1 00:00:00,089 --> 00:00:04,350 Having myself driven a Chevy Volt for the past two and a half years, when it came time 2 00:00:04,350 --> 00:00:09,460 for my parents to get a new car my experiences with the Volt (and a little prodding) led 3 00:00:09,460 --> 00:00:13,520 them to get the Chevy Bolt EV, that Bolt with a B as in Bravo. 4 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:16,850 Yes, GM is wonderful at naming their products. 5 00:00:16,850 --> 00:00:21,289 Anyway, both myself and my parents live in Illinois, I live about 20 miles from the city 6 00:00:21,289 --> 00:00:26,050 of Chicago, they live actually 120 miles away from Chicago which is a video in and of itself, 7 00:00:26,050 --> 00:00:29,450 because even in a rural setting, the Bolt meets their needs. 8 00:00:29,450 --> 00:00:33,910 But, anyway, what we're talking about in this video is winter driving performance. 9 00:00:33,910 --> 00:00:39,329 Many people are worried about how the winter affects electric vehicle range, so why not 10 00:00:39,329 --> 00:00:40,470 find out? 11 00:00:40,470 --> 00:00:42,560 I'm gonna take the Bolt to and from work. 12 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:45,680 I have a very long commute--it's 35 miles each way. 13 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:49,329 So come along with me and we'll find out what sort of range we get. 14 00:00:49,329 --> 00:00:56,890 For reference the Chevy Bolt EV's EPA estimated range is 238 miles, but what will it be in the winter? 15 00:00:56,890 --> 00:01:02,180 So I'm about to go to work, and it's a pretty cold day, and it's gonna snow two to four 16 00:01:02,180 --> 00:01:04,569 inches while I'm at work. 17 00:01:04,569 --> 00:01:11,060 I figured today would be an excellent day to test the winter mileage of the Chevy Bolt EV. 18 00:01:11,060 --> 00:01:14,590 If you haven't run across my earlier videos you might not know that I live in a condo 19 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:19,800 building but I do have access to EV charging, there's a whole video on that if you want to check that out. 20 00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:24,000 Alright-- 21 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:24,800 Car! 22 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:29,800 Obviously one advantage that I get because I do live in a condo building is that I am 23 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:32,480 in a heated garage, so that thing buzzes away. 24 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:37,960 My space is usually about 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit so I do have that as an advantage. 25 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:40,000 Alright. 26 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:43,800 So, um, I'm about to get going. 27 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:44,880 And... 28 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:48,040 most of the footage that you're going to see is coming from my dashcam cause I don't have 29 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:53,280 a good way to hold the phone while I'm driving, um, but just thought I would show you... 30 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:56,000 hopefully.. 31 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:56,840 Ah. 32 00:01:57,400 --> 00:01:59,240 That didn't go well. 33 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:00,920 Let's turn the car on. 34 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:03,920 (Chiming from the car) 35 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:05,600 Ugh. 36 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:14,280 We are predicted with 173 miles of range, but I need to turn the heat off right now 37 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:16,290 cause...I'll explain that later. 38 00:02:16,290 --> 00:02:20,220 But anyway, turning the heat off gets us 180 --(sound of the turn signal flashing)--my 39 00:02:20,220 --> 00:02:21,220 goodness. 40 00:02:21,220 --> 00:02:22,220 This is not going well. 41 00:02:22,220 --> 00:02:24,799 Turning the heat off gives us 182 miles predicted range. 42 00:02:24,799 --> 00:02:32,099 That's a little optimistic, as you'll see, but let's find out what we really get. 43 00:02:32,099 --> 00:02:38,260 So range is currently, um, I currently have the heating off because I don't need it, when 44 00:02:38,260 --> 00:02:44,800 I Ieave the garage, and sometimes the automatic climate control seems to get confused in a heated 45 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:50,400 garage; I like to set the temperature very low and it will sometimes cool when I first 46 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:52,160 turn on the car. 47 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:00,330 I've never actually looked at dashcam footage from the roads that I take on my normal commute 48 00:03:00,330 --> 00:03:04,520 and it's actually quite noisy so I'm going to be doing most of this in voiceover. 