1 00:00:00,089 --> 00:00:02,870 So I apologize for the shakiness, this is kind of an unplanned video. 2 00:00:02,870 --> 00:00:07,950 It's not often that you see me outside, but I'm actually gonna be borrowing the Bolt again 3 00:00:07,950 --> 00:00:10,650 today to do a little video for you. 4 00:00:10,650 --> 00:00:11,520 It is... 5 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:12,120 hot today. 6 00:00:12,120 --> 00:00:17,640 It is about--it is currently 86 degrees and it'll go up to a high of 96 which is... 7 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:19,490 this Celsius. 8 00:00:19,490 --> 00:00:24,840 And I'm going to take the Bolt EV back to my place, to work, and back which will be 9 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:27,289 a total of 184 miles. 10 00:00:27,289 --> 00:00:28,289 All highway driving. 11 00:00:28,289 --> 00:00:29,550 And we'll see how it does. 12 00:00:29,550 --> 00:00:32,720 But before we go, I want to show you one thing here. 13 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:36,399 Because it's so warm outside I'm gonna have the Bolt precondition itself. 14 00:00:36,399 --> 00:00:41,040 And I wanted to show--this is the charging station that it's on. 15 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:45,010 And as you can hopefully see the charging station is not supply power to the car 'cause 16 00:00:45,010 --> 00:00:46,010 it's fully charged. 17 00:00:46,010 --> 00:00:50,230 So I'm going to use the remote to remote start the car and then the charging station will 18 00:00:50,230 --> 00:00:51,220 click on. 19 00:00:53,500 --> 00:00:55,320 [Clunk of contactor inside EVSE] 20 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,360 Hear that big thunk? 21 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:03,600 So now that orange light indicates that the charging station is sending power to the car. 22 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:10,619 And very soon you'll hear the air conditioning running. 23 00:01:12,540 --> 00:01:20,040 [sound of A/C compressor spinning up] 24 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:23,420 The Bolt has a variable speed A/C compressor--same 25 00:01:23,420 --> 00:01:29,700 as the Volt with a 'V', it's just more efficient that way and it can run any amount of refrigerant 26 00:01:29,700 --> 00:01:30,990 it needs to. 27 00:01:30,990 --> 00:01:35,219 So I'm gonna let the car run like this for about five minutes to get nice and cool. 28 00:01:35,219 --> 00:01:39,419 That way, right now it's pulling power from the grid; it's not using its battery at all. 29 00:01:39,419 --> 00:01:42,700 So by preconditioning the cabin like this we're gonna get a little bit better battery 30 00:01:42,700 --> 00:01:43,880 range. 31 00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:46,079 And then once it's cooled off, I'm gonna get in the car. 32 00:01:46,079 --> 00:01:48,739 We'll use my dashcam and I'll show you a bit of the drive that I'm taking. 33 00:01:48,739 --> 00:01:53,969 OK one more thing before I get going--I'm sitting inside and it's nice and cool in here 34 00:01:53,969 --> 00:01:56,860 but the car is not actually on and it is still plugged in. 35 00:01:56,860 --> 00:01:58,869 So I'm gonna turn it on 'cause I want to show you one thing. 36 00:01:58,869 --> 00:02:00,689 Some people are worried about this. 37 00:02:00,689 --> 00:02:05,160 [warning chimes as vehicle starts up] 38 00:02:06,620 --> 00:02:08,240 So I wanted to show you--notice how it says 39 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:11,069 the charge cord is connected 'cause I'm still plugged in? 40 00:02:11,069 --> 00:02:13,319 It will not let me shift into gear. 41 00:02:13,319 --> 00:02:14,880 If I try... 42 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:16,520 [warning chime] 43 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:18,040 "Conditions not correct for shift" 44 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:19,700 [warning chime] 45 00:02:19,700 --> 00:02:22,569 "Charge cord connected" So a lot of people freak out about what happens 46 00:02:22,569 --> 00:02:24,680 if you move your car while it's still plugged in. 47 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:25,860 The answer is nothing! 