Electric Vehicle nightmare
 

My wife and I went to Vermont to enjoy the colors and cooler weather.
When we arrived the car rental company said they only had a Chevy Bolt EV. I tried to see if they had anything else and the answer was no.
We took off and when we crossed into Vermont we stopped at the welcome center and asked about charging stations and the guy laughed at us. He said he only had a list of 14 stations in the state.
We spent the the next day trying to go from charger to charger. 195 Mike range and over an hour to get to 80% charge. We lost two days watching the power display and could not focus on the scenery.
On day two we made it to Montpelier which was supposed to have 3 stations. 1st didn't work, second had unattended vehicle plugged in, and third was destroyed like someone took a hammer to it.
35 miles of charge left and 40 miles to nearest airport we took off, turned of radio and heater and pulled into car rental with 1 mile left.
Totally screwed 2 full days of vacation time. Don't fall for this EV crap. They are a joke and wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.

Sometimes you might need to use Google instead of asking people with minimal knowledge
“In the last year, the number of EVs on the road has nearly doubled, from 6,000 to 10,000, and Vermont has added 55 charging stations, for a total of 396.
Sep 20, 2023

there are 350 charging stations in Vermont according to drive electric Vermont with more coming on line monthly , Vermont has the highest per capital rate of public charging availability in the United States according to Drive Electric Vermont . I looked this up only because all my nieces and nephews ski in Vermont and drive their EV s up there from the Boston area. A simple search and you would have found a map with easy directions to all the chargers and no I don’t have one ,but facts are facts

I think the post was more agenda seeking then about the difficulty in charging

Can Chevy Bolts use Tesla Stations?

Why would you accept a limited range car to tour with in the first place.
Surely the rental company or another location had a larger car more suitable to tour in?
You can barely get two people and purse in one of those things.

A friend of mine bought a Tesla a few years ago (admittedly, chargers were more scarce then). When he finally got rid of it, it was primarily a result of his Therapist's advice. He told me he had "range anxiety" every day he owned the thing. It was so bad, he almost couldn't function.

He was an idiot to have bought the thing in the first place, knowing he spent most of his time "on the road".

Customer Satisfaction scores for EV's are abysmal. The major automakers have inventory backing up, because most everyone who wants an EV, has already bought one. Something has to give soon, as EV's simply aren't the answer.

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the poster was complaining about Vermont , , a state that seems to be doing a good job of building charger stations , that’s all the post was about

Yep, that why EV production down. They found out that most don’t want them and market drying up causing them lose even more money.

Do your nieces & nephews drive Teslas? I wish them good luck. There is a difference between Teslas & Chevy Bolts. Additionally Vermont has steep inclines & cold weather, both of which affect EVs. I found independent complaints on Reddit about the Chevy Bolt range with others claiming 160 mile range. I also found the Chevy Bolt uses a type 2 charger & from Chargepoint, this: 'These locations typically have Level 2 stations that add about 25 miles of Range Per Hour' - which is incredibly damaging. 25 miles for an hour of charging, is that less than a half mile per minute? (This was specific to the Bolt & to Level 2 public chargers). It seems to me that the only use for a Bolt would be to charge it at home (overnight for about 10 hours) & then go pretty much nowhere. Hopefully work, shopping & doctors are all close by. It appears that there is an optional fast charger for the Bolt, but of course that option costs more money. So yes, all in all, I believe the OP was perfectly miserable.

P.S. I would like to thank you guys for making me do the research, I had no clue the Bolt was so gruesomely awful.

EV solves no problem I have now, and creates more. Until the range, availability/functionality of charging stations, and reduced reliance on China for battery raw materials arrives and has been solidly in place for at least 10 years, I'm not giving up my ICE. Could be interested in a hybrid, but am concerned about the complexity of two drive systems.

Not against EV. I have an EV golf cart. Works great for the Villages with no gas/exhaust smell, noise, and instant power availability. Comes home every night with at least a 50% charge left, and full charge by morning.

