The Bolt EV may give you the cold shoulder fast charging in the winter

As the official start to winter approaches, thermometers in Maryland have been dropping accordlingly. Despite some warmer than normal temperatures in the fall, winter has unofficially arrived in the Free State, with highs in the low 40's and lows dropping into the 20's. As most of us know, colder temperatures mean bad news for EVs when it comes to range and efficiency, as heater use and less efficient batteries due to the lower temps serve as a double whammy to range. However, there is also another drawback to the colder temperatures that a lot of plug-in owners likely aren't quite as familiar with: reduced fast charging capability.

One winterized Bolt

This past Saturday, my family decided to check out the Koziar Christmas Village in Bernville, PA (might as well rename "SCORCHED EARTH FOR EV CHARGING PA"). The drive to the village was 132 miles one way (264 miles roundtrip), so fast charging stop(s) would be needed. I was actually semi-fretting leading up the the trip, because of the fact the nearest fast charging station to the village was 60 miles away in York, PA.

260 miles round trip!

There is actually a CCS station near Lancaster, PA closer to Bernville, but as it has a 1.0 rating on Plugshare, I decided to write it off as a charging option. There is no L2 charging near Bernville, PA either, so charging while parked at the Christmas village was not an option. I would need to charge at York either on the way up to Bernville, PA OR on the way back home IF I had enough range to make it back to York on the return trip.

No thanks

Before beginning my trip, I made sure to pre-heat my Bolt. I actually turned the Bolt on and left the heat run while it was plugged in for about 30 minutes priop to departing so the heater and battery would be up to temp and warmed up. When we actually departed (it was snowing lightly and about 32 degrees), the heat was set to 70 degrees on fan speed setting 1. I had an estimated 196 miles of range after doing a 100% charge. It was theoretically possible for me to eek out enough range so that I only needed to hit the CCS station in York on the way back. I quickly found out that would be impossible.

Fast charging desert in middle of nowhere, PA

During the drive up to the PA border, the snow steadily increased in intensity, and the wet roads took a toll on my efficiency. About 50 miles into my trip, I realized I would absolutely have to top off in York on the way up to Bernville, as there was no way I could make it back to York on a single. When I pulled into the station at York, I had about 105 miles of range remaining. While the distance to York from my home is roughly 67 miles, *91* miles of estimated range had been consumed. Due to arriving at the station with 63% of the battery remaining, my "fast" charge was relatively slow due to the Bolt tapering charging rates when the battery is above 50%. For a 29 minute session, I had managed to put 12.6 kWh into the battery, and had "topped off" to 160 miles of estimated range when I departed for Bernville.

100A max fast charging station in York, PA

During the remaining 59 mile drive to the village, it continued to snow. Eventually, snow started sticking to the highway, so traffic slowed considerably for streches on the highway. The slower speeds helped increase my efficiency, however, so all was not a total loss. When we pulled into the parking lot of the christmas village, the range meter stated I had 95 miles left. The ambient temperatures were in the mid 20's when we arrived. We ended up spending about 2.5 hours exploring the village (and 2.5 hours of the Bolt's battery cold-soaking in sub-freezing temps).

Not optimal conditions

A little after 8PM, we departed back for the CCS station in York. During the entire 60 mile drive, I had the heat set to 70 degrees, with on and off use of the defroster. When we pulled into the fast charger in York, 29 miles of range/16% battery charge remained. I wanted to top off to about 80 miles so I had a comfortable buffer for the 60 mile drive back home.

Purdy

What I DIDN'T expect was the throttled charging rates of my Bolt! Despite having the heat on for the whole hour driving to York, the HV batterty was obviously still too cold to allow for maximum charging rates! I languished at 18-24 kW (or 60-70 amp) rates for the first 20 minutes of charging, resulting in much fewer miles being replenished than I thought. It wasn't until 25 minutes after plugging in did the Bolt finally realize the station's full 100 amp charging rates (or about 35 kW). My stay at the charging station was about 20 minutes longer than I had planned (and MAN that was a long 20 minutes with a cranky wife! Might as well have been an eternity).

After  ~45 minutes charging (and 19.3 kWh pumped out by the EVgo station), I had achieved my 80 mile range, and eagerly took off for home. The rest of the trip was rather uneventful, and I arrived back home with around 20 miles of range left.

Looking back on this trip, I realized that driving a Bolt to an EV charging wasteland during a minor snowstorm was probably not the best decision. If I were to repeate this trip again, most likely I would have just taken my Volt and burned some gas and shave about 75 minutes off the travel time I ended up spending extra charging the Bolt. The "too cold HV battery" issue doesn't affect just the Bolt, but all EVs in regards to fast charging, even the much balleyhooed Teslas and their Supercharging network. TeslaBjorn has video blogged about reduced Supercharging rates when the HV battery is too cold. Skip to 4:00 to see Bjorn's Model X struggle to register even 1 kW in the video below.

