I’ve been experiencing major range meter problems on my 2020 Bolt for the last three to four months. Two Chevy dealerships — John Elway and Ed Bozarth here in Colorado — have claimed nothing is wrong. But something is definitely wrong.
I want to say that the heat and AC are never on for what I explain below and that I have driven EV ONLY for 10 years and 140,000 miles, so I understand hills, highway driving, outside temp and how they affect range.
1. First of all, when you fill the battery 100%, it shows a bloated, and totally incorrect range of 340+ miles.
2. My Bolt adds or subtracts range while I am stopped at a light, AND while the car is parked and off, adding up to five miles suddenly. That is not “real” range, as it drops at a 5-1 ratio.
3. While the Ed Bozarth mechanic was driving my car and I was sitting next to him two weeks ago, and while we were stopped a traffic light, the range meter dropped 25 miles, 205 to 180! What the heck?
4. The range meter seems to be WAY overestimating by putting up what I would call “phantom” miles, sometimes lots of them, that fall off like a rock falling off of Long’s Peak once you start driving.
5. There is NO WAY I would take my 2020 Bolt on a road trip right now, especially not here in Colorado, where you drive up steep grades and have to wait for long distances to get to a down-grade to regenerate miles.
6. My range meter did NOT act this way until about three to four months ago. It did NOT add huge amounts of “phantom” miles/range, did not add range while it was at a stoplight, or while it was parked and turned off, and did not drop phantom miles over-added. It consistently aligned with actual miles driven, whether city, city/highway, or mostly highway driving.
8. I am of the mind to potentially trade my Bolt in to one of these dealerships and STICK THEM with the problem that they claim doesn’t exist. Let’s see what happens then!
9. It is anxiety provoking to have this issue, and believe me, I don’t need more anxiety in my life, especially not when driving.
10. I have included YouTube videos that show range being dropped by a 3-1, even 4-1 margin. The first video shows extended highway driving. The second shows how quickly miles are dropped traveling at city driving speeds no more than 50 mph with projected range dropping at a 3-4 to 1 ratio of range drop to actual miles travelled. You can scrub through these videos quickly so as not to waste time. I uploaded them to show visual evidence of what I am describing.
11. Would YOU want to keep my 2020 Bolt and/or take it on a long highway driving trip given the spastic nature of the range meter? (I took it on a 2,400 mile road trip in 2021 from Denver to Santa Barbara with my daughters, and it was NOT behaving in the way it is now. I wanted to do another road trip to my sister’s in Santa Barbara from Denver this summer. BUT I WILL NOT do it with the car’s range meter acting in such spastic fashion.)
12. Anyone else experiencing this problem/have experienced it? Any solutions/fixes?
13. YOUTUBE video of radical range-meter drop in highway driving ==>
14. YOUTUBE video of radical range-meter drop in city driving ==>