Source
r/BoltEV•
tectail

How many kwh/100miles in the real world?

Charging & Electrical

So I am currently considering buying a Chevy bolt ev. While it is not entirely about the numbers, I would like them to be pretty close to buying gas right now for an old car I have.

I was just curious what kind of milage owners get in either miles/kwh or kwh/mile, either works.

Side note: keeping a close eye on that bill in Congress right now in US. Going to make the numbers really appealing in 2023 if Chevy doesn't increase price, and we get $7500 tax credit. Would make it one of the cheapest new vehicles to buy in many states not just cheapest evs.

Posted Aug 10, 2022, 8:33 AM UTC

552
redgrandam•

It highly depends on your climate and the roads (speed) you drive on.

I have a pretty good commute, half highway, half county roads.

Summer I get 16.5 kWh/100km. In the winter (cold and winter tires) I get about 21kwh/100km.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

4
NotAcutallyaPanda2021 LT•

This number mirrors my experience. Been driving a Bolt since 2018.

2
nouserforoldmen•

Have an upvote!

I have been babying the accelerator on the Bolt for five years, and get only ~4.5miles/kWhr in warm weather. Around 4 miles/kWhr is about the best you can do at highway speeds.

If I get that efficiency, I’m good with that. (Bolt owner for 5 years, who is only just now understanding that chargers are so much more available than they were half a decade ago. Range anxiety aught to be a thing of the past).

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AntiMarx2022 EUV (Previously 2019 LT)•

My lifetime average is right in the middle of those two values, so story checks out :)

2
Authorized_Retailer•

In Florida, with almost ideal climate and terrain, I'm at 4.6 mi/kwh over the last 1100 miles. Majority highway but I drive like your grandparents would have driven if they had an EV during the great depression.

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totalyKyle•

In Florida too and am averaging 4.2 over the last 3000 miles driving around the city.

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New-Ad-70162022 EUV Premier•

Do you use AC?

2
Authorized_Retailer•

Only on rare occasions. Took a few years but I finally have the Floridaman blood flowing in my veins (haven't lost any teeth yet though)

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thunderchaud•

I live in Central FL and have averaged 4.2 miles/kwh with still using the AC.

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Authorized_Retailer•

Sounds about right, forsooth

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funkiestj•

but I drive like your grandparents would have driven if they had an EV during the great depression.

When I'm on the freeway for my commute I'm driving ~70 mph and I'm getting about 4.5 mi/kwh

2
TurbulentOne2847•

South Florida here. 3.8 to 4.1 in the Summer. A C. at 72 and fan at 3. During our "Winter", I am over 5. No climate control. If it's cold, heated seats and steering wheel.

2
Nikolai_Volkoff88•

Dang, y’all are getting 4.x? I’ve been bouncing between 3.8 and 3.9 miles/kWh. But I drive 75mph+ on the highway and barely try to be efficient at all. I also live in hilly western PA.

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Btsx51•

that's surprisingly good for +75mph. I get around 3.5mi/kW doing 72-75mph.

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Nikolai_Volkoff88•

Well, I do have to slow down when I get off the freeway. lol

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Btsx51•

Only of you need the range, or it's in an unsafe manner. I usually have no problem doing 75mph with traffic I still get around 120mi between fast charges if I charge to 70%.

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Nikolai_Volkoff88•

Speed limit here is 70 on the highway, so I’m really only going 5 over

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New-Ad-70162022 EUV Premier•

I’ve been getting 3.6 to 3.7, with liberal use of AC, and I’ll admit I’ve been punching it some, because it is fun. 62 times since I got it less than a week ago, according to the app. Though I don’t actually drive very fast in a sustained way.

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Nikolai_Volkoff88•

Wow, the app tells you this info?

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funkiestj•

My Bolt's dashboard displays miles/KWh info -- no app required.

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Nikolai_Volkoff88•

But does it tell you how many times you punched it this week?

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billybobwillyt•

I get about 27kWh/100 miles is mixed highway/country road driving in Connecticut, fairly hilly terrain. This is a 22 EUV. In the summer. I expect it will be closer to 33-34 kWh/100 miles in the winter (I had a 2019 bolt EV, so I expect similar to slightly worse with the EUV). I also use snow tires.

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arielb27•

4.2 m/kWh in the city. 3.7 on the highway. Florida is mostly flat. But people go fast most of the time. Funny these were the numbers in both of our Bolts. 2020 LT, and the 2021 Primer.