The Bolt is a mighty fine vehicle, but the cold battery issue I experienced should be something other Bolt owners are aware of before planning a road trip this winter that relies on DC fast charging. As you can see below, while the Bolt can condition the HV battery, it seems that it will only heat (or cool) the battery to keep the battery temperature out of the "danger zones" where the battery can be potentially degraded. Perhaps a "warm HV battery" feature could be implemented by GM so that owners had the option of warming the battery to ensure peak fast charging speeds in cold conditions. It would have been "warmly" welcomed by me this past weekend.

Final trip stats

Charging your Bolt EV at a Tesla destination station? Yes, you can!

As most EV owners are aware, Tesla offers one thing that other EV manufacturers do not offer at the moment: a coast to coast Supercharging network. I've read many stories of Tesla Model owners boasting about being able to travel across the country for free using only Tesla's Supercharging network. As of today, Tesla states that 1,008 Supercharger sites with 7,032 Supercharger stations are active in North America. Compare that to the CHAdeMO and CCS compatible fast charging outlets, which are more concentrated in metropolitan areas and lack the coast to coast coverage that Tesla offers. While more and more CHAdeMO/CCS stations are being installed every day, it will be a little while till coverage can come close to Tesla's proprietary network.

Pretty good coverage

So what's the non-Tesla owner that still wants to travel the country to do, aside from renting a gas car or biting the bullet and acquiring a wallet-stretching Tesla themselves? While Tesla touts its Supercharging network, it also supports an ever growing "Destination Charging" network as well. And the best thing about the Destination Charging stations? Non-Tesla EV owners can utilize them*! 

While not nearly as fast as Supercharging (for all intents and purposes, non-Tesla owners will only be able to charge at 7.2 kW max, compared to the 100+ kW charge rates Teslas can obtain at Superchargers), Tesla destination charging stations are sprinkled throughout the country at properties and businesses that have partnered with Tesla to install them. In most instances, Tesla provides most, if not all, of the charging equipment for free, and may also cover a portion of the install costs as well. The properties (a good majority hotel and inn owners) cover the cost of electricity and offer the stations as an extra amenity to guests. Most of the time, guests staying at these properties can charge for free as a perk for patronizing that particular establishment.

Not too shabby either, though some noticeable gaps.

So why should any non-Tesla owner care about any of the above I just wrote about? Well, it turns out that there is a handy little device that can unlock access to most Tesla (NON-Supercharger) destination stations!

A month or 2 ago I came across a special for a JDapter Stub device made by Quick Charge Power (http://shop.quickchargepower.com/JDapter-Stub-Tesla-Charge-Station-Adaptor-JDPTRSTB.htm . Use promo code "Jdapter239" for a $160 discount!), a company in SoCal that makes all sorts of EV accessories. Their JDapter Stub allows for non-Tesla plug-ins to charge using Tesla's (NON-SUPERCHARGER) destination charging stations mentioned above. While these destination charging stations have Tesla's proprietary plug that would normally make it unusable with a non-Tesla plug-in, the JDapter Stub allows just about ANY EV owner to connect and charge using the Stub, with a couple of exceptions. They are the only company I know of that makes this type of off-the-shelf device. Otherwise, I'd post other options available.

The JDapter Stub

I tested out my Stub on a recent trip to Chincoteague Island in Virginia. Looking at my charging options in the area, I noticed that there was only ONE location on the whole island (or anywhere near it) that had any kind of charging stations, located at the Refuge Inn (http://www.refugeinn.com/). According to Plugshare, it listed the property having 1 Tesla charging station and one Clipper Creek J1772 unit. Based off the positive Plugshare score, I booked the Refuge Inn for our stay.

Deep (EV) Hole indeed!

Upon arriving at the Refuge Inn in my Bolt EV, I found the Tesla station in the parking lot of the property. I whipped out my Stub, connected it to the Tesla charging plug, then plugged it into my Bolt. Within 2 seconds, my Bolt's charging light turned green and I was sucking down juice in part thanks to Elon Musk/Tesla (Thanks Elon!).

Success!

Not just Tesla electric vehicle charging anymore. 😎

According to my Bolt's DIC, it was charging at a rate of 7 kW, with it bouncing to 8 kW a couple of times. Suffice to say, the Bolt was able to max out its peak charging rate using the Tesla station. I awoke the next day to a full charge. The JDapter Stub was a great success! Evidently the Stub can send a pilot signal to the Tesla destination station and "trick" it into thinking it is a Tesla (that's how it was explained to me anyways...something like that). 

