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Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

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Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#131

Post by brightball »

mikeash wrote: post #116
brightball wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good explanation. Checking the map in the southeast is pretty sparse though.

Which part of the southeast are you looking at? If "the southeast" comprises NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, and TN, then the only sparse areas are northern AL and MS and western TN, and northern AL and western TN have sites under construction which will probably be done in a month or two.

Just for an example, I'm in Greenville, SC (which has a location) but regularly drive to Columbia, Florence and the surrounding areas of Myrtle Beach (Murrell's Inlet specifically). That entire route doesn't have anything.

I could round trip Columbia in a Tesla. I could make it to Florence with about 90 miles left but I'd have to get somewhere that I could charge for 22 hours to get enough juice to get back (per the 4 miles per charging hour on the Tesla site for a new standard outlet).

Assuming that 270 mile range was accurate Murrell's Inlet would be doable at 260 miles just barely but then I'm still looking at 67.5 hours wait to charge enough to get back.

EDIT: Just as a side comment, Columbia really seems like a place where they need one since it's the center point to so many routes in the state.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#132

Post by aembleton »

andygates wrote: post #99
brightball wrote: post #38

I still don't understand why anyone would buy a Bolt (or a Tesla) over a Volt. Since I heard about the Volt initially back in 2006, it was the most logical and practical approach to powering a vehicle that I'd ever heard. Eliminate gas usage on 95% of your driving, but have gas available for long range and fast refueling against the entire infrastructure of the US. Pure EV's are nothing more than "around town" cars i…

It hits every trip need of mine except for that ill-advised 1000 mile road trip. Looking forward to the UK variant.

They're not bringing the first gen model to the UK: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/vauxhall/94351/opel-ampera-e-el...

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#133

Post by mikkael »

JBReefer wrote: post #112
boredpudding wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's better for the environment than the current fuels. It's the best option we have.

Also, you reduce the space that needs converting from {All the cars on Earth} to {All fossil fuel powerplants}. There are ~1 billion cars. I can't find good numbers for coal and gas plants, but it can't be more than a 200k or so. That's a gigantic improvement in our ability to rapidly reduce CO2 from transportation.

Well, yes and no. My thinking is that for the climate it does not matter if you burn the fossile fuel in a car or in a power plant. At one point all the fossile fuel will have been burnt one way or the other and the same amount of CO2 will have been blown in the atmosphere. I am sure humanity will not stop consuming fossile fuels before they are exhausted unless it becomes economically unattractive to do so...

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#134

Post by dragonwriter »

mikkael wrote: post #133
JBReefer wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, you reduce the space that needs converting from {All the cars on Earth} to {All fossil fuel powerplants}. There are ~1 billion cars. I can't find good numbers for coal and gas plants, but it can't be more than a 200k or so. That's a gigantic improvement in our ability to rapidly reduce CO2 from transportation.

Well, yes and no. My thinking is that for the climate it does not matter if you burn the fossile fuel in a car or in a power plant. At one point all the fossile fuel will have been burnt one way or the other and the same amount of CO2 will have been blown in the atmosphere. I am sure humanity will not stop consuming fossile fuels before they are exhausted unless it becomes economically unattractive to do so...

It makes a difference because power plants are more efficient, and once electrical charging infrastructure is in place, changes to the input power source is easier.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#135

Post by greglindahl »

brightball wrote: post #131
mikeash wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which part of the southeast are you looking at? If "the southeast" comprises NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, and TN, then the only sparse areas are northern AL and MS and western TN, and northern AL and western TN have sites under construction which will probably be done in a month or two.

Just for an example, I'm in Greenville, SC (which has a location) but regularly drive to Columbia, Florence and the surrounding areas of Myrtle Beach (Murrell's Inlet specifically). That entire route doesn't have anything. I could round trip Columbia in a Tesla. I could make it to Florence with about 90 miles left but I'd have to get somewhere that I could charge for 22 hours to get enough juice to get back (per the…

If you'd been watching the supercharger build-out, you'd see that Tesla started by making it possible to drive through SC on I-85 and I-95, and now they're filling in. I suspect there are a lot more Tesla owners in Atlanta and Research Triangle Park than SC... lots of well-paid engineers in Greenville work for BMW and drive BMWs.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#136

Post by ohstopitu »

joezydeco wrote: post #125
ohstopitu wrote: post #57

This is a pet peeve of mine, but I don't get why cars need to change design (subjective: and make them ulgy) just because they are EVs? Tesla showed the world that a car could look like a "car" and still be electric. I'm all for innovations in design, but weird/ugly designs are also a reason that stops people from buying electric cars.

