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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

#151

Post by projektfu »

johnm1019 wrote: post #12
tener wrote: post #2

This largely reads as a paid ad. There are plenty of numbers comparing old and new models, yet very few when they compare to Tesla. It would be interesting to read a more neutral comparison though.

While I agree the tone of the article is a paid ad, the reason you can't compare it to a model 3 is because the model 3 doesn't exist yet. Comparing it to a Model S is ok in the sense that you _can_ compare a Cessna 172 to a Learjet, but why? Different markets, different price points.

It's more like comparing economy class with business class.

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

#152

Post by slededit »

Xylakant wrote: post #121
patrickk wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sluggish acceleration or below par top speed isn't a perception problem on the Autobahn, it's a real problem. It's completely practical to drive long distances at high speeds because of the well-maintained road surface and well-maintained cars. There are plenty of stretches of the Autobahn with no speed limits. This is a common scenario: you're in the middle lane, and a particularly slow driver is in the middle lane…

lack of torque and sluggish acceleration are an issue that is unrelated to a top speed that is artificially limited for whatever reason. Electric cars tend to have vastly superior torque and acceleration at the same horse power rating. They are perfectly usable on the autobahn. you're attacking a point that I never made.

Motors lose torque as speed increases, its a fundamental limitation caused by back-EMF. ICE engines tend to have peak torque at several thousand RPM depending on their design. Therefore while electric motors are much better accelerating from a stop they are not as suited for providing torque at high speeds.

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

#153

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…

This is pretty amazing timing. Sometime between when you wrote this comment and when I'm writing this reply, Tesla opened a supercharger in Columbia, SC. Not even kidding. I guess they agreed with your assessment!

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

#154

Post by _ph_ »

greglindahl wrote: post #144
_ph_ wrote: post #59

Great to see a really middle class electrical vehicle coming to the market with a good range. The big question though is: how many of them does GM plan to make? I have read that the first year production is planned to be 30k units with a possible extension to 50k units later on. That would be rather small numbers compared to what Tesla today sells and especially to the 400k preorders for the Model 3. I hope, that GM…

LG apparently has enough battery capacity that GM could make more, but I suspect GM doesn't have a good idea of how many they could sell. If you look on the Internets, you can see quite a few complaints about the Nissan Leaf buying experience: dealers are chock full of salespeople who do not understand electric cars. That will take time to fix.

Is there any information about their total battery production capacity?

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

#155

Post by brightball »

mikeash wrote: post #153
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…

This is pretty amazing timing. Sometime between when you wrote this comment and when I'm writing this reply, Tesla opened a supercharger in Columbia, SC. Not even kidding. I guess they agreed with your assessment!

That's just weird.

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

#156

Post by sliken »

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…

Maybe because you don't want the cost, complexity, and weight of having two completely different drive trains?

As chevy shows with the CotY you can make a hell of a car if you design a car for electric and invest the weight/savings in the better electric car. Why carry around a complete drive train for the 5% case when that you could invest in the electric side for the 100% case.

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

#157

Post by sliken »

ams6110 wrote: post #69
Vik1ng wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lOV6PdVQbk Consumer Reports touches a bit on that. One advantage is for example that you don't have to worry about the maintenance and reliability of the combustion engine.

FTA: The battery is expected to last the life of the Bolt EV, and it’s covered by an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty. 100,000 miles is not remarkable for cars made in the last decade at least. Most will go 100,000 miles easily with only routine fluid changes. Granted that may be more than what an EV needs but it's not something most people really "worry" about. None of my current cars are less than 10 years old and…

So it's warrantied for 100k miles, not that it's going to die at 100,001. Are any of your cars warrantied for more than $100k?

Not like the battery is expoxied in and you can't replace it.

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

#158

Post by pmarreck »

JBReefer wrote: post #108
rdm42116 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still too much, when you could probably lease a civic for way less

Is it less than you pay {Civic monthly lease + (Civic Monthly Gas Cost - Bolt Electricity Cost)}?? Honest question! It seems like a critical mark for GM to hit with such an odd looking vehicle.

> odd looking vehicle

On this note, why is it that EVERY EV (except for the Tesla) has to "look a little weird" or "make a design statement"?

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

#159

Post by pmarreck »

metamet wrote: post #66
pmarreck wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla will inevitably be a battery company because battery energy density, charge time and cost are the #1 things holding back electric vehicles from prime-time, and because of the huge investment into Gigafactory. I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla ends up licensing their battery tech and that supercharging becomes a standard.

Isn't the the whole purpose behind https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you ?

One would think, but has anyone actually taken them up on these? Perhaps no one else wants to swallow their pride and realize that Tesla took the lead, here.

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

#160

Post by bane »

avar wrote: post #16

The article only briefly touches on this, but LG Korea is a huge part of this. They make the motor, battery & drivetrain, basically everything that makes this car an electric car. Chevrolet is just manufacturing the parts that would be mostly identical to any of their other cars. Rather than Tesla being worried about Chevrolet, I think they'd be more worried about the likes of LG & Samsung in the longer term.

I think there's a good comparison to make to other tech industries. LG, Samsung, etc. used to just be memory manufacturers, or just display panel makers, but over time they've come to make all the parts of computing devices and now are major competitors to older, more established players.

AFAIK, LG doesn't get involved in medium and heavy industries like ship building, but Samsung (now Samsung-Renault) has made cars in the past. Knowing that the Chaebols like to use a "fast-follow" approach, once electric cars become commonplace, it would be a fairly small lift for any given Korean car maker (Hyundai/Kia, Samsung, etc.) to engage with the existing supply chain and just put some product out.

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