***Now I have to caveat my experience by saying that you should always get permission from the property owner before using a Tesla destination charging station (or any charging station for that matter). While most property owners likely don't care what kind of EV actually uses these Tesla stations, there are some establishments in existence that enforce a strict Tesla-only policy, and at least one person has actually been towed! However, most hotel/inn owners should be more than happy to let a paying guest use the stations, regardless of whether you actually drive a Tesla or not. The Refuge Inn certainly didn't care (great place, btw! Indoor heated pool, real close to Assateague Island, free hot breakfast, and friendly staff!).

Also, there are some newer Tesla stations that operate at 277 volts, which the Bolt CAN NOT handle. I believe the Bolt would simply refuse to charge if connected to such a station, but user beware!

Thanks to the JDapter Stub, a lot of additional L2 charging charging plugs are now opened up to my Bolt. If you don't road trip much, this adapter may be of marginal usefulness to you, but for anyone that likes to travel outside the Bolt's 238 mile EPA-rated range, is a very useful accessory indeed. 😊  

P.S. For those Tesla owners that think a non-Tesla using a Tesla destination station is wrong: get over yourselves! You guys still have the Supercharger network all to yourselves, and Elon himself even said, "...we said any car company can use our technology -- it's no problem. They don't even have to pay a fee to us." (https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/09/27/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-on-electric-competition-im-gla.aspx). Non-Tesla owners using Tesla destination stations are just obliging him. 😄 And before you ask "Why didn't you just use the Clipper Creek unit?", answer is I wanted to properly test out my JDapter Stub. 

P.P.S. I was recently unceremoniously banned from the main Chevy Bolt EV Owners Facebook group because the admins of that group are a bunch of commies and censor people like North Korean state media. For those that are REAL Bolt owners/fans that want to be able to enjoy some uncensored chit-chat among fellow ACTUAL Bolt owners/fans, I've created a new Facebook group,

REAL Chevy Bolt EV Owners and Fans. Please join up! 

"Sorry, your car has too much range to charge here" (WHAT?!)

When I bought my Chevy Volt in 2012, EVs were still very much a rarity (even the Tesla Model S was not yet available), and public EV charging infrastructure was more of a unicorn. Back then, finding a public charging station was a rare instance, and finding an EV actually USING a public charging station that wasn't my own was Mission Impossible.

I was often the only plug-in owner to use local charging stations a few years ago

During those years leading up to my Bolt EV purchase, I had seen online that some battery electric vehicle (BEV) owners grumbled about how Volts shouldn't use public charging stations as they had a gas backup engine and never truly NEEDED to charge, and that all-electric BEV owners should always have priority since they did not have a gas engine backup. Some of these people even refused to call a Volt an EV, and label merely a "hybrid" due to having a gas engine, even though the majority of Volt owners drive most of the time on battery only. I scoffed at these "BEV purists", as my mantra was pretty much "If it has a plug, plug away".

Fast forward 5 years, and my, how things have changed! While EV sales still are barely a rounding error compared to overall auto sales (just 1-2%), the population of EVs has steadily grown over that time period, each new year outpacing the previous year in sales. As the demand for EVs has increased, the infrastructure to support them has also expanded. Now charging stations can be found in many more places, to the point that sometimes I find myself filtering out 240V charging stations on the Plugshare app, as the numerous icons block too much of the map! Finding a public charging station NOT in use is the exception as opposed to the norm these days.

More common occurrence these days

Why do I bring this all up? A few days ago, my wife stopped by the local Whole Foods to opportunity charge while shopping for groceries. The Whole Foods location has 2 free charging stations available for customer use, but one of them has been broken the past 16 months (ridiculous, I know). So with only 1 operational station and no other EVs in sight, the wife plugged the Bolt in and went off to shop.

Bolt local charging...#EVHOLE! Don't mind the 2 Teslas that parked in the EV spaces and were not plugged in

When she came back out to the Bolt, she had found that a silver Prius Plug-in (first generation plug-in with a whopping 13 miles of range) had unplugged her actively charging Bolt and had plugged himself in! No note, no nothing (thanks, jerk!). Appropriately miffed, the wife left a note to the Prius owner informing them she was not finished charging, and didn't appreciate being unplugged.

After being told about what had happened, myself (also being quite miffed) posted about it in a FB Bolt owners group. Most other owners agreed that it was a jerk move for the Prius owner to unplug the actively charging Bolt, but then one member (not even a Bolt owner, but rather a Tesla owner. sigh) chimed in and said that plugging in the Bolt in the first place was the more egregious move than the Prius unplugging my Bolt, since it was a "long range" BEV and shouldn't ever need to local charge and the Prius needed it more (dafuq??). Then he proceeded to call me an #EVHOLE (typically used to describe EV owners than block charging spots without plugging in, or just EV owners acting like a-holes in general). And even went so far as to say if a Bolt was low on charge, they STILL should not local charge because it's the Bolt owner's fault they let the car get to such a low state of charge to begin with.