48 00:02:25,860 --> 00:02:27,099 Nothing happens. 49 00:02:27,099 --> 00:02:29,620 Because it knows its plugged in and it won't let you move. 50 00:02:29,620 --> 00:02:35,269 So I want to apologize for the dashcam footage because the dashcam that is in this car-- 51 00:02:35,269 --> 00:02:39,650 I got dashcams for my mom and dad for Christmas one year, and it's the same one as in my car--and 52 00:02:39,650 --> 00:02:42,060 it's a wedge style dashcam. 53 00:02:42,060 --> 00:02:46,980 And there's a blue windshield tint on the Bolt and so it's looking through that a little 54 00:02:46,989 --> 00:02:47,989 bit. 55 00:02:47,989 --> 00:02:50,670 So everything looks pretty blue, and I'm gonna do my best to correct that. 56 00:02:50,670 --> 00:02:56,780 So this Bolt unlike probably many Bolts EVs spends a lot of time in rural areas on country 57 00:02:56,780 --> 00:02:58,510 roads like this one. 58 00:02:58,510 --> 00:03:00,430 This is IL-29. 59 00:03:00,430 --> 00:03:04,209 I'm heading North to get to I-180 to take me to I-80. 60 00:03:04,209 --> 00:03:08,519 My parents live South of I-80 and North of Peoria. 61 00:03:08,519 --> 00:03:14,769 And, well, we're just entering Bureau county right now so this EV spends a lot of time 62 00:03:14,769 --> 00:03:17,890 in a rural setting not anywhere near a city. 63 00:03:17,890 --> 00:03:21,390 We are about 120 miles away from Chicago right now. 64 00:03:21,390 --> 00:03:26,609 And part of why I want to make sure people understand that is because even for people 65 00:03:26,609 --> 00:03:30,650 in a rural setting, if they have access to a home charging station which can recharge 66 00:03:30,650 --> 00:03:37,150 the car in about 10 hours from empty... you know this car works for a LOT of people. 67 00:03:37,150 --> 00:03:41,870 I see so many comments about EVs "They're city-dwelling car's only, you can't take them 68 00:03:41,870 --> 00:03:43,030 outside of the city". 69 00:03:43,030 --> 00:03:46,170 This car doesn't even live in the city most of the time! 70 00:03:46,170 --> 00:03:52,890 It either spends some time with me in the suburbs or a lot of the time out here! 71 00:03:52,890 --> 00:03:54,720 This is not the city! 72 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:04,069 So I have cruise control set to 70 MPH which is how its gonna stay for a good portion of 73 00:04:04,069 --> 00:04:05,120 this trip. 74 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:11,639 70 MPH is actually not idea for an EV's range because generally you want to stay to 65 or 75 00:04:11,639 --> 00:04:15,879 less, but I'm intentionally keeping it at 70 because I don't want to paint the picture 76 00:04:15,879 --> 00:04:19,560 that I am trying to hypermile here. 77 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:20,560 I'm really not. 78 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:22,750 I'm gonna keep up with traffic as best I can. 79 00:04:22,750 --> 00:04:29,980 And according to the car it is 89° outside, so we've got some nice toasty warm weather. 80 00:04:32,820 --> 00:04:37,150 This part here getting to I-80 is one of the most challenging parts for this car as far 81 00:04:37,150 --> 00:04:41,360 as range goes because--if you can hopefully tell in the dashcam--we're actually going 82 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,020 at a pretty significant incline. 83 00:04:44,020 --> 00:04:47,950 Where my parents live is one of few areas in Illinois that aren't completely flat. 84 00:04:47,950 --> 00:04:52,139 It's still pretty flat but there are some river valleys around here. 85 00:04:52,139 --> 00:04:56,139 And, uh, so there's some pretty wild changes in elevation. 86 00:04:56,139 --> 00:05:04,330 Right now to go up this hill maintaining 70 it's taking 37-38 kW which is a lot of power. 