I had a 1952 International pickup a long time ago. Built like a tank. This flawless beauty has similar lines.
Man that finish. So many hours.
I had a 1952 International pickup a long time ago. Built like a tank. This flawless beauty has similar lines.
Man that finish. So many hours.
So after a serious consideration of the Zero DS-R electric motorcycle, we ended up with a three year lease on… this!
That’s the 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV, in Premium trim. I’ll try and explain how we got here, and maybe someone else will find the information useful in deciding on a car.
Five days a week I commute to work. In the morning, I take this route:
Sixteen to seventeen miles, almost all freeway, basically zero congestion once I’m on the freeway.
In the evenings, I plan to use this route:
Here’s why, and this is key: Highway 15S has a carpool/HOV lane all the way down to 163, and it’s two lanes and very rarely slowed down. So if I can get an HOV sticker it’ll save immense stress and time. I’ve used this route a few times carpooling, so I’m confident here.
The alternate route, back down 805, is always a parking lot, even the HOV lane is slow, so that’s definitely worse.
Requirements from this: About 170 miles per week, HOV approval a must.
There was a local (southern California) promotion that offered $10K off of a BMW i3 and $3K off the Nissan Leaf, until July 31 2018. That provided the impetus to get me looking, and if you move fast the offer is still open. There’s also the $2,500 CA rebate and $7,500 federal if you buy and $2500 CA for a lease.
If you read carefully, HOV stickers expire after three years and cannot be renewed. So if, like me, you want continued access, a lease is suddenly quite appealing. Residual values on 3-year off-lease EVs are mostly terrible, by the way, partially because of this and partially because the technology is improving very rapidly.
I was initially agog for the Zero DS-R but Chris made three points:
The i3s is a small to medium sized tweak of the i3, increasing the power by about 10% and improving the tires and suspension. Range is about 110 miles, so it’d just exceed the current tank range of my Piaggio BV350. It comes with 2 years of free DC fast charging, is very fun to drive, has a supercool design and F1-grade materials. (Carbon fiber polymer chassis and most of the rest aluminum.) Purchase price at high trim is about $57K, minus 10K state/federal and 10K utility works out to $37K. Lease deal we were offered was $453 a month, about 5K down, 10K miles per year for three years.
You can get a hybrid version, the i3s REX, but I’m not interested and didn’t pursue it.
Negatives on the i3s:
Friends of ours have a slightly older Leaf, and we’d tested the 2017 model, so we were hopeful for the 2018. Range has increased to 150 miles, the shape got less distinctive and the materials more luxurious; all good news to me. However, when we went to test drive it, the restyled center console wedged my knee into the steering wheel unmercifully; no way to fix it. And that was that for the Leaf.
But if you’re not 208cm (6 foot 10), it’s a fine car, well priced and well made.
Several co-workers have these and they look to be fine autos. As noted above, I can’t currently lease one, wait times are 4 to 24 weeks, current models run about 45k after rebates and even that’s uncertain as Tesla has just exceeded the mandated cap of 200K vehicles for the federal max refund: costs are rising.
Other mild annoyances – I strongly prefer knobs for things like temperature and volume, and the 3 is almost all touch screen. It’s also shaped more low-slung, which for commuting I like sitting more upright.
If I had a longer commute or unavoidable traffic I’d have considered it more; co-workers who use Autopilot to survive gridlock have praised it to the skies. Used Model S with Supercharger access are also of similar price.
I required quite a bit of research to even consider this car. When I was growing up, American cars were crap, unreliable, poorly made and overpriced. That logo presented a formidable mental block!
However, as I read and learned more, I was impressed enough to go and drive one and came away very surprised. Frankly, it feels as well made and as luxurious as the BMW i3s, and is just as fun to drive.
Yeah, I was shocked too.
Check this out: the BMW i3s is 181HP and 3005lbs, so 15.1 pounds per horsepower. The Bolt is 200HP and 3569 lbs, so 17.8 pounds per horsepower.
Pardon the units; the point is that the Bolt is close in power to weight ratio and the 0-60 times bear that out at 6.5 seconds for the Bolt versus 6.8 for the i3s! Yeah, the Bolt is faster. Note that 6.5 seconds is sports-car quick; this is a great car for darting, passing and zipping around.
The other deciding factors for us were:
It’s a really nice car: leather seats, 10.2″ LCD display which excels for maps, excellent Bose stereo, super quiet and a great city and highway car. I would have preferred LED headlamps, but the HIDs are quite acceptable; I liked them on our Audi allroad and they work here. Lots of space and headroom, even for someone as tall as me, and the back seats are good too, two fit well with three in a pinch. I was able to haul all four of us plus luggage for a 1 week trip without blocking the rear window; it’s quite large inside. You sit up with excellent visibility all around, and the camera-in-the-mirror feature is super for situation awareness.
I love that the phone slot in the center is a wireless charger. I use the Lightning cable to connect CarPlay, so wireless is redundant, but it’s still cool.
Pro tip: Pay the extra $115 for ‘Black bow tie logo’ and they replace the gaudy gold logo with black on the front and back. I go in next week to get mine replaced.
I’ll be posting lots more about the Bolt; keep an eye on the EV and Bolt tags here.
Others have complained about the seats; I don’t know why but they are excellent for me at least. Shrug. Dunno there, try before you buy as many have dinged them as uncomfortable.
This post has gotten long, so I’ll keep these brief.