"The Post"

My reaction to the above comments

I responded to the rather unpleasant fellow by saying that no matter if it is a 13 mile Prius Plug-in or 315 mile Tesla Model S100D, if there is an empty charging spot, any plug-in has the right to use that charging station. And if some low range BEV needing a charge showed up later? Well, too bad buddy, first come first serve. If a low-range BEV owner asked me if they could charge, I would 99% of the time have no problem letting them take the plug (something the Prius owner mentioned above failed to do). But this cavalier belief that there is a pecking order for who has priority over public charging stations is simply ridiculous. As one person put it bluntly in another FB group:

"Nobody has the right to tell me that I cannot charge locally. 
What the F**k? 
I live 8 miles away but only have 5 miles range and KMart has a Free EVSE 2 miles from here. 
Somebody is going to tell me that I can't plug in ? 
They can f**k off. 
I'm gonna charge."

TL;DR version of my blog post: First come, first served for public charging stations; don't be an a-hole and steal plugs from actively charging EVs without permission. And if you DO need to charge, ASK first! And if it is a life or death (riiight) situation and you absolutely need to charge, at least leave a damn note for crying out loud!

More (tongue in cheek) examples of Bolts local charging like #EVHOLES:

Total #EVHOLE here

Another Bolt #EVHOLE

Road tripping Bolt...but WAIT! Probably an #EVHOLE anyways

900+ mile trip in the 238-mile Bolt shows challenges can be overcome with proper planning

So a few months ago, I read the following article on GreenCarReports about a new Bolt owner's saga of an 800-mile road trip in CA: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1109117_chevy-bolt-ev-800-mile-trip-in-238-mile-electric-car-shows-challenges-remain

What a disaster! The owner of that Bolt did about everything wrong you could possibly do wrong when long distance traveling in an all-electric car. I was actually amazed that she did NOT end up on the back of a flatbed. I felt the article should have been re-titled "Clueless Bolt owner drives 800 miles and somehow doesn't end up stranded in the middle of nowhere". It was a complete debacle. Poor route choice, poor energy conservation (Wow, I'm speeding at 80 mph and the range meter keeps going down way faster than I thought....guess I'll keep driving 80!), poor understanding of charging network pricing options...reading the article made me want to do the following:

Words cannot convey my reaction to that story

That Bolt owner concluded that due to her poor experiences on her 800 mile trip, she would not take the Bolt on any long distance trip again. Good choice, because with her track record, she was destined for the flatbed sooner or later.

This weekend, I embarked on a 900+ mile road trip from Maryland to Connecticut and back, with a pit stop in PA, determined to show that with proper planning, a long distance road trip is possible in a Bolt, with a few compromises of course (but nothing like that debacle referenced above).

As some of you may know, I completed a "313 miles on a single charge" drive across Maryland last weekend, just to see if it was possible to drive from Western MD to the Eastern Shore/Ocean City. I admit up front that I engaged in some light hypermiling practices and was assisted by elevation changes. However, this time, I decided to drive the Bolt like any other person would drive a regular gas car, as Joe Schmoe buying his first BEV will not drive like I did last weekend.

My Saturday actually started with an autocross event in Southern MD (see previous blog posting about my experience here). As the autocross site was ~50 miles away, I had already logged over 100 miles on the day before I even started my main journey! After returning home and getting my things ready for the trip, my Bolt was just about topped off and I was ready to go! I had an estimated 250 miles on the guess-o-meter as I departed my driveway. As the drive to CT was 320 miles, I would need to stop and charge during the trip

Fast charging the Bolt after the autocross event

As the temperatures were right near 90 degrees when I departed just shy of 7PM, I turned on the AC and set it at 70 degrees. For the whole first half of the trip, the AC stayed at those settings. Luckily, I encountered little to no traffic, so I was able to maintain a speed of 5-10 mph OVER the speed limits, which was completely opposite my cross-MD drive the previous Saturday. I averaged between 65-70 mph for the entire drive up to CT. 

Fortunately for me, 4 new EVgo, CCS-compatible fast charging stations had just been installed at 2 locations along the New Jersey Turnpike just a week prior, and they were perfectly located for my MD-CT trip. Literally right smack dab in the middle of my route. What is interesting is these 2 new EVgo locations (located at the Molly Pitcher and Joyce Kilmer rest areas on the NJTP) were co-located with existing Tesla Supercharger stations. I believe these are the first such locations in the country that have Tesla and non-Tesla fast charging stations located together. 

I arrived at the Joyce Kilmer EVgo station with 75 miles left on the GOM, and 155 miles to go on my drive. Armed with my EVgo On-The-Go monthly plan, my charging sessions would cost just 10 cents/minute on top of the base monthly fee. 