49 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:08,590 So what I was explaining about the heat was that, because I start with a heated garage, 50 00:03:08,590 --> 00:03:14,359 I like to turn the heat off because I like to set the heat very low and the Bolt's climate 51 00:03:14,359 --> 00:03:18,150 control seems to get confused when it's in a heated garage. 52 00:03:18,150 --> 00:03:23,499 If I have the heat set to 62, and it's 55 according to its ambient temperature sensor, 53 00:03:23,499 --> 00:03:25,590 it will actually run the air conditioning. 54 00:03:25,590 --> 00:03:30,610 And it takes it quite a while from leaving the garage to realize "It's cold outside, 55 00:03:30,610 --> 00:03:35,580 stop doing that", so that's a minor annoyance but it saves energy anyway to turn off the 56 00:03:35,580 --> 00:03:40,969 climate control when you do have a heated garage until you actually need the heat. 57 00:03:40,969 --> 00:03:45,459 So I'm starting my journey on I-88 in the Western suburbs, heading Eastbound, and then 58 00:03:45,459 --> 00:03:48,340 I'll be taking the Tri-State Northbound. 59 00:03:48,340 --> 00:03:52,120 The noise levels improved once I got on the Tri-State, so I'm going to switch back to 60 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:53,560 the dashcam audio. 61 00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:56,000 It is still fairly noise so I apologize for that. 62 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,450 (Audio from dashcam) Welcome to the Tri-State Tollway! 63 00:03:58,450 --> 00:03:59,840 Everybody's favorite! 64 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:01,760 Gotta love the TRI-STATE! 65 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:06,310 So at this point I am going to turn the heat on because I'm starting to get a little chilly, 66 00:04:06,310 --> 00:04:12,079 and the longer you wait then the longer...it has to fight to get back up to a temperature 67 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:18,280 you really want, so, I'm gonna turn it to 64--I tend to be pretty frugal with my heating. 68 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:23,520 It's especially great here in this car because my parents opted to get one with a heated 69 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:29,600 steering wheel which was my recommendation, and holding it is delightful! 70 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:35,840 You can tolerate the cabin temperature being much colder if you have a heated seat and 71 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:37,400 a heated steering wheel. 72 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:42,240 And you should know that by turning on the heat it immediately dropped the range estimate 73 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:44,320 by about 12 miles. 74 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:55,760 So I'm now showing 169 miles of range remaining, and I have traveled 7.8 miles of my 35. 75 00:04:55,760 --> 00:05:01,480 As far as speed I like to keep my speed to about 65 or less. 76 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:06,640 In an EV and this is especially true in the winter I've discovered, the slower you drive 77 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:08,760 the better range you get. 78 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:13,920 And anything above 60, every 5 miles an hour you take a significant range hit. 79 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:18,080 So I try to keep to 65 or less which can be difficult on 80 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:24,200 the Tri-state, because although the speed limit is 55 that Prius over there is probably 81 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:26,160 going 80. 82 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:32,280 So more often than not I find myself putzing along in the right lane, just because I want 83 00:05:32,280 --> 00:05:36,160 to save energy and not go quite so fast. 84 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:43,120 Just though I'd chime in again and explain that so far the trend-line on the range meter 85 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:48,120 which tells you whether or not you're going towards the max or the min range, is about 86 00:05:48,157 --> 00:05:53,500 a quarter of the way up towards max, so based on current driving conditions, although the 87 00:05:53,500 --> 00:05:59,250 predicted range is 164 miles it thinks I'll do a little bit better than that. 88 00:05:59,250 --> 00:06:06,320 That trend-line on the range meter is one of the things...it's a genius thing about 89 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:12,800 this car and I really, I mean, it really helps explain how it's calculating your range and 90 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:18,440 how you're doing, because