Our first all electric car

 I put out a previous post about our local electric company offering their members an electric car to try out for a week and see how they work. The idea is to increase demand for their electric services. They tell us that the added efficiency of LED lights, more efficient appliances, better insulated houses and other reductions in electrical demand continue to reduce the demand for electricity on a per house basis. The only thing on the horizon to increase demand is electric cars. Here is a link to that post:

Trying out a Bolt

We took advantage of their electric car try out and drove a Chevrolet Bolt all thru the mountains of Colorado. We were so impressed we decided to shop for one and see what kind of bargains we might find.

It turns out General Motors offers an $8500 discount, Costco offers a $3000 incentive, some dealers are taking off another $6500 and the state of Colorado chips in another $4000. It is a good time to buy an all electric car. We decided what we wanted in the way of options and started emailing various dealers to see what kind of pricing they offered.

A check of new car prices on Cars.com gives an overview of which dealers in the country are offering the best pricing. A further check of the comments on the Chevy Bolt owners forums gave an idea of available pricing and which dealers are good to deal with and which employ the common dealership tactics that can be so off-putting.

We had shopped one of the local Wichita, KS Chevrolet dealers that had a Bolt we liked, but due to a mistake in their ordering the car came with two Level 1 chargers. One is standard and comes with the car, but a second was mistakenly ordered as an option and added $530 to the cost of the car. Once the option is on the Monroney sticker is is very difficult to remove and make the car competitive in price. We were not able to work around that restriction and meet our price point.

Later in the week we were bike riding on the KATY Trail and were near St. Louis. We stopped in O'Fallon Missouri at the Jim Trenary Chevrolet dealership as their website shows they had quite a few Bolts in stock and offered attractive pricing. It turns out they are one of the top selling Chevy Bolt dealers in their district. We had been dealing with their internet purchasing folks via email.  

We met with Dennis Biggs who is part of their Internet staff and he had a Chevrolet Bolt positioned out in front of the dealership as part of our appointment. This Bolt was in our desired color and had the option packages we desired. We test drove the Bolt and enjoyed the drive. Dennis then got our various identity details and Costco discount information and within a few minutes came back with a price that met our goals and we signed to buy the car.

This was a most pleasant car buying experience. The best part is they offer a service in which the dealership registers the car, pays the various state fees and taxes and sends the license plates to you thereby avoiding the unenviable job of going to the DMV to register and title the car.

The Bolt has a 250 mile driving range. We used an app called "A better route planner" to determine how to take an all electric car on a road trip to Kansas. This app uses the range of your specific electric car to determine which high speed chargers you need to stop at on your trip. Here is a link:

A Better Route Planner

This screen capture shows the route and chargers for our specific road trip

We stopped every few hours to top off the charge on the way to Kansas. Each stop took 30 minutes to an hour to charge the car for the next leg of the trip. At each stop there were places to get food, shop for groceries and so on.

We did find there is a considerable difference in price at the various high speed chargers with one seller being three times the rate of the Chargepoint chargers. The rates are all less than purchasing gasoline, but in some cases far less.

We drove our tow vehicle in to go car shopping

Happy wife, happy life!

The salesman Dennis (Great guy!) did a good job of showing us the features and getting us signed up with the Onstar service

Heading out with our new purchase

It spent the first night plugged in behind the Airstream at the campground

We started the road trip to Kansas and made good use of DCC Fast chargers along the way

Typical battery charger configuration

Some are located in the same general area as gas pump service islands along the turnpike

The chargers give details of the charging rate, costs, time remaining and battery state of charge.

The screens inside the car offer a graphical representation of battery state of charge

The chargers have nice night time lighting

These are the high speed chargers found in the Walmart lot in Boonville MO.

This vehicle is a game changer for electric car drivers. The range and charging speed is sufficient for road trips when needed, but the 250 mile range is more than adequate for most folks who will charge it in their garage overnight  and start fresh the next day.

Maintenance consists of tire rotations every 7500 miles, cabin air filters($15) every 22,500 miles and a few other items. I'm anxious to enjoy all electric driving.