This is a video log of all of my unfinished business or projects around the house , yard, garage, it never ends. I have a list a mile long of things I want to get done, and things I need to get done. So I figured I would start to document it all so that 1. I can see my progress years from now 2. I have evidence when my wife says I haven't been getting anything done Although she is not completely wrong, I have a tendency to do about 80 percent of a project then when start a new project. And that is why this channel is being created, to help motivate me to get them done.
Important to remember limiting factor probably isn’t the motor but the battery. The 66kwh pack got an estimated 10kw more hard to say where they made their estimate
Actually, I found this vid quite valuable. I currently have a Volt (PHEV) and have only ever charged at home. So public chargers are a black hole to me and I understand nothing. But am I correct that the major nosebleed here was trying to use EVGo's autocharge without having first been authorized to do so at an EVGo charger? And that simply having the Chargepoint app is the route most folks would go if they weren't trying to burn through GM credits or set up EVGo authocharge?
From some videos I’ve seen about DCFCs they sometimes will reduce output at times if they have been worked on and a part like the cable was replaced but it doesn’t meet the amperage rating of the charger but you’d think that would apply more to the higher kW chargers and EVs that will draw high power from them, not the measly power draw of our Bolts but I don’t know 🤷♂️ it’s just a thought.
I see the power plant you went by is the TVA Cumberland plant and it will be phased out starting in 2026 for one boiler then the other in 2028. There’s many old coal plants being shutdown nowadays and I’m glad to see them go.
I pretty sure I’m going to get a Comma 3 for my 2022 Bolt EV and I have ACC but I’ll have to wait for awhile til my finances are in better shape after the unexpected need to buy the Bolt after a accident wrecked my old Toyota Echo. Hopefully I can install it myself but I’ve put a few of my own Rostra cruise controls in my Echos before so…? You seem quite intelligent, I’m curious to what you do for a living? It looks like you work on vehicles?
I’m a mechanical engineer by degree. I worked for Nissan as an engineer for a while and do some consulting for multiple OEM companies now along with dyno. Working on vehicles is a hobby, most of it is just helping out people that are getting way overcharged by dealers. The physical install of the comma 3 is super easy in the bolt. The software is a little trickier. But once it’s set up you don’t have to mess with it too much. It’s been trouble free for me since making this video.
Cool! After I build a new 38Wx50Dx12H garage in the next two years as money allows I’ll work on cars and trucks more. I think I can use a two post in a 12 foot high garage.
I own the portable dyno. It’s not common for an individual to rent it out because of the cost / time / space to set it up but I frequent local car shows and a few larger shows with it
Its not possible to directly measure lithium batteries 'charge', like you can rather accurately measure how much fluid (gas) is in a tank. The BMS is really constantly just trying to guess the energy left in the battery. BMS uses measurements it can like voltage, measures the kwh it has output in order to guess the remaining. So as others have suggested, depending on the lithium battery technology it takes fully charging it to calibrate the BMS and give a more accurate SOC. Also like others stated cells will get out of balance and the BMS job is to make sure no cell gets out of its voltage or temperature range, so it can shut the car down quickly if it senses a cell out of range. Out of spec channel has also shown this in an F150 Lightning. GM is rather conservative and wont show you range when low (nor % at all, which is very annoying), but the F150 Lightning does, and they were driving with 3% ~6miles or so of displayed range and the truck died, wouldn't move anymore. So anyway more reason why the car would do what you described, and now you know it can die when you think you should have range left.
Yeah, WOW! 4.7 miles per kWh is real good! In my new to me 2022 Bolt I’m only averaging 4.0 miles per kWh but it’s colder up hear in NW Wisconsin than in Tennessee and the warmest it’s been when I’ve drove it was 42f.
tThe other day I pulled up next to a durango 392 at s stop light that was rev'ing his motor. Light turned green and he hammered it. He only chirped his tires a little but an ok launch didnt save him. My little bolt in sports mode left him in the dust. ha ha ha these are fun cars!
Just bought a 2023 Bolt EV specifically with Adaptive Cruise control option to use openpilot. I'm in the same camp as a newbie but very techie too. so, I'm going to give it all a try!