87 00:05:04,330 --> 00:05:10,820 But now we are back to flat land as far as the eye can see. 88 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:23,000 By the way, just as common courtesy you should do that. 89 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:28,199 Like, if someone's on the side of the road for whatever reason move over for them. 90 00:05:28,199 --> 00:05:31,830 The person behind me didn't, and there's no one around me. 91 00:05:31,830 --> 00:05:33,310 Don't be a jerk. 92 00:05:33,310 --> 00:05:38,590 And by the way in Illinois if that's a cop or an emergency vehicle you HAVE to get over 93 00:05:38,590 --> 00:05:41,639 and if you don't you will get pulled over. 94 00:05:41,639 --> 00:05:43,690 Just ask my dad about that. 95 00:05:43,690 --> 00:05:46,980 Here we are on I-80, everybody's favorite. 96 00:05:46,980 --> 00:05:51,880 Big East-West Interstate, going from New York to California, all the way across. 97 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:54,740 I think it's New York, maybe it's New Jersey. 98 00:05:54,740 --> 00:05:57,550 Uh, anyway, I'm not going to try and hypermile, remember? 99 00:05:57,550 --> 00:05:59,389 I'm keeping speed set to 70. 100 00:05:59,389 --> 00:06:03,259 If I pass a truck I pass a truck, if a truck passes me, a truck passes me. 101 00:06:03,259 --> 00:06:05,349 I'm not gonna follow one. 102 00:06:05,349 --> 00:06:11,210 I'm trying not to present this as a "you have to be careful to drive an EV" thing, I want 103 00:06:11,210 --> 00:06:13,960 to show you what it's like if you're just driving it like you would a car. 104 00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:18,120 So I've got cruise control set to 70 MPH, which is the speed limit. 105 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:22,300 Yeah, you might be going a little higher than that on average but I will at least do that 106 00:06:22,301 --> 00:06:23,889 much. 107 00:06:23,889 --> 00:06:28,460 Well, that's not hypermiling by any stretch of the imagination but I will at least do 108 00:06:28,460 --> 00:06:31,560 that--get that little bit of range out of it. 109 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:36,720 But now, we're on this road for the next 60 miles or so. 110 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:43,380 We have just under 100 miles left in this journey and we'll see where we are when we get there. 111 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:50,270 The temperature reading on the car is now 94°! 112 00:06:50,270 --> 00:06:52,060 It's going up! 113 00:06:55,140 --> 00:06:57,780 Did you know that in Illinois there's a warp tunnel to Peru? 114 00:06:58,660 --> 00:06:59,700 It's right there. 115 00:06:59,700 --> 00:07:01,810 Just take that exit, you're in Peru. 116 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:05,680 They even have a Menards in Peru. 117 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:16,340 Oh you know, I should probably say I have the cabin temperature set to 71° F, so I'm... 118 00:07:16,350 --> 00:07:22,240 In my winter range test, I kept the cabin temperature pretty cold because I have a heated 119 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:24,659 seat, a heated steering wheel and I was bundled up. 120 00:07:24,659 --> 00:07:26,590 Some people complained about that. 121 00:07:26,590 --> 00:07:30,550 Well now I have the temperature really comfortable. 122 00:07:30,550 --> 00:07:36,620 Perfect for driving, it's 94° outside but 71° inside--nice and comfy here. 123 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:48,660 As we are moving into the 44th mile of this journey we have use 12.2 kWh which is, uh, 124 00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:50,240 a little worse than average. 125 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:56,300 If we go with the EPA rating, 12 kWh should get us 48 miles. 126 00:07:56,300 --> 00:08:02,360 But we've used 12.3 and we've only gone 44.7 miles so we're a little bit behind but not 127 00:08:02,379 --> 00:08:03,690 a whole lot. 128 00:08:03,690 --> 00:08:07,270 Here in Illinois we also have a warp tunnel to Ottawa. 129 00:08:07,270 --> 00:08:11,320 Just go that way and find yourself in Canada all of a sudden. 130 00:08:22,980 --> 00:08:25,600 I'm about to be passed by a Tesla! 131 00:08:27,500 --> 00:08:29,820 I'll give him a nod. 132 00:08:33,220 --> 00:08:34,740 Hello! 133 00:08:34,740 --> 00:08:37,780 Eh, he seems unimpressed. 