That was an interesting (and
That was an interesting (and very thorough) EV article. It is also the first time that I have ever heard or read the term "Gas Anxiety" before. I can understand the idea, but I never worried that much about electricity before. This being opposed to range anxiety where the car and driver are actually stuck on the road somewhere waiting for a tow if they run out of electricity. It is something that I always felt good about in my Chevy Volts (and now Cadillac ELR) PHEVs is that if/when I run out of electricity the car just keeps driving on gasoline, and I can just refill it quickly and drive further. I figure that when I run my PHEV on electricity it is an EV, and when I don't then I am just like the rest of the 97% of American drivers using fossil fuels to get around. I like the fact that it runs as an EV because it does make me more aware of my energy use, and it's kind of a game to plan out the most efficient routes and driving habits, whereas pure gas drivers probably don't think about that unless they are hypermilers. When going longer distances where I know that I am going to use gasoline I regularly start my trip off using electricity in town and switch to gas on the highway, and then back to EV mode when I get back on city streets, so each mode is the most efficient. Similarly, in colder winters I will start of in EV mode and when I pop on the freeway I switch over to gas for 10 minutes to heat up the gas engine so that it heats the cabin more efficiently (the electric space heater is horribly inefficient), and then I switch back to EV mode after the car is warmed up inside. I'm sure that you understand that your 1000 mile trips make your needs unlike most drivers. But your experience does reveal much about the costs of running a BEV in those unusual conditions, and the associated efficiencies. I leased two Gen 1 Volts, and then bought another Gen 1 Volt after the leases expired. Then I bought the Cadillac ELR when California killed off the green and white HOV stickers (I have still never heard a decent argument to why they killed off the white stickers). I used to have a free Chargepoint charger at work, so even though I had nearly an 80 mile commute I was able to run purely off of electricity and pull off 170+MPG on my leased Volts. My recharge was around 12.4kWh and my range was 40-55 EV miles depending on temps. I was surprised that the generator/gas engine managed about 40MPG+, and I get similar results with the ELR despite it having lower EV ratings. One of my co-workers has a 2017 Volt and he replaced his previous Leaf that became unable to manage his 60 mile round trip commute, Interestingly he manages the 60+ miles fine in EV mode with the newer Volt. Still, the Bolt was an amazing EV achievement when it was released, which shows up by how competitive it still is against new EV rivals many years later. Similar to your experience with your Volt, I very rarely use public chargers, so it is interesting to see the cost and availability of fast chargers. It looks like Electrify America is really adding many fast chargers across the country in anticipation of VW releasing their long range/affordable BEVs here. But as we have read online they have adopted a pricing structure that overcharges rival Hyundai EVs for fast charging, even if it doesn't affect the Bolt fast charge costs. I think that I am like most EV owners who just charge at home overnight, except that I did install a 240V EVSE (charging station) which charges in less than half the time as it takes with 110V. Anyway, thanks for your real-world accounts and sharing the numbers surrounding your Bolt experience. May you have another 100,000 trouble free miles.