I was wondering why my ‘22 Bolt EV feels like it’s got better get up and go than the 193hp, 225ft/lbs Mustang I had over a decade ago. The mustang was a few hundred pounds like too. A guy at work kept trying to race me in his newer V6 mustang, only a couple times, since the Bolt always walked away from the Mustang. I can never win against my wife’s EV, it’s got over 400hp and 470ft/lbs of torque. 😭
What I did when driving long distance in our Bolt is always charge a buffer according to the lowest range estimate. Figure how many bars you want to arrive with.
I did always plan for pretty solid buffer and never had an issue other than this trip. I did the same math on a trip two days ago and ended up with 50 miles extra instead of 30… as if the cells started working again. Seems like a random fluke in the trip I’m talking about in the video. But it’s concerning that maybe it’s a software issue or something and what’s to stop it from just cutting me off early again
For a long trip I use ABRP (with a connected OBD reader) for route planning and Plugshare for checking status and recent experiences of other drivers with specific charging locations.
I have 65k on mine, approaching 2 years of ownership. Did a battery degradation test from completely dead 0 to full 100, and my evse claims it delivered 65.8kW of energy. Im not sure what charging loss % is, but i figure Id knock off 5kW. So 60.8kW usuable. Seems to be mixed results on what the actual usable capacity is brand new. Is it 65kW or 66kW? Same year 2023 Bolt 1LT.
Wish the driving dynamics of the Bolt with the regen button placement and paddle regen, gets replicated in other GM vehicles. I think the Lyriq has paddle regen, so im hoping they stick with it, especially in the upcoming Boltium and Equinox EV.
I am driving in 20 below weather north of Chicago, so if I don't do a warm up before driving, I can lose 20 miles on the Guess-o-meter real fast if the car doesn't warm up. Cold weather driving makes driving a bit more unpredictable. After driving for 10 minutes, the yellow very thin bar on the far will go from yellow tracking towards the lower miles back to the green bar getting that higher end mileage. All in all, I am pretty happy with never stopping for gas in my daily work routine, I am looking forward to that 350 mile trip to Springfield IL.
Lol I bricked mine trying to install an old version of opgm on 2023 lt2, even after reading the comma 3x lower than 0.9.4 reddit warning. I figured the software should be up to date hopefully. Days later troubleshooting different usb cables only to find the original cable had to be used. Oddly using usb 3.1 or 3.2 cable i had did not transfer the data. I've been using sunnypilot mostly but i switched back to openpilot and their lane centering is notably more accurate requiring less adjustments in the newest updates. So I hope sunnypilot's will improve with time.
So on a trip leg that had no charging options, you chose to not allow enough safety margin... If you were a student pilot you would have failed your flight test... Every pilot knows you need to allow enough fuel for another 30 minutes of flight time beyond your destination... On my 2023 Bolt EUV Premier, the green battery gauge on the left of the instrument cluster shows alternating shades of green bars in 5% increments... That seems like batttery percentage to me... Finally, you don't mention what the terrain was like...
I guess you missed the whole explanation or just refused to here it. I should have had 30 miles in excess. Which for 142 mile trip is 20 percent extra. The mileage estimate was above the min. Point being I’ve done a few long trips with no issues but this time it just failed.
What I heard, is someone eager to place blame, rather than accepting responsibility for his own actions... Experience is the best teacher, and hopefully you learned from this experience...
I see you are the type who knows the whole story from reading a book cover. Sorry you don’t care to listen to facts. Sometimes the world doesn’t revolve around you. The fact of the matter is parts/ software fails all the time. I have further evidence now that there is an issue with my car in the last trip I took that I plan to submit I claim about. But you go ahead living in your perfect world where everything you do is perfect and everyone else must be wrong.
You can do all the math you want that did not help you leave yourself a bigger margine for error in the future I am not sure why the bolt does not give you a persentage reading.....that is a known complaint with the bolt...good luck in the future.
on the left of the dashboard there is a "gas bar" showing gas level. each small bar represent 5% of electricity. mostly you want to rely on the guestimate range more than the percentage.
