the 2020 Bolt (which carried over to the refreshed 2021 Bolt and the new EUV) had very little improvement in that regard. I also have a 2020 Kona Electric, and the difference in charging speed is noticeable. Stay tuned for future tests where I will show what a difference charging speed makes over long distances.
Why cant they just add something like a 50kw resistive heater that draws straight from the charger ? It would heat up the battery in a few minutes then you are charging at full speed.
There is a limit to how aggressively they can heat the battery without causing damage. 50kw is about 10 times as much power as a typical residential oven uses. I’m not saying that the Bolt heats the battery as aggressively as possible by any means, but it would be better if they would start heating the battery while you’re on the way to the fast chagrer
I would imagine it would work perfectly fine. Last year I did a 500 mile road trip when it was 109 deg, including several fast charging sessions in that heat, and the car didn’t seem bothered at all. No noticeable change in charging speeds or vehicle performance, AC worked very well. I was quite impressed. I assume Palm Springs has pretty mild winter temperatures, and the Bolt doesn’t seem bothered by hot temperatures at all.
It does have battery conditioning, but because the Bolt was not designed with the ability to tell the vehicle when you want to fast charge it, such as navigating to a fast charger, it maintains the battery at sufficient temperature to allow for maximum capacity and discharge performance, but not maximum charging speed. On cold days, the battery heater will activate to keep the battery at a minimum temperature of about 40 degrees F, which is still good enough to allow the full 150kw output, but it will charge slow. Thanks for watching!
The reason that it doesn’t run the battery heater in order to maintain the 75 degrees F battery temperature needed for maximum charging speed is because this would be a huge waste of energy and significantly reduce the vehicle range. No modern EV manufacturer does this, but some like Tesla and VW/Audi have the option to start running the battery heater on the way to a fast charger.
@@wrenchingfool5284 nah. It wouldn't have to run constantly to maintain 75 anyway. Under long duration operation the battery would likely heat up on its own, even during winter months and spring and summer it wouldnt need to run at all.
The car will only allow the battery temperature to get down to about 32F / 0C, then it will maintain the battery at that temperature. Attempting to DC charge it at that temperature would be very slow.
Good info, I've never seen my 2017 Bolt EV Premier charge above 48 kW even in warm temps! In Minnesota winter I rarely get to 40 kW even if I've been driving for a while. Fortunately I rarely have to fast charge. Thanks for the wonderful video!
Thanks for the feedback. Usually during spring and summer temperatures here in the mild Pacific Northwest, my Bolt will typically charge about 49-50kw at single digit SOC then pick up to 51-55kw depending on whether or not it is having to use the battery heater/chiller, or if I'm running the heat or AC. The maximum rated current allowed through the connector is limited to 150A, so while using the heat or AC doesn't affect your charging speeds at less than peak speeds, it will limit the peak current going into the battery if the battery management is allowing peak charging speeds. Hopefully that makes sense.
Great first video! Can't wait to see some turbo love!
Solid video, Kevin. Please make more. Its nice to see other Bolt owners documenting their experiences!
Here in Northern Virginia, I have an Electrify America station that does not go past 30kW of charging speed. A few hours south of me, I found a station that went up to 49kW.
Interesting. Is the charging station itself limited to 30kw or is that what you experience with your vehicle? The lowest power EA station I've seen in my corner of the NW is 50kw, but I can definitely imagine that they may put lower power chargers in some areas if the infrastructure just can't handle the higher power. Having fast charging in some capacity is still better than nothing. 50kw may not be terribly high charging speed on a modern EV, but it is still a massive amount of electricity!
I definitely have more videos on the way, but my partner and I just moved into a new house a couple weeks ago, so that has slowed down the editing process a bit. Thanks for watching!
This is why in a Tesla, when you navigate to a Super Charger, the car starts conditioning the battery before you get to the Super Charger. It will condition even in moderate temps after driving for an hour (70F ambient). It seems Tesla is quite far ahead of other manufacturers in many aspects. I rented a Model 3 Standard Range+ in January in Florida. This is when I learned what range anxiety really meant. When you have a 175 mile drive at night and you start the trip with 54 mile surplus range and watch that surplus decline as the trip goes on, range anxiety becomes a thing. We ended the trip with 15 miles range instead of 54. The Tesla is pretty clever, it will tell you if you continue to drive at current speed, you will not make it to your destination. Slow down a bit and the warning goes away.
Tesla definitely has better trip planning than many other EVs, although some like the Mach E, ID3/4 and the Volvo/Polestar models are pretty close. The ability to preheat the battery when the vehicle knows you are going to a fast charger is definitely nice and was a necessity for Tesla, especially the older ones as their temperature requirement for peak charging speeds was quite high.
