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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday August 09 2017, @04:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the new-choice-for-range-anxiety dept.

From Consumer Reports last week, August 03, 2017:
https://www.consumerreports.org/2017-chevrolet-bolt/chevrolet-bolt-sets-electric-vehicle-range-record/

The Bolt is estimated to reach 238 miles by the Environmental Protection Agency. In our testing, electric vehicles tend to fall short of their EPA-estimated range, including the:

    o 2016 Tesla Model S 75D, 235 miles achieved vs. 259-mile EPA estimate.
    o 2016 Tesla Model X 90D, 230 miles achieved vs. 257-mile EPA estimate.

In our electric-vehicle range test, we put the Bolt head to head against our 2016 Tesla Model S 75D. The Tesla ran out of juice at 235 miles, while the Bolt motored on for another 15 miles. ( https://www.consumerreports.org/cars-how-consumer-reports-tests-cars/ Learn how Consumer Reports tests cars.)

Tesla has upgraded the Model X 90D to a longer-range 100D. A new Tesla Model S or X 100D would probably beat the Bolt's range, but you'd have to pay $100,000 or more for one of those cars. CR has not yet tested the range on those versions.

CR's electric-vehicle range test involves some mixed driving, but much of it is done by driving a constant 65 mph on a highway. If you were to meander on country roads at 45 mph, you might get even more range. To ensure repeatability, the CR tests are done with the air conditioning and heater off. Hard acceleration and running the HVAC system can cut the range significantly, as can driving in very cold temperatures.

I'm not surprised that Chevy's "factory rating" was conservative, under these conditions. GM has everything to gain by satisfied customers and word of mouth advertising...since they have chosen to not run a big advert blitz with the Bolt. Is it surprising that Tesla doesn't meet their published range numbers?


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by tibman on Wednesday August 09 2017, @08:47PM (4 children)

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 09 2017, @08:47PM (#551290)

    Not many people need to regularly drive more than 4 hours at a time. The people who do shouldn't get this car (or any electric). Your complaint is like saying how cars suck at carrying bricks and 2x4s around. Get a truck if hauling is your use-case.

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  • (Score: 3, Disagree) by jmorris on Wednesday August 09 2017, @10:01PM (3 children)

    by jmorris (4844) on Wednesday August 09 2017, @10:01PM (#551326)

    You miss the point. It isn't about needing to commute four hours, it isn't about driving four hours on a "regular" basis. It is about knowing you are on a short leash, you CAN'T take off on a day trip to a spot a hundred miles away without worrying about working charging into your schedule. You CAN'T take that car on your vacation without careful planning and short hops. If you are so wealthy that you always fly on vacation, great, you are in the small target audience for this product. You can't own one of those cars unless you are resolved to make every trip out of town revolve around the charging problem. You don't pull off the Interstate and top up the car, drain your bladder and get going again. If an electric is your only car you will probably have to rent a real car for any trip out of town.

    And normal people of average intellect figure this out pretty quick, long before a sales weasel manages to convince them to sign upon the line that is dotted, and they decide to pass. And until the battery problem gets solved electric cars are a niche product mostly bought as virtue signaling by coastal elites.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @11:56PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @11:56PM (#551362)

      > you CAN'T take off on a day trip to a spot a hundred miles away without worrying about working charging into your schedule.

      250 miles/2 = 125 miles

      125 miles > 100 miles

    • (Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday August 10 2017, @01:53AM

      by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 10 2017, @01:53AM (#551405)

      You are missing the point. Your car really sucks at carrying around a load of lumber. It is limiting your lifestyle. Any kind of construction project will require careful planning and many trips back and forth to the store. You should upgrade to a superior vehicle, a truck.

      Or maybe people have different lifestyles and travel requirements. Heck, some people don't even own a vehicle.

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    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by urza9814 on Thursday August 10 2017, @03:19PM

      by urza9814 (3954) on Thursday August 10 2017, @03:19PM (#551664) Journal

      You miss the point. It isn't about needing to commute four hours, it isn't about driving four hours on a "regular" basis. It is about knowing you are on a short leash, you CAN'T take off on a day trip to a spot a hundred miles away without worrying about working charging into your schedule.

      Must be nice to be wealthy enough to be able to drop everything and flee the country at a moment's notice, but why not just rent a private jet or something?

      The rest of us need at least a month's planning to get time off and set up all the arrangements anyway, so tossing in some fuel/rental planning isn't particularly difficult.

      Having said that...I'd love an electric, but it's utterly impossible at the moment. Nowhere to charge it, and it would seriously screw up my driving style -- I'm one of those people that tends to do 8-10 hour drives as close to non-stop as possible. Usually I'll stop for fuel and a bathroom every 4 hours, but I'm not sitting down to eat or anything. And there's some EV chargers in the northern half of that route, but I don't recall seeing any on, for example, I-80 the entire way through Pennsylvania. So not only do you need to stop for longer to charge, you also need to drive far off your route to get to a charger, and you become dependent on your navigation system never failing. And it would probably add a second day to the trip in each direction. But I can't afford one yet anyway...by the time I can I'm hoping the infrastructure will be in place.