Thanks for watching and for your comment. We're pretty zen about the trade-offs we made for the vast benefits we felt we got from the Bolt EUV. We love using wireless Android Auto and Apple Carplay and we ultimately didn't consider any vehicles that didn't have that (including Teslas). The EUV also beat everyone in affordability but glad you like what you have - that's really the goal for all of us. Edited to add: Tesla only opened up about a dozen of their chargers for non-Teslas and none were on our route. We'd love to try charging at one but we have to get there first. Hope they open up more 🤞

Thank you!

Get a real EV, go Tesla, no hassle.

​@@trex2092 only thing good about tesla is charging. Cars are unreliable with crappy build quality.

⁠​⁠@@Notoproject2025 You obviously don't own one. All the maintenance I've performed on mine is add windshield washer fluid during the past 5 yrs.

Maybe they didn’t want to wait a year for delivery, or buy a car that only a handful of locations can repair. Lots of reasons NOT to buy a Tesla. I bought an EV three years ago myself, it’s Korean.

Very much THIS. Also the faster chargers only work on vehicles that can accept the faster charge rates. Every EV is different so you need to know your car. Using a 350KVa charger on a car that can only accept a 100 would not charge it any faster. Hope the OP are enjoying their new vehicle.

wow, just confirms what I and many others think of going electric. Great report btw. So for me, my trips to FL are 14 hours from OH to the panhandle, using good old fashioned ICE vehicles. Usually do this in one day, easy, only pulling over for fuel and food, maybe 4 - 6 short stops in all... With the short range and lengthy charging times required and add the surprizing unreliability of these stations = HIGH RANGE ANXIETY. So my take away from your report is my 1 day trip is now 3 days, long days with long shopping excursions at coffee shops, restaurants and walmarts which equals even more $$ not to mention additional hotel overnight expenses. This may explain why many with EVs also have their trip vehicle, the large, thursty Suburbans, Tahoes and Excursions. Add the cost of these charging locations, doubt there is much saving on energy costs as well. Until this tech reaches well over 400 miles range, EVs will largely remain a niche vehicle for short commutes that can be reliably charged at each end of the commute. That said, from what I have researched, the Bolt seems like a real value buy that is fun to drive and built with good quality, and may just maybe have a place in my driveway used for my 125mile twice a week commute. Of course next to the Escalade, CTS and Avalanche.

@Jeff & Jody Auman Not quite as bad as you indicate. The bolt is the second worse "long trip" vehicle ive seen but is a good local commuter vehicle. I went from NY to Miami and the trip took 2 hours more in my tesla than i previously had done in my gas Acura. And there are MANY other cars that charge even faster than Tesla. But reliability of the stations is a real thing. An EV may not be for everyone but with a different EV it would not take 3days to go from Ohio to the Florida pan handle.

@@omarastacio3939 It's not even that bad in a Bolt. I have driven from MD to MI in my Bolt. That's about 750 miles. I can do that in a day. I prefer to take two days if I'm the only one driving, but I have done it in a day. From MI to FL is about 1,000 miles, depending on the exact starting and finishing lines. That could easily be done in two days. These nice folks are new to EV road-tripping and didn't realizer that they should drive further down into the pack and not charge to 100%. They probably could have cut their charging time in half, if not more.

@@jmcbrew Glad to hear it. Some people are just going to hate.

So glad you enjoyed the video. Totally agree that the focus on each leg (hour or so) makes the trip feel faster!

Thank you so much for your comment! We're so glad you found our videos helpful. We actually plan on doing another ride to Michigan and back at some point this year so we'll see what has changed in a year+...

Thank you for watching the video and for your comments! We're with you on the perspective of being early adopters with the still early days of EV roll out. We're also fortunate to have the time to take our time.

😂 horse and wagon

Oh! The reason we went electirc is I have a friend who purchased a Tesla Model S in 2013. He drives it from Melbourne to Daytona 4 times per week. He has over 500,000 miles. Only had to replace the brakes 2 times and tires. Original battery was recalled at around 50,000 miles but this batters bank just keeps on going.

I appreciate your comments - thank you! We're keeping to the 20/80 but 30/70 sounds right for Level 1 charging. It's funny too that, just like a gas car, you don't need to fuel up every day if you're running around your own town mostly.