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Btsx51•

Summer: 4.5-5mi/kW back roads, ~3.5mi/kW highway.

Winter: ~3-3.5mi/kW back roads, ~2-2.5mi/kW highway.

Worst range estimate I've ever achieved was ~130mi with -5°F and ~75/80mph. The winter has a bigger impact on the bolt for some reason, I usually see between 30-40% range loss.

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entropy5122020 Bolt LT•

Resistive heat is a huge power hog - especially since you frequently have to heat up outside air to prevent fogging. You can't just run constant recirc, everything will fog if you do.

It's the #1 reason I want a heat pump - some people say they lose their advantage when it's bitter cold out, but they enable you to run the system as a dehumidifier, which permits running recirc. Tesla apparently calls it COP=1 mode.

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Btsx51•

they enable you to run the system as a dehumidifier

Interesting, never heard that benefit of a heat pump. I did find my MY17 fogging up far more often when I was trying to be conservative with the heat. I found these dehumidifiers to assist with the humidity levels in the car. I put them under the seats by the vents and always have the air going to the feet, which coincidentally is the only part of me that gets cold when driving. Gotta love the heated seats and steering wheel!

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entropy5122020 Bolt LT•

I've seen it mentioned a few places, https://aircondlounge.com/how-tesla-heat-pump-works/ mentions the mode (section 3) but doesn't mention that this happens to inherently dehumidify air.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehumidifier#Refrigeration_(electric)

Your amazon link doesn't work, but I'm assuming it's to some sort of desiccant-based dehumidifier. Not sure how effective they would be at preventing fogging with recirc.

Sadly there's no way to enable the defroster vents as output without also forcibly disabling recirc.

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David_Westfield•

My wife drives almost exclusively on the freeway. In the summer with the ac shes getting 3.4 mi/kw

3.4 mi/kw * 65 kw = ~221mi per charge

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entropy5122020 Bolt LT•

Most of us do miles/kWh here in the US, not kWh/100mi

For reference:

EPA is 3.9 miles/kWh

I get 2.8-3.0 in the winter on my daily commute in upstate NY

I am averaging 4.2-4.3 on my daily commute in summer

My commute is about 1/3 up and down hills at 40 MPH or less, and 2/3 a mostly flat country road at 55 MPH.

If you spend a lot of time doing 65 on highways it'll hurt your efficiency a lot. I think one test someone ran showed around 3.3-3.5 mi/kWh in summer at 70 MPH.

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ekinodum•

If I stay off of the freeway and stay local (mixed driving averaging around 30 mph), I get 4.5 miles per kWh (central California). When I drive up and down the nearby 1500 foot grade on the freeway (usually around 65-70 mph) I get around 4 miles per kWh.

It's usually 90-100 degrees, so AC is on. The range on the guess-o-meter only changes by about 20 miles when I turn the AC off.

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MaterialUpender•

If you gave us a vague idea of which part of the country and what kind of terrain, someone who has a similar home area might be able to chime in.

In my case, I live in a hilly part of Washington State, where the highways are 60 MPH max. Most of my driving is an mixture of hill climbs, downhill, 45 MPH roads and 60 MPH roads, and I'm getting around 4.4mi/kwh so far in my EUV with tires that aren't fully broken in yet. (New tires tend to be less efficient.)

I drive pretty tame and slow though, and do my best to be moving slightly slower than the flow of traffic on highways in the far right lane. (Keeps Washington Tailgaters from just hanging out on my rear fender.)

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etsuprof2022 Bolt EUV Premier w/Super Cruise•

I’ve had the EUV for 6 weeks. I’m up to about 2000 miles on it. According to the car I’m 4.7 mi/kWh.

I drive 17 miles one way for work. About 1/2 interstate at 68mph. The rest is 30-45 collector roads. Weather has been hot. I try to turn the ac off as much as I can (usually when I’m not on the interstate and can have the windows down). I used the ventilated seats about 100% of the time. If my wife is with me the ac is on no matter what because windows down is not allowed 🤣

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pento27•

3.5 mi/kWh all highway at 75 mph. It’s been hot so ac is always running.

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cashewkingofdetroit•

Lucky! When I had a bolt I went 70mph with no ac and only got 3.3. Flat Florida too

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6strings10holes•

2020 EV

I've been averaging 3.8 mi/kwh or 26.3 kwh/mi since February.

I'm in rural MN so a fair amount of highway driving at 60-65 mph.