when you just get a number; that number is usually pretty accurate, 91 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:23,960 but you won't know, if-- the only way to know if you're exceeding or doing worse than that 92 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:30,040 number would be to actually be looking at a trip meter and see if the numbers you add 93 00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:35,830 match the numbers that subtract, so for instance in the Volt, if you're doing better, then the 94 00:06:35,840 --> 00:06:39,200 number on the range meter will only go down maybe every 95 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:44,200 1.2 or 1.3 miles, but you have to manually keep track of that. 96 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:50,840 But with this clever range meter here, that gives you that trend-line, not only do you 97 00:06:50,840 --> 00:06:54,759 have a maximum and a minimum number which many automotive journalists have talked about, 98 00:06:54,759 --> 00:07:00,520 and said "That's a great idea", but you also get that indication of which way you're going 99 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:01,710 which is genius. 100 00:07:01,710 --> 00:07:04,020 And really really helpful. 101 00:07:04,020 --> 00:07:07,600 This is a photo of the energy information screen once I got to work. 102 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:12,740 As you can see we used 10.7 kilowatt hours of the battery to go 34.7 miles. 103 00:07:12,740 --> 00:07:19,930 Now that's an efficiency of 3.24 miles/kWh, which is not fantastic but it's also not that bad. 104 00:07:19,930 --> 00:07:26,930 4 miles/kWh is considered "normal", though the Bolt is known to go about 5 if you're 105 00:07:26,930 --> 00:07:28,889 driving well. 106 00:07:28,889 --> 00:07:33,300 And you know that 4 is about the normal benchmark because it's a 60 kilowatt-hour battery, it's 107 00:07:33,300 --> 00:07:40,470 EPA range is 238 miles which is almost 240, 240 divided by 60 is 4 so simple math there. 108 00:07:40,470 --> 00:07:47,099 So we're doing a little bit worse than what would be considered average, um, but not too bad. 109 00:07:47,099 --> 00:07:51,110 You'll also see here that our climate setting, the actual heat, only accounted for 10% of 110 00:07:51,110 --> 00:07:52,419 our usage. 111 00:07:52,419 --> 00:07:58,020 If I were able to tolerate driving without the heat on at all--which I would not be--but 112 00:07:58,020 --> 00:08:02,240 if I would then we would have gotten a slight boost in efficiency. 113 00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:05,719 Also of note is that no energy was spent on battery conditioning. 114 00:08:05,719 --> 00:08:08,830 Pretty much because the car started in that heated garage. 115 00:08:08,830 --> 00:08:12,319 But if it wasn't in a heated garage, even if it was outside, so long as the car were 116 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:16,900 plugged in it should keep its battery pack warm, and you won't need battery conditioning. 117 00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:19,680 Well, out of work. 118 00:08:19,700 --> 00:08:22,099 And there's about 4 inches of snow on the ground. 119 00:08:22,099 --> 00:08:24,070 Time to clear off the car and get going. 120 00:08:24,070 --> 00:08:26,849 It's warming up right now, that's why the lights are on. 121 00:08:26,849 --> 00:08:29,439 OK so welcome back to the car. 122 00:08:29,439 --> 00:08:35,470 Now that we're back on the highway, obviously--I don't know how well you can see cause my dashcam's 123 00:08:35,470 --> 00:08:40,890 nighttime performance isn't fantastic--but there is snow on the road, but where there isn't 124 00:08:40,890 --> 00:08:42,440 snow there's plenty of traction. 125 00:08:42,440 --> 00:08:46,230 So I'm comfortable driving 55 (miles per hour). 126 00:08:46,230 --> 00:08:51,220 That's still, you know, the speed limit is 65 here so I could be going faster but I'm 127 00:08:51,220 --> 00:08:58,910 actually passing up a good deal of people, so, I don't need to go faster nor do I want to. 128 00:08:58,910 --> 00:09:04,210 That trend-line is pointing very negative right now, and I did expect that to happen. 129 00:09:04,210 --> 00:09:09,980 I've noticed with the Volt, my daily driver, that there appears to be an elevation difference 130 00:09:09,980 --> 00:09:16,280 downward towards my work, because I always end up getting to work using a much smaller 131 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:21,480 percentage of the battery then getting back from work. 132 00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:25,020 Now looking at the energy info screen the car has needed to spend some energy on battery 133 00:09:25,020 --> 00:09:32,260 conditioning, and what that means is it's only 11 degrees outside right now and because 134 00:09:32,260 --> 00:09:36,660 it wasn't plugged in the battery got very cold so when I turned it on it spent some 135 00:09:36,660 --> 00:09:40,440 of the battery's energy just to warm itself up. 136 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:46,400 It is a thermally managed battery, it can both heat and cool itself, and in the winter 137 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:50,590 it will need to heat itself if the battery pack is allowed to get cold. 138 00:09:50,590 --> 00:09:55,200 Now if you have the car plugged in it will periodically run a heater in the battery pack 139 00:09:55,200 --> 00:10:00,920 to keep it conditioned, but when you're outside without it being plugged in.... 140 00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:02,760 you don't get any help. 141 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:07,960 As far as winter weather traction goes with this car, it's very, very good. 142 00:10:07,970 --> 00:10:13,250 I've never had a car with four-wheel drive because living in Illinois the land is flat 143 00:10:13,250 --> 00:10:14,780 everywhere. 144 00:10:14,780 --> 00:10:17,240 Four-wheel drive is not a huge advantage here. 145 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:23,560 Grant you there is some advantage, but, you're never--you almost never need to traverse a 146 00:10:23,560 --> 00:10:30,670 hill, so no one in my family has every thought it necessary to have a vehicle with four-wheel drive. 147 00:10:30,670 --> 00:10:33,890 With that being said, the road's getting pretty bad here, I better slow down... 148 00:10:33,890 --> 00:10:39,060 The fact that I'm only going 55 is helping the range again, especially when it's only 149 00:10:39,060 --> 00:10:44,920 12 degrees outside, but its range estimate is still pretty... it's still trending pretty 150 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:53,150 negative because it was expecting to have, um... it's last estimate was based on the 151 00:10:53,150 --> 00:11:00,040 warmer weather without wet roads, so that's one thing you need to keep in mind. 152 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:04,970 That range estimate is only as accurate as the data it's getting, so when you change 153 00:11:04,970 --> 00:11:10,580 its environment which we have significantly; like I said I believe we're going uphill overall--I 154 00:11:10,580 --> 00:11:15,530 haven't verified that, I should, but I think we are--the roads are wet and slick, and it's 155 00:11:15,530 --> 00:11:16,910 colder. 156 00:11:16,910 --> 00:11:20,970 So it's going to impact range more negatively. 157 00:11:20,970 --> 00:11:27,820 But we are doing a little better than we would be if I were going, say, 65, because we have 158 00:11:27,820 --> 00:11:32,940 the benefit of reduced speed, reduced wind resistance, and it doesn't have to work as 159 00:11:32,940 --> 00:11:34,640 hard to heat the cabin. 160 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:36,480 Well, so much for going 55. 161 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:41,140 We might be behind some plows taking care of the road, but I don't think so because 162 00:11:41,140 --> 00:11:46,700 it's not very close to pavement right here, but we're now going about 30 miles an hour 163 00:11:46,700 --> 00:11:48,360 keeping up with traffic. 164 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:51,030 And the trend-line has swung way up. 165 00:11:51,030 --> 00:11:58,690 It's still below its estimate, but slowing down like this is going to increase our range 166 00:11:58,690 --> 00:12:00,730 significantly. 167 00:12:00,730 --> 00:12:08,200 So I have completed my 70 mile, you can see exactly 70.0 miles, roundtrip commute and 168 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:13,920 it took twenty--it just rolled over to 25.1 kWh--but 25 kilowatt-hours. 169 00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:19,350 Now that's a significant chunk of the battery but I still have more than half remaining. 170 00:12:19,350 --> 00:12:22,060 And estimated range at this point is 101 miles. 171 00:12:22,060 --> 00:12:29,620 So, since we've gone 70, and it thinks we have 101 to go, that means we probably would 172 00:12:29,620 --> 00:12:34,070 get 170 miles per charge even in these awful weather conditions. 173 00:12:34,070 --> 00:12:37,440 Now granted we were helped out a little bit by the slow driving. 174 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:42,070 I'm kinda surprised it's using this much energy to heat right now, it must not realize it's 175 00:12:42,080 --> 00:12:43,680 inside. 176 00:12:43,680 --> 00:12:49,950 So we were helped out by the slow speed we were going, but it's important to note that 177 00:12:49,950 --> 00:12:55,250 even though the weather conditions weren't great and the road conditions were awful, 178 00:12:55,250 --> 00:12:57,580 this is actually a pretty typical number. 179 00:12:57,580 --> 00:13:03,350 I've done this commute 4 or 5 times in this car, with weather conditions around this much 180 00:13:03,350 --> 00:13:11,300 without snow, and it's usually about 24 kWh consumed, so, 170 miles per charge is a not 181 00:13:11,300 --> 00:13:13,700 unrealistic number with these weather conditions. 