Thank you!

Thanks so much for watching and for your comment!

Thank you so much for your comments and we're so glad you found the video helpful. We just re-did our I-75 trip and the charging network has definitely improved! Good luck in your travels!

Thanks for your comment. You're welcome. It was fun to make!

This is why in my opinion every single ev car manufacturer needs to go in together on a fund to put level 2 chargers at every apartment and condo if they really want electric vehicles to succeed

@@justinjones6810 I like this idea. Some sort of consortium of automotive companies and maybe local governments and maybe charging services providers?

I'm glad you liked it and your comments are spot on. 93% of our nights in the year we'll be charging at home.

We had a Volt as a temporary driver for a couple of months and we wanted to buy one but at that time we were in a condo with no access to charging at all so it just didn't make sense. That said, I'm glad we took the plunge to full electric, for a few different reasons.

honestly this is an edge case for this particular model. Hopefully most buyers will be aware of the slow charging speeds (most EVs are faster) and will either compromise with a slower trip, or arrange around hotels with slower overnight chargers. Or just live with it for local driving. The affordability of this car is its killer feature. It should not be considered any kind of benchmark to decide whether you can live with an EV generally though. I’m sure this channel was aware of the limitations and it meets their needs despite that.

​​@@MrKlawUKjust bought a 23 bolt EV, the range is amazingI've had short range (50-90 mile) EVs for almost 5 years, mostly commuting, absolutely worth any trade-off.

I'm glad you found our video helpful.

Should be possible even in a Bolt. I just got back from an Ohio to Florida and back road trip in my Bolt and it was only 20hr 30mins each way. Did it in one shot on the way down and one shot on the way back up. 1,025 or so miles each way. If we had stopped halfway and slept at a hotel from 8pm-8am, total travel time would still only be 32hr 30mins, which is hours lower than your current time anyway. Hope this data point also helps!

exactly.... taking this long to get to Florida and having to spend $$$$$ on hotels is insane.

Thanks for your comment Vlad. We probably will take the trip again and my husband did have Apollo Career Center as a back up. When we drove up we scoped it out but I forgot to take a picture of it so I didn't include it in the video. Thanks for mentioning it.

The Apollo DCFC has been intermittently offline lately, I wouldn’t rely on it

Thanks! Good to know.

@@paradisetoday- a bit longer - but more comfortable - trip (in a Bolt) is to parallel I-75 between Toledo and Dayton. There are EA chargers on the Ohio Turnpike E and W of Toledo. If you took a route through the Eastbound turnpike chargers and then south through Tiffin toward Columbus, the charger spacing is better, essential when it’s cold. As you get more comfortable with your Bolt and find regional chargers which are working most of the time, for the best charging throughput, try to space the chargers about 100 miles apart, and run between 10% and 60 or 70%. As you found, non Tesla charging along I-75 through Ohio and Kentucky is quite the challenge. You should rent a Tesla and try the same trip - better charger spacing, battery preheat capability, and 2-4x charging speed. Enjoy your Bolt!

So glad you found it helpful!

Thanks for watching and very glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you!

Not a real world experience if you drive a Tesla

Really glad you liked the video. Ours came fully charged too. We actually used to live close to that area - many years ago so we drove around a bit visiting some old haunts and that's why it needed charging.

@Paradise Today we're from Lansing. We called around to make sure the dealer wouldn't charge more than MSRP. One huge mistake: our local utility offered a $1000 rebate to install a level two charger (offering 7 cents per kWh). But it had to be hard wired and on a separate meter. All told that cost $3700. And on top of that, the cost is 13 cents, and there's a meter fee extra! With our efficient EUV and being retired, we'll never recoup that cost. Still learning at 69, lol.

@Liz Burgess Ugh! That stinks and I hate when that kind of stuff happens 😭 We were lucky that our installation was fully paid for by GM with our Bolt EUV purchase. We plan on doing a video for the electric install in a few weeks.

Thank you!

Most evs really slow down over 80%. Unless you need it to get to your next charge, there is really no reason to go over 80%. You just tske a lot of time and clog up the machines for others

What year Bolt do you have? I just tested my '22 EUV on a DCFC today and from 90-97% I got 13-9kW. Battery temps were 20C exact.

Stopping after only 90 minutes to stretch your legs? Yeah that’s about 2 hours too soon.

