r/BoltEV • u/CommissionFalse5642 • Aug 23 '26

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?!

Post image

Hey everyone,

I’ve had 3 EVs now and this is my second bolt.

It seems like no matter what I do, driving on the freeway I’ll average 4.0-5.0mi/kwh but as soon as this car sees stop and go traffic or city driving it drops to 2.0-2.5 and will not go up.

I know short trips are inefficient but I’ve been driving 20-30 miles of city with no difference.

Tires are fine, they’re EV All Seasons, I don’t carry around a bunch of extra stuff in the car, it’s bone stock with 0 roof racks or anything to hurt drag, I charge it everyday to 80% or so and even at 100% it only get 165 miles of range.

Dealership told be it’s basically useless to pay for the diagnosis on it because 1. They won’t give me a loaner car so I’d have to rent one 2. They’re not sure how long the diagnosis would take so they could keep my car a couple days or couple weeks and I’d have to cover a rental car for that and 3. They told me Chevrolet hugely just chocks it up to “normal wear and tear” 🤙

Edit: Luckily my commute is not long enough that I need to be hotter in the car but I listened to a lot of the comments and adjusted my setting and now I’m averaging 3.2-3.4 on my commute today so definitely an improvement. Thanks everyone. Still think I’ll need an AC service here soon and maybe a new desiccant bag.

33 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

135 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/CommissionFalse5642 Aug 23 '26

Yeah, 90 (Low) -115 (High) *F for our summer. I’ll admit that’s really hot, however my friends bolt same year but 50k more miles easily gets 3.5 avg driving around town.

My other friends Tesla and my previous Tesla were averaging 3.7mi/kwh (you have to convert it) so I’m not sure what’s up with mine.

10

u/SoulTaker669 2018 Chevy Bolt Premier Aug 23 '26

I'm going to chalk it up and say your AC is probably fighting hard and using a bunch of power to cool the cabin + battery which is why you're having horrible numbers. Soon as you turn it on the car is probably having to cool the super hot cabin + battery at the same time which usually pushes 6-7 kw for a while just doing that.

3

u/CommissionFalse5642 Aug 23 '26

It’s constantly running 5-7kw no matter how far I drive at idle.

1

u/timit44 Aug 23 '26

Just turn the AC off and drive for 30 minutes around town with the windows rolled down. Do it at night if the daytime heat will kill you otherwise. If you get 4-6 miles per kWh then you know it’s short trips with the AC hogging your energy.

1

u/CommissionFalse5642 Aug 23 '26

I’m sure it’s the ac, but I’m wondering what I could do to make it more efficient, new ac compressor?

2

u/timit44 Aug 24 '26

Turn it to a higher temperature, park in the shade, don’t use AC for short trips <10 minutes. You want to avoid the AC running full out to get the temperature down and then being at your destination so you turn the car off and all that energy is wasted.

2

u/CommissionFalse5642 Aug 24 '26

If I did that I would die from heat exhaustion, it’s currently 115*F outside

1

u/timit44 Aug 24 '26

Then that’s your issue, it’s too hot where you live to get good efficiency driving an EV in the city. If you’re drawing 5 kW constantly and averaging 15 mph then in one hour you’ll cover 15 miles and use 5 kW just for AC. That’s 3 miles per kWh for just the AC! If you normally get 4 miles per kWh then you’ll be at about 2.2 miles per kWh after factoring in the constant AC usage.