But for my vehicle that I want to jump in and drive halfway across the country and not think about it? ICE is the only way to go now.

The first EV by GM was extremely popular as a commuter vehicle which it was designed for. They developed leading edge battery which they sold to Cheveron Oil and shelved.
A documentary was made “ Who killed the Electric Car”
Available on TUBI for free other streaming sources $3.59 to $3.99
GM EV1 1996-199….

It was?

There's a reason the automakers are pushing back against Biden.
"In a public letter to President Biden, 3,882 car dealers spread across the country are asking that his administration slow down its proposed regulations mandating the production and distribution of electric vehicles."
thestreet.com

They interviewed the dealership owner who drafted the letter and he said his dealerships sold 2 EVs last month and a couple hundred non evs. The lots are clogged with cars that nobody wants and it's costing dealers millions in their floor plan interest payments.

I wonder if you could have done the trip in the same amount of time without all the hour-long layovers and charger panic with a 20mph Yamaha golf cart. Of course, I doubt that Vermont has any more golf cart lanes than they do charging stations.

Which car rental company did you use that would force an EV on you? I'd like to avoid that company!

Plus too cold in a golf cart. Brrr.

I wonder how many people live in a house without the ability to plug in - ever. Can your house be upgraded to plug in ? How much ? I remember odd even days for parking on the street. It's a bluff meant to move the ball forward some. Necessity (real or artificial) is the motherhood of invention ! How about this one - want your 19 year old college freshman granddaughter pulling into a charging station at midnight to make it home ?

The company I work for has 17 new car dealerships. I can assure you, what you quoted is exactly the case. Everyone who wanted an EV has bought one. The rest of them are sitting in dealer inventories or manufacturers lots, costing a small fortune, due to interest rates.

If something isn't done about CAFE and the governments insistence on EV's, the auto industry is in for a world of hurt. Hybrids are the answer, but the Greenies want EV's.

Tell them to put a trailer hitch on each one, and one of those transport shelves that connects to the hitch. Then, a gas generator. Instant hybrid!

I can't picture a reputable car rental outlet that would have only one car available.

Was this a national rental company or a mom'n'pop operation? If the latter then I would suggest it is a case of "renter beware".

Your friend wasn't an idiot for buying an EV, He was an idiot for buying an EV given his situation.

I bought a Tesla Model 3 in 2019 UpNorth. I had a 220v 14-50 outlet installed in the garage which was convenient, but proved unnecessary. I love, love, love my Tesla. BUT-BUT-BUT I rarely drive more than 75 miles in a day, and I have a garage to plug in overnight. I don't even need to charge every day. With a 250 mile capacity, a recommended 80% charge to 200 is generally enough for 4 days. Then I plug in overnight (even a regular 110v outlet is enough) and am back to 200 the next morning.

Yes, if you drive 200+ miles a day, or don't have a garage, you are an idiot to buy an EV.

I obviously also have a garage here and rarely drive more than 50 miles in a day in TV, so I just bought another Tesla for Florida. Standard 110v outlet already in the garage works fine. Wife has an ICE vehicle if we need to take a road trip. Tesla is awesome IF you are the right fit for it.

Whoever asked: Tesla has a different plug than all the others, but they sell a converters on Amazon for either to the other for less than $20.

To the OP who got an EV from a rental agency: Just say no. If you reserved a regular ICE auto and they failed to provide one, I would write a nasty Google and TripAdvisor review, copy corporate, and go to another agency. EVs are not suitable for travel.

And lastly, IMHO, Climate Change is more about control than the climate, and anybody who gaslights you into thinking EVs will solve more problems than they create is not your friend. That said, EVs are great IF you are the right fit.

There's a ton of chargers in Montpelier, VT, and Vermont in general.

Just a moment...
The Plugshare app can also help out.

The Chevy Bolt has a CCS plug and a J1772 compatible adapter. Plug that into Plugshare and you can see where to charge.
Chevy also makes the Tesla adapter, if your car had one of those you could have charged at a Tesla charger, those are everywhere. You can see for yourself on the Plugshare website, picking Tesla, Tesla (fast) and J1772 as well as the native Bolt CCS/J1772.

