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[DonTom]

The Bolt news just hit the business section of my newspaper today. 

I am glad I bought my Bolt the day I did. A day later, they would not have sold it to me. Really, I think I like the Bolt more than the Tesla now that I figured it out to some degree. It's smaller outside with more room inside.


I discovered today not only does the braking increase regen, but the more pressure I put on the brake pedal, the more regen I get. It has four wheel disk brakes. I wonder if they ever even get used.


The recall issues are not important to me as I always will charge in that safe range even if no recall. And will park outside anyway.  I will see if I can buy a cover for it in a few minutes.


I noticed today that I get better range in the Bolt than the Tesla for the same distance shown as miles  of range left, perhaps because of the much better regen. It's mostly down hill from here to go anywhere. But it's better range on a round trip.


-Don-  Auburn, CA

[yhafting]

Yes, you shouldn't be driving when snow is piling up faster than it!s being removed.

The number of drive axles is irrelevant.

-Crissa

Sometimes you just got to do what you got to do to get home. Im not talking driving in +20cm snow, but there are times snow keep piling between each removal.   
Here is a peek at what is possible, but near limit for the Ioniq- mostly due to front wheel drive:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/efutgajp2o88o3m/Ioniq-vinterbil-2018.mp4?dl=0

A 4 wheel drive vehicle with the same weight distribution would be ideal, and have no issues in this weather. If the ioniq was rear wheel drive it would be easier, but also there would be a tendency to slide when traction control has to be turned off (as in the video).

[Crissa]

The Bolt recall has to so with flaws in cell QA, not recharging patterns.  Several of the fires were while the car sat, not being charged.

-Crissa

[Crissa]

Yeah, doesn't matter that much fewer EVs - even of 2012 Zeros or Bolts to pick battery recalls - than ICE cars.

-Crissa

[DonTom]

The Bolt recall has to so with flaws in cell QA, not recharging patterns.  Several of the fires were while the car sat, not being charged.

-Crissa

When they were all sitting with a full charge to 100%, which I don't  do. GM is telling me to not charge above 90% SOC. I wouldn't charge to 100% SOC  anyway.


-Don-  Auburn, CA

[Crissa]

When they were all sitting with a full charge to 100%...

No.  Several of the fires were at lower levels.  And not while charging.

-Crissa

[DonTom]

No.  Several of the fires were at lower levels.  And not while charging.

Do you have a link that shows such?  I would like to post it in the Chevy Bolt forum and see what they say, as I have not heard anything about that there.


And has any of then caught fire while driving?


And how low? They are saying do not let the charge get below 30% or above 90%.


But that 60% of  range works okay for me to get between Auburn and Reno as well as any of my other driving anyway.


But I will get the recall done ASAP anyway, of course. I don't think anybody knows when the recall work will start.


-Don-  Auburn, CA

[Crissa]

This one was about 70%, wasn't charging:
https://electrek.co/2021/05/07/exclusive-the-latest-chevy-bolt-fire-reveals-troubling-pattern-that-owners-should-be-aware-of/

Not all the fires were Bolts that were charging.  Not all of them were at a high state of charge.  The type of failure GM is describing is unrelated to charge level; it's due to there being cells that are prone to seperator failure.

-Crissa

[Richard230]

I looked up EV fires on YouTube and after seeing thumbnail videos of those clips, I decided not to look further.  It would appear that every brand of EV has has car fires and there are no lack of people willing to film them and post the clips on the Tube. 

[DonTom]

This one was about 70%, wasn't charging:
https://electrek.co/2021/05/07/exclusive-the-latest-chevy-bolt-fire-reveals-troubling-pattern-that-owners-should-be-aware-of/

Not all the fires were Bolts that were charging.  Not all of them were at a high state of charge.  The type of failure GM is describing is unrelated to charge level; it's due to there being cells that are prone to seperator failure.


"The car was typically charged when it got down to about 30 miles of range left"

That's well below the 30% SOC  min Chevy is saying to charge at, as I mentioned in my previous message, To be safe (they think) charging must be done between 30 and 90% SOC, which is what I do anyway. Why or if that really helps somehow  with cell separator failure, I have no idea. But that is what Chey is recommending before the recall is done.

They also  recommend only charging outside, until the recall is done. But here, that could cause most of Auburn to catch on fire, being deep in the dry trees from the drought. Not much I can do about that for now.

BTW,  I was probably the last person in the USA to buy a Bolt before the recall was announced.


-Don-  Auburn, CA

[Crissa]

That's well below but you know what?  The fire didn't start then, so it's probably unrelated, but it's probably why GM said to avoid low state of charge as well.

-Crissa

[Richard230]

You might want to avoid parking next to VW EV's too: 

[Crissa]

EVs catch fire alot less often than ICE vehicles, so there's that.

-Crissa

[DonTom]

I drove my Tesla back from Sacramento yesterday as I went RV shopping at El Mesa RV in West Sacramento because my Tesla has a CA plate with the clean air stickers so I can use the car pool lanes with only me inside. My Bolt has a NV plate, so I cannot do that with it. Anyway, from there, I decided to drive all the way to Reno instead of only going back to Auburn.


What I am getting at is my Bolt is parked under a bunch of trees in a high risk fire area in front of my house in Auburn.  If my Bolt caches fire there, I hope it is Chevy that is responsible, and not me. A fire in that area of Auburn now,  will, well, I think we know.  It's probably about the only forested area ln all of CA to NOT burn down down yet.




-Don-  Reno, NV

[NEW2elec]

Don the recall was for 2017-19 bolts.  The problem is in the mechanical construction of the cells themselves.  The factory machines were off the specs a bit and QC didn't catch it.
If anyone wants to learn more about it the YT channel Transport Evolved goes into it in great detail since they own 2 of them.