134 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:45,280 He's also not running a front license plate, tsk tsk. 135 00:08:48,020 --> 00:08:53,860 OK, so I just noticed that--and I've heard some wind noise but you can see in the trees, 136 00:08:53,870 --> 00:08:59,320 or I could see in the trees of the right I'll have to back the footage up a bit, but I'm 137 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:00,840 facing a pretty significant headwind. 138 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:02,990 Which is weird because I'm going East. 139 00:09:02,990 --> 00:09:06,210 And usually if I'm going East there's a tail wind. 140 00:09:06,210 --> 00:09:08,830 But you know, sometimes... 141 00:09:08,830 --> 00:09:13,500 It seems every single time I want to do a range test in this car the wind condition 142 00:09:13,500 --> 00:09:14,980 is the wrong way. 143 00:09:14,980 --> 00:09:21,720 So we're still gonna be fine but just to give some context, right now wind is not helping 144 00:09:21,730 --> 00:09:22,730 me. 145 00:09:22,730 --> 00:09:23,730 It's hurting me. 146 00:09:23,730 --> 00:09:28,540 So keep that in your head while you're thinking about the range here. 147 00:09:31,680 --> 00:09:40,820 Every time I take this ramp there's a truck at the front going 25 MPH. 148 00:09:40,820 --> 00:09:42,740 Ugh. 149 00:09:52,980 --> 00:09:55,440 Come on in, Mr. 4Runner. 150 00:09:58,740 --> 00:10:00,420 Welcome to this lane. 151 00:10:00,420 --> 00:10:04,680 I bet you knew you needed this lane a long time ago but just now is when you decided 152 00:10:04,680 --> 00:10:06,000 to get in because ya know, 153 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:08,420 that's how we do things! 154 00:10:14,060 --> 00:10:19,740 Oh, and thank you so much for letting me know you were exiting, I really appreciate that signal. 155 00:10:20,300 --> 00:10:24,360 We really have a model driver in front of us, ladies and gentlemen. 156 00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:32,900 Alright, so. 157 00:10:32,900 --> 00:10:37,770 We are now back and I'm parked in my garage just because I want to keep the car out of 158 00:10:37,770 --> 00:10:38,770 the sun. 159 00:10:38,770 --> 00:10:41,020 Just get that little bit, tiny bit of an advantage. 160 00:10:41,020 --> 00:10:47,440 But we weren't super efficient this time, we took 31.9 kWh to go 113.4 (miles). 161 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:55,420 And that's probably...well I'll do the math 12.5% lower than what the EPA estimate would be. 162 00:10:55,420 --> 00:10:56,470 And, uh... 163 00:10:56,470 --> 00:11:00,010 I really did not account for the winds today I didn't think it was gonna be that windy. 164 00:11:00,010 --> 00:11:06,930 So I just want to point out climate settings was only 4% so, and I've said this a lot to 165 00:11:06,930 --> 00:11:12,110 people--air conditioning is not that big of a load for an electric car. 166 00:11:12,110 --> 00:11:17,030 So even though it was 94° outside for much of the commute--it got a little cooler once 167 00:11:17,030 --> 00:11:21,420 I get towards home but it was still about 88--I've been keeping the climate control 168 00:11:21,420 --> 00:11:28,620 set at either 71 or 72 and that was only 4% of the energy usage for this entire trip. 169 00:11:28,620 --> 00:11:31,810 So air conditioning is really not a huge deal. 170 00:11:31,810 --> 00:11:37,530 If we go to the main center cluster you'll see that it's predicting 98 miles of range 171 00:11:37,530 --> 00:11:39,360 remaining. 172 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:42,620 And I have 70 miles that I need to go further. 173 00:11:42,620 --> 00:11:47,800 Now if I were a rational human being who wasn't doing this test I would plug the car in because 174 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:52,770 I have 2 hours of charging that would give the car another 40 miles of range at least. 175 00:11:52,770 --> 00:11:54,780 But I'm not going to do that! 176 00:11:54,780 --> 00:11:59,080 Because I want to test this range and I really think it's gonna improve for my drive to work 177 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:03,920 because I typically go a little bit slower and also we'll be going North-South rather 178 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,400 than East-West, so we'll see what happens. 