Bolt EV on its 5th birthday in June 2023My Bolt EV has turned five this month, as it racked up more than 130 thousand kilometers on its odometer. It's fairly efficient and low maintenance, so I'll keep driving it as the primary vehicle for several more years. It definitely has some downsides like the poor fast charging performance, but I've gotten used to it. Let's see how it's been doing all this time. You can watch the YouTube video or keep reading below.
Monthly performance trend from June 2018 to May 2023As you can see here, I generally drive about 1,500 to 2,500 km every month, for an average of 2,179.3 km. Lifetime efficiency is at 7.72 km/kWh, but it can get as high as 9 km/kWh in summer or drop to about 6.5 km/kWh in winter. As for the battery, it had been degrading stably for the first four years, then it was replaced with a new one. Interestingly enough, not only is the usable capacity larger by about 3 kWh, it's maintaining its capacity better than the original one. I'm going to be looking into this further at at later time.
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.
Charging the collar via USB cable
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.
Looking at the dashboard of Bolt EV from the driver’s seat
Up until now, I’ve been driving the car my parents used to drive, and I had been putting off on buying my own until something that could satiate my fondness for technology would come along. And I finally found that car - Chevrolet Bolt EV, a fully battery powered electric vehicle. I pre-ordered this year’s version in January, and was expected to get it by late July, but I got lucky and I picked it up today. The car is very responsive, which I like.
Charging the Bolt EV at a highway service area
The car wasn’t fully charged at the time of the handover - it only had enough charge for about 150km of driving. So I’m charging it at a service area as I write this after driving about 50km. I still have more than 300km to go, so hopefully it’ll get charged enough for me to return home.