Chevy Bolt Review

I have a Chevrolet bolt premiere trim and we're gonna try to help you answer a question if you're in the market for an ev is this the best bang for your buck and also most versatile EV available but before we get to the bolt let's talk a little bit about Chevrolet and their electrification history.

Now their actual first electric vehicle was called the ev1 since then things have changed obviously a lot more competition especially with the apple of EV vehicles known as Tesla, now Chevrolet really got people's attention bringing out what was called the Volt the Volt was a four door sedan EV but what was great that I liked about the Volt is that if you had range anxiety.

You actually had a gas-powered generator that if you were out in the middle of nowhere could get you to some destination where you could plug in the Volt is no longer produced and right now the only vehicle from the bowtie is gonna be this bolt this bolt is full evie no generator or any other way of generating power besides regenerative braking for this particular model.

Now there's been some retweeting some redesigning going on with the style on the front end of the business of the bolt but what's also exciting is that there's an increased range which I'm gonna talk about in a little bit so let's go ahead dive into this Chevrolet bolt and see is it really the most budget-friendly versatile evie on the market.

Right off the bat very very unique styling on this evie vehicle so you're gonna get full LED projector beam style headlight daytime running lamps what I do like is if you look inside it's all blacked out with a little bit of silver trim gives it a unique look you drop down you some more exterior lighting now what's been updated is the grill design they kind of tweaked it a little bit.

You have that bright gold Chevrolet bowtie such an iconic car usually associated with some powerful cars like the zl1 Camaro or you think the CA Corvette but no internal combustion engine whatsoever.

Underneath the hood I like the design that they intertwined inside that grill you drop down you do have a forward-facing camera and what's new for 2020 are high def cameras which is gonna really give you great clarity this lower section has been redesigned really really clean and balanced proportion from the front.

Now when we go up onto the hood you can see how they actually took the body line from the front fascia into the bowtie into the hood very very short stubby hood no storage underneath so that is gonna be a Zonk when compared to some other EV’'s is you don't have storage, but the great news is I'll be able to pop that hood and show you what we're working with.

Now when we come around the bend very unique styling you have some gloss black up here with the bolt Evie badging I really like the logo really cool helps it stand out from the other V's we dropped down what are we working with wheel and tire wise you have a 17 inch wheel machine aluminum gloss black it's a to 1550 series sidewall to give you a nice smooth ride.

Now you do have the flat black that goes around the fender wells I wish at least on the premiere level because there are two different trims I wish they would have painted that silver so I'm gonna Zonk that but I do like the wheel design it really does fit well with the overall look of this EVe now charge port access real simple.

You just push down you open up the door and that's where you're gonna plug in obviously you have the ability to just use a home power outlet but there's those there's also those quick charges that you could gain access to we close that up you have your chrome trim both top and bottom.

I like the way it flows into the actual side mirrors and then stops. There's no trim on the bottom portion now this vehicle is in because it's got some funky styling to it but that styling actually helps with the usability and versatility on the inside.

so kind of interesting how low the tops of the doors drop down below the side mirror you do have turn signals built in a little bit of silver trim on the bottom flat black that kind of flows over the fenders down the sill color match door handles with some silver trim there you do have some very low silver roof rails that you can get crossbars.

That's gonna boost your versatility. Put a kayak up there, put a bicycle whatever your lifestyle is you could use this in many many different ways. We have our floating roof design on the rear pillar by the separation of the gloss black and I like the way they curve up at the door into that area.

When we get to the rear of the vehicle some tweaking but still pretty much same bolt you have a very low roof spoiler interesting design on how the rear glass kind of comes down and there's no finishing piece it kind of fits that hole evie cool look at least from this perspective you drop down you have your LED tail lights.

Of course your bolt EV badge nice and clean a little bit of chrome trim and like I said those high def cameras including the digital rearview mirror but while we go ahead let's pop that hood and see what's powering this EV.

Alright guys we got the hub popped does have a prop rod I'm not gonna Zonk it lots of people are complaining about me zonking the prop rods what are you looking at is that a science experiment no let me tell you what you're looking at you are looking at a single electric AC motor that is going to produce 200 horsepower.

260 pound feet of torque the most surprising thing about this bowl TV 0 to 60 in about 5.9 seconds now new for 2020 range has been boosted a 20-19 bolts you're looking at 238 miles it's now been bumped up to 259 miles arranged on a single charge it takes nine hours to fully charge from a to ten volt outlet the good news is they did not increase the size of the lithium ion battery they actually changed the chemistry to increase the efficiency.

The efficiency of the battery so they did a little retweeting to the manganese the lithium the cobalt which was once a Chevrolet product and nickel to produce that extra range the vehicle weighs around 3500 63 pounds like I said has regenerative braking a hundred and twenty seven mpg.