182 00:13:13,700 --> 00:13:19,420 So there you go, a 70 mile commute in pretty cold temperatures with horrible road conditions 183 00:13:19,420 --> 00:13:25,500 on the way back, still only used 25 of the 60 kilowatt hours and we could go another 184 00:13:25,500 --> 00:13:27,500 100 miles if we needed to. 185 00:13:27,500 --> 00:13:31,700 Now I'm going to plug this car in, and it will be done charging in about 4 hours. 186 00:13:31,700 --> 00:13:34,690 And we can start this all over again. 187 00:13:34,690 --> 00:13:39,390 And for those who say, "Oh you have to remember to plug in every night"--I could forget tonight 188 00:13:39,390 --> 00:13:41,140 and I would be fine for tomorrow. 189 00:13:41,140 --> 00:13:44,140 I'd need to plug in the second night, but again, I'm going to plug it in now, and in 190 00:13:44,140 --> 00:13:47,860 about 4 hours it will be charged. 191 00:13:47,860 --> 00:13:51,770 So I'm only gonna be halfway through sleeping and this car's gonna be ready to do the same 192 00:13:51,770 --> 00:13:54,360 thing over again tomorrow. 193 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:56,930 Let's go inside and talk a little bit more about the numbers. 194 00:13:56,930 --> 00:14:01,500 So one of the most important things, here, to figure out is how much did this cost? 195 00:14:01,500 --> 00:14:06,470 Now I pay a flat ten cents per kilowatt-hour, so the car will make it seem as though this 196 00:14:06,470 --> 00:14:09,200 cost $2.50. 197 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:13,040 Now it is going to be under-reported slightly because the car is telling you energy use 198 00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:16,390 from the battery, not energy pulled from the wall. 199 00:14:16,390 --> 00:14:19,510 However, my charger is on its own meter. 200 00:14:19,510 --> 00:14:25,750 This is how I'm able to repay the condo association for my electricity usage; that's why they agreed 201 00:14:25,750 --> 00:14:30,720 to allow me to install this charger in the first place, and it shows I started the commute 202 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:38,320 with 2,519 kWh on the meter, and I came back with 2,547, which is a difference of 28 so 203 00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:42,040 there is a difference of 3 kilowatt-hours, but that's only thirty cents. 204 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:48,850 I have a flat $0.10/kWh rate (it's like $0.099 from ComEd but I just round it up to $0.10) 205 00:14:48,850 --> 00:14:54,180 so that means this commute, even though it was seventy miles in the winter, cost just 206 00:14:54,180 --> 00:14:56,170 $2.80. 207 00:14:56,170 --> 00:15:01,330 It cost more in tolls to get to work and back then it did for fuel. 208 00:15:01,330 --> 00:15:04,300 When I did the same commute the next day, the weather wasn't much better it was only 209 00:15:04,300 --> 00:15:07,090 about 20 degrees outside, however it was sunny. 210 00:15:07,090 --> 00:15:11,950 And because it was sunny I was able to do the entire drive to work without using the 211 00:15:11,950 --> 00:15:13,120 heat at all. 212 00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:17,220 I know it sounds ridiculous, but having a heated seat and a heated steering wheel makes 213 00:15:17,220 --> 00:15:21,290 it that much easier to stay in the car without running the heat. 214 00:15:21,290 --> 00:15:25,960 The only thing I needed to do was periodically run the defroster, just with the fan, because 215 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:28,040 the windows were fogging up a little bit. 216 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:33,130 Now because I didn't use the heat at all it only took 8.9 kWh to get to work, but we already 217 00:15:33,130 --> 00:15:38,920 know if I had been using the heat it probably would be about 10.5, maybe 11 in the worst case. 218 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:45,120 And as I was saying, it's a very similar commute energy usage regardless of whether its snowing 219 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:46,120 or not. 220 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:51,400 On the way back I did have to use the heat of course, in the end we used 23.3 kWh, so 221 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:55,960 had I used the heat on the way to work we would have ended up with probably 24.5 maybe 222 00:15:55,960 --> 00:16:00,030 25, pretty much the exact same thing we had the night before. 223 00:16:00,030 --> 00:16:06,070 Even though this drive I didn't have to slow down, I was going 55+ the whole time, however 224 00:16:06,070 --> 00:16:11,080 I did encounter some snow towards the end of my drive, but not enough to slow me down. 225 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:12,080 But that's not all. 226 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:16,580 In addition to having a simple commute scenario, I also have a more long-distance drive. 