Thank you! Average, Average, Average. 8:56 bailing. I drive an eeeeevil diesel. Fill the tank. Drive 900 miles. Fill the tank. Drive 200 miles. Done.

surprised i had to scroll this far into comments to find someone else thinking the same i was

@@xiaoka yup....

Thank you for watching and commenting!

@@paradisetoday Thank you for putting up this video. Your narrative was also very engaging. I know from experience it takes a lot of time (editing and reviewing). Still looking at a Chevy Bolt EUV. Would love to buy a Tesla - but they are so expensive!

Thanks for the compliment! Yes - the videos take a lot of work so it's nice to hear that people appreciate them!

Thank you!

It seems like the infrastructure is going to get there so fingers crossed!

Its been available for years: Tesla

If you bought a Tesla no issues

You're welcome!

Me too. Same Audi hybrid as Rian Pelger. I use the EV only while doing errands in town, and use the battery save mode on the freeway.

@RianPelger I'm glad you found the video helpful.

Thank you and, yes, we've found that to be the case. We plan on doing another trip to Michigan and back so the next video will address that and we'll skip some of the charging stations.

It would be nice to just have a 120v outlet and a nominal daily fee too. Won't do much in a hurry but a kW is a kW.

Saw a Tesla in Helen Georgia with a regular extension cord hanging out the 2nd floor room to their car. That’s crazy

@@Thisishard2333, crazy? Or practical?

I think I'd settle for a massive Banks of level 1 charging. I stayed at a nice hotel with parking reserved for "clean air" vehicles which was abused and they refused to enforce it.

We actually bought ours to be our car for everything - even long distance trips. We know the limitations of it. We're just optimistic that the charging infrastructure is coming 🤞

It does short road trips well 200-400 miles

Thank you - I appreciate your comment!

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed the video!

This video gives people the wrong idea about road trips in a BEV. A bolt is just the wrong EV for road trips. Slow charging and having to only use CCS charging. I bought a Tesla last summer and have completed two 4k road trips and one 3. 5k road trip. First I don't have to stop every few hours and second It does not take over an hour to charge. Also I don't have to plan my charging stops. The Tesla route planner does it for me. I just tell it where I want to go. It will tell me where to stop, when I will arrive at each stop and how long I will be there to charge.

Should have got a Tesla, loaded with power and better TECH. Super Chargers ROCK.

If you had a Tesla you would know how many are not working and which ones are not working. Another reason to buy a Tesla for road trips.

@@trex2092 Or they could have gotten TWO Bolts for the price of a Tesla and always had the other one charged and ready to go.

I would go100% for road trips to start & on long braks ir overnights, but not letting the batteries sit for long periods at 100%. Silver 2023 LT2

Thanks for your comment. We do have a detailed spreadsheet with cost, etc that we will be putting into a future video on our reasons for switching to electric. FWIW - on average public charging cost us about the same as our gas vehicle trip on the way up to Michigan. We didn't do any free charging but the two we saw available were Level 2 only.

@@paradisetoday Thank you for the informative video... you are wonderful for sharing your experience... but, (there's always a but), with all due respect, if electric recharging costs "roughly" the same as gasing your car, but you have to hunt to find rechargers, and recharging takes 3 to 4 times longer than gasing your vehicle (be it ICE, HEV or PHEV), I see no advantage what-so-ever for taking a road trip with an EV. I can see the short commute benefits while recharging at home with an EV, but road trips are nothing but downsides and headaches compared to any other type of vehicle. Once again, great video... but aside from a "project to see how it goes", I just can't see the upside to using an EV for a cross-country road trip. Commute to work, sure... but road trip... NOPE.

I agree - it's not difficult to know when a charger is down because of the app so the charging company should get on it right away. To be fair though, gas pumps are broken all the time too - it's just that there are so many more of them. We're hoping and expecting to see the infrastructure for electric cars grow.

I'm glad you liked the video. We're retired and plan on traveling a lot in the next 10 years so I guess we are gluttons for punishment 😂

I did over-simplify that statement in the video but there are a lot of factors that contribute to charge rate variability including temperature, charge stations, battery condition and level of charge. We're going to do a video in the future to update our experiences.

You're welcome. I'm glad you found my video helpful.