BMW i3 is a great example. http://o.aolcdn.com/commerce/autodata/images/USC40BMC601B021... Would it have been that much more work to fit it all into a 1-series? http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2013/05/2013-b... The wheelbase is only 3" longer on the 1er.

Exactly! and BMW i8 is an example of an EV that looks pretty sweet[0]. So, it's not like car manufacturers can't make good looking EVs, it's that they chose not to.

[0] http://buyersguide.caranddriver.com/media/assets/submodel/78...

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#137

Post by brightball »

greglindahl wrote: post #135
brightball wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just for an example, I'm in Greenville, SC (which has a location) but regularly drive to Columbia, Florence and the surrounding areas of Myrtle Beach (Murrell's Inlet specifically). That entire route doesn't have anything. I could round trip Columbia in a Tesla. I could make it to Florence with about 90 miles left but I'd have to get somewhere that I could charge for 22 hours to get enough juice to get back (per the…

If you'd been watching the supercharger build-out, you'd see that Tesla started by making it possible to drive through SC on I-85 and I-95, and now they're filling in. I suspect there are a lot more Tesla owners in Atlanta and Research Triangle Park than SC... lots of well-paid engineers in Greenville work for BMW and drive BMWs.

Very, very true. This entire area owes most of its economic recovery to BMW.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#138

Post by mikkael »

dragonwriter wrote: post #134
mikkael wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes and no. My thinking is that for the climate it does not matter if you burn the fossile fuel in a car or in a power plant. At one point all the fossile fuel will have been burnt one way or the other and the same amount of CO2 will have been blown in the atmosphere. I am sure humanity will not stop consuming fossile fuels before they are exhausted unless it becomes economically unattractive to do so...

It makes a difference because power plants are more efficient, and once electrical charging infrastructure is in place, changes to the input power source is easier.

According to my knowledge current car motor efficiency is about the same than power plants: gasoline car motor 40%, diesel car motor 43%, coal burning power plants 30-45%, gas burning power plants around 30% efficiency. All numbers are from Wikipedia.

But even if power plants would be more efficient (meaning producing more energy for the same fuel input) it still would make no difference from a CO2 emissions point of view after all fuel has been burnt...

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#139

Post by mikeash »

brightball wrote: post #131
mikeash wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which part of the southeast are you looking at? If "the southeast" comprises NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, and TN, then the only sparse areas are northern AL and MS and western TN, and northern AL and western TN have sites under construction which will probably be done in a month or two.

Just for an example, I'm in Greenville, SC (which has a location) but regularly drive to Columbia, Florence and the surrounding areas of Myrtle Beach (Murrell's Inlet specifically). That entire route doesn't have anything. I could round trip Columbia in a Tesla. I could make it to Florence with about 90 miles left but I'd have to get somewhere that I could charge for 22 hours to get enough juice to get back (per the…

Columbia is well within range for a round trip without recharging. Myrtle Beach has a supercharger planned. Florence could be sticky, depending on exactly where you're going and how long you're staying. If you want to make a quick day trip, then you'd need to get Tesla's CHAdeMO adapter and hit a third-party quick charging station in Columbia. If you're staying overnight and are near one of the L2 chargers in Florence, or there's an accessible dryer outlet wherever you're staying, then you could just fill back up overnight.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#140

Post by vinay427 »

honkhonkpants wrote: post #103
vinay427 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The federal EV tax credit of $7,500 gets the price down to less than $30,000" [1] "the estimated average transaction price (ATP) for light vehicles in the United States was $33,666 in March 2016." [2] A car that costs less than the median purchase price for new vehicles in the US seems pretty close to "for the masses" to me. It's at least in the running for more than half of all new car buyers in terms of price (not…

You jumped from mean to median. The /median/ new car price in this country is about $22k.

I stand corrected, I misread the article I was quoting. Apologies for the error.
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