I Road Tripped a Chevy Bolt to see why EVs AREN'T SELLING - 1,100 Miles Eye-Opening Experience 

It's not that bad. My wife has driven our Bolt from Seattle to Bend, Oregon. She & her mom picked charging stops at interesting places like Walmarts, and they dawdled long enough that they were done charging before they got back to the car. I've done the same, if you walk to a nearby fast food place and sit down to eat, you're done before you get back. 150 miles is over 2 hours of driving, and I like to stop every 2 hours anyway for a break.

If the goal is to get more people to adopt EVs then an EVs strength is as a commuter vehicle. I realize this does not make exciting videos, but this is their strength. The adoption of EVs by Americans does not have to be an all or nothing scenario. If you have two adults in a household, one owns an EV and one a gas car. The EV is used for the daily commute. If a trip is taken out of town, you take the gas car. You charge by plugging into your home. What about apartment dwellers? That is a personal choice of whether you want the hassle of charging publicly. I have a 40 mile commute. I never charge in public. I can run my car for $35 a month during the warm months and $45 a month when it is cold. That is how you sell an EV.

Great first trip! However, It is possible with a Bolt to road trip quite a bit faster than what's shown in the video by optimizing the charging better. The key is that charging starts to get slower long before the battery reaches 80%, so if you cycle the battery between 10% and 55%, it works out to 25 minute charging sessions gaining 100 miles of range, which is much less charging time overall than 60 minute charging sessions to gain 150 miles of range, even though it means stopping to charge more often. Leaving home with a full battery also helps a ton, as does staying at hotels with overnight charging so that every day begins with a full battery, not just the first day. If done right, a Bolt driver can actually road trip faster than a drive of a more expensive EV that is less prepared.

You gotta check plugshare ahead and contribute your charging experiences when you charge.

These comments are from people that don’t live in Oregon. The Chevy bolt is great for getting around the state. Plenty of chargers everywhere and for 3-5 hour road trips around the state the bolt is perfect.

That EA stop in Sutherlin, OR next to the DQ and Starbucks makes you so jealous with those 50+ Tesla chargers sitting over there empty. I would avoid EVCS like the plague. They're a total ripoff and I'm convinced a scam to just get govt grants to install the hardware then abandon it.

Great Video!! Probably does not make sense to occupy a 350KW charger when the Bolt has a max charge rate of around 55KW. Obviously station does not look busy so not a huge deal. But if a car with the capability of 350KW comes along they would then be stuck potentially using a slower charger. While you pull 55KW out of a 350KW stall. Plugging into a 150KW stall is going to charge the car at the same rate (55KW).

Which app are you using to find charging stations? Thank you!

I own a 2023 Chevy bolt and I was curious to see what tires rim , and coils you got I may be interested in replacing mine .. thank you.

1 hr per stop is quite a lot. If only Bolt could hit 100 kW. Good on you for patiently making the trip!

you use an extension cord to charge? normal outlet?

I absolutely love the Chevy Bolt for what it is, but I would never use it to leave the Phoenix metro area where I live. For any trip farther than that I have my old Saturn.

How’d the ride change with the lowering coils? How much stiffer? Nice video of a good adventure!

Why is your range so low? Ive seen claims of well over 300 miles of range by other owners

I stick to hybrid. Thank you very much.

I know someone must have told you that putting fat tires on will kill your range.

Get a Chargepoint RFID card, they will most activate Chargers stations that don't have a data connection.

The range is fine. The charging rate of the Bokt is horrible. 40-50m stops every 150miles on average.

if you have good amount of time, Bolt euv is not bad for the road trip

damn... that's not even that much cheaper than my V6 ICE car would cost to fill up and go the same distance. About 400 miles per tank, at let's say $3.80 per gallon 87 where I live right now, it would come to about $200...

Where is the fast charging? why so slow.

I like the rims on your Bolt. The DCF charging cost is waaaaaayyy too much.

~50kW charging sucks, especially when you can't even go that fast beyond 55-60% charge. Might be tolerable if it held that up until 80%. If I got an EV with road trips in mind, I'd really want something that can do at least 100kW from 10% to 70%.

These videos make me so happy that I bought a Tesla. I almost went the cheaper route with a Bolt but I drive way too much for that to have worked out well. It's fine if you never take long trips and just charge at home. I just went from Minneapolis to Miami and back. It was by far the most pleasant road trip of my life. It takes a little longer than with a gas car but it's easy to manage with Tesla's system and the Full Self Driving more than makes up for the slight inconvenience that remains. I don't get why the other charging networks didn't just copy the Tesla system for the most part. Throw in Camp Mode and the bed that I put in the back and a gas car just doesn't compare.

EV means EVentually you will get there!!! 😂. I have the 2020 bolt, I live in Alaska and it’s quite the adventure. We also have a newer GMC Yukon for deeper snow, long drives, etc.

The Chevy Bolt is a poor choice for a long road trip to find out "why EVs aren't selling." It uses outdated tech and is much slower to charge than newer EVs. I own one and love it. But I'd never take it on a road trip like this.

Delta is like $150 for that route, why didn’t you just do that?

Even at 32mpg, a 15.9gal tank will at least bring 400mi per tank, with the cost of $50 will be almost the same and save 9 hours.

Thankful I purchased a 530 mile range , Rav4 Hybrid, 40+ mpg - waiting an hour to get 150 more miles Yikes.

That’s insane! My Chevy Cruze Sedan turbo Diesel 6 Speed manual gets 52 MPG, 500 miles per tank, the best I’ve had is 64.5 MPG, but usually around 45 MPG combined, I road trip a lot, adding 9 hours to the trip is ridiculous, add the cost of the hotel to the cost of the trip, because if the extra time wasted, plus 140 miles between charges? What about when it runs out in an unsafe place?

I would think the straw that broke the camels back is waiting an hour per charge, and having to recharge 9 times! Who has 9 hours to waste?

you reference tesla but chose to pick different charging networks... next time stick to 1 network. Like a Tesla would

EVs aren’t selling because batteries are expensive and myths from anti EV crowd.