WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 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 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 00:00:09.460 --> 00:00:13.520 them to get the Chevy Bolt EV, that Bolt with a B as in Bravo. 00:00:13.520 --> 00:00:16.850 Yes, GM is wonderful at naming their products. 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 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, 00:00:26.050 --> 00:00:29.450 because even in a rural setting, the Bolt meets their needs. 00:00:29.450 --> 00:00:33.910 But, anyway, what we're talking about in this video is winter driving performance. 00:00:33.910 --> 00:00:39.329 Many people are worried about how the winter affects electric vehicle range, so why not 00:00:39.329 --> 00:00:40.470 find out? 00:00:40.470 --> 00:00:42.560 I'm gonna take the Bolt to and from work. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:45.680 I have a very long commute--it's 35 miles each way. 00:00:45.680 --> 00:00:49.329 So come along with me and we'll find out what sort of range we get. 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? 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 00:01:02.180 --> 00:01:04.569 inches while I'm at work. 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. 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 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. 00:01:22.960 --> 00:01:24.000 Alright-- 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:24.800 Car! 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 00:01:29.800 --> 00:01:32.480 in a heated garage, so that thing buzzes away. 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. 00:01:39.080 --> 00:01:40.000 Alright. 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:43.800 So, um, I'm about to get going. 00:01:43.960 --> 00:01:44.880 And... 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 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... 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:56.000 hopefully.. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:56.840 Ah. 00:01:57.400 --> 00:01:59.240 That didn't go well. 00:01:59.240 --> 00:02:00.920 Let's turn the car on. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.920 (Chiming from the car) 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:05.600 Ugh. 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 00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:16.290 cause...I'll explain that later. 00:02:16.290 --> 00:02:20.220 But anyway, turning the heat off gets us 180 --(sound of the turn signal flashing)--my 00:02:20.220 --> 00:02:21.220 goodness. 00:02:21.220 --> 00:02:22.220 This is not going well. 00:02:22.220 --> 00:02:24.799 Turning the heat off gives us 182 miles predicted range. 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. 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 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 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 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:52.160 turn on the car. 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 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. 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, 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 00:03:14.359 --> 00:03:18.150 control seems to get confused when it's in a heated garage. 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, 00:03:23.499 --> 00:03:25.590 it will actually run the air conditioning. 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, 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 00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:40.969 climate control when you do have a heated garage until you actually need the heat. 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 00:03:45.459 --> 00:03:48.340 I'll be taking the Tri-State Northbound. 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 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:53.560 the dashcam audio. 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:56.000 It is still fairly noise so I apologize for that. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.450 (Audio from dashcam) Welcome to the Tri-State Tollway! 00:03:58.450 --> 00:03:59.840 Everybody's favorite! 00:04:00.480 --> 00:04:01.760 Gotta love the TRI-STATE! 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, 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 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. 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 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:29.600 steering wheel which was my recommendation, and holding it is delightful! 00:04:30.880 --> 00:04:35.840 You can tolerate the cabin temperature being much colder if you have a heated seat and 00:04:35.840 --> 00:04:37.400 a heated steering wheel. 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:42.240 And you should know that by turning on the heat it immediately dropped the range estimate 00:04:42.320 --> 00:04:44.320 by about 12 miles. 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. 00:04:55.760 --> 00:05:01.480 As far as speed I like to keep my speed to about 65 or less. 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 00:05:06.640 --> 00:05:08.760 the better range you get. 00:05:08.760 --> 00:05:13.920 And anything above 60, every 5 miles an hour you take a significant range hit. 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:18.080 So I try to keep to 65 or less which can be difficult on 00:05:18.080 --> 00:05:24.200 the Tri-state, because although the speed limit is 55 that Prius over there is probably 00:05:24.200 --> 00:05:26.160 going 80. 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 00:05:32.280 --> 00:05:36.160 to save energy and not go quite so fast. 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 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 00:05:48.157 --> 00:05:53.500 a quarter of the way up towards max, so based on current driving conditions, although the 00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:59.250 predicted range is 164 miles it thinks I'll do a little bit better than that. 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 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 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, 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 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 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 00:06:35.840 --> 00:06:39.200 number on the range meter will only go down maybe every 00:06:39.200 --> 00:06:44.200 1.2 or 1.3 miles, but you have to manually keep track of that. 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 00:06:50.840 --> 00:06:54.759 have a maximum and a minimum number which many automotive journalists have talked about, 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 00:07:00.520 --> 00:07:01.710 which is genius. 00:07:01.710 --> 00:07:04.020 And really really helpful. 00:07:04.020 --> 00:07:07.600 This is a photo of the energy information screen once I got to work. 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. 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. 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 00:07:26.930 --> 00:07:28.889 driving well. 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 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. 