Chevy
-
The battery packs of most modern electric cars are far different than those in your mobile phone or other portable devices. In most cases, they include hundreds or thousands of cells, arranged into modules, and usually surrounded by channels containing liquid coolant to keep the battery in its desired temperature range. Now a new video shows exactly what the inside of a Chevy Bolt EV's 60-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion pack looks like—and how it's arranged. DON'T MISS: Tearing down the Tesla Model S battery pack: video (Mar 2017) The presenter is John Kelly, a professor in the Auto...
-
Is this the country's first Chevrolet Bolt EV police car? (updated with video)
Using electric cars as police vehicles has some distinct advantages. Among them are near-silent operation, maximum acceleration from 0 rpm, and a novelty factor that can lead to friendly, beneficial interactions between officers and citizens. Now, the small Maryland city of Hyattsville, a suburb of...
John Voelcker -
Chevy Bolt EV electric car range and performance in winter: one owner's log
The arrival of the first affordable long-range electric car on the market has naturally led some owners to push the car in a way that they might not do with a plug-in car offering just 80 miles of battery range. The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, EPA-rated at 238 miles combined, removes most daily range...
John Voelcker -
Changing tires on Chevy Bolt EV electric car: your range, grip, and noise may vary
One of the many tactics used by carmakers to boost efficiency in their vehicles is fitting low-rolling-resistance tires. Specially designed to reduce the energy wasted as heat from the friction between the tire and the road, these tires can boost efficiency by a few percentage points in an electric...
John Voelcker -
New 2019 Chevy Silverado pickup: planned for all powertrain types
Vehicle launches at auto shows include a dance between automakers, which only want certain information revealed, and journalists, who want to put specific news items into a bigger and broader context. For the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado pickup unveiling Saturday night, Chevy's executives and engineers...
John Voelcker -
Electric car buyers' struggle: practicality vs luxury, Chevy vs Tesla
Competition for the title of most popular electric car has sparked a long and highly charged race between Tesla and Chevrolet. Though these brands offer vastly different versions of electric vehicles, they seem to be the two dominating electric vehicle sales in 2017. Reports show that top monthly...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
General Motors has informed "a few hundred" owners of 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars that their cars could suffer from a problem with the lithium-ion battery pack that could cause it to fail without warning. The cars were among the very earliest Bolt EVs produced for public sale, so are likely concentrated in California and perhaps Oregon, where the car first went on sale last December. The specific problem is a malfunction in one or more of the 288 battery cells that delivers incorrect data to the battery management system. DON'T MISS: First 2017 Chevy Bolt EV electric cars sold today...
-
Chevy Bolt EV reviewed by BMW i3 driver: electric cars compared
Owners of specific electric cars sometimes tend to become boosters and fans for their particular EV as well as plugging in to drive in general. So it was with Tom Moloughney, whose purchase of the very first 2014 BMW i3 REx range-extended electric car in the U.S. he wrote about for us three years...
John Voelcker -
Chevy Bolt EV user interface: reviewer calls it best of any electric car
The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV is an amazing, long-range electric vehicle that won multiple awards for good reason. Driving the EV for an extended test for the first time, it’s obvious this is the future of driving. (Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently predicted that 50 percent of new cars will be...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
Chevy Bolt EV plant shutdown extended, due to slow Sonic sales (updated)
One of the biggest tests of an automaker's discipline is what it does when sales start to ebb and inventories of unsold cars swell. Does it keep the production lines churning, and dial up its incentives to keep new-vehicle deliveries flowing? Or does it prioritize profitability and suspend...
John Voelcker -
Electric-car road trip: lessons learned in Chevy Bolt EV over 1,300 miles
Launched in December, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV is the first mass-priced electric car to go on sale with a rated range of more than 200 miles: 238 miles combined, according to the EPA. Most owners use their Bolt EVs for daily commuting and trips, just like any other car. But road trips are an...
John Voelcker -
Bolt EV electric car sales after 6 months: how do they compare?
Last month, 1,642 Chevrolet Bolt EV 238-mile battery-electric hatchbacks found buyers, enough to take the Bolt's six-month aggregate to 7,592 deliveries all told. It was the latest and highest in a string of rising monthly delivery totals for the 238-mile battery electric hatchback, and it marked...