There's a reason why all the automakers in North America are adopting the Tesla charging ecosystem (More automakers plug into Tesla'''s EV charging network | Reuters), they're one of the big reasons Tesla adoption is so high vs. other EV's. (Tesla'''s rivals scrap for thin slices of US EV sales | Reuters).

Also, the Tesla Model Y is the biggest selling car in the world (The Tesla Model Y Is The Best-Selling Car In The World | GreenCars).

Sorry to hear your trip wasn't very good, I'd blame that mostly on the car rental place. They shouldn't have given you an EV without you fully understanding it. And the Bolt EV isn't a very good car and hasn't sold very well. I wouldn't take one if someone gave it to me (Chevrolet Bolt EV Sales Figures | US Car Sales Figure)

I doubt hybrids are the current answer: Consumer Reports: Reliability

EVs have 79% more problems than ICE vehicles, according to CR’s survey. CR excludes problems with commercial CD fast chargers from the report. Your browser is not supported | freep.com

From the article, "“The problems with internal combustion engines are mostly sorted,” Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports senior director of testing, told me."

I blew coffee out my nose at that point I laughed so hard!

And further down:
"The Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T fared poorly with CR readers."
"Tesla, despite its own well-documented quality issues, has a pretty low bar to clear when it finally begins delivering meaningful numbers of its long awaited Cybertruck."

What does the data say? So CR Readers rated the Ford and Rivian poor, but what about the data for Tesla? Hmmm....

There's a novelty. An EV owner who recognizes the truth. You're 100% right. They have their place and they surely aren't for everyone. For the right person, under the right circumstances, they can be a great solution.

What do you mean "what about the data for Tesla"? They just started delivering the Cybertruck - there is no data. Regarding the rest of their lineup, they are in the middle of the pack with regard to initial quality issues.

The day the government stops interfering with the free marketing of automobiles, is the day that EV's revert to what they always were ... glorified golf carts.

They are an impractical solution, to a grossly exaggerated problem. A fraud, perpetuated upon another fraud as its basis. First you have to buy into the global warming (now "climate change") nonsense, then you can buy right into the so-called emissions problem and the supposed fossil fuel availability issue.

I owned a 1970 Pontiac GTO. About 300 horsepower and it got about 15 mpg on the highway.

My 10 year old, 365 HP Jaguar, gets 30 mpg on the highway and my 335 horsepower BMW gets 34 mpg on the highway.

If we put the same resources into ICE as we do EV's, we'd have cars that get 100 mpg, with emissions below detectible range.

So why haven't the manufacturers done that?

Surely if one came up with a car that did 100mpg it would vastly outsell those doing 35mpg?

Sorry, I can’t imagine myself looking for charge stations, it’s enough to look for, gas stations as it is on long trips. With all the wonderful things that EVs can do, like the high end Teslas, it is still not worth it for me. I’ll wait till there is enough infrastructure to support EVs without the inconvenience and the expenses associated with them now. At the rate they’re going it might not be in my lifetime.

Since the Big Three haven't managed to do it in the 125 years that they (and their predecessors) have been building cars in the USA then I suggest that they stand back and let The Villages Woodworking Club tackle the problem.

Currently the average MPG for a car in the USA is 25 so they only have to quadruple that and BrianL99 will be proved right.

They are most certainly NOT a joke. Electric vehicles are the ideal SECOND vehicle used just for shorter commutes & errands AND if you own your own home, so you can just plug it in at night. They are a terrible choice for a vehicle to be used for vacations, sightseeing trips and long commutes due to the lack of reliable charging infrastructure. Anyone who pays attention to the EV trends knows this. I remember in the late 1950's when we would go on family vacations up into Ontario and we carried cans of gasoline with us because no stations were open at night. The EV charger infrastructure will improve just as now there are 24/7 gas stations everywhere and no one has to carry extra gas with them. You should have refused the EV rental and gone elsewhere. The Chevy Bolt has one of the worst distant ranges of almost any other EV. Many other EV's have twice the range of the BOLT. A great many car dealers will rent you a vehicle if no dedicated rental business has one for you. You cannot make a blanket statement that all EV's are a joke & are crap. You made the mistake of renting the EV with the shortest range & used it for a purpose that it was not designed to do.