A few thoughts... Maybe the battery monitor software is out of calibration, if you never top off the battery or rarely bring it to 0 the software is just trying to estimate the battery state based off the cell voltage. You could plug in an OBD2 scanner and maybe that data would be available, It could give you % down to 0 and cell voltage, maybe even kWh left in the pack which would be nice to see instead of the "low range" on the dash. Another thing I've heard is with cell voltage balancing within the pack, you'd have to see if the cells in Bolts tend to get imbalanced on some forums, but if you never top charge to 100, the cells can't all fill up and some may charge slower than others, so if you get some cells that are a few tenths of a volt lower, the BMS could read that as pack is empty, even though you have a few kWh left in there overall. Then it won't keep driving because that single cell would get damaged if you keep running it down, even though the other cells in the pack can provide power safely. Last thing, make sure you tow it properly, there are usually different weird things about towing electric cars. Its like you really can't put them in neutral if they have permanent magnet motors, so dragging with them off can induce voltage and damage things if they're not on to actually use that power to charge the pack as it does in regen. Oh, more thoughts. I don't know what the Bolt shows for chargers, but you should make sure you're not missing any odd 3rd party chargers that would work for you. Chargepoint or some of the newer shell stations, I think even circle k has some chargers down your way. Worst case you could always find some level 2 charger to get some power to get to the nearest DC charger though that would suck.
My best bet is that it has to do with the battery cell balance. Because it has generally been fine but this one time just dropped a mysterious 5kw it seems. I’ve got another 500 mile trip coming up so we will see how it does then.
Great video. I put the Drawtite 76525 on my 2019 Bolt premier, had to drill the same one hole, and for that I saved a few c notes. The Drawtite 76525 looks identical to the Curt 13495. On the wheel trim, used Harbor Freight plastic trim and molding set SKU: 64126. As noted, the 3rd snap-in fastener from the rear is tougher so use a steel trim tool for it. Where the bumper meets the quarter panel, use a plastic trim tool to push each connector in to release them one by one. To mark the hole, I put a dab of grease on the one stud and center punched the spot. Fit perfect but had to cut out from the bumper cover for the hitch on the 2019.
"I commute 50 miles every day to work and back, which takes around 25 to 30 minutes if there is no traffic. However, most of the time it takes me an hour to get to work. After six months of driving, I calculated that my car's efficiency is 5.2 miles per kilowatt-hour. If I use my 2003 Honda Accord, it costs me $2300 per year for the commute. On the other hand, if I use Bolt, it only costs me $300 per year. By using the formula 50:5.2*0.14*222, I calculated that it would cost me $285 to commute with my 2023 Bolt EUV."
I thought I recognized the view of that Dairy Queen drive-thru. live in Paris and was there for the opening of that Chargepoint station in September and it was the first level 3 charger I charged my '23 Bolt EUV with. It rarely gets used although local business folks are hopeful it brings EV drivers to our little downtown area. As you probably know by now you're better off using both hands to wrangle that heavy cord. And if you'd tapped your phone on the charger it would've started up and you wouldn't have to guess which charger you were connecting to on the app. There are sister stations across TN (including Hohenwald). - If you wait to plug in until you are at 10% state of charge you'll get the full 55kw charging speed but at your level 25kw is the norm. The Bolt is the slowest DCFC car sold today but level 2 home charging speed is basically the same as any other EV.
Drive the speed limit. You’ll get amazing mileage. You won’t get tickets. It’s quiet. Just listen to nice music and relax for a little bit. Highway driving doesn’t need to be stressful.
It’s not that bad after the first time. And I pretty much never charge anywhere other than at home. So I get the equivalent of 100 mpg with the power of a 1970s muscle car. This video was just an honest first time experience… which I wish it would have been better but that’s just life. It’s not for everyone but I find it quite enjoyable having as much fun in it as my old cars and costing a fraction of the money to get places… just means I can drive it even more. Or let it drive itself.
There’s no doubt that the Tesla charging network is the best out there because Tesla designed it for Tesla. All of the other manufacturers are just relying on non OEM controlled charging companies to provide for there customers. But I did read recently that GM figured out this is a poor approach and are starting to partner with gas stations to build out there “ultium” charging platform. For me personally. I expect to do 95% of my charging at home and am fine dealing with the poor infrastructure right now as an “early adopter” even though this car has been out since like 2017.
Yes I was able to get it to link on a EVgo owned charger. But that doesn’t carry over to chargepoint at all. So I still need to use an app at chargepoint stations to activate. There are basically no functional or useful evgo chargers around me so I haven’t tried to use the “autocharge” feature at all and can’t give you much insight on it.
