I took my first road trip with a 2023 Bolt EUV over the weekend and wanted to share my experience.

Basics

  • Northeast USA
  • Around 100mi (160km) each way
  • Overnight stay with charging at destination

Since getting my car, I’ve been limiting its max charge to around 80%, as I usually don’t drive more than 50mi (80km) in a day. Of course the night before this trip, I let it charge to 100% at home.

About 2/3 miles were on the interstate, so traveling around 70-75mph (120 km/h). My main curiosity was around efficiency loss at those speeds. I knew we’d have plenty of range buffer, but I was treating this trip as a trial run before we go for longer distances. We arrived at our destination with about 50% charge remaining, so there was definitely some efficiency loss, but nothing too drastic – my friend has a Nissan Leaf and warned me about highway speeds, but her experience seems more negative than mine was.

We arrived at our museum/destination with several Chargepoint stations, and my inconsiderate/oblivious self picked a bay that already had a car charging at it. As a result, I was charging at half speed for a while (and affect the other driver’s charge speed). After about 2 hours, they topped off and my car switched to faster charging. Total cost to charge back to 100% was about $10 - this included energy costs and parking time.

Overall, it was a very stress-free trip, and gave me confidence to try something longer. I also learned a few things for next time (especially about being a good EV citizen). For longer trips, I know that the Bolt has slow DC Fast Charging, so I’m hesitant to rely on that too much (also, the non-Tesla network is sparse), but I might try a few Fast Chargers just to test them out.

  • dark_stang@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Nice write up. I did a my first long-ish (190 miles) run on my mach-e for the first time over the weekend into the mountains. I was only on freeways for about 70 miles of that though. But I was still pleasantly surprised when I got back and still had 30% battery. Giving me a lot of confidence for a real road trip at the end of the month.

  • astromd@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I haven’t done a long road trip yet (more than 200 miles), but I regularly do a 200 mile trip to PA from MD, and don’t have any range anxiety with my 2023 ID.4, except during winter and if I don’t leave with 100% charge. Biggest issue is that my route to my son’s college doesn’t have any decent DCFC along the route (there are two Tesla Superchargers along the way lol).

    • Domiku@beehaw.orgOP
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      1 year ago

      Check the Tesla app. They’re starting to add compatibility (and a built-in adapter) for cars with CCS connectors.

      • astromd@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Other than a few test sites, I don’t think they’ve actually started a rollout.

  • SuperNyamo@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    Thats excellent news and thank you for the in-depth write-up! It is good that you are mindful about the charging speeds and all that. I’m going to be going in my EV6 soon on a 400 mile road trip *(round trip) soon and I am excited for the headaches!

    • Domiku@beehaw.orgOP
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      1 year ago

      Oh cool! You’ll probably have an even better time. It has proper DC Fast Charging. One thing that’s missing from the Bolt – it doesn’t have a built-in navigation system that incorporates available chargers, range estimation, etc. I have to use a 3rd party app via CarPlay to plan things out.