First Drive: Chevrolet Bolt EV

Text and Photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The Chevy Bolt EV is a complete EV solution which brings a fresh perspective to how we think about electric cars. This is a great car, it is fun to drive, has lots of room where it counts and makes owning and driving an EV really feel like you're in the future.

Palo Alto, CA - Having covered the development, launch and now a world premiere first drive of the anticipated Chevrolet Bolt EV has challenged everything I thought I knew about cars, about driving, and about the future of transportation.

I joined a group of Canadian journalists over the weekend to be among the first to test drive the 2017 Chevy Bolt EV, which is GM's first modern production all-electric car already available in the US and coming to Canada buyers in a few short weeks.

The Chevy Bolt EV is a significant car for many reasons. It is a product of a long evolution of EVs from GM, plus various breakthroughs in engineering, battery technology as well as feedback from customers of earlier hybrid and EV cars.

Costing around $30,000 and capable of over 383 kilometers on a charge, the Bolt EV isn't the most affordable full-electric vehicle in the market, it is also a feat of car development and production, having gone from concept to production in 25 months.

First Impressions

The Chevy Bolt EV is unlike any car I've ever seen or driven. Thanks to the flat battery array, the car has an abundance of interior space and ample storage. Designed as a 5-seater, it can comfortably seat 4 grown adults with spacious legroom and headroom. 

Chevrolet's designers made this possible by making the front seats thinner so rear legroom can be accomodated. 

The Bolt EV's interior has a tasteful mix of plastic materials which have a unique, yet muted, design and texture. The 10-inch centre console, the best one I've seen on any vehicle, serves as a control centre to monitor energy efficiency and is also the conduit to your Apple CarPlay or Android Auto infotainment.

Overall visibility is outstanding although the fact that you can't see the car's bonnet does take some getting used to. I love the idea of a rear mirror which doubles as a widescreen connected to an HD rear camera. An innovation that was put to the test in Palo Alto's rainy climate during the drive and soon became hard to read.

Our first drive of the Chevy Bolt EV introduced us to many unexpected but delightful innovations. You can set the car to drive in L mode (Low Mode) which makes it possible to engage in one pedal driving.

This means you press the accelerator pedal to move forward but once you ease off the accelerator, the car slowly decelerates without braking and increases the regeneration of energy which is fed back into the system. After trying this, I rarely used the brake pedal to stop since I quickly became gauged how soon I had to ease off the accelerator to come to a full stop at a crossing.

The Bolt EV has a paddle on the rear left-hand side of the steering wheel that also assists in this regenerative braking and can be used to bring about a more dramatic deceleration (while generating more energy). Of course, using the brakes will give you the stopping power you need, but without generating the reusable energy.

Chevrolet has baked in a full-featured console which shows how economical your driving is, battery use as well as a range of diagnostics on the central display. The instrument panel clearly shows your speed, how many miles you can cover on your current charge, as well as various assistive driving alerts.

Quick when pushed

Quick when pushed, the Bolt EV can go from 0-60 Mph in under 7-seconds and this is a quiet, steady and sustained climb. This isn't the most economical way to drive an EV, but it just shows how much power is accessible under the hood.

Driving up hills was no different than a regular car but because of the stable and instantaneous accelerating, it sometimes feels like you're driving an all-wheel drive car.

I found driving the Bolt EV to be a delightful car to drive, it is responsive, it turns and corners without hesitation and it feels secure weaving in and out of passing lanes.

Many of the driver assist features did come in handy driving in wet San Francisco. The forward collision alert, helped keep my distance in check, specially in steeper streets.

Once I got the hang of driving the Bolt EV, I started to understand how every driving decision affects the efficiency of the electric motor. 

Gamification and a new way to think about driving

There's a very cool gamification aspect to being aware and seeing how much energy you are able to harvest as you try and drive more efficiently.

You can of course, do this with a gasoline-powered car (easing up on the accelerator, coasting, braking less and cruising at a reasonable speed). But what you don't get is the instantaneous data the Bolt EV's computer feeds you.

Dozens of small measurements are clearly displayed in real-time so you can assess and adjust your driving.

Palo Alto and San Francisco were ideal locations to drive the Bolt EV. Because of the intermittent rain I had a chance to get a feel of the Bolt's performance in a variety of weather conditions.

The Chevy Bolt EV is a complete EV solution which brings a fresh perspective to how we think about electric cars. This is a great car, it is fun to drive, has lots of room where it counts and makes owning and driving an EV really feel like you're in the future.

Given the pricing, availability of the Bolt EV this year, the future is going to be, within the reach of more people than ever before.