EV Math (at the end), what home charger, first trip, home, one pedal driving, and SuperCruise.
Miles Driven: 2270 Miles
Days since last gas station: 38 (!!!)
Charging Cost: $94.32 ($41.24 Home electricity + $53.08 DCFC)
Equivalent if diesel: $521.301
Savings: $426.98
Be sure to check out Part 1 | From Diesel Truck to Electric Vehicle, Part 3 | 6mo of Bolty McBoltface, or the finale: Part 4 | 365 days of Appliance Car for more about life with an EV, perspectives, and experiences.
“Excellent gateway vehicle – Just enough ICE vehicle features and design for familiarity mixed in with EV peculiarities..”
– Self, July 16th 2022
Thoughts from this past week:
- Took it on my first long-ish trip
- Charging at home is very convenient
- I need window tint
- Rockstar EV parking is a nice perk
- Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Ceramic Coating seems like great stuff.
- One pedal driving is still awesome
- Still smooth and quiet
- SuperCruise really made the miles go by easily.
- EV Math
Excellent gateway vehicle – Just enough ICE vehicle features and design for familiarity mixed in with EV peculiarities.
727.4mi round trip
This past week I took my Bolt EUV on a work trip after Enterprise completely dicked me over and had no rental car available to me, despite me having an existing reservation and a confirmation number. Initially they sent me to another location, which had one available but was getting serviced and would be ready in 2hrs. 2hrs elapsed, and they called me to tell me it needed more extensive service at the dealer and referred me to a 3rd location which was also out of cars.
Each way was approximately 300miles, I charged twice on each leg to be conservative (still new to this whole EV thing), and I wanted to arrive with ~50% State of Charge (SoC); each charge was about 35mins. I picked up nearby food the first time then pulled out my laptop and used the Bolt’s WiFi to cruise the Coloradofans forums lol. Or play Wingspan on the Nintendo Switch with the lady.
Each of the 300mi legs was almost completely on US95 which is a SuperCruise highway. Between SuperCruise and breaking up the driving into 1.5hr blocks, I wasn’t completely drained when I arrived. I also had to use the restroom each time so I’d hook the car up and then walk to whatever store I was in the parking lot of. I had a GoalZero 3000W battery in the back to run electronics off of while charging. No inverter in the Bolt… yet
At home charging is like having a full tank every morning you wake up
If you’re a non-Tesla EV owner, “What charger2?” is a common forum topic. Chargers broadly fall into two categories, “Smart” and “Dumb”. I am a fan of simple (plus another IOT WiFi device on my home network is just one more security risk since they’re notoriously unsecure). Of the “dumb” chargers, it seems to come down to two well regarded choices:
Enphase (formerly Clipper Creek) HCS-40 32A charger
- Available as either hardwired or with a plug.
- Reliability noted in excellent reviews
- Excellent customer service
- Most commonly 32A or 40A . Also has a 48A version but doesn’t have a NEMA 14-50 plug on it.
- Charging cable conveniently hangs on unit
- Made in America
- $622 as of this post
Grizzl-E Level 2 EV Charger, 16/24/32/40 Amp
- Sells with a 14-50 plug but hardwire instructions included
- Selectable between 16A, 24A, 32A, or 40A with dipswitches
- Reliability noted in excellent reviews
- Good customer service
- Made in Canada
- $349 as of this post
Lastly, kinda niche, but I think of note:
OpenEVSE DIY kits
- Fascinating kit of easily replaceable components if interested in putting one together yourself and seeing how it works.
This is a good point to talk about UL listing… Both of those chargers can be found on the UL listing database. A lot of chargers are made by a small few companies and sold under different names. You can email them and ask for their UL certs to find out who actually made the chargers, but why not go with the company that actually makes it and is Canadian or American, respectively ?
I chose a Grizzl-E Level 2 240V/40A EVSE (“charger”) because it was $200 cheaper, still prime eligible, and seemed to provide the same charging capability/reliability. Both of the countries of origin are acceptable to me and I consider myself to be a proud American.
The Grizzl-E is mounted inside my garage but I park my EUV outside. I used 1-Channel Rubber Cable Protector Ramps Heavy Duty under the garage door to protect the cable and an EV Charger Holder SAE J1772 outside for the cable/handle. I applied 303 Aerospace Protectant on because it works great for plastics/rubbers left outside. With this setup I had to adjust the garage door closing height and also the door track positions to make a nice seal again, but the flexibility of charging inside, or outside, or running cables beneath the garage door is great.
Very happy with the setup and really convenient to wake up with a full tank of gas.
Not much more to say here. I don’t have peak rates/time of use rates, but I still have the vehicle set to charge in the early morning (to 80% when I am staying local) to ease any “burden” on the grid.
I need window tint
I live in the South. Window tint on a car should surprise nobody.. I had ceramic window tint applied the following week. 30% front (max allowable by law in the “First in Freedom” state), 20% rear/hatch (same as Colorado). Quoted me at $400, came out to be slightly less, and they did an excellent job that has held up perfectly over the last 18+mo. TVP Auto in Raleigh, NC if anyone is looking for a reputable place.
Rockstar parking
Not really something I thought about/factored into my purchase but on multiple occasions during my 700mi work trip I found parking was free for EVs in paid for garages, usually with free charging, or if it was paid parking the accommodations/free charging was a nice perk. The hotel I stayed at offered rockstar parking and free charging which was great. This was basically the 3rd closest spot to the front doors, next to 2 handicap spots, in a covered garage connected to the hotel.
Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions
I put 2 coats of Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Ceramic Coating on the car just after posting the 1 week update and it has surprised me. When my truck was a week old I had a local (great) detailer paint correct the entire vehicle and apply Sapphire V1. The hydrophobic properties of this spray on ceramic coating are quite similar to the professional ceramic coating, though obviously the Bolt’s paint was not corrected. Can see the coating beading up the water on the hood of the car in the parking garage above, even after 3wks/1500miles including 3hrs of highway driving in the rain. Car also sits outside so it was rained on frequently.
2024 Update: TW Hybrid Solutions has continued to hold up with 6mo applications and I will use it until they inevitably change the formula…
EV Math
While not part of my original 30 day post, this resulted from a member of the forum’s response to the 30 day update, stating:
“Oh and the carbon footprint for just that battery pack started out higher than what your truck sits at today LOL”
Which struck me as odd, considering I had 60,000+mi on my diesel truck… so I started doing some research and excel math. That statement was pretty much just parroting what anti-EV mass media was saying around the time, and is also the EPA’s #2 “Electric Vehicle Myth”.
- My diesel truck at 60k miles has emitted approximately 25.6 tons of CO2 (Source)
- This does not include the carbon footprint for producing the truck, engine, tires, etc…
- I’m using CO2 for the above statement, which is lower than gasoline emissions even though there is evidence that diesel particulate matter evens it out carbon footprint wise (Source). This only hurts my case and potentially lowballs the CO2 emission of 25.6T
- The 65kWh EV battery in the Bolt released an estimated 2.2 and 14.2 tons of CO2 to mine/build (Source1, Source2)
Unless there’s 11-23 Tons of CO2/carbon footprint I’m missing somewhere in there, my truck at 60k miles has a larger carbon footprint than my new EV. I further believe that my EV will break even carbon footprint wise around 36,000mi (Source).
- My diesel truck would emit ~15.35 Tons of CO2 in 36,000mi
- Bolt EUV would emit ~7.74 tons of CO2 in 36,000mi charging on the 2020 energy mix of coal, nuclear, NG, and renewables.
Furthermore, none of the carbon footprint calculations incorporate how much CO2 it took to produce the diesel/gas, then diesel ship/truck it to distribution centers, then diesel truck it to the gas stations for people to pump it on electricity from the grid.
LG Chem opened their Holland, MI battery plants in 2019 to supply Bolt batteries Made In USA. (Probably with global materials). Only the pre-2019 packs were made in S Korea.
That’s why I selected the numbers/sources above, which are the revised estimate for 2020 built vehicles by the source, IVL. I humored the poster and used the highest estimate, which they insisted was closer to reality (with no sources cited or evidence to suggest that, I doubt it, but the math didn’t add on much to my EV CO2 deficit). Adding in an extra 3T of CO2 still made the original statement incorrect: my EV with 0mi did not have a higher carbon footprint than my 60k mile diesel truck.
That 3 extra tons is ~ 133.7gal of diesel (Source), or 3,350mi of driving @ 24.84mpg (which is what I’m averaging in my modified truck).
NC averaged 663# CO2/MegaWh in 2021 (Source), or 0.663#/kiloWh. I’ve averaged 3.7kW/mi so far in the Bolt, so I’ve used:
~1,266.21kWh * 0.663# = 839.5# CO2.
# CO2/mi for my truck: 0.85 (Source)
#/mi for my Bolt: 0.18 (CO2/kWh with 3.7mi/kW avg)
—————————————————————-
Miles to offset the high number: 31,901.7mi <– easily achievable.
Miles to offset my averaged number: 22,659.15 <– coming up faster than I imagined.
In August of 2022, I had 4,685mi on my Bolt.:
CO2 Not emitted: 3,388.76# (Total saved – Electricity [4,228.26# – 839.5#])
Days since last gas station: 16
Charging Cost: $156.30 ($89.58 Home electricity + $66.72 DCFC)
Equivalent if diesel: $907.69*
Savings: $751.38————————————-
Mi to breakeven CO2 footprint: 17,974mi
Didn’t buy the EV to be green but there is so much misinformation out there about EVs, not to mention the emotional pleas against them based on mostly feelings (similar to the anti-gun emotional arguments) rather than available (or unavailable) data.
Full Disclosure:
I am a full disclosure person: This site contains affiliate links. It costs you nothing but I receive a small percentage if you purchase using the above links. I would greatly appreciate it if you would support the site using them, but if not I also understand. Thanks for reading, and may every landing be gear down !
- Based on last price of diesel I paid. Additionally, the state that I live in has an “EV Use Tax”. Other states will inevitably have similar fees, since you are no longer giving them money via state gasoline tax revenue. NC taxes motor fuel at $0.385/gal (!!!). I remove this $0.385 cost from the price of fuel in my excel spreadsheet where I calculate costs, so the displayed “equivalent if diesel” is less the $0.385/gal that I pay in a one time fee. ↩︎
- “Charger” is the colloquial term for EVSE, Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment, which provides electricity for an EV to recharge with. If you want to commit internet suicide, refer to it as a charger on some EV forums… ↩︎