Thank you! And thanks for watching!

They did when ICE cars first came out. We’re still in the EARLY days of adoption.

You must be younger. I've had plenty of gas station adventures 😅 In the late 80s you could easily run out of gas on certain highways because you couldn't always trust those road gas signs. I once drove 5 miles off the highway on fumes to a gas station that was advertised but was out of business. There wasn't any internet then.

Thank you! Our very next video is going to be about a Disney trip we just took but the one after that will be about our Bolt purchase so stay tuned!

If you actually add up the time of driving to a gas station and filling your tank and driving back the way you wanted to go, versus taking 5 seconds to plug in your vehicle at home before you go to bed, it’s a real time saver. Plus way less oil changes and maintenance, etc. But believe what you will. Most people average 20 miles of driving a day 😊

​@@greentransmission And $2K for a home charger really saves you a lot

@@rickweaver7997 Chevrolet pays for installation of a 240v outlet and it comes with a 110v/240v charger. I have a Nissan Leaf and charge it with the 110v charger it came with.

@@greentransmission Didn't know that, ty. Just out of curiosity I checked install costs and generally $1500 but may be higher if electrical panel has to be upgraded, additional labor, permit etc.

@@rickweaver7997 yeah, they pay up to $1500 which is pretty cool!

We bought our Bolt for around town and road trips. We plan on doing more videos of our travels.

Thank you for watching and for your comments and agree with your points about charging. Actually our next video is going to be about how often we've needed to go beyond our max range in the time that we've owned our Bolt EUV. It wasn't often.

Thank you for watching and for your comment! Those are very helpful details on speed vs. kilowatt usage from your friend and it's similar to what we've found.

I think improvements are coming and our Bolt is really one of the slower DC charging vehicles but affordability and Super Cruise really mattered to us. DC fast charging was not a major factor in our decision. All EVs have the same charging speeds at home (Level 1 or 2 AC charging).

@@paradisetoday that's true about charging at home when you can sleep for hours while charging. Road trips are another thing.

​@@paradisetoday you and your husband did a good job Don't let the Tesla fan boys discourage you on making your purchase Tesla has the best charging network out there but their fanboys think Tesla is the holy Grail and can't do no wrong and everybody else's are idiots if they don't buy a Tesla. As long as you are happy that's all that matters.

are*

People that waste their money on Bolts are just Brand Zombies, totally clueless to what a Tesla can provide. They have blinders on and obviously never test drove a real EV, Tesla.

It was painful to watch the suffering these poor creatures had to endure in a "Dolt". Should have got a Tesla.

@@trex2092 Hasn't caught fire yet...that's a plus !

@@trex2092 The Bolt has its place in the marketplace. The ideal mission is as a second vehicle in a household where the other vehicle - whether it be an ICE vehicle or an electric road tripper like a Tesla or Hyundai/Kia - is the household vehicle for longer trips. The Bolts are actually great vehicles - loaded with features at an excellent price. Frankly, I wish my Y had ventilated seats and a ‘stitched’ camera bird’s eye view for parking instead of that embarrassingly bad park assist feature Tesla just released in the .69 software update.

Thank you for your comment. Interested to use the Tesla chargers if they open up more of them. We love our Bolt but we hope newer GM EV models mean better features.

You're welcome!

Thank you for your comments. The planning is so important in these still early days of the infrastructure build out. We're seeing signs of more electric chargers being installed locally so hopefully it's just a matter of time...

@@paradisetoday Right now EV's are in the Model-T era. The next few years will see a massive increase in the necessary infrastructure. Once people get a chance to start test driving EV's and sales increase, the prices will drop and the sales will skyrocket. It will take a few years but it will totally change the way people drive.

Well said . This would be a nightmare to find a charge. They turn off the heater Ho Lee Chit. Comfort not exactly.

Who would do that….

Most people plan where they will charge before a trip to avoid that kind of thing.

Imagine getting out of your car to fill up your gas tank in East Detroit at 3am.

It actually wasn't frustrating for us at all. There are A LOT of considerations going into buying a vehicle and we bought the one we wanted after having done all the research and taking our preferences into consideration.

@@paradisetoday I think the Bolt EUV is a excellent city car, but for folks with less patience, not so great a road tripper. GM would have a winner on their hands if they could get that battery to DC fast charge at 150kW instead of only 50.