179 00:12:15,580 --> 00:12:16,900 Okeydokie. 180 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:25,800 [Music from car intro screen thingamabob] 181 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:28,920 Alright so I did not plug in the car--you'll 182 00:12:28,930 --> 00:12:31,730 notice it says "Plug in to Charge". 183 00:12:31,730 --> 00:12:36,740 And our range estimate actually went up by one mile because it realized that we went 184 00:12:36,740 --> 00:12:41,140 into a cooler place. 185 00:12:41,140 --> 00:12:48,400 So we are still at 31.9 kWh with a distance traveled of 113.4. 186 00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:53,880 Now we're going to drive 34.2 miles or something like that and then we'll see where that puts us. 187 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:17,780 [sound of electric acceleration on the on-ramp] 188 00:13:21,580 --> 00:13:23,740 Alright so the trend line this early into 189 00:13:23,750 --> 00:13:26,330 this leg of the journey is right in the middle. 190 00:13:26,330 --> 00:13:33,400 There is no direction going up or down, but as we cut back in here we've gone about 6 191 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:34,400 miles. 192 00:13:34,400 --> 00:13:35,590 Our max range is 110 and our minimum is 76. 193 00:13:35,590 --> 00:13:37,510 Currently we're predicted to go 93. 194 00:13:37,510 --> 00:13:43,860 So I can see that the guess... 195 00:13:43,860 --> 00:13:49,810 I can see that the trend line is starting to creep up which I expected it to do so, 196 00:13:49,810 --> 00:13:55,100 especially because I looked outside and the wind around here seems to by dying down. 197 00:13:55,100 --> 00:14:00,080 I'm no meteorological expert but I did notice it was getting cooler as I headed toward my 198 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:04,890 place which is closer to Lake Michigan and I'm wondering if there was a high pressure 199 00:14:04,890 --> 00:14:10,520 area over the lake as it always keeps the air above it colder because it's a big body 200 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:15,560 of water, and maybe that was forcing air out towards the West and that's why I had the 201 00:14:15,560 --> 00:14:16,860 head wind. 202 00:14:16,860 --> 00:14:18,420 I don't know. 203 00:14:18,420 --> 00:14:24,171 But in any case the wind is much calmer right now, it's 93° out according to the car, and 204 00:14:24,171 --> 00:14:29,900 we will be up at my work within the next half-hour or so. 205 00:14:29,900 --> 00:14:33,880 Also, I should point out that I'm not taking a huge risk here. 206 00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:36,920 If there are people who are like "Oh my God, range anxiety!!!" 207 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:42,530 I know two things, one my boss is fine if I plug in at work so if for some reason I 208 00:14:42,530 --> 00:14:46,880 get to work and there's way less range than I think I'll plug in, but two--the O'Hare 209 00:14:46,880 --> 00:14:52,980 Oasis which you keep seeing signs for has both a Level 2 AND a DC Fast Charging charger 210 00:14:52,990 --> 00:14:54,440 available for the car. 211 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:55,790 So if I needed to on my way back I could just stop at the oasis. 212 00:14:55,790 --> 00:15:02,940 I've never actually used the DC fast charging on this car--I won't do it unless I need to. 213 00:15:02,940 --> 00:15:06,380 One day I'm gonna test that, but not right now. 214 00:15:06,380 --> 00:15:13,300 But it looks like that trend line is creeping up some more and driving conditions seem much 215 00:15:13,300 --> 00:15:14,740 more favorable. 