227 00:16:16,580 --> 00:16:20,890 Back in December, I needed to get the vehicle from where I Iive to where my parents live, 228 00:16:20,890 --> 00:16:23,710 and that's a 114 mile journey. 229 00:16:23,710 --> 00:16:26,780 We did this in 17 degree weather with some snow. 230 00:16:26,780 --> 00:16:29,470 So here's an idea of what our range was. 231 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:36,240 So I am currently head West on Interstate 80 in Illinois and it is 17 degrees out, and 232 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,360 snowing moderately. 233 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:44,160 And to maintain 68 miles an hour, which is what I'm currently driving on flat land, it 234 00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:47,200 takes about 24 or 25 kilowatts. 235 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:52,800 Now with a 60 kilowatt-hour battery, that means that we could go for about 2 hours and 236 00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:57,600 twenty minutes at 68 miles per hour, I'll have to double-check my math on that, but 237 00:16:57,600 --> 00:17:03,080 that means basically assuming these driving conditions and maintaining this speed 238 00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:08,880 our anticipated range from a full charge should be 165-170 miles or so. 239 00:17:08,910 --> 00:17:15,790 At this point in my journey I have 2 bars over half of the battery which is 26.6 kWh 240 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:21,800 used, with an anticipated remaining range of 87 miles. 241 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:28,320 One of the important things about the fact that I'm on 80 head West is that I am facing 242 00:17:28,329 --> 00:17:29,329 a headwind. 243 00:17:29,329 --> 00:17:35,289 It's not very bad at this point, but driving an electric car any time of year wind has 244 00:17:35,289 --> 00:17:37,019 a great impact on range. 245 00:17:37,019 --> 00:17:42,200 It does in a conventional vehicle as well, but you tend to not notice it because you 246 00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:44,400 don't worry about range so much. 247 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:49,120 But in an electric car, you will see a range hit if you're facing a headwind. 248 00:17:49,130 --> 00:17:55,149 So when I return to my place which is East of here, if we have the same headwind it would 249 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:59,120 actually be helping me a little bit with the range. 250 00:17:59,120 --> 00:18:03,960 When you're on the highway, especially in the winter, going slower really helps you. 251 00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:09,759 And if you are comfortable following a semi truck, with a moderate distance behind it, 252 00:18:09,759 --> 00:18:12,129 you can get a significant range boost. 253 00:18:12,129 --> 00:18:17,309 (Voice-over) In the ultimate showcase of incompetence I forgot to take a picture of the energy screen 254 00:18:17,309 --> 00:18:22,640 on this journey but I did end up finishing the journey with about 50 miles of range left, 255 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:28,340 so with 114 we had already traveled plus 50 remaining would be a range of about 164 miles. 256 00:18:28,340 --> 00:18:32,090 Which makes perfect sense because were were going a little faster on this trip than I 257 00:18:32,090 --> 00:18:38,470 was during my commute, we were facing West fighting a bit of a wind, and so even though 258 00:18:38,470 --> 00:18:44,289 the temperature was quite similar we did have some conditions that hampered range slightly. 259 00:18:44,289 --> 00:18:48,669 Now if you're looking for a sort-of worst case scenario, for the Chicago area anyway, 260 00:18:48,669 --> 00:18:54,000 we did do a journey--that same 114 miles--in pretty much zero degree weather the entire 261 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:58,960 way, and we would've only gotten 140 miles on that charge if we didn't alter our driving 262 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:00,059 at all. 263 00:19:00,059 --> 00:19:04,570 Now we were maintaining 68 miles per hour for that entire trip, partially to test the 264 00:19:04,570 --> 00:19:08,230 limits of the car, so if we had slowed down to, say, 60 I think we probably would have 265 00:19:08,230 --> 00:19:14,429 gotten at least another 20 miles on that charge and gotten back up to 160 or so miles of range. 266 00:19:14,429 --> 00:19:18,379 But because it was so cold, the heat needed to be run at a very high intensity just to 267 00:19:18,379 --> 00:19:20,860 maintain a comfortable cabin temperature. 268 00:19:20,860 --> 00:19:26,210 You can see from the energy graph that almost a quarter of the energy usage was simply for 269 00:19:26,210 --> 00:19:27,210 heat. 270 00:19:27,210 --> 00:19:32,080 A large percentage of that battery was just going to keep the cabin at a comfortable temperature. 