Gadgetory

you can probably count the number of fully electric cars available on one hand there's the Nissan's the BMW's and of course the tehsils but this is the Chevy Volt it's a first fully electric car that can realistically bridge the gap between practical range and affordable price it's the same promise Tesla's making with the long-delayed in much-hyped model 3 the car that supposed to bring Tesla's design and style down to a much more affordable price but the bolt is here now and you can buy it today driving him to the head is not fun I don't know why anybody lives here would own a car so my first concern when getting in this electric car and having it for a week is where I'm going to recharge this battery because it's not like you can just go to any gas station and fill up the tank and be on your way so the Chevy people when I picked up the car told me to download this app it's called plug share it's like a social network for electric vehicle owners and it's got listings for all of the electric charging stations nearby now I'm down here in Manhattan where I got the car and they're everywhere you see these green dots all over the map and so there's a lot of electric stations probably more there than there are gas stations it might not all work but there's so many of them that it doesn't really matter the thing is that's probably not the case where you live it's certainly not the case where I live and drive the most so the bolt has a lot of responsibilities on it's pretty small shoulders it's supposed to be the day-to-day electric car that can work for anybody it's also pretty inexpensive at under $40,000 and when you factor in the tax incentives on top of that it's even more appealing but it's still early days for electric vehicles and not everything is ready for a world of electric cars I've been driving the bolt around the suburban areas of New York State for the past week and while I do really like it there are definitely some things you need to consider if you're thinking about going fully electric for your next car so the app I was using earlier brought me here and I'm plugged into this charger and unfortunately it doesn't work because this Golden Corral shut down like three weeks ago and nobody's updated the listing in the App and I guess it's just one of the things you have to deal with as an early adopter of electric vehicles let's start with what it's like to drive the bulb surprisingly or not it's not hugely different from driving a standard car with an internal combustion engine so the electric engine in this you probably think it's kind of wimpy but actually is a lot of power and when you hit the pedal it'll it'll go like right now and I'm not gonna drag race this thing I'm not gonna win any races on the streets with it but when I need to get on an on-ramp on the highway I've got plenty of power on top it's called a small crossover which means that it sits a little higher on the road than the average sedan and offers more Headroom for taller people but it's still a pretty compact car it's definitely shorter and squatter looking than your typical sedan or small SUV and it doesn't look anything like a model 3 which is low slung and sporty instead it kind of looks like a $16,000 Honda Fit now inside the bolt is more roomy than you might expect because Chevy was able to maximize space savings due to the lack of the engine and drivetrain the wheels are pushed to the far corners of the car so interior legroom is plentiful and the rear seat actually is a flat floor but again this is not a big car at all and I was easily able to fill up the back seat with car seats for my two kids also the trunk space is pretty cramped small single folding stroller pretty much eats all of it up leaving me little room for groceries or other stuff the interior design of the bolt is also mixed it has a slightly futuristic decor that will probably look super dated in just a couple of years but it is ergonomic and comfortable now this is an ax luxury car by any stretch but does have leather seating options heated seats and automatic climate control the main screen is where you can see things like how much range is left what's been using the cars battery and program charging times its resistive which is a little bit of a bummer but it's responsive enough if you hit it hard enough so Chevy says the maximum range you're going to get between charges about two hundred and forty miles but that varies a lot depending on how you drive how much climate control you use the terrain you're driving on and you know the temperature outside now in my time with it it's been closer to about 200 miles per charge at least based on the meter inside the car and certain things you do can instantly change the power so if I turn off the climate control here it instantly gives me another 10 miles of range but if I turn it back on because it's hot outside I've just stopped knock 10 miles off my range right there there are three different ways to chargeable giant 60 kilowatt hour battery that's about four thousand times bigger than your phone's battery there's level one which is your standard 120 volt outlet it will take about 50 hours to fully charge a depleted bolt this way then there's level 2 which is what most electric car charging stations are these run at 240 volts and can fully charge the bolt in about nine hours and then there's level three which is a new fast charging option that's available in just a handful of areas Chevy says you can get 90 miles of range in as little as 30 minutes of charging with this now if you're going to buy a bolt and you live in the suburbs like I do or anywhere outside of a major metro area you really need to invest in a level 2 charger for your garage it'll run you about $1,000 to get one installed but it lets you get a full charge overnight and eliminates many of the range anxiety concerns now I've been stuck with a super slow level one charging in my garage so taking a lot of time to get even a little bit of charge which is made this week with the bolt a little bit more stressful than normal uh well you don't want to become a slave to the gauge so you wanna you don't you don't want it to the range to be constantly dictating how you're driving and what you're using this plus is just coming off so the thing is like if you're driving around and your windows are fogging up and you're afraid to turn the defroster on because it's going to shorten your range like that's stupid turn the froster on and clear your windows up like come on that's ridiculous would I buy this car probably not because the infrastructure where I live and where I Drive just isn't built out yet now though seeing same issues that any other electric car has even a Tesla electric vehicles are still bata experiences but at the end of the day when you beta test a Tesla you still own a Tesla and when you beta test a bolt you're driving a Chevy I think I know which one I'd rather have yeah I think that closed I think it closed no no I think it opened and then it closed yeah I have no idea it was in the newspaper a couple weeks ago it's kind of weird