216 00:15:14,740 --> 00:15:17,590 Also I'm trying to keep up with traffic in this lane. 217 00:15:17,590 --> 00:15:22,620 I'm not hypermiling but also people tend to go way faster than I want to on the Tri-State 218 00:15:22,620 --> 00:15:26,460 so I'm not gonna join the left lanes but I will stay here and keep up with the guy in 219 00:15:26,460 --> 00:15:27,720 front of me. 220 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:41,640 I know I said I wasn't gonna hypermile and it may look like I'm hypermiling because I'm 221 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:46,610 here in the right lane and everybody's passing me but if you're unfamiliar with the Tri-State...anything 222 00:15:46,610 --> 00:15:48,240 goes here. 223 00:15:48,420 --> 00:15:52,900 I am, to put it.... well I'm speeding. 224 00:15:52,900 --> 00:15:55,030 I'm going a bit over the speed limit. 225 00:15:55,030 --> 00:15:56,430 Everybody else is... 226 00:15:56,430 --> 00:15:57,430 Woah! 227 00:15:57,430 --> 00:16:04,260 Now in Illinois we have laws where you need to follow traffic flow so really I'm going 228 00:16:04,260 --> 00:16:07,360 under the "speed limit" but, ugh. 229 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:13,820 I'm just in the right lane because I don't want to go a fast as the other people are 230 00:16:13,820 --> 00:16:14,500 going. 231 00:16:16,860 --> 00:16:19,500 Alright, I am now at work. 232 00:16:19,510 --> 00:16:26,490 And that is our final, we are actually just at 40 kWh used which is 2/3 of the battery. 233 00:16:26,490 --> 00:16:32,050 We went 148 miles so that means we could go 50% more assuming we have the exact same average 234 00:16:32,050 --> 00:16:35,380 efficiency we had so what would that be? 235 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:42,920 74 on top of that, so about 221 or so. 236 00:16:42,930 --> 00:16:46,590 Which is actually right about what it predicted when we first turned on the car. 237 00:16:46,590 --> 00:16:53,390 So then going over to the speedometer cluster area we are at a minimum of 61 miles, predicted 238 00:16:53,390 --> 00:16:58,260 75, and if you recall it said that--we started at 100. 239 00:16:58,260 --> 00:17:04,459 So the range meter only went down 25 miles even though we drove 34 and that's because 240 00:17:04,459 --> 00:17:08,449 it was just more efficient driving this time and we weren't facing that wind. 241 00:17:08,449 --> 00:17:15,139 And still, our climate settings have now accounted for 5% of our usage but still that's very 242 00:17:15,139 --> 00:17:21,770 very little and I'm still keeping myself comfortable even though the temperatures are in the 90's. 243 00:17:21,770 --> 00:17:23,789 Alright so I just got out of work. 244 00:17:23,789 --> 00:17:25,610 Yes I work in the evenings. 245 00:17:25,610 --> 00:17:26,860 It sucks. 246 00:17:26,860 --> 00:17:32,860 I drew the short straw working this particular time on Memorial Day, but let's see where 247 00:17:32,860 --> 00:17:36,100 we're at. 248 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:41,080 It is showing 78 miles. 249 00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:44,649 It's not exposed right--there we go. 250 00:17:44,649 --> 00:17:45,840 78 miles. 251 00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:49,600 So let's turn it on. 252 00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:54,560 That's better. 253 00:17:54,900 --> 00:17:55,740 Alright. 254 00:17:56,620 --> 00:18:01,900 So we have 34 or so miles ahead of us. 255 00:18:01,909 --> 00:18:03,220 I'm sure we'll make it. 256 00:18:03,220 --> 00:18:10,260 OK now that we are back on the Tri-State headed southbound, I normally keep my speed to 68 257 00:18:10,260 --> 00:18:15,340 on this segment and then I slow down a little bit as I get towards home. 258 00:18:15,340 --> 00:18:20,659 I don't have traffic to keep up with because it's late at night so I'm just setting the 259 00:18:20,660 --> 00:18:22,620 speed that I always do. 260 00:18:22,620 --> 00:18:27,750 And again, I'm not trying to hypermile here I'm not gonna follow a truck. 261 00:18:27,750 --> 00:18:33,060 Yeah I'm going a little bit slower than the average person, but really not that much slower. 262 00:18:33,060 --> 00:18:37,260 And we will see what sort of range we have when we get home. 263 00:18:37,260 --> 00:18:41,400 So, uh, we'll do a bit of a time warp. 264 00:18:51,180 --> 00:18:57,840 So I took us out of warp speed because I wanted to explain for those who have never been to 265 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:03,039 Illinois--the oasis that I was mentioning that has the charging station that we're about 266 00:19:03,039 --> 00:19:06,130 to go under, it's more obvious what it is at night. 