It has been exactly one year now that we have owned our 2020 Chevy Bolt EV. In a future article, I will report many take-aways from our overall driving experience with this fantastic vehicle. In this article, however, I’ll describe the experience of driving this car far enough to need to stop along the way for a “top-off” of electrons – for what is known as a, “DC Fast Charge.” The experience of DC Fast Charging and of conquering EV Milestone #3 is described in detail below. But first, let me repeat this analysis of EV driving milestones from my prior blog article (here) published on September 20th, 2020.
(Repeated from 9/20/2020 Blog Article) … I am quickly learning that there are three major milestones anyone owning and driving an EV for the first-time, experiences:
Milestone #1: How does the car stack up in day-to-day driving for errands, shopping and commuting to/from work? Let me tell you, with the Bolt’s 259 miles of EV range, the answer to this one is a slam-dunk: “awesome is how it stacks up!” We’ve never had, nor do we anticipate ever having a single day of day-to-day driving around town that would exceed this car’s range. NO RANGE ANXIETY HERE! EVER! In fact, we probably are only charging the vehicle once per week or so. Easy…peasy! Milestone #1 “in the bag.”
Milestone #2: How does the car comport itself (and how do you feel about it) when you travel outside of your home territory, but still within (or close to) the full rated EV range of the vehicle. In this milestone, you are taking a long(er) trip but you do not anticipate needing to stop and charge your vehicle along the way. You will charge when you return home or reach your one-way destination. Milestone #2 is what I wrote about in my second blog article about our Bolt EV experiences here. When thinking about and carrying out this milestone, “range anxiety,” that fear of running out of electric charge before reaching a charging station is fairly moderate. You’ve planned your trip; you know the approximate total mileage you want to travel and you are pretty confident that your EV will pull it off with nary a care in the world! However, until you actually do it for the first time, there is always just a “wee-bit” of range anxiety lurking in the deep recesses of your mind. You “trust” the car and its EV range, but you know you must “verify” it to build your Milestone #2 confidence. This is the milestone we reported on in our September 20, 2020 blog article earlier. It was very successful.
Milestone #3: Taking a trip away from home that exceeds your car’s EV range; like setting out to visit family in the Chicago area over 680 miles from home in Penfield, NY knowing you will need to charge at unfamiliar charging stations at least twice along the way in order to make it. This milestone is the, “Big Kahuna,” “Holy Grail” or “800-pound gorilla in the room” of EV driving and ownership. This is the milestone where range anxiety and charging station uncertainty can be at its highest. This is the milestone, that once you have broken through it, you can anoint yourself as a full-fledged, certified EV car owner and driver. You have mastered the EV driving experience fully! This is the milestone that I will be writing about in this blog article. So “buckle up” and join us for the ride.
So how did we do with our “Milestone #3 Moment?” On Sunday, February 28th, 2021, my wife and I set out to drive round-trip to the Syracuse, NYS Fairgrounds Convention Center for our second Covid-19 Pfizer vaccinations. Depending on the temperature (cold temperatures greatly reduce the range of your battery) this trip could easily (have) exceeded our Bolt’s battery range.
As always, thanks so much for reading this blog article and we hope that you enjoyed it. Keep checking back for new articles in this series or in my “Our-Big-Beautiful-Green-ALL-ELECTRIC-Life” series as well.