John Voelcker -
The idea of performance and electric cars normally don't go hand in hand, unless the topic is a Tesla Model S P90 D. Outside of that one high-performance electric vehicle, casual electric cars are hardly the racer's choice, but one owner felt otherwise. Brian Ro, the owner of a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, recently decided his electric car was in need of a track day. DON'T MISS: South's good ol' boy drag racers whupped by Tesla, not happy about it So, he brought the Bolt EV to an autocross event to see what the electric car was made of. Autocross takes place in an empty space made up of winding...
-
Drive a Chevy Bolt EV electric car 313 miles on a charge: here's how
Electric-car range is a funny thing. It is rated by the EPA, and most people focus on that combined figure, though an individual's use may greatly affect the car's actual range. Gentle drivers who drive mostly at lower speeds can greatly outdo that combined range, while steady driving at maximum...
John Voelcker -
Yes, ads for the Chevy Bolt EV electric car do actually exist; here's one
The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV isn't yet available in all states, but it's been on sale in California for six months now. While Chevy has said all along it will market the 238-mile electric car in a very targeted way, specifically trying to reach people similar to existing owners, it may have expanded...
John Voelcker -
Driving a Chevy Bolt EV electric car halfway across the U.S.: what it takes
How badly do you want a new, affordable, long-range electric car? Badly enough to drive it more than 800 miles without a unified fast-charging infrastructure? That's exactly what Bill Massmann, a professional land surveyor in St. Louis, Missouri, did to become the proud owner of a new 2017...
John Voelcker -
Self-driving Chevy Bolt EV electric test cars to be deployed
It's widely acknowledged that most, if not all, of the autonomous vehicles expected to reach our roads in volume will be electric cars. Without the complexity of a combustion engine and transmission that must be electromechanically controlled, the task of automating the driving of a vehicle is...
John Voelcker -
Chevy Bolt EV: nationwide sales moved up to August for electric car
A slow Chevrolet Bolt EV rollout across the U.S. has frustrated electric-car advocates in many states toward the end of the list. While the first Bolt EVs were delivered in California last December, the last group wasn't scheduled to receive their cars until September. Now GM has moved that up by a...
John Voelcker -
It's one of the most common questions among electric-car buyers: what happens if the battery fails? The answer is that all electric-car batteries are warranted against failure for either 8 years/100,000 miles or 10 years/150,000 miles, depending on which state you live in. The followup is often: OK, then, what does a battery cost once my car's out of warranty? Isn't it going to be really expensive? DON'T MISS: Nissan Leaf New Battery Cost: $5,500 For Replacement With Heat-Resistant Chemistry (Jun 2014) We've known the answer to that question for the original 2011-2014 Nissan Leaf electric car...
-
2017 Chevy Bolt EV electric car at 6 months: owner's likes, recommendations
The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV is the first mass-priced electric car with a range of more than 200 miles, and it's already had a big impact on the California market. While it continues to trickle into dealerships in other states, a few lucky Californians now have six months in the 238-mile electric...
John Voelcker -
Chevy Bolt EV costs $28,700 to build, Tesla Model 3 a bit higher: analysis
The costs and prices of electric cars are endlessly debated, not only among owners and advocates but within the industry itself. The cost per kilowatt-hour of electric-car batteries is closely held, with a few notable exceptions. One of those was the statement by GM product chief Mark Reuss that...
John Voelcker -
Low-budget Chevy Bolt EV dealer ad normalizes electric cars
Ah, local car-dealer ads on television. You've likely seen them, usually during the local ad minute on national shows, often late at night or in the cheaper slots. They're mostly formulaic, but each one mixes several elements for its own unique blend of attention-grabbing pitch. DON'T MISS: This...
John Voelcker -
This family has two Chevy Bolt EV electric cars, uses no gas at all
The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV is the first mass-priced electric car to offer a range of more than 200 miles, something previously offered only by pricey Tesla luxury cars. Initially put on sale last December in California, the 238-mile Bolt EV is slowly rolling out across the country and will be on...
John Voelcker -
2018 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid carries over with few changes (updated)
It appears that Chevy isn't following its own precedent as the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid enters its third model year. In the past, the Volt received a battery upgrade every other year that provided it with increasingly more electric range—but that's not the case for the largely unchanged...
Andrew Ganz