267 00:19:06,130 --> 00:19:10,200 I don't know...they've been around for many decades, in fact there's a Williams pinball 268 00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:17,669 machine from I believe the 1960's called "Highways" which has one of these oases on its backglass. 269 00:19:17,669 --> 00:19:20,220 There's some trivia for you. 270 00:19:20,220 --> 00:19:26,060 But anyway, these highway oases are on the tollway here and it's got restaurants and 271 00:19:26,060 --> 00:19:27,060 stuff. 272 00:19:27,060 --> 00:19:29,440 And it's built above the tollway as an overpass--it's kinda cool. 273 00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:33,669 So you can see Auntie Ann's and Starbucks maybe in there. 274 00:19:33,669 --> 00:19:37,010 And, so... do other states have those? 275 00:19:37,010 --> 00:19:38,650 I don't know. 276 00:19:38,650 --> 00:19:43,620 Not all of them in Illinois are built over the road like that, some of them are just 277 00:19:43,620 --> 00:19:44,620 off to the side. 278 00:19:44,620 --> 00:19:49,659 But the ones that are built over the road, you know you uh... depending on which direction 279 00:19:49,659 --> 00:19:52,070 you're going you enter through one door or the other. 280 00:19:52,070 --> 00:19:57,539 And you can't turn around which kinda stinks but you wouldn't really need to in most circumstances. 281 00:19:57,539 --> 00:20:03,990 But anyway, that's what the highway oasis was and over there by the Mobil gas station 282 00:20:03,990 --> 00:20:06,300 there is a DC fast charger. 283 00:20:06,300 --> 00:20:11,140 I have not used it myself but I have seen it and people on Plugshare have rated it so 284 00:20:11,140 --> 00:20:13,320 that would've been there as an option. 285 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:19,860 But as it stands I'm still showing 56 miles of range remaining and I'm more than halfway 286 00:20:19,860 --> 00:20:23,480 home so no need to stop. 287 00:20:30,940 --> 00:20:40,620 Aright, we are now back home and we have gone 183 miles today which took 48.8 kilowatt-hours. 288 00:20:40,620 --> 00:20:43,990 And the car thinks we will be able to do another 47. 289 00:20:43,990 --> 00:20:48,400 The trend line was pretty high up towards that max 55 but that's because I was going 290 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:52,309 less than 60 MPH for the last bit of this journey. 291 00:20:52,309 --> 00:20:55,659 But, uh, if we do our little math here... 292 00:20:55,659 --> 00:21:03,080 Uh, the EPA estimated range of this car is 238 and we are... 293 00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:05,920 oh man I'm so bad at math in my head. 294 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:07,080 ...223... 295 00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:13,460 OK we would have gone 230 so we're actually only 8 miles shy of the EPA estimated range 296 00:21:13,460 --> 00:21:19,039 assuming that our efficiency stayed what it is because we were going 40... 297 00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:24,780 If we had 47 left, with the 183 that we did we would be a 240... 298 00:21:25,540 --> 00:21:28,040 no (guffaw) 230 miles 299 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:30,200 so that's only 8 miles off. 300 00:21:30,210 --> 00:21:32,039 I am bad at this. 301 00:21:32,039 --> 00:21:38,110 So this is gonna cost me about $5.50 in electricity, so not bad. 302 00:21:38,110 --> 00:21:42,120 We did 183 miles of driving on $5.50. 303 00:21:42,120 --> 00:21:45,370 I also wanted to show you the experience of plugging it in. 304 00:21:45,370 --> 00:21:48,529 Because, you know, people feel like this is so hard. 305 00:21:48,529 --> 00:21:50,789 There's the charge port. 306 00:21:50,789 --> 00:21:55,590 I actually have like the hardest way to plug in of anybody because my charger's all the 307 00:21:55,590 --> 00:21:56,590 way over here. 308 00:21:56,590 --> 00:21:59,860 And I gotta unfurl the cord. 309 00:22:02,360 --> 00:22:05,880 And we're just gonna walk back to the car... 310 00:22:09,620 --> 00:22:11,800 And, plug it in. 311 00:22:11,809 --> 00:22:15,090 And just for your enjoyment you're gonna hear a bunch of sounds. 