271 00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:37,250 And so, a lot of that range drop wasn't directly because it was cold, it was because we needed 272 00:19:37,250 --> 00:19:39,960 to heat to keep ourselves warm. 273 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:43,970 Going along with that, you'll notice it doesn't have an battery conditioning on that graph 274 00:19:43,970 --> 00:19:47,529 at all, that's because we started this journey with the vehicle plugged in. 275 00:19:47,529 --> 00:19:52,679 Actually it was outside, but we started with the car plugged in, we had it run for about 276 00:19:52,679 --> 00:19:56,179 10 minutes with it plugged in to allow it to heat up before we started our journey, 277 00:19:56,179 --> 00:20:00,120 and therefore no battery conditioning was necessary at all. 278 00:20:00,120 --> 00:20:05,100 So I hope you enjoyed this video on the winter performance of the Chevy Bolt EV here in the 279 00:20:05,100 --> 00:20:06,789 Chicagoland area. 280 00:20:06,789 --> 00:20:09,889 This channel doesn't normally do electric vehicle videos, I do them from time-to-time 281 00:20:09,889 --> 00:20:14,799 as I am an electric vehicle advocate and I am also and electric vehicle enthusiast. 282 00:20:14,799 --> 00:20:19,110 However, I want to close this video out by saying if you are looking for an electric 283 00:20:19,110 --> 00:20:24,749 vehicle and want some advice on it, sometimes electric vehicle enthusiasts are not the best 284 00:20:24,760 --> 00:20:26,640 people to ask. 285 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:30,600 Now I'm going to explain why, and I'll probably get some hate for this, but there are many 286 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:34,950 electric vehicle enthusiasts that live in California that have no context of what winter 287 00:20:34,950 --> 00:20:37,570 is like here in areas like Chicago. 288 00:20:37,570 --> 00:20:42,360 So I've seen many different forum posts where people say, "You know if you do a needs analysis, 289 00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:45,799 you might find out you only need a 100 mile range for your car". 290 00:20:45,799 --> 00:20:49,559 Now that's very true, I could almost get away with a 100 mile range. 291 00:20:49,559 --> 00:20:54,690 But because I live in the Chicago area, every year for three months out of the year at least, 292 00:20:54,690 --> 00:20:56,049 it's going to be below freezing. 293 00:20:56,049 --> 00:21:00,360 And I need to know that I have a vehicle that can get me through that time. 294 00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:05,249 If I had an electric vehicle with only 100 miles of range, every winter it would not 295 00:21:05,249 --> 00:21:07,070 get me where I need to go. 296 00:21:07,070 --> 00:21:11,120 That's why people like us in the Midwest have been waiting for a vehicle like the Chevy 297 00:21:11,120 --> 00:21:16,270 Bolt or the Tesla Model 3 to have a range over 200 miles, that way even if we had a 298 00:21:16,270 --> 00:21:21,330 horrendous efficiency and our battery range somehow dropped in half (which is likely never 299 00:21:21,330 --> 00:21:25,820 would) but even if that happened, we'd still be able to get wherever we needed to go. 300 00:21:25,820 --> 00:21:29,580 Now another reason why electric vehicle enthusiasts can sometimes cloud the picture for someone 301 00:21:29,580 --> 00:21:32,690 outside of the group, is they tend to form fanclubs. 302 00:21:32,690 --> 00:21:37,440 And what I mean by this is they get on the side of one automaker or another, and their 303 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:39,320 judgement gets clouded. 304 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:45,320 If you go back a year from, a year before from now, you'll find plenty of auto forums 305 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:49,000 talking about the Tesla Model 3 and comparing it to the Chevy Bolt, and many people who 306 00:21:49,009 --> 00:21:53,669 are Tesla fanboys were insisting that "GM doesn't really want to sell the Bolt, this 307 00:21:53,669 --> 00:21:58,960 is a Compliance car, it's not gonna be sold outside of the CARB states", and guess what? 308 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:04,100 Here in Illinois I've seen about 10 Bolts, haven't seen a single Tesla Model 3 yet. 309 00:22:04,100 --> 00:22:08,720 So I'm just saying, the fanboys in the EV enthusiast club are gonna give you information 310 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:12,740 that may or may not be correct, it might just be what they want to hear. 311 00:22:12,740 --> 00:22:14,549 Anyway, thank you so much for watching. 312 00:22:14,549 --> 00:22:17,580 If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments, I'll try to 313 00:22:17,580 --> 00:22:20,280 answer them the best that I can, and I'll see you next time.