Once again Chevy Bolts hogging chargers

The first charging plug not working. The 3 vehicles in front are al using 350kW chargers ..including the 2 chevy blts. The backside chargers are 100kW..the Bolts should be on the backside .

I waited almost 20 minutes ..the faster charging vehicles on the far side couldnt get to peak on the 100kW so it takes them longer to charge. I waited about 20 minutes before I got a charger.. the Chevy Bolt right infront of spot. he had charged to 100% and it took 106 minutes !.

..Uber driver (I drive uber as well and also drove the bolt for 3 years)... At the time the fastest charger in my area was 50kW so,it was what it was.

Once he left (20 minutes) I spent 6 minutes and 40 seconds and added a quick 75 miles I need to make it to my desination in St Cloud Mn. So really spent almsot half hour all because of the Chevy Bolts..

And the thing is they have around 25 50kW chargers they could have used..






We really need legislation that (kind of like federal mpg guidlines) that all new EVs must be able to accept a mininum of 10-150kW ..something like that. For one thing that will prevent GM from reiintroducing the Bolt on 2025/26 with the same charging speedds it has now ..AND prevents Companies from bring to market new micor evs with slow DCFC ..

The problem is that the rate of DCFC installs is NOT and cannot keep pace with all the new EVs coming to market. So the fast speed 150-350kW chargers need to be open for ONLY the vehicles that cna use those speeds .. IMO Humble opinion

I would at this time like to thank all my new Friends and Enemies for participating in my rant

 

Morning Marshall, yes they do.

The problem is they dont even know the difference between 100kW and 350kW and what it means for the different vehicles. I spoke withone of the Bolt owners yesterday. He had no idea and funnily enough he said" dealer told me "I could charge at any CCS". so it comes back to education.

When I got my Bolt whever I ran across the rare 100kW (when mosty were still 50kW)I also thought it would make my car charge faster !So I know exactly whats going on. Again it's education. A lot of Bolt buyers are Uber drivers , I know because I see them everywhere, in my Driver app Uber Pushes the Chevy Bolt .incentifies drivers to buy them.We(Uber Drivers) are the absolute WORSE group of buyers for the Bolt because they NEED to use DCFC during the day and we need a lot of chargers. There are roughly 15-20K Uber drivers in Minneapolis/St Paul ,and a real shortage of DCFC chargng (150-350).. This is the totallity of DCFC faster than150kW) in the Minneapolis area..



You see the problem.. We have Uber/Lyft pushing Drivers(15k-20K) to drive EV's ,worse we have them pushing Chevy Bolts the slowest charging EV on the market . No one is teaching them about the realities of charging the Chevy Bolt or about the etiquette of DCFC charging. to top it off a large percentage of these drivers are immagrants (the rate is around 70% in Minnesota) that live in apt complexes without home charging.

Not thier fault they dont know , no one is teaching them. Certianly not the dealers that are simply moving vehicles out the door. I talk to them (as well as other Bolt drivers ..hows it going taking a long time the charger Hey, yeah I owned Bolt 3 years , great little car would never go back because of the charging etc. all the time when I am at the Chargers. Most are grateful to learn.If you driving Uber with an EV the Bolt is generally the worst vehicle if you dont have home charging) , charging to 100% no matter which vehicle is pointless as speeds slow down, especially with the Bolt , you're talking another 30 to 95 minutes from 80% to 100% (Minnesota winter).

Anyway you see my rant, Not anywhere near enough fast Chargers and a few thousand Ubers driving the Bolt is just making it worse. Kind of like when all the ID 4's were hogging stations charing to 100% because it was "Free" .(new 30 minute ri=ule took care of that ).

The handful of 150-350kW in Minneapolis metro are always busy and knowing Uber and dealers are pushing Uber Drivers into the Bolt is irratating .

I'd love to see Legislation at the Federal level that all new EVs at leat 100kW preferable at least 150kW charging capabilities.

 

So you can see from my Uber drivers app how tey keep pushing these slow charging Bolts on Uber drivers clogging the DCFCs..


"There are over 1.7 million rideshare drivers in the U.S., mostly split up between Uber and Lyft drivers. Uber has roughly 1 million drivers, whereas Lyft has 700,000"



So, you see hw that can be a very very big problem considering drivers are putting on between 150-450 miles per day.

I'd RATHER see AARP pushing the Chevy Bolts to Retirees! That drive 50 miles a week and rarely using DCFC

 

That as well !

 

Yep , thats something Uber/Lyft and Airport should also invest in. I mean if they want us all to drive EVs then maybe they need to but some skinn $$$$$ in the game as well

 

For rideshare my ID 4 is almostperfect, if I could get another 100 miles of range I would most likely never need DCFC anyways. For me 90% is still @ home charging , just need to DCFC when i go from St Cloud Mn to MSP airport, need to adda few miles on te way home. Not always but sometimes like I needed yesterday. For me the frustations was WAITING 20 minutes for so I could do a quick 6 minute charge and knowing the hold up was the Bolt .. as it is tody with not enough charging infrastrcture (150-350kW).

anyway..just ranting.

One thing that will help is the Chevy Equinox with roughly 320 miles of range IF GM can keep the price down and then PUSH/Market those to Uber drivers instead of the Bolt. Then they all have 150kW charging and great range.

For me in 2 years I may be looking more towards a used Lucid with 400 miles of range. Couple years off for me a lot will probabbly chnage. Equinox is going to be big though , mass adoption EV .. but GM has to keep the price down.

 

I charge at Home 90% of the time as I posted many times. Yes legislation for mininum charging standard would help because it isnt just the Chevy Bolt , it would be to prevent manufacturers from introducing smaller more affordable evs by way of limiting charging (les costsly to make an EV charge at 50kW than 200kW)

So not just for the bolt ..but to also prevent any new slow charging evs being brought to market

IMO there should be a mininum standard.
Waiting 20 minutes for slow charging Bolts that are hogging 350kW is not acceptable..
again there are upto 20,000 Uber drivers in the Minneapolis area , most of them do not have home charging and Uber keeps incentifying drivers to buy the Bolt, 20,000 drivers if just 200 of them drive the Bolt thats 200 drivers that need to charge 1-3 times daily ..
Look at the maopa gain.. this is al the chargers in the Minneaplis are that can charger faster than 150Kw ..thats it .






and 4 of those DCFC are not even up and running yet ..

 

Mild Inconveinence? waiting 20 minutes ot get 6 minute charger..

Thats what I was saying earlier.. that is WHERE the Bolts should be charging .. There are over 25 50kW chargers ..thats where the Bolts should be charging at instea dof the Handful of 350kW chargers.

Thhis is the correct map of 50kW..

 

??? Ok lets try this .. There is a limited number of FAST DCFC in Minneapolis Metro..covering a total of around 45 Cities in the metro .. there are only 3 that charge with speeds to 350kW.

Now more are FAST DCFC are coming and all the new Vehicles charge at speeds of 150kW to 350kW .

Do you want to see GM , Ford , etc.. introduce MORE EVs that can only charge with a top speed of 50kW so they are "affordable" Do you want millions of slow Charging EVs coming to market ? do you think thats a good thing ?

Legislating a BASE Charging speed would ensure that never happens. The same way that Legislation is WHY we are seeing the transitions to EV's , Legislation is the reason ICE cars must get more MPG every few years (CAFE) standards.

We also need legislation to stop DCFC companies from posting they have 120kW chargers that are really just 60kW chargers ..that one irks me as much if not more. Ever pull up to one of those ? 120kW ..ummm no it's a split system and even if one vehicle you will never get more than 60kW



BTW..what are you driving?