Go, electrons, go!

I was at the rest area for approximately 1 hour, hitting the restroom, eating my dinner, and relaxing catching up on email while waiting for the Bolt to charge. After about 45 minutes of charging (had to restart the EVgo station after 30 minutes because of their 30 minute hard cap), it was back on the road! I had gained 103 miles of charge in 45 minutes. 

***Note: the EVgo stations on the NJTP are 50 kW/100-amp max rated stations, so the Bolt will only see peak charge rates of around 36-37 kW in ideal conditions, compared to 46-47 kW when connected to a 125-amp max DCFC station.

Plenty of range to make it to my destination 155 miles away

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, as I continued my ~70 mph pace with the AC now off since temps had cooled down considerably. I arrived at my mother's house in CT just before 1AM. 

Trip summary - 

Distance: 325.4 miles 

Average economy: 4.1 miles/kWh

Total time taken (including charging stop):  6 hours, 2 minutes

Arrived with PLENTY of range to spare

The next morning I ventured out to an EVgo station about a 1/2 mile from my mother's house to top off the Bolt. Again, it was a 50 kW/100 amp max station, so I was able to fill 130 miles of rated range in 1 hour, compared to GM's official estimate of 160 miles in 1 hour when connected to an 80 kW capable station. 

EVgo station at Cumberland Farms in West Hartford, CT

After spending Sunday around town, it was time to head back home to MD Monday morning. However, a stop to visit the grandparents in Mechanicsburg, PA, was planned, so the total drive would be 420 miles for the day. 

Free L2 charging station at my old elementary school

I did NOT start my trek back home with a full battery, however. Due to having to go to the airport late Sunday night to pick up a family member, I only had about 207 miles of rated range when I departed CT. Despite not having a 100% charge, I knew the DCFC station on my route was only 160 miles away, so I still had plenty of a buffer. HOWEVER, starting with a 100% charge from CT would have made my return trip easier, as you'll see later. 

Was not able to top off before leaving CT

Once again, with temps in the low 90's, I had the AC cranking at 70 just about the whole drive, speeds between 65-70 mph. My stop at the Molly Pitcher rest area EVgo station was uneventful. I noticed that a Tesla Model X owner was Supercharging when I pulled in. He seemed to give me a rather puzzled look, probably wondering what a non-Tesla EV was doing at the Supercharger site.

I eat my sammich while my Bolt sucks up the e-juice.

After a little over an hour of charging (two 30 minute sessions plus a few minutes more), I was on my way, with 169 miles on the GOM and 152 miles to the grandparent's house. While the grandparents were only 152 miles away, the nearest DCFC I was planning to stop at was actually over 180 miles away! As I had found a EVgo station about 60 miles from the Molly Pitcher stations (a 125 amp one no less), I decided to pull the plug at Molly Pitcher and do a quickie charge in Willow Grove, PA, since it had a slightly higher charging rate. I also needed to go to the bathroom, so it worked out nicely.

Departed Molly Pitcher rest area with 169 miles

Quick pitstop in Willow Grove, PA

148 miles on the GOM, 144 miles to the next DCFC...that works

I arrived at my grandparents, who despite being over 90 years old, expressed a lot of interest in the Bolt. After spending some time catching up and eating dinner, it was time to hit the road yet again. The GOM said I had 31 miles remaining...but the next planned DCFC stop was 33 miles away. I decided if I drove at the speed limit rather than over it, I would have plenty of range to get to the next stop, as my range estimate was based off me going 5-10 over the speed limit.

31 miles of range, 33 miles to go....math works for me!

I must admit, during the last 15 miles of the drive after the GOM simply blinked "LOW" at me, I got my first bit of range anxiety. However, based off my previous experiences, I felt reasonably comfortable I had enough range to make it. The constant hills gave me some worry though. Turned out I had plenty of miles to spare! I made it to the EVgo station (another 100-amp station. Bah!) located at an Arby's in York, PA.

Whew, that's cutting it close!

Had tons of range to spare

I spent an hour at this EVgo station, and when I was ready to go I had 95 miles of range and 63 miles to home. I burned down the road at 70-75 MPH the rest of the way, leaving the range worries in the dust. Here are the numbers for my CT-PA-MD return trip:

421 miles traveling 65-70 mph with AC on....not bad

So all in all, I drove over 900 miles over the course of 2 1/2 days, averaging 4.2 miles/kWh driving like an regular person on the highway this 4th of July weekend. While I did have to go a little out of my way to charge my Bolt at certain times during the trip (and it did take longer than a regular gas car), in no way was my trip a near-disaster at every turn like that Bolt owner mentioned at the beginning of my blog. With a little preparation, you CAN road trip in a Bolt. It just will take a little longer and you have to use a little brain power before and during the trip. You need not be a rocket scientist in order to drive a Bolt outside the city limits; you just need to have a clue. 😃

As far as charging costs go, I engaged in a total of 4.5 hours of fast charging at EVgo stations. Billed at 10 cents/minute, it cost me $27 in total charging costs for my 916 mile trip ($41.95 if you include the $14.95 monthly fee in the total).

