Wesley's Tool-Box

When I have to charge my Bolt EV in the dark, such as outdoor charging in the middle of the night, the lack of illumination on the charging port makes it hard to plug the charging cable correctly. I saw a video about fixing this with an LED strip, so I decided to try it myself as well. I bought an LED dog collar online for about six bucks (KRW 6,900) that would get the job done.


The collar had a Micro-USB port for charging, and came with a short cable to facilitate it. After I finished charging it (the indicator turned green, from red) I went down to the parking lot.

Apple has included 3rd party navigation application support for CarPlay with iOS 12, which means the cars equipped with CarPlay can use maps other than Apple Maps as long as they make use of the new API. Google Maps and Waze were named when the feature was announced back in June, but one of the major Internet Service companies in Korea, Kakao, beat them to the punch and launched the CarPlay-supported version (3.26.0) of its Kakao Navi app today, September 15. As the iOS 12 GM was already released to the developers and beta testers two days ago, it was possible for me to try it out on my Bolt EV as you can see above.


Kakao Navi is no stranger to the car navigation game, as it was selected as the sole navigation app when Google's Android Auto was launched in Korea in July 12 of this year. This happened because the stand-off between Google and the Korean government resulted in a severely crippled Google Maps support in Korea. In any case, Kakao Navi has claimed first 3rd party navigation support on both Google and Apple's car interfaces for Korean users.

After arriving in Ulsan and charging the Bolt EV's battery as seen in the last post, my four-member family went about our own business for a couple of days. When it was time to return home, we dropped by a nearby Costco to pack up some items in the trunk. While the space was smaller compared to the one in the cars I used to drive, we were able to fit everything in.

We spent 18% of the battery charge during our stay, leaving 76%. It seemed a bit risky to attempt a full return without a mid-trip recharge since the previous trip used 73% of the battery. Still, I thought it presented an interesting opportunity to see the car's limits and pressed on casually, with the air conditioning on. The following time-lapse video shows what happened in its entirety.


As you can see, the Bolt EV was able to return to the charging station in the parking lot at home just barely. Like the previous trip, this sort of drain-to-the-bottom run should be attempted only if you're sure of the range and the charger is ready at the end. So what was the scariest moment?

It’s been more than a month since I started driving Bolt EV. The lack of any engine noise, as well as the responsive acceleration and regenerative breaking continue to impress even now. I felt that the car definitely belonged to the 21st century and was glad that this was the first car I bought. Driving experience aside, many still wonder and ask if the car is truly good enough for a long drive and whether the charging speed was any good. This is where showing the experience would be better than explaining.

Here is the video of my recent cross-country round trip with Bolt EV in time lapse mode using the setup you see in the photo above. It should be noted that the Korean Peninsula is only about 300km wide and the South Korean part is about 400km long. Therefore the “cross-country” isn’t on a such grand scale here. Still, the range of Bolt EV (383km) implies that it could go almost anywhere in the country with a single full charge and this is important for many potential buyers in Korea.


On the video, Bolt EV took on the task of taking my family on a routine trip to my parents’ home at the opposite coast. This trip from Naju to Ulsan covered a distance of 302.8km, of which more than three quarters were on the expressway. The day was warm and humid (more than 25C on average, with a bit of rain) and so the air conditioning was running, yet the car nevertheless passed with flying colours with plenty of margins to spare. We started out with 91% charge, and still had 18% left after reaching the destination. Let's see this in more detail.