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The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

bloomberg.com

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Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#21

Post by sfeng »

drewg123 wrote: post #15

One of the Bolt’s best features is a regenerative braking paddle behind the wheel, which simultaneously slows the car and recharges the battery when pulled. So their tech is so crude that there is no regenerative braking built into the standard floor mounted brake pedal? Even my 2006 Prius does regenerative braking based of the brake pedal, with no need for such hacks. Is there any fast recharge system for these? Eg,…

The regen built into pedals feels strange to people not used to it. As does the regen which activates when you lift your foot off the gas. This was not done because they're incompetent, it was done to create a car which is more intuitive to people not used to electric cars.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#22

Post by mars4rp »

kr7 wrote: post #20

If GM loses $9,000 on a $30,000 sale, that puts production costs at $39,000. The battery costs $9,000, so the car without the battery costs $30,000 to make. The Sonic starts at $15,000, which seems to be the ICE equivalent of the Bolt. Are they counting R&D costs? If not, why would Bolt cost $15,000 more (not counting the battery) than the Sonic? Is GM selling the Sonic at a $15,000 loss?

the MSRP is $37500, they are counting the federal grant too !

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#23

Post by codeulike »

5ilv3r wrote: post #11
torinmr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where'd you get +20 miles from? The Leaf has a 108 mile range, the Bolt has a 238 mile range - that's a huge difference.

I must have misheard the sales guy when I test drove one. Thought he said 180.

Depends whether your talking NEDC range (European standard) which is always wildly over optimistic, or EPA range (USA) which is actually pretty accurate. 30kwh Leaf gets about 110 miles which is roughly it's EPA rating (I drive one).

Be very skeptical of European manufacturers talking about their EV range in press releases, they are usually talking NEDC.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#24

Post by TYPE_FASTER »

drewg123 wrote: post #15

One of the Bolt’s best features is a regenerative braking paddle behind the wheel, which simultaneously slows the car and recharges the battery when pulled. So their tech is so crude that there is no regenerative braking built into the standard floor mounted brake pedal? Even my 2006 Prius does regenerative braking based of the brake pedal, with no need for such hacks. Is there any fast recharge system for these? Eg,…

More info: https://electrek.co/2016/09/06/gm-bolt-ev-one-pedal-driving-...

tl;dr - no, the paddle is for an additional regen braking mode that regen brakes harder than letting off the gas without using the physical brakes.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#25

Post by woofyman »

FussyZeus wrote: post #8

Tesla proved that eco-minded cars didn't need to be ugly, yet ALL other manufacturers continue to produce only ugly cars (they don't get points for bootstrapping hybrid models of existing cars). I am amazed none of the other purveyors of electric cars have managed to figure this out. Even the BMW offering ranks high on the "God what the hell" scale in terms of its design. The Prius started this stupid trend of cars f…

It's marketing.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#26

Post by 5ilv3r »

sfeng wrote: post #21
drewg123 wrote: post #15

One of the Bolt’s best features is a regenerative braking paddle behind the wheel, which simultaneously slows the car and recharges the battery when pulled. So their tech is so crude that there is no regenerative braking built into the standard floor mounted brake pedal? Even my 2006 Prius does regenerative braking based of the brake pedal, with no need for such hacks. Is there any fast recharge system for these? Eg,…

The regen built into pedals feels strange to people not used to it. As does the regen which activates when you lift your foot off the gas. This was not done because they're incompetent, it was done to create a car which is more intuitive to people not used to electric cars.

I've never heard of an efficiency enhancing feature not being automatic. That would be like overdrive defaulting to off, or having to manually enable cylinder deactivation. People would use it more if it was in the pedal's logic.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#27

Post by brohoolio »

vvanders wrote: post #12
Qub3d wrote: post #2

The Title of the actual article already points out why GM still hasn't "beaten Tesla to the punch": The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the (Very Near) Future. Tesla has a fanclub because they're making electric cars into a sports brand. Motor Trend asked a bunch of current Tesla owners (and model 3 reservees) what they thought of it. The general consensus was "moving in the right direction, but not enough to make me s…

There's also the supercharger network which is often glossed over but pretty critical when you're considering it as a primary car.

Honestly I'd probably rent a car if I need to drive far enough that I have to use the super charger network.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#28

Post by vvanders »

sfeng wrote: post #21
drewg123 wrote: post #15

One of the Bolt’s best features is a regenerative braking paddle behind the wheel, which simultaneously slows the car and recharges the battery when pulled. So their tech is so crude that there is no regenerative braking built into the standard floor mounted brake pedal? Even my 2006 Prius does regenerative braking based of the brake pedal, with no need for such hacks. Is there any fast recharge system for these? Eg,…

The regen built into pedals feels strange to people not used to it. As does the regen which activates when you lift your foot off the gas. This was not done because they're incompetent, it was done to create a car which is more intuitive to people not used to electric cars.

If you've ever driven a manual car it's totally intuitive.

Also incredibly easy to put behind a toggle(including creep) which Tesla does.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#29

Post by acchow »

FussyZeus wrote: post #8

Tesla proved that eco-minded cars didn't need to be ugly, yet ALL other manufacturers continue to produce only ugly cars (they don't get points for bootstrapping hybrid models of existing cars). I am amazed none of the other purveyors of electric cars have managed to figure this out. Even the BMW offering ranks high on the "God what the hell" scale in terms of its design. The Prius started this stupid trend of cars f…

I can't understand the chain of events that happened in BMW to arrive at the i3 design.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#30

Post by photogrammetry »

codeulike wrote: post #17
FussyZeus wrote: post #8

Tesla proved that eco-minded cars didn't need to be ugly, yet ALL other manufacturers continue to produce only ugly cars (they don't get points for bootstrapping hybrid models of existing cars). I am amazed none of the other purveyors of electric cars have managed to figure this out. Even the BMW offering ranks high on the "God what the hell" scale in terms of its design. The Prius started this stupid trend of cars f…

The Nissan Leaf looks about the same as other Nissan cars - check out the Note or Juke. And I think the Bolt looks fine. You just have a weird fear of hatchbacks in the USA.

The LEAF looks way better than the Juke.
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