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. 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 00:07:51.110 --> 00:07:52.419 our usage. 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 00:07:58.020 --> 00:08:02.240 if I would then we would have gotten a slight boost in efficiency. 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:05.719 Also of note is that no energy was spent on battery conditioning. 00:08:05.719 --> 00:08:08.830 Pretty much because the car started in that heated garage. 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 00:08:12.320 --> 00:08:16.900 plugged in it should keep its battery pack warm, and you won't need battery conditioning. 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:19.680 Well, out of work. 00:08:19.700 --> 00:08:22.099 And there's about 4 inches of snow on the ground. 00:08:22.099 --> 00:08:24.070 Time to clear off the car and get going. 00:08:24.070 --> 00:08:26.849 It's warming up right now, that's why the lights are on. 00:08:26.849 --> 00:08:29.439 OK so welcome back to the car. 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 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 00:08:40.890 --> 00:08:42.440 snow there's plenty of traction. 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:46.230 So I'm comfortable driving 55 (miles per hour). 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 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. 00:08:58.910 --> 00:09:04.210 That trend-line is pointing very negative right now, and I did expect that to happen. 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 00:09:09.980 --> 00:09:16.280 downward towards my work, because I always end up getting to work using a much smaller 00:09:16.280 --> 00:09:21.480 percentage of the battery then getting back from work. 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 00:09:25.020 --> 00:09:32.260 conditioning, and what that means is it's only 11 degrees outside right now and because 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 00:09:36.660 --> 00:09:40.440 of the battery's energy just to warm itself up. 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 00:09:46.400 --> 00:09:50.590 it will need to heat itself if the battery pack is allowed to get cold. 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 00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:00.920 to keep it conditioned, but when you're outside without it being plugged in.... 00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:02.760 you don't get any help. 00:10:03.160 --> 00:10:07.960 As far as winter weather traction goes with this car, it's very, very good. 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 00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:14.780 everywhere. 00:10:14.780 --> 00:10:17.240 Four-wheel drive is not a huge advantage here. 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 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. 00:10:30.670 --> 00:10:33.890 With that being said, the road's getting pretty bad here, I better slow down... 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 00:10:39.060 --> 00:10:44.920 12 degrees outside, but its range estimate is still pretty... it's still trending pretty 00:10:44.920 --> 00:10:53.150 negative because it was expecting to have, um... it's last estimate was based on the 00:10:53.150 --> 00:11:00.040 warmer weather without wet roads, so that's one thing you need to keep in mind. 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 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 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 00:11:15.530 --> 00:11:16.910 colder. 00:11:16.910 --> 00:11:20.970 So it's going to impact range more negatively. 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 00:11:27.820 --> 00:11:32.940 the benefit of reduced speed, reduced wind resistance, and it doesn't have to work as 00:11:32.940 --> 00:11:34.640 hard to heat the cabin. 00:11:34.640 --> 00:11:36.480 Well, so much for going 55. 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 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 00:11:46.700 --> 00:11:48.360 keeping up with traffic. 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:51.030 And the trend-line has swung way up. 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 00:11:58.690 --> 00:12:00.730 significantly. 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 00:12:08.200 --> 00:12:13.920 it took twenty--it just rolled over to 25.1 kWh--but 25 kilowatt-hours. 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. 00:12:19.350 --> 00:12:22.060 And estimated range at this point is 101 miles. 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 00:12:29.620 --> 00:12:34.070 get 170 miles per charge even in these awful weather conditions. 00:12:34.070 --> 00:12:37.440 Now granted we were helped out a little bit by the slow driving. 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 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:43.680 inside. 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 00:12:49.950 --> 00:12:55.250 even though the weather conditions weren't great and the road conditions were awful, 00:12:55.250 --> 00:12:57.580 this is actually a pretty typical number. 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 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 00:13:11.300 --> 00:13:13.700 unrealistic number with these weather conditions. 00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:19.420 So there you go, a 70 mile commute in pretty cold temperatures with horrible road conditions 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 00:13:25.500 --> 00:13:27.500 100 miles if we needed to. 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. 00:13:31.700 --> 00:13:34.690 And we can start this all over again. 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 00:13:39.390 --> 00:13:41.140 and I would be fine for tomorrow. 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 00:13:44.140 --> 00:13:47.860 about 4 hours it will be charged. 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 00:13:51.770 --> 00:13:54.360 thing over again tomorrow. 00:13:54.360 --> 00:13:56.930 Let's go inside and talk a little bit more about the numbers. 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? 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 00:14:06.470 --> 00:14:09.200 cost $2.50. 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 00:14:13.040 --> 00:14:16.390 from the battery, not energy pulled from the wall. 00:14:16.390 --> 00:14:19.510 However, my charger is on its own meter. 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 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 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 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:42.040 there is a difference of 3 kilowatt-hours, but that's only thirty cents. 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) 00:14:48.850 --> 00:14:54.180 so that means this commute, even though it was seventy miles in the winter, cost just 00:14:54.180 --> 00:14:56.170 $2.80. 00:14:56.170 --> 00:15:01.330 It cost more in tolls to get to work and back then it did for fuel. 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 00:15:04.300 --> 00:15:07.090 about 20 degrees outside, however it was sunny. 