To compare, a 30 MPG gas car would have needed almost $70 in gas to complete the same trip, assuming $2.20 for a regular gallon of gas.

All that driving...and no complaints about the front seats, btw!

Autocrossing a Chevy Bolt EV?!

As some of you are aware, last Saturday I completed my "Drive 313 miles on a single charge across the state of MD" journey successfully. By engaging in light hypermiling techniques and with some elevation help, I was able to stretch the Bolt's range over 31% past its official 238 mile EPA range number! What could I possibly do to follow up such a feat? Doing the polar opposite and entering my Bolt in an autocross event!

Photo credit: Terry Krebs Photography

For those of you not familiar with autocross, these types of events are usually held in empty parking lots with a track consisting of a series of tight turns marked by cones. As you can guess, handling, acceleration (and sticky tires) are the keys to the game in autocross as opposed to raw straight line speed in a drag race. Vehicles such as a Dodge Challenger Hellcat need not apply. Instead, modded Corvettes,  Miatas, Scion FR-S's, Subaru BRZ's and the like rule the roost. And in my event's case, one helluva souped up '99 Dodge Neon!

So what was I thinking entering my totally stock 2017 Bolt EV Premier in the event? Why not! While the Bolt has the low end acceleration needed for autocrossing, its rather hefty weight (over 3,500 pounds) and unconventional shape (for an autocross event) are a couple of negatives. Racing on the Bolt's LRR OEM tires was also a huge disadvantage, as most everyone else was at a minimum running performance tires. Toss in the fact I had never participated in an autocross event.....ever, and my set expectations for myself were very modest: don't kill anyone, don't end up on my roof or wrapped around a light pole.

The only preparation I did before the event was to wash and wax my Bolt (hey, it should at least LOOK nice) and empty out any random junk that was laying around inside the car. I aired up my tires to the max (as someone recommended) and I was off to Blue Crab stadium in Waldorf, MD! As the drive was 50 miles to the event location, I didn't need to charge before the event.

If it's nice and shiny, it'll go a little faster right?! Ehhh.....

After arriving at the autocross location and checking in, I drove to the "paddock" area where all the other drivers were prepping their cars. I quickly found out that I was the only electric car entered in the event. When I went through tech inspection, one of the inspectors popped the hood, stared at the Bolt's "engine" bay for a few seconds, then went "I have no idea what I'm looking at!". Since nothing was loose that he could see, he passed the Bolt with a shrug of the shoulders.

Hanging out in the paddock

There were a total of 118 entrants in the event, and 3 heats scheduled consisting of A and B groups. As I had registered rather late in the process, I ended up in Heat 3, group B, so I ended up watching the other drivers make their runs. Before the actual event, drivers get a chance to walk the course to try and memorize the layout before making their runs. I also chatted up an owner of a 2016 Ford Focus ST. It turned out it was also his first time to an autocross event. I wished Abdullah luck, and I went off to watch some more runs.

One of these is not like the other

The format for the event was fairly straightforward. There were 3 total heats consisting of A and B groups. While group A was making their runs, the B group was out on the track to call in missed turns and replacing hit cones. Numerous cones were sent flying during the day. After group A made 3 runs, group B went to their cars while group A replaced them on the track.

When Heat 3 started, I was assigned to a section of track with 2 other guys. One of them asked me what I was driving, and I replied a Bolt EV. He then went "Oh, so you're the guy in the Bolt!". I asked them if they see any other EVs at these events, and both (including the guy that owned 6 cars total including a Miata he entered) said they had never seen an electric car at an autocross before. I asked about Teslas, but one guy responded they are too heavy for this type of event, so he had never seen one. After about 25 minutes, it was finally time to hit the track!

Car #919 ready for action

I got into the Bolt and rolled it up to the staging area. One by one, cars peeled off to make their runs. As my time approached, I started to feel the adrenaline start flowing. I was actually going to autocross a friggin' "greenie" Bolt EV! I made sure to turn off traction control as recommended by another driver, and lined up at the line. 

At this point of the story, I want to be able to say that I, a complete novice, blew away the rest of the competition of 'vettes, Miatas, 911's, and FR-S and BRZ's with the all-electric Bolt's 100% torque from 0.

You kidding me?

It turned out I placed 114/118 cars that ran that day. But I was not the worst! Moral victory! In fact, the person that was the slowest turned out to be Abdullah, who I had chatted with earlier. Sorry dude.