@@mowcowbell If they owned a Tesla, they would have paid double to charge. And you are completely lying about the time to charge at super chargers. More like 30 mins not 10 or 15. Yes, I drove a M3 for about 3 years. And gave that low quality tin-box to my teenage son, so he has a M3. And ALL EVs are great city cars. That's exactly why they were designed and developed. L2 charging at home and catering to the average driver of 40 to 50 miles per day. My Taycan has a 200 mile range and I charge it at home once a week. Never an issue. My wife's Etron has a 220 mile range. Same thing. L2 charging at home, no issues. These folks are installing a L2 charger at home and this EV will do EXACTLY what they purchased it to do. Also Elon makes more money on the charging than selling cars. Once Tesla owners starting L2 charging at home, Elon starting loosing, well not making as much money on super chargers, so he's opening them up to non-Teslas because its his cash-cow. Not for ANY other reason!

@@reb1225 I have 103k miles on my Model Y. TeslaFi data shows that I've supercharged 166 times at 43 different locations with an average stop time of 13 minutes. I live in the northeast, where it takes longer to charge in the winter too...which is why the time is averaging 13 minutes. So, while you enjoy your local drives, I can tell you that Mowcowbell is correct with the Tesla data when road tripping. I've got plenty of data to prove it.

@@TeslaDo_d Yes of course. If you’re only charging an average of 30 to 40% for each stop, then you should have lower than average stop times. DUH. Here’s some info for you, I have L2 charged at home for 9 cents per kWh offpeak (before my solar panels) and superchargers are about 28 cents per kWh. So, Elon is making more than 211% profit each time you "supercharge." And Tesla estimates another $25 billion per year PROFIT by opening up superchargers to non-Tesla owners. So YES, I do enjoy using my EVs for the exact purpose for which they were designed and developed, the average local driver and I've been doing this free for years. I’m stoked!

Thanks for your comment. There are plenty of products out there to satisfy all of us. We're all only responsible for choosing what works for us.

Glad you liked the video. I did mention in the video that it was 1,179 miles. We're working on an upcoming video that should be done in a few weeks about the cost of the trip.

@@paradisetoday thank you for the reply.

An hour per charge isn't the slowest believe it or not. Level 2 is many hours of charging and that's what we have for home charging. DC is only about an hour for charging.

@@paradisetoday sure but the bolt maxes out at at 55kW and for a lot of the charge curve it’s below that. Many new EVs top out at 250kW+ and make for 20 minute or so road tripping stops. If you’ve got the time and aren’t in a hurry though, kudos to you! :)

Thank you for your comment!

I'm glad you liked the video and we'll absolutely share the costs. We found the same issue you mentioned with away-from-home charging and we have a lot of data about our trip. We're putting everything in our next video which should be done in a week or two.

I disagree - I think the Bolt, mainly because ours has Super Cruise, is a great car for a road trip. It is for us.

Thanks for letting me know. Is that Tesla only so far?

We are loving nearly everything about it! We know we didn't necessarily have to charge for an hour at every stop but we did it out of an abundance of caution and because we had the time. The infrastructure is just not here yet but it's coming.

Unless you live in on the West Coast, where gasoline costs are currently over $6/gallon and diesel is even more! Lucky us.

Thanks for watching and for your comment!

Thanks for watching the video! Yes. Many charge stations automatically slow to Level 2 charge rates after 80%. We had little choice at the beginning of our trip due to the dearth of charge stations in that area and no one else was waiting.

@@paradisetoday I believe your vehicle limits the charge rate at high state of charge - not the charging station.

@@danlambesis1289 I think they both do it. When signing up for the apps for the charge stations they mention in the fine print that they will limit it once it gets to 80%.

​@@paradisetoday it's not the charge station limiting it but the vehicle - the more power you have in your battery the more you're going to lose to heat as you get above that 80% curve as the vehicle is going to protect itself and it's battery when DC fast charging

Nice! We were lucky and had our installation scheduled for just a few days after we got back from picking up the car. We considered the adapter too but my husband said he'd rather wait for them to roll it out. The infrastructure is definitely coming but you're right, who knows how many years we're looking at.