That is according to my trip odometer I reset in February I think.

I've had it for about 1.5 years and the app said my lifetime average is 3 mi/kwh. That average includes more really cold temps than the odometer.

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OkAudience5468•

In July I drove about 2600 miles and averaged 5.5 miles/kWh. A/c not used very much and most driving below 50 mph. In winter I get around 3.5 using heater only to clear the windshield.

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AntiMarx2022 EUV (Previously 2019 LT)•

Worth noting: the cost go charge is going to be a fraction of your fuel costs.

In Ontario cheap power is roughly 10 cents per kwh (overnight rates). That equates to about $6 for a full charge. Compare that to $60-$120 for a tank of gas (depending on your conventional car and current prices of course).

With that in mind, my time of thumb is it's 90% cheaper to charge vs fuel.

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tectailOP•

Yeah I have my kwh rate from my electric bill and I was using this to evaluate the cost of fuel comparatively. Current car is a 2010 ICE car so it is only worth $4000-5000 so the depreciation is much lower on that car yearly than a new car.

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khakhi_docker•

Note that many power providers offer cheaper, off peak charging rates if you can manage to get a separate box installed.

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tectailOP•

I used to work as a contractor for my local electric company. As far as I was told there is no on and off-peak rates, but obviously worth asking. The other option is solar panels of course, but that increases the total cost of the car purchase. I am currently working 3rd shift though so decent option for a third shifter to charge off your panels instead of grid while you sleep during the day.

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Mr-Mackie2022 Bolt EUV LT•

Report Directly from Onstart

July

Electric Economy: 30 kW-hr/100 miles

MPG Electric: 114 MPGe

Miles this Report: 998 miles

Estimated Gallons of Fuel Saved: 43 gal

Estimated CO2 Avoided: 842 lbs

Odometer: 5,707 miles

June

Electric Economy: 30 kW-hr/100 miles

MPG Electric: 113 MPGe

Miles this Report: 1,908 miles

Estimated Gallons of Fuel Saved: 83 gal

Estimated CO2 Avoided: 1,609 lbs

Odometer: 4,709 miles

May

Electric Economy: 32 kW-hr/100 miles

MPG Electric: 106 MPGe

Miles this Report: 1,086 miles

Estimated Gallons of Fuel Saved: 47 gal

Estimated CO2 Avoided: 916 lbs

Odometer: 2,802 miles

April

Electric Economy: 32 kW-hr/100 miles

MPG Electric: 106 MPGe

Miles this Report: 1,699 miles

Estimated Gallons of Fuel Saved: 74 gal

Estimated CO2 Avoided: 1,433 lbs

Odometer: 1,716 miles

Have some Data points to do with what you please your mileage may vary (Pun definitely intended)

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tectailOP•

Awesome, something like this is exactly what I like. Seems very dependant on driving habits as well from the ranges I have been reading.

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Mr-Mackie2022 Bolt EUV LT•

Majority of my Driving is 80% highway with speeds greater than 70 mph or 15% country roads around 60 mph I almost never drive around the city and when I do it is for less than 10 miles.

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st3ph3n•

Our '22 Bolt EV is averaging 4.2mi/kWh since we got it... 400 miles ago, lol. Suburban commuter type driving, flat midwest roads. I imagine that will dip a lot when winter comes.

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funkiestj•

My 2017 bolt tells me I get anywhere from 3.8 - 4.6 miles / KWh.

  • I live in coastal California where it never snows.
  • My commute involves ~500m of elevation gain (and loss -- over a hill)
  • I get better range with warm weather
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chrisisme•

The absolute floor for me (aggressive highway driving in the cold winter with the heat on) is around 3 mi / kWh. The ceiling for me (calm driving in a temperate summer, probably with the AC on, and with about half of my driving being city streets) is like 4.6 mi / kWh. Summer road trips with lots of highway can be like 3.8-4.0 mi / kWh. Better drivers, newer cars, etc. can do better.

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HandOfMjolnir•

I just bought a '22 Bolt EV. I've only a few hundred miles on it. I am averaging 3.8 miles / KwH. I pay 11.4 cents per KwH. So, 3 cents per mile.

If I had an ICE vehicle getting 30 miles per gallon, I'd be doing 7.5 cents a mile.

I'm looking into adding a second meter that is time-based. Then I'll get something crazy like 2.5 cents per KwH if I charge between midnight and 8AM.

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