Below are the 4 runs I made, captured on my super crappy GoPro knockoff camera. Apologies for the crappy video. 

Run #1: went off course early, no time recorded. Doh.

Run #2: 54.42 seconds. A guy actually jumped in before the run, as his girlfriend was interested in buying a Bolt and he wanted to see what it was like. 

Run #3: 52.04 seconds. Improvement!

Run #4: 51.58 seconds. Because I was only running the morning session, they gave me a 4th run

So all in all, even though I sucked, I still had a blast at the autocross event, and met some cool people in the process. Now I am left to wonder what a Bolt with AWD, lowered springs, sticky tires, and a competent driver could do on the course...

Drive across the state of Maryland (313 miles) on a single charge? Yes, you can!

Hello friends! It's been quite a while since my last blog post, but the stunt I pulled yesterday deserves a nice, thorough blog entry all to itself.

Everyone knows that the Bolt's EPA-certified range is 238 miles. A lot of owners (including) me have found that it is quite easy to attain, and exceed that range figure without even trying (at least in non-winter months). I found during several moderate range (100-200 mile) trips, I could attain or even exceed an average of 5 miles/kWh (or a projected 300 miles on a single charge) without even trying. What if I actually tried, though?

Chevy has recently started playing localized radio spots for the Bolt EV in the MD/DC/VA area, stating that you can travel from Annapolis to Ocean City and back on a single charge. Another version of the ad stated you could travel from Annapolis to Virginia Beach on a single charge. Both of those trips are within the Bolt's official range....BORING! Pretty much anyone could do those trips in their sleep without issues. How about going across the entire state of Maryland on a single charge, or over 300 miles? Now THAT sounds more compelling!

Mapping out such a trek, a cross-state drive from Deep Creek Lake (McHenry) to Ocean City is 315 miles, way beyond the Bolt's official range...by 77 miles to be precise. Who would be crazy enough to attempt such a stunt?! This guy.

Despite the length of the trip being way beyond the Bolt's official range, there is a 2,500 foot overall elevation drop driving from McHenry to Ocean City. Factoring that into my calculations, I figured that would help boost the range of my Bolt beyond it's official limits. While the elevation change almost certainly helped maximize my range, it may not have helped as much as I initially thought. According to the below elevation chart, there was over 7,700 feet of climbs on the drive compared to the 2,400 elevation drop!

Looks like Ford's stock value in recent years

Now that I had my trip planned out, the only thing I had to do was get out to McHenry in my Bolt and charge it to 100%! How hard could that be, right? Well, as the saying goes, "Half the journey is getting there". In my case, it was probably more than half.

Maryland is fairly well developed for EV charging infrastructure compared to all states not named California, and even has a very good number of CCS fast charging stations that the Bolt is compatible with.

Look at all those charging stations!

However, taking a closer look at Western Maryland, we go from charging station Utopia to Scorched Earth.

I think the Mad Max world had more stations than this

Absolutely 0 CCS fast charging stations anywhere in the western half of the state, with 2 DCFC sites in Hagerstown being the most westward sites. Hagerstown is 108 miles from Mchenry, so not a chip shot.
I wanted to minimize the time it took to get and then charge back to 100% in Mchenry, so I decided to hit a couple charging sites in between my home in Columbia and McHenry. My "Ocean City or Bust" journey started at 4:41AM on a rainy Saturday morning.

The rain sucked up a lot more energy than expected

My first stop was at the EVgo fast charging station at the Hagerstown Premium Outlets. The 67 mile drive out to Hagerstown included driving through a torrential downpour of rain, as the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy passed by the area. I was also forced to used the defroster, which drained even more energy. I arrived at the EVgo station and after plugging in, the station told me I was at 56% battery state of charge (SOC). This leg of the journey before The Journey used way more energy than expected, which would result in more downtime charging. Luckily, no more rain was encountered the rest of the day. In fact, the weather was almost perfect for driving an EV.

Gaining back charge as quickly as possible

Obligatory gratuitous selfie. (swear to God I did not color match my shirt to my Bolt. Literally just realized that)

After about an hour of charging (including 1 session restart because EVgo can't be bothered to extend the maximum session time past 30 minutes. grrr), I had charged up to 92%. At that point the L3 charging speed was barely any faster than the Bolt's L2 max rate (7.2), so I decided to move on.

While I could have driven all the way to McHenry at this point, I saw on Plugshare that there was a free charging station at Rocky Gap Casino in Flintstone, MD, so I figured I'd stop there to kill some time and visit a place I had never been to before. In hindsight, I probably should have skipped this stop. Though it did make my wallet lighter, which may have helped with range.