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 00:15:11.950 --> 00:15:13.120 heat at all. 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:17.220 I know it sounds ridiculous, but having a heated seat and a heated steering wheel makes 00:15:17.220 --> 00:15:21.290 it that much easier to stay in the car without running the heat. 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 00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:28.040 the windows were fogging up a little bit. 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 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. 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 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:46.120 or not. 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 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 00:15:55.960 --> 00:16:00.030 25, pretty much the exact same thing we had the night before. 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 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. 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:12.080 But that's not all. 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:16.580 In addition to having a simple commute scenario, I also have a more long-distance drive. 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, 00:16:20.890 --> 00:16:23.710 and that's a 114 mile journey. 00:16:23.710 --> 00:16:26.780 We did this in 17 degree weather with some snow. 00:16:26.780 --> 00:16:29.470 So here's an idea of what our range was. 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 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:38.360 snowing moderately. 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 00:16:44.160 --> 00:16:47.200 takes about 24 or 25 kilowatts. 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 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 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:03.080 that means basically assuming these driving conditions and maintaining this speed 00:17:03.080 --> 00:17:08.880 our anticipated range from a full charge should be 165-170 miles or so. 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 00:17:15.800 --> 00:17:21.800 used, with an anticipated remaining range of 87 miles. 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 00:17:28.329 --> 00:17:29.329 a headwind. 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 00:17:35.289 --> 00:17:37.019 a great impact on range. 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 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:44.400 don't worry about range so much. 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. 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 00:17:55.160 --> 00:17:59.120 actually be helping me a little bit with the range. 00:17:59.120 --> 00:18:03.960 When you're on the highway, especially in the winter, going slower really helps you. 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:09.759 And if you are comfortable following a semi truck, with a moderate distance behind it, 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:12.129 you can get a significant range boost. 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 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, 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. 00:18:28.340 --> 00:18:32.090 Which makes perfect sense because were were going a little faster on this trip than I 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 00:18:38.470 --> 00:18:44.289 the temperature was quite similar we did have some conditions that hampered range slightly. 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, 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 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 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:00.059 at all. 00:19:00.059 --> 00:19:04.570 Now we were maintaining 68 miles per hour for that entire trip, partially to test the 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 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. 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 00:19:18.379 --> 00:19:20.860 maintain a comfortable cabin temperature. 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 00:19:26.210 --> 00:19:27.210 heat. 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. 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 00:19:37.250 --> 00:19:39.960 to heat to keep ourselves warm. 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 00:19:43.970 --> 00:19:47.529 at all, that's because we started this journey with the vehicle plugged in. 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 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, 00:19:56.179 --> 00:20:00.120 and therefore no battery conditioning was necessary at all. 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 00:20:05.100 --> 00:20:06.789 Chicagoland area. 00:20:06.789 --> 00:20:09.889 This channel doesn't normally do electric vehicle videos, I do them from time-to-time 00:20:09.889 --> 00:20:14.799 as I am an electric vehicle advocate and I am also and electric vehicle enthusiast. 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 00:20:19.110 --> 00:20:24.749 vehicle and want some advice on it, sometimes electric vehicle enthusiasts are not the best 00:20:24.760 --> 00:20:26.640 people to ask. 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 00:20:30.600 --> 00:20:34.950 electric vehicle enthusiasts that live in California that have no context of what winter 00:20:34.950 --> 00:20:37.570 is like here in areas like Chicago. 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, 00:20:42.360 --> 00:20:45.799 you might find out you only need a 100 mile range for your car". 00:20:45.799 --> 00:20:49.559 Now that's very true, I could almost get away with a 100 mile range. 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, 00:20:54.690 --> 00:20:56.049 it's going to be below freezing. 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. 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 00:21:05.249 --> 00:21:07.070 get me where I need to go. 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 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 00:21:16.270 --> 00:21:21.330 horrendous efficiency and our battery range somehow dropped in half (which is likely never 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. 00:21:25.820 --> 00:21:29.580 Now another reason why electric vehicle enthusiasts can sometimes cloud the picture for someone 00:21:29.580 --> 00:21:32.690 outside of the group, is they tend to form fanclubs. 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 00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:39.320 judgement gets clouded. 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 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 00:21:49.009 --> 00:21:53.669 are Tesla fanboys were insisting that "GM doesn't really want to sell the Bolt, this 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? 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. 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 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:12.740 that may or may not be correct, it might just be what they want to hear. 00:22:12.740 --> 00:22:14.549 Anyway, thank you so much for watching. 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 00:22:17.580 --> 00:22:20.280 answer them the best that I can, and I'll see you next time.