Bolt Blog #2: Driving Cross-Country in a Used Chevy Bolt: Not for the Faint of Heart (But It’s Doable!)
Hey there, it’s Victor Tran from the ReJoule team. You may remember me from such films blog posts as “Li-Ion, Fires, and Flares, Oh My” (link here). I’m here to share another tale from my experience as a Chevy Bolt driver.
In June 2021, my wife and I drove our Bolt across the country, from Richmond, VA to the San Francisco Bay area. This wasn’t a leisurely trip either. We were moving, so our car was packed to the brim with around 700 pounds of cargo (including my wife and me).
Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’m an open book, so if you have any questions, please ask away!
Good:
First thing’s first. Driving cross-country in a non-Tesla EV is very much doable. Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s impossible. With tools such as A Better Route Planner (ABRP), it’s actually quite easy to plan your route. I won’t speak too much about the app, but it allows you to set preferred charging networks, dictate a comfortable minimum State of Charge, and even input information about your estimated battery degradation. We had friends who were shocked we were making the trip, and it was fairly pain-free.
(Keyword: Estimated. Without a tool like ReJoule’s advanced Pack Grading Tool, it’s impossible to accurately gauge battery State of Health.)
Electrify America (EA) was great. I've seen some mixed reviews for EA, but my wife and I only encountered a couple of non-critical issues across 30+ charging stops, i.e. we were always able to charge – even in 100-degree heat. The monthly premium membership (a steal at $4) and relatively consistent nationwide pricing structure came in handy too, as it dropped our costs by a considerable margin compared to other well-known public charging networks. We just cancelled the membership after the road trip. Super easy.
Bad:
Simply put, it just wasn’t a good time. Our journey included a couple of fun stops to visit friends along the way, but the big driving days were absolute slogs: 16-17 hours total, with 5-6 charging stops that always took at least one hour. At some point, we also realized real-world charging rates don’t always mirror estimates. Combined with a self-imposed rule of never driving over 70 MPH (to conserve energy), our arrival times at charging stops were always several minutes off, which added up over the course of the day.
Of course, that timing was a factor of our compressed schedule and limitations of the Bolt’s battery pack capacity and peak charging rate. Taking a newer EV would be a lot more seamless (Mach-E or EV6, anyone?).
Thankfully, we were not “ICE’d” (when an internal combustion engine vehicle blocks an EV charger), but we did come close once in Kansas City. There was a Lamborghini parked in the charging spot, but the charging cable was long enough to just barely reach the spot next to it. Dear hotels… Please, please, please enforce the EV charging parking spots.
Speaking of parking, we didn’t encounter many other EVs over the course of the week at EA stations. I counted three Bolts, one Mach-E, and one Model 3. These days in California, I see EVs everywhere, but that really speaks to the different rates of adoption across the country.
Ugly:
I know it still falls under the definition of DC Fast Charging, but my goodness, the Bolt’s peak ~55kW rate is really slow. It usually took over an hour to get from 20-80% (roughly 30kWh). I knew it wasn’t a “road trip car,” but after experiencing this drive, I’m confident I would never do such a long trip in a Bolt again. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a great commuter car, but we’re going to save up to buy another car for longer trips.
Final thoughts:
Overall, we drove 3,200 miles, made 31 charging stops, spent almost 24 hours charging, paid $205 for energy, and averaged roughly $0.06 per mile (average for ICE cars is $0.15 – but gas prices are going up every day…).
I can’t help but feel excited for a world in which vehicle emissions become a thing of the past, and it felt great to drive across the country and know our vehicle was not producing emissions (the average ICE vehicle would produce 1315 grams of CO2 on a similar journey). Saving money was a welcome bonus too.
However, it’s clear we have a long way to go in many parts of the country. Charging stops were far and few between across the middle of America, and while my wife and I made it work (and enjoyed the overall process), I don’t think the average person wants to put in that much planning work (keep reading for a bonus) for a road trip – not when you don’t have to think about where/when to fuel up at all with an ICE car.
And sure, a road trip of any kind is an extraordinary scenario. Most people take one, maybe two, annually. But we buy cars for the possibilities, not our reality! If you could only own a single car (which is how it is for many people and families), you’d want it to be capable of every kind of trip you’d ever take.
Our current infrastructure needs to be improved to boost EV adoption, but it’s a tricky supply and demand problem. Chargers are expensive to build, and it doesn’t make a ton of sense if we don’t have many EVs on the road. But without chargers in place, how do we convince people to purchase EVs? And how do we ensure chargers are efficiently distributed across the country so that we don’t disincentivize large groups of people? Is battery swapping a valid idea? Could we use battery energy storage to add power where the grid infrastructure is lacking?
These are all pressing issues, but as we enter the age of all-electric mobility, I’m glad there is nonstop work being done to fix them.
Scattered thoughts (and a final bonus!):
We bought a Lectron Tesla L2 adapter to be safe. It converts Tesla L2 Destination Chargers to J1772 (which fits basically every non-Tesla EV), and while we only used it once, the peace of mind was well worth the cost. I highly recommend it.
Kansas feels flat, but it actually gradually increases in elevation from east to west. That’s the kind of mundane thing I never would have noticed if not for trying to maximize range on the Bolt. And now you know too. Hooray!
Check out my route planning spreadsheet! I know I went a bit overboard, but it includes calculations for range economy, estimated departure/arrival times, and more. The foundation is from ABRP.
For a clean version that you can use to plan your trips, click here!