Tag Archives: Bolt EV

2020 Bolt EV

My 2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV was part of an August 2021 recall by General Motors to address battery fires. I waited patiently for my new battery only for GM to announce in June 2023 they were ending the battery replacements and would instead be installing enhanced monitoring software in vehicles that hadn’t yet had the replacement completed.

I’d heard George Iny from the Automobile Protection Association on the local CBC Radio noontime show many times, so I wrote to the APA after hearing about the change in recall and was surprised to have a response from Iny himself, who asked if he could use my email as part of an article on the subject, which I said would be fine. I sort of forgot about that part of our exchange until I did a search tonight for the latest information on the recall and found the email (attributed to T.B., cough cough) as the basis of a MoneySense article.

One thing I thought of after I emailed the APA was the potential hit in resale value I could incur. There seems to have been no rhyme or reason as to which cars did or didn’t get the battery replacement, so other 2020 Bolt EV owners did get the new battery and the 8-year warranty that came with it, while I get nothing but software. When it comes time to sell or trade my car, I would expect it to be worth less than a 2020 that had the new battery and warranty, and there will be no compensation from GM for that loss.

I’ve gone from being impressed by GM promising to look after all their Bolt EV customers to being pretty sour. I had only owned one other GM product in my life: an ancient quarter ton pickup I bought from my car-dealer cousin, Warren, to use while our house was being built, handy to pick up supplies for the carpenters and keep construction moving forward, but in constant need of repair so a short-lived possession. Unless GM have a change of heart (which would mean they would have to first acquire a heart), I can’t imagine I will ever buy a General Motors product again. I’m sure Mary Barra won’t be losing sleep over that, though, because I’m old and like to keep cars for a long time, so probably another couple of cars will see me out.

I still like the Bolt EV, think it is well built and have enjoyed driving it, but GM’s absolute disregard for customers stinks like the tailpipe of their stupid Hummers.

Me driving my first zero-emission car, a gift from one of the toy salesman who used to visit to my parents’ general store, 1969. I assume someone stopped me from driving off the step, or was this the inspiration for the final scene in Thelma and Louise?

Bright Light

Now that we are racing to the summer equinox, the added hours of sunlight have been a big boost to our solar energy production.

Our 22-panel system was turned on in mid-November and struggled to generate much electricity at all. I certainly expected less output in winter, but it was almost none on some days. The panels were often covered in snow and ice, and as it is a roof-mounted system, there isn’t any safe way to clear them.

Last month things really took off and the electricity bill that arrived today was only $34, and there is even a 160 kWh credit that will carry forward to next month! Up until this bill, our net metering credit was for the full amount generated because it never came close to what we used; on our January bill, the credit was $3.74!

Our solar production since November 2019

The process to hook up to the Maritime Electric grid was a bit mysterious, and there wasn’t much explanation from them or my system installers on how the billing would work. All I knew was that we received a second meter to measure the outflow of solar energy from our panels into the grid, that amount would be deducted from the original meter that we have always had, and we would pay the difference.

I now see our net metering credit will only be for up to what we actually used from the grid and not the entire amount that went through our second meter. We will, therefore, never have a $0 bill, which makes sense as we would have to pay the service charge to stay connected to Maritime Electric. The credits will build up over the summer and be used up in winter.

April 2020 Maritime Electric bill

Our average monthly electricity usage since we moved into our house in 2002 was 605 kWh. It went up to an average of 850 kWh the first three months of this year with the addition of our EV (and I was driving to Summerside a lot), so to have it drop down again is really encouraging! I haven’t been driving much since March 13, so have only used 148 kWh to charge my Bolt EV compared to 459 kWh the previous month, which would explain some of the reduction.

The other drop in our bill is because the electricity from the panels goes through the house panel first and what is left over goes through our second meter and into the grid. Our solar system produced 897 kWh of electricity over this last billing period, and the second meter received 617 kWh, so we used 280 kWh of direct electricity that didn’t make it to the second meter, and that we didn’t pay HST on! I try to charge my car during sunny days to be able to drive on sunshine, and yes, I do sing a modified version of the Katrina and The Waves song when I’m doing it!

Solar production March 10 – April 9, 2020. Snowy days are pretty obvious!

So if you get a solar system in the winter, do not despair. Someday the sun will shine and you will see the benefits. As with everything these days, just hold on and things will be brighter.

The Future is Now

The new fast charger in the Summerside Canadian Tire parking lot is now working. It costs a pretty penny, but I wanted to try it out to make sure I understood how it worked. It’s easy: plug in, wave pre-loaded Flo card at station, press green button, charge. The one at the O’Leary corner Tim Horton’s is also supposed to be online.

Had the funny experience again today of describing what it is like to own a GM product to someone who sells GM products. I’m not usually an early adopter of anything, so this is a funny place to be. Good thing I like to talk!

Shiny new station, filthy new car.
I’ve been calling this connection CHAdeMO, but it’s CCS/SAE…I think!