Good advice. My e-Golf certainly has slowdown issues when too hot, but since I rarely use DCFC in the winter, I have not noticed a cold slowdown. One of these days I need to try DCFC before the weather warms up.
Yes, the ideal temperature range for maximum speed charging is pretty narrow, and on vehicles like the e-Golf and the Leaf without a strong cooling system, they will thermal throttle at high temperatures too. Thanks for watching!
No problem. E-Golf And Leaf do not have battery cooling (or heating) - they are passively cooled or heated through conduction to car body or convection of air flowing under car.
Great information. Thanks!
Good information. I am interested in the EV but for now they are just not practical. Hopefully they will be able to overcome these issues.
I think it depends on individual circumstances. For myself and my partner, our electric vehicles have been far more practical than an internal combustion vehicle for 99% of the driving we do, which is our daily commute. We both drive about 2,000 miles a month (4,000 miles total), most of which is commuting to/from work. Our electric vehicles work brilliantly for this and nearly pay for themselves just with the energy savings. Of course, some adjustment is required, and it really helps to have an at-home charging solution, but the occasional slight inconvenience of charging during long road trips (which are few and far between) is vastly overshadowed by the cost savings and convenience of charging overnight at home during our daily use.
@@wrenchingfool5284 nearly pay for themselves? That is hilarious. I have no problem with the EV. In fact, I am interested in the concept, but they are not practical. They are however a novelty and the only reason some buy them. Hopefully the industry will work out the problems with them.
I had a 2017 Chevy Bolt That I sold and bought a 2018 Ioniq for this very reason. Yesterday I was at 71KW at Electrify America! This is a big problem for the Bolt and really kills the benefit and expense of a larger battery pack in general. I have been able to go farther and charge faster in the 28K Ioniq than the 60Kw Bolt for this reason..Even the 21 Bolt is still slow!
I definitely agree that the Bolt’s slow DC fast charging is a problem for long trips. It was especially disappointing to see that the new battery they started using in the 2020 Bolt (which carried over to the refreshed 2021 Bolt and the new EUV) had very little improvement in that regard. I also have a 2020 Kona Electric, and the difference in charging speed is noticeable. Stay tuned for future tests where I will show what a difference charging speed makes over long distances.
Has anyone noticed the max range is much lower then what it was before? Mine would charge up to close to 280 to 293. Now it's charge max 146mils
Thank you!
what app are you using to read the battery?
The app is called Torque. I also use an OBD dongle called OBDLinkMX. Sorry for the late reply.
Why cant they just add something like a 50kw resistive heater that draws straight from the charger ? It would heat up the battery in a few minutes then you are charging at full speed.
There is a limit to how aggressively they can heat the battery without causing damage. 50kw is about 10 times as much power as a typical residential oven uses. I’m not saying that the Bolt heats the battery as aggressively as possible by any means, but it would be better if they would start heating the battery while you’re on the way to the fast chagrer
How do you think it would do in Palm Springs, CA.
I would imagine it would work perfectly fine. Last year I did a 500 mile road trip when it was 109 deg, including several fast charging sessions in that heat, and the car didn’t seem bothered at all. No noticeable change in charging speeds or vehicle performance, AC worked very well. I was quite impressed. I assume Palm Springs has pretty mild winter temperatures, and the Bolt doesn’t seem bothered by hot temperatures at all.
Why is your battery only 55 degrees? Doesnt the Bolt have battery conditioning to maintain temp?
It does have battery conditioning, but because the Bolt was not designed with the ability to tell the vehicle when you want to fast charge it, such as navigating to a fast charger, it maintains the battery at sufficient temperature to allow for maximum capacity and discharge performance, but not maximum charging speed. On cold days, the battery heater will activate to keep the battery at a minimum temperature of about 40 degrees F, which is still good enough to allow the full 150kw output, but it will charge slow. Thanks for watching!
Nice Videos!!!
Thanks for watching!
Video starts at 5:49
Seems like this could be fixed with software...no reason a running bolt should ever drop below optimal.
The reason that it doesn’t run the battery heater in order to maintain the 75 degrees F battery temperature needed for maximum charging speed is because this would be a huge waste of energy and significantly reduce the vehicle range. No modern EV manufacturer does this, but some like Tesla and VW/Audi have the option to start running the battery heater on the way to a fast charger.
@@wrenchingfool5284 nah. It wouldn't have to run constantly to maintain 75 anyway. Under long duration operation the battery would likely heat up on its own, even during winter months and spring and summer it wouldnt need to run at all.
Should look at the mach e can fast charge in temps down to -20°F.
What about -20
The car will only allow the battery temperature to get down to about 32F / 0C, then it will maintain the battery at that temperature. Attempting to DC charge it at that temperature would be very slow.