EVs make some sense for retirees in Florida.
Just get a Corolla LE and don't spend a second thinking about range or cost.

Ok, so let’s compare model t to to 50 ford what you doing. Another thing 70 GTO was rated at 365 HP out of 455 cu in engine. Plus the 70 GTO could be driven for life time, sure you have to overhaul along way, but person with average skills could maintain it. Jag be lucky to last 15 years BMW won’t fair much more due to outrageous expense to repair unless there garage queens.

‘We”. are driven by sales and and profit. At this present time IMO only top 30% at most can afford high end vehicles electric or hybrids. Tesla when compared to other EVs manufacturers are decades ahead in infrastructure and technology. Plus Tesla prices come down not up like competitors. IMO Tesla the only serious EV manufacturer. Others are copycats like the big fins flash of late 50s.

If I had booked a non EV and they didn’t have one I definitely would have looked elsewhere. Most airports have multiple rental agencies. Whether it is my cars or my golf carts, I have no desire to own any EV’s. I like my Ford F350 just fine.

Because the government is investing billions into advancing electric technology for automobiles and zero for ICE vehicles. Like everyone else, the auto manufacturers have to go where the money is.

The fallacy of your thinking is that it would be possible to increase ICE efficiency by 3-4x to create typical ICE cars that could achieve 100 MPG (up from 25-30 MPG for a typical car today). There are physics involved. ICE engines experience small increases in efficiency with time because they are approaching the limits of what can be obtained. Sophisticated engine control systems have been used for years. The typical ICE vehicles are about 20% efficient and the remaining 80% of the fuel's energy is wasted as heat and other inefficiencies in the car systems such as the need to run a cooling system. The pressure to meet CAFE standards is immense and all automakers work like hell to obtain ever decreasing increases in efficiency. Why do you think 0W-16 oils are now being used? While there are some novel ICE designs out there with higher efficiencies, I don't see a lot of interest in automakers adopting them. Diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline engines but VW put a stain on that technology, which was never very popular to begin with in the US. Other changes to cars such as advanced materials to reduce overall vehicle weight, and therefore increase efficiency, are certainly possible but they are also applicable to EVs and are typically expensive. Electric motors are very efficient, electric power plants utilize fuels much more efficiently than an ICE engine in a car is capable of doing (new generation of natural gas power plants are up to 60% efficient but older plants are more like 40% efficient), high voltage power lines transmit power with very high efficiency, and charging systems in EVs have small inefficiencies. Essentially, it is more efficient to burn fossil fuels in a large power plant and power EVs than burn them in large numbers of ICE engines. The difference is about 2-3x.

Most major breakthroughs (and quadrupling the fuel economy of a car would be a major breakthrough) come from private companies and individuals, not from the government.

Throwing money at a problem is seldom the solution. Committing thinking people to it often is.

The returns would come from being the only company to make a car that has 4x the mpg of all the other manufacturers.

However, they've had 125 years in which to do it, and haven't achieved anything more than incremental increases, so it would be safest to accept that it isn't going to happen.

Biden signed another executive order to eliminate all coal fired power plants.
Think about that. It will reduce the available power generation across the entire country. Any replacement power will need to come from natural gas, solar, or wind.
Using natural gas will drive up the cost of all oil derived energy. Building new power plants is expensive. Solar and wind are not reliable as supplying the base load needed to run the country. More EVs will create more demand - a lot of that at night - when wind and solar produces nothing.

The date is 2035 and was probably going to happen anyway for economic reasons. Coal has been on a steep decline, because natural gas is lower in cost, and less than 20% of our electricity currently comes from coal. Twenty years ago 50% of electricity came from coal.