Eease in the city and one hundred and eight on the highway it's one of those things where for flexibility to have that increased range they did that chemistry work it gives people another option rather than just going to the apple of EV's Tesla in a hatchback platform but while we go ahead let's get to the interior and see how spacious this bolt EV is.

All right guys we're inside the Chevrolet bolt that EV vehicle I know you're at the point where you're like Joe okay they boost the range I like that I like the flexibility of having a hatchback rather than going a Model 3 because obviously price range you're gonna see this is right with the Model 3 you're looking at on this particular one.

Forty three thousand seven hundred seventy-five dollars that's fully loaded you can't come in entry level with the LT trim which is gonna save quite a few thousand dollars but this one it is what it is forty three thousand seven hundred dollars let's see what you get for the money.

Now I am gonna Zonk the door panel because it's all just hard gray plastic they do have this cool recycled plastic that has a pretty interesting pattern to it that kind of brightens it up a little bit of white on the door panel you do have a large pocket though for a yoohoo and some zingers or maybe a Twinkie or two.

And this one also has the optional Bose sound system because the premiere is fully loaded now when we get from the door panel to the dash we see more of that texture material gives it that fun ev funky look I do like the silver trim around the AC vents you do get ambient lighting so at night there's ambient lighting that runs the whole length of this white trim all the way the driver's side you have your ten inch horizontal setup screen.

I'm gonna go ahead and power on. It's not push the start but push the power on this is gonna get us access into all different things so you have a heated seat which you can gain access in here you have your AC controls.

Which you could just push the button obviously this being touchscreen if you want to bring up our info from our last charge we could go back to home you got your Sirius XM we hit this one here this is where you're gonna be able to do your apple carplay Android auto the OnStar that is very popular with General Motors products.

We hit camera now we're looking at those high def cameras so out the back there's our high def camera you have 360 which is really nice if we hit the screen here we are front wheels going side by side we go back look at that or up above the Chevrolet bolt very very easy to use there's our trajectory which is super.

I'm telling the high def and this thing is super super clean and there's our trajectory very very easy to use I want to get out so you're just gonna hit that and you're right back we drop down you have your actual AC controls blower fan switch temperature which is a nice touch there is no dual climate so you only have single climate.

Which for me that's a Zonk lots of dead buttons for a fully loaded model do you have sport mode that actually kicks up acceleration because there's no driveshaft or anything lots of room down here so you got a great cubby where you can actually have three boxes of Twinkies and if you had somebody in the vehicle who's like trying to play it healthy have some bananas down there.

You have a little tiny pocket for Twizzlers or slim jims and a 12-volt so nice connectivity down there no USB through two cup holders this is going to control your single drive transmission obviously you go into reverse let me go ahead and put us into reverse here and then there's our backup camera once again super clear electric e brake.

Two USBs a little tiny pocket where you would probably put a super small phone or a garage door opener or you could probably put a pack of gum in there other than that it's a little tight on space this is very hard but it does have some nice stitching.

I do like the white trim helps break up that funky feel with the ev you open this up party tray time fill this up with your I would go peanut M&Ms this is so large I would go peanut M&Ms and then you could actually probably store another four Twinkies in there.

If you stand them up it's a little tight but the tray is nice and large here's one of my favorite things with General Motors products this one has the updated digital camera so you have your digital camera in your rear view mirror super clear view out the back and that's really really nice technology and then it becomes a mirror again which is nice seats they're a little bit on the plain side and you have this bright orange pink stitching which I'm wondering where they got that color from manual controls manual for both the passenger and the driver no sunroof so that's where I'm gonna have to Zonk.

A couple places it would be nice to have a sunroof and it would be nice to have at least power assist for the driver's side but why don't you come on over to the business and I want to show you behind the wheel of this bolt EV.

All right guys we're behind the wheel no memory seat settings you have your manual controls it's interesting because I feel like I'm sitting very very high and that does give you a nice visibility for wandering why are we not stopping the beeping it's because we have the car on and since it's not running.

Obviously they don't want you to forget that you have it on steering wheel nice thickness your traditional Chevy horn button you have the Gameboy buttons which I wish they would update these a little bit and then you have that eighth inch full TFT display to give you your rest of your range all the different readings.

Which is really nice you do like I said have a sport mode and there's the regenerative braking so right there it actually there's a circle that lights up around it when you're actually using it and another thing that's new for 2020 is that you actually have this button here it's only on the left-hand side of the steering wheel.

And what you're gonna do is is you're actually going to click it and you could increase the regenerative braking on the vehicle so that's a really nice feature to have but while we go ahead talked about upfront lots of room which is nice let's get to the backseat and see how comfortable your passengers are gonna be.

