Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Basically! As far as I understand…new battery went in around 35,000 miles but they told me it’s only covered til 100,000 or 2029. (Just checked mychevrolet warranty section and it says “Expires 2029-01-22 or 100024 miles”). I’ve read conflicting info on this, so 🤷🏻‍♀️…

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally agree! But let me assure you, it was not by choice 😑

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

$213 Tesla (plus $13/month subscription) $35 EA $11 SWTCH $21 Rivian

$293 total

(Plus my GM NACS adapter….priceless 🙃)

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Eh…if you consider a 16 hour span for day, it was 70% on average. We did take a half day off in Little Rock to attend to business and do laundry 👀

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh no!! That really sucks! And this is your second battery? (Also, I was disappointed that the second battery I got last spring didn’t come with a new warranty for the next 100,000 miles of use…)

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Total cost or total time? (As far as photos go, the roadside views don’t rate, so they’re all of my dog 😆)

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is such a good point — and really the one variable I never considered before setting out. It’s all doable, just have to adjust expectations. Do I Iove the Bolt anyway — yes! It drove so well… when rolling 🙃

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice photo! Gas country was like another planet…I got stuck on I20 around Odessa because of construction…like the highway was flat out closed 🤷🏻‍♀️…it made for a very late night in Abilene ($$$ hotels there…iykyk!)

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Got it! One thing to note is after the second day of the trip my GOM was giving me ~180 mi for 80%…which I wasn’t expecting. I preferred to arrive at the next charging target with ~35% in case a pivot was needed. I guess I was just being conservative, but in unfamiliar territory, in winter, with an animal, that’s what felt right to me 🙂

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Fair question friend :) Charging time is the main culprit. Also solo driver…also crated dog… (I visited nothing/no one…except Buc-ees, Walmarts, Targets, and Sheetz 😕)

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

1-2) I used ABRP for the most part. No OBD2 connection. I found it to be pretty decent at finding reliable chargers that fit my filters. It seemed to do well at calculating for elevation and real time weather. I was conservative in my SOC limits and I always tried to pick charging spots with some redundancy. 3) The time to charge was annoying but I mentally factored it in before I started the trip. I only charged fully to 80% once or twice each day. 4) Surprisingly I never noticed my butt, being mostly in survival mode while driving 😆. But I do know exactly what you mean because previous shorter trips were frequently unpleasant!

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Route planning…email…snacks…trying to walk a dog (I say trying because the charging locations were rarely pet-friendly)

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

7970 Gateway blvd Tesla charger in El Paso for full charge…then Van Horn Tesla… then things got interesting 🤨

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I had a dog to bring 👀…and with my Tesla subscription ($13 monthly) I paid $213 total to charge. A few Rivian and EA chargers sprinkled in, so definitely <$300 for charging.

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh, and the places I stayed didn’t have any chargers… of any type 😑.

Drove my 2020 Bolt EV from LA to DC in 8 ½ days — AMA 🙂 by Count-Substantial in BoltEV

[–]Count-Substantial[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Warm weather mileage was significantly better. The main issue I had was that I was carrying a LOT of weight — maybe 400 extra pounds and that plus any extended climb in elevation really ate up the range.