Can Eco-Friendly be cool?

I recently purchased a Chevy Bolt, a completely electric vehicle.  Here in Canada, they are still a bit of a novelty.  I knew my next car would be an electric, but I was willing my old car, my Pontiac Vibe to last just a few more months.  It didn’t work out like that.

Oddly enough, I remember my childhood hero Bill Nye the Science Guy mention that he had a Chevy Bolt, so I thought I’d check it out.  Turns out the range is phenomenal.  My commute is about an hour a day and I could probably go three days without a charge, and everything else I heard about the car made me more and more sure that it was for me.

I had to find a local place that sold it though, not every place here in Canada even offers them.  I went in, they had one to choose from, a white one.  I had my three kids in tow and we took it out for a spin.  My youngest in her car seat and the boys on either side, there was plenty of room, even more room in the seats than the Vibe had.

Sitting in this car is like sitting in a space ship, it’s warm, comfortable, the music sounds great and what can only be described as a computer screen can hook up my phone to the car and play all the books on tape that I can download from my library app from the car’s speakers, the backup camera is clear and large and the heated seats and steering wheel promise to convince me to get my ass to work even in the depths of winter…Granted, part of this raving is that I hadn’t sat in a new car in 13 years.

The main thing is the drive.  This car teaches you to drive differently.  It’s quiet.  It’s hard to tell at first whether it’s on.  In the winter, when you remotely “start” this car from your phone, it goes into a pre-conditioning mode that just warms up the cabin.  It’s pretty cool.  You hit the “gas” and it’s pretty punchy, still quiet, but sounds more like the transporter from the original Star Trek than a gas powered engine. 

They have this thing called regenerative driving that takes some getting used to.  You use the accelerator like normal, but the second you let off the gas it slows down much quicker than a normal car.  If you’re considering getting one of these, a good idea is to just drive it around town for a few days to get used to this, or you’ll really annoy the people behind you.  (I wouldn't recommend getting used to this thing in a snow storm like I did!) It slows down quicker because the car is capturing kinetic energy back into the battery.  There is also a paddle on the steering wheel that slows you down even quicker so to capture even more energy when you have to stop at a red light or stop sign…  How quick you slow down depends on how fast you’re going, so until you get used to it, you might be slowing down more or less quickly than you had in mind.  The break pedal is still there of course, but I hardly ever use it.  I don't imagine the breaks in this car will have to be changed all that often!

The dealership was pretty great about shipping in the colour that I wanted.  I wanted a bold beautiful blue.  I think this is a car that demands some attention and dirt doesn't show as much on a bright blue car.  Funny thing about buying the car was the warranties that they offer are not yet designed to encompasses electric cars, flipping through their pamphlet for their power-train warrantee was kind of funny.  But the battery was covered for 8 years and roadside assistance was covered for five.

Then there`s the charging.  The charging cord that comes with the car is a level 1 charger.  It plugs into a regular socket, it takes over two full days for a complete charge, but if you`re not driving it far or often, this might just do you fine.  There are two options that you can set the car to.  The default in the car is 8 amps and you have to manually put it up to 12 amps every time.  It`s worth checking the breaker to see if it`s shared with any other appliances.  But even at 12 amps, a level 1 charger is not enough if you commute, unless you`re lucky enough to have a charging station near your work.

I have a level 2 charger installed now.  It runs off a 240 volt plug similar to a dryer plug.  It draws a lot more power and will fully charge a completely drained battery overnight….But after my commute, I still have about two thirds battery charge so it only takes maybe three hours to charge, that it can be set to do at night when the energy rates are off-peak.

Charging stations may not be everywhere yet, but more and more are being built and they are SUPER easy to use.  They are either free to use, or the paid ones just involve finding the location on an app, parking, tapping your credit card or your phone, and plugging in. They are often located in places that you can stop for a coffee etc.  For instance, here in Canada, I would really appreciate if Tim Hortons got on board and put a charger at more and more of their locations...These coffee shops are almost everywhere, and if people knew just to look for their nearest Tim's when their charge was running low, isn't that good for business too??  

I've had it for just over a month.  I was happy with the cost, I'm amazed at the drive and the technology in it and, you know...I don't miss stopping at gas stations?!  All in all, it's a pretty bad ass car, and it`s the kind of sexy we need to bring into the world of Environmentalism if we want more recruits!