A tesla adapter only works with their destination level 2 machines a good accessory if you stop and overnight where those EVSE live but no help on road tripping. Looking forward to the expansion of the Magic Dock with Tesla Super Chargers

@@boomerbits2297 thanks for the info, I realized that while traveling at a couple of overnight stops which they only had Tesla Low-level Chargers on site and couldn't use them. Both times chargers were close by both EA, good thing at least one was working.

DC fast charging just isn't important to us.

@Gabor Herman Thanks for watching the video. We did add up the costs for the trip in this video here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/r9GSq8KLqrWmomQ.html

@jays1601 Thanks for your interest in our video. We did a follow up with the charging costs - see link: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/r9GSq8KLqrWmomQ.html

OK I see that right after this yall stuck with EA. But Jesus, I have no nails left to bite just from those first 6 minutes

@Antonio Zavarce There weren't any Electrify America stations on our route on I-75 from Michigan through Ohio. If you're talking about the EA on the Ohio Turnpike we didn't want to drive 30 minutes (i.e. 25 miles) out of our way and pay to get on the turnpike. We were concerned about the spotty availability the way we went but it worked out just fine. If you know of any I-75 Michigan/Ohio Electrify America stations north of Huber Heights OH please let me know.

Actually, for us, the trip in our electric vehicle cost the same as our gas vehicle. We stopped the same number of nights because we hate being in the car for hours. Some people love to bomb through road trips to get to their destination as soon as possible and good for them if that's what they enjoy.. That is not us though. Thanks for watching.

Yes! Lol - that's why we were shooting for 80% of charge because that final 20% is a trickle. My husband used to work in the auto industry so he had his finger on that stuff - thank goodness. That sounds like a fun trip - Gotta love those Frankenmuth chicken dinners!

@@paradisetoday On a Bolt, even 75-80%, charging is already slowing to a trickle. That's why I generally aim to have my long-distance charging stops go from around 15-20% to 60-65%. Of course, one could theoretically get even faster trip times by running the battery down further to use more of that fast charging at the bottom of the battery, but going too much below 20% starts to get risky, as it limits your options in case of broken chargers, missed exits, etc. So, I'll typically aim to charge up at around 15-20%, but adjust based on familiarity with the area and density of chargers. On the stretch of I-75 with very limited charging options, being extra cautious and charging up around 25-30% is probably warranted, even if it's slower. Conversely, if the charger I'm headed to is my home charger and the last 20 miles are filled with in-city DC fast chargers that I have personally used before and know that they work, I would feel comfortable running the battery down to around 10%. That said, even if I am over 80%, I will still plug into a charger if I need to stop anyway to use the bathroom. Any charge, even a slow charge, is still better than no charge. I also try very hard to avoid waiting for the car to charge to a very high SOC at a DC fast charger. Over 90-95%, a DCFC is effectively no faster than a level 2 anyway, so at that point, the focus should be on where's the best place to spend the time, not the charger's theoretical max charging speed. Even if software tools such as ABRP would argue otherwise, it is much better to be charging at 7 kW on a level 2 next to a touristy town center and riverfront park than to be charging at 10 kW on a "350 kW" Electrify America with nothing around except for a WalMart and parking lot, even if trip planner software would argue that the latter takes 15 minutes less charging time than the former.

But it would not have been cheaper on the environment. And once these folks have their L2 charger installed at home, they will pay about $10 to $15 bucks a week to charge depending on their driving habits. No visiting gas stations, no watching/worrying about fuel prices, no oil changes, no routine maintenance or routine dealer visits, no brake jobs. Imagine if you will, you had a gas pump in your home garage how convenient that would be. Well, that’s L2 charging! I have 3 EVs in our home and been driving EVs for almost 5 years now. Could not be happier!

Doing a rough estimate, our drive up with our good-gas-mileage car was about the same cost but, we didn't buy our electric car to save money on gas... I agree with REB and, if we WERE trying to save money on gas, mission accomplished because we will spend about 1/3 less on electricity versus gas costs.

Yes! These are points that I planned on making in our next Bolt video. We still didn't buy our Bolt for gas reasons but, there are definitely ancillary benefits to owning an electric car!

Thanks for watching the video. We considered the turnpike but we didn't want to drive out of our way to get there and we wanted to try out the chargers that were directly on the route. The Lyric looks like a great vehicle!