Completely free charging (as long as you ignore the $40 I lost on slots)

I had noticed that even though the Clipper Creek unit was a 40 amp version (and thus should have maxed out the Bolt's 7.2 kW onboard charger), I noticed via my JuicePlug I had brought along that the charge rate was only topping out at 5.9 kW. For whatever reason, the voltage was only reading around 190 instead of the 240 I had expected, which reduced the charge rates. As saving time was a priority, I pulled the plug early and hoped the L2 station in McHenry charged faster.

Too slow for my blood

50 miles later, I had arrived in McHenry. The location of the L2 charging station was actually located at a local bed and breakfast, the Lake Pointe Inn. I had noticed that they had a single L2 station along with a couple of Tesla destination chargers. I had emailed the Inn a few days prior to make sure I would be able to use their L2 station.

When I arrived at the Lake Pointe Inn, I found that the charging station I needed to use was blocked! And it was marked as employee parking only, no less. I was starting to worry I had driven all this way for nothing, but I found the manager and explained my situation, and he offered to have the employee car moved so that I could charge. Thanks a lot, Scott! The EV world needs more EV-friendly establishments like the Lake Pointe Inn!

Free charging courtesy of the Lake Pointe Inn

Luckily, the Clipper Creek station (same exact unit as the one at the Casino) was wired better or something, because I was able to achieve charge rates above 7 kW.

There we go, much better

For those of you curious, the following are the stats for the Columbia to McHenry leg of the trip.

Used up just about a full charge worth of energy. The mountains are not kind to range.

As I had almost 4 hours to kill before my Bolt charged to 100%, I spent most of the time exploring the Wisp Ski Resort, which was just across the street. All said and told, I walked almost 8 miles while waiting for my Bolt to charge. The Deep Creek Lake area could really use a DCFC station or 2.

When the Bolt was finally done charging, it was almost 3PM. I had to cover ~315 miles, while the Bolt's guess-o-meter (GOM) stated a figure of 234 miles. I was 81 miles to the bad!

Despite the fuzzy, if not crazy math, I departed right at 3PM, determined to show that the Bolt could cross the entire state of Maryland on a single charge in as close to real world conditions as possible (no driving around in circles at 25 mph stuff). In fact, the only preparations I made to my Bolt before embarking in this trip was to air the tires up to 44 psi (the maximum allowed). Driving wise, on certain stretches of highway in Western Md, I kept speeds 5-10 mph below the speed limit, as I knew there was no way I could make it traveling at 70 mph for extended periods.

One interesting thing I noticed is that 100 miles into the drive to Ocean City, the GOM stated I still had 226 miles of range. Which means it dropped only 8 miles after driving 100 miles. The elevation drop definitely messes with the range calculations. My estimated range remaining actually spiked to 268 miles at one point....50 miles into drive!

A little over 70 miles into my trip, my 80 mile range deficit went 1 mile to the good

The rest of the drive was, frankly, rather uneventful. Once I cleared the mountains of Western MD, the GOM stopped bouncing around like a ping pong ball. I maintained about a 20-25 mile buffer on the GOM asI crossed the Bay Bridge.

The last 1/3 of the drive was very flat, so the GOM estimates remained steady. The last hour of the drive I actually sped up (going 5 miles ABOVE the 55 speed limit) as I wanted to arrive in Ocean City before it got dark. My 25 mile buffer slowly ticked down to a 12 mile cushion, but I pressed on.

With 30 miles left on the GOM, I got the "Charge Vehicle Soon" message. Yeah, I will, as soon as I get to Ocean City!

I did not know that

With about 5 miles to go until Ocean City, the GOM changed to a blinking "LOW" instead of a number. While I was fairly confident I would make it, it's still a little unsettling to see that message.

5 hours, 36 minutes after I had departed McHenry and 313.4 miles later (56 MPH average btw), I had made it to Ocean City! And the desperately needed DCFC station at Royal Farms. Huzzah! After charging up for about an hour, I got some Thrasher's french fries (who stops in Ocean City without getting these?) and then headed back home, which was 135 miles away.

313.4 miles on a single charge! And I could have gone a little farther too!

Much needed charge after the drive! 

So I had done it! I had answered the question probably only I had ever asked, "Can you drive across the state of Maryland in a Bolt on a single charge?" with a resounding "Yes, you can!".
I do have to point out that the opposite drive is definitely NOT possible on a single charge due to the elevation change. However, being able to obliterate the official EPA range by a good 75 miles without going to hypermiling extremes was certainly satisfying.

Another mark I ended up setting was my Bolt is now #2 on the "Most EV miles traveled in a day" page.
https://www.voltstats.net/BoltEV/Stats/Achievements



That's it for now. I did enter into an autocross event next weekend, which is a complete 180 from what I just did. I may blog about that one as well!