As you're not using any gasoline alright guys backseat time it's interesting where they shave the weight you can see just how thin looking at how thin the seats are I mean this is the back obviously and I'm able to just take my hand and go like that full plastic around the outside.

But you do have softer material here in case your knees hit this portion the nice thing is is that they did take care of your rear seat passengers with two USBs there are no AC vents back here and seating position is actually quite nice you're you're sitting very straight and proper lots of legroom I'm 6 feet tall I got I'm not crouching down.

One bit not Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon you could just be free and just let it all hang out back here in the back seat armrest dude they give us one yes they did great height two cup holders the only challenge is you just have your pockets in the doors for your storage of your snacks but when we go ahead and check out the cargo area.

And see where this becomes the versatility king of v's alright guys time to check out the cargo area real simple to open you just push the button it's this ultra light pops right up you have a pretty good amount of usable room which is really nice and really where the car is gonna come out on top with the model 3 is look at the height that we have the model 3 only comes to sedan which obviously is gonna cut down on how tall of an item you could use and then the fold down the seats it's real simple you're just going to push on the button and fold it down and if you notice pretty good with almost being totally flat I really like that versatility there and then so you have a nice area of storage underneath.

Now this one has the optional charging setup to plug into your home outlet but you have more usable space underneath there and I really think that smart engineering on how it just nicely goes right into that slot for you and then when you're done you're just gonna take it and put it right back down.

But while we go ahead this is the future of transportation. If you're ready I'm ready let's take this bowl TV for a spin. Hi guys we are in the 2020 bolt EV I have it in sport mode because I kind of really want to showcase the electric motor.

That is in this vehicle it's actually quite peppy to be honest with you when you get on throttle I don't know if you can tell from the video perspective but the nose actually tilts up and you are off and running 0 to 60 in about 5.9 seconds is nothing to laugh about really and the best part is you're getting that versatility of a hatchback.

Where Tesla has not created that yet or maybe they won't and this is directly priced with that Model 3 right at 43,000 dollars that's where you can get a model 3at but remember that is a sedan one thing I do like about the Bolt.

Everything is laid out in a very intelligent way. It's easy to get to the infotainment system. You have that beautiful eight inch TFT display telling you your range, your regenerative braking, all that good stuff and how much power you're using.

That's what I like about it when you look at other EVs, especially Tesla's they're very minimalistic and I don't know about you. I like to have certain buttons in the car. I don't want everything to be operated through the infotainment system screen.

It's nice to have simple to understand AC controls, radio controls and plenty of room in here. I mean the way they have it laid out there's plenty of room and you have that button on the back of the steering wheel for the regenerative braking.

Which is a very very nice addition guys pulling away from the light on throttle just goes it's it's smooth it's instant because remember you don't have to wait for any RPMs to build up it's like turning on a light switch you have power you're on that's how this is.

I'm using that button on the left hand side of the steering wheel to do my regenerative braking the car handles really well there's actually a nice weight to the steering it's very very responsive and I really could feel what the front end of the vehicle is doing which is great as well all right guys we're gonna do acceleration tests from a dead stop.

On throttle put you back we're off and running let's see how she handles through this right left transition so right left a little bit of body roll but still very very responsive the good news is is that with EVs and they're smaller lithium-ion batteries being located lower in the chassis that's actually lowering your center of gravity which actually helps overall with handling which is great because remember the one thing with a EV.

Vehicle compared to a traditional internal combustion vehicle is that as you're driving your normal gas-powered vehicle less fuel means your car's gonna handle differently from a full tank compared to an empty tank with a TV.

You don't have that problem as you know that's not in the equation whatsoever but super super smooth visibility is great I kind of feel like I'm sitting in a fishbowl a little bit but the great news is massive front windshield you have the corner windows.

Down there to really open everything up looking out the back is really good the only thing that I'm gonna donk looking out the back windows the headrests are kind of large but other than that still great visibility and you're getting all the safety features blind spot monitoring Lane keep assist all those great features are in the bolt and it's easily understandable this whole infotainment system everything functions very very nicely.

And one of my favorite parts is using that clicker when you're when you're braking and it helps with the regenerative braking it makes a nice little green circle spinning around that battery that I showed you earlier and just allows you to be able I guess a little bit more interactive with the driving experience in an ev vehicle seats are comfy but I just even though I haven't have them in their lowest position I still feel like I'm sitting too high not high enough to where my head is hitting the inside of the ceiling in here.

But I just feel a little I definitely feel higher than the passenger side it's it's interesting how you can't lower it any more than that but overall definitely a serious contender for a versatile EV we're gonna go ahead and get back to our undisclosed location hopefully this answered a lot of questions for you I'll see you in a split second.

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