312 00:22:15,090 --> 00:22:21,450 You're gonna hear some relays clicking, you're gonna hear the actual charging station back 313 00:22:21,450 --> 00:22:25,500 there make a big THUNK, and the car's gonna make a couple other weird noises. 314 00:22:25,500 --> 00:22:27,620 And then, it beeps. 315 00:22:28,620 --> 00:22:30,600 Just push that in. 316 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:31,480 [click] 317 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:32,380 [THUNK] 318 00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:34,440 [other odd sounds] 319 00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:35,960 [beep] 320 00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:38,559 So incredibly complicated. 321 00:22:38,559 --> 00:22:43,510 And then the car will tell you when you open the door when it will be done charging. 322 00:22:43,510 --> 00:22:48,320 Its estimate is going to move up a little bit. 323 00:22:48,980 --> 00:22:50,500 Oh, I have found a bug. 324 00:22:50,500 --> 00:22:52,200 Let me close the door. 325 00:22:53,429 --> 00:22:57,800 [startup music] 326 00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:00,840 It does that a lot. 327 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:01,840 OK. 328 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:06,420 So it says that the charge will be done by 8:30 AM and, uh. 329 00:23:06,420 --> 00:23:12,639 Often times that estimate will go up a little bit as I plug in because this is a 32 amp 330 00:23:12,639 --> 00:23:15,429 charger but it's only on 208 volts. 331 00:23:15,429 --> 00:23:19,880 So it's actually a little bit slower than my parent's charger even though the charger 332 00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:26,299 itself--the Clipper Creek HCS-40--is a larger charger. 333 00:23:26,299 --> 00:23:30,429 It's on 208 rather than 240V so it charges a little more slowly. 334 00:23:30,429 --> 00:23:35,999 So maybe they actually--the car's software was updated over the air recently and I don't 335 00:23:35,999 --> 00:23:38,720 know if it affects the instrument cluster but maybe it did. 336 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:45,240 In the past it used to be you would open it after I plug in and it say "charge complete 337 00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:50,300 by 7:00...7:15...7:30...7:45" as it realized it was on a lower voltage but today it didn't 338 00:23:50,309 --> 00:23:51,620 do that. 339 00:23:51,620 --> 00:23:55,570 So I hope you enjoyed this video on the Chevy Bolt EV’s summer driving range. 340 00:23:55,570 --> 00:23:59,600 Although it missed the EPA estimate by just a hair, I think it’s still pretty impressive 341 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:04,510 since for much of my drive the car was facing a headwind, and all of the miles were strictly 342 00:24:04,510 --> 00:24:05,679 highway. 343 00:24:05,679 --> 00:24:10,080 Unlike a conventional car, an EV does better in stop-and-go city driving because it can 344 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:11,720 use regenerative braking. 345 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:15,669 On the highway, there’s no braking going on so its range will drop. 346 00:24:15,669 --> 00:24:20,039 This partially explains why the EPA range estimate for Electric Vehicles is so much 347 00:24:20,039 --> 00:24:24,559 more conservative than the european or asian estimates for the same vehicle--being so spread 348 00:24:24,559 --> 00:24:27,269 out in the US, highway range is more important here. 349 00:24:27,269 --> 00:24:30,429 Anyway, thank you very much for watching, please check out my Twitter feed if you’re 350 00:24:30,429 --> 00:24:34,119 into that, and a peek at my Patreon page would be much appreciated if you’d like to support 351 00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:35,280 what I do on this channel. 352 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:36,479 I’ll see you next time.