Me and My Bolt

On Tuesday I got a knock on my car's window. Rolling it down someone asked if I liked my car as he was thinking of buying one himself. Was I driving the latest Tesla? No, the Chevy Bolt, General Motor's newest fully electric car.

On March 31, 2016 me and 180,000 of my closest friends put $1000 down sight unseen on the Tesla 3. As an east coast resident with no prior Tesla I am well down the list even though I made a reservation on the first day. I got disillusioned by early production problems and delays and bait-and-switch emails.

Now that some more details regarding Model 3 came out, I wanted to gauge your interest in coming in for a test drive in a Model S. An incredibly well equipped Model S can be had for under $80k and with the $7500 federal tax credit and $1000 referral code from a current owner, you can get into a Model S for close to $70k, meanwhile a Model 3 can cost up to $60k. Model S is considerably quicker and has an incredible amount of space to seat 5 comfortably. It is our flagship vehicle and has 5 years of manufacturing behind it to perfect the build quality of the car. Not to mention a quick turnaround time on delivery. I would love to host you in our showroom so I can showcase some of the incredible features in the Model S.

Meanwhile a GM executive on the Georgia Tech College of Computing's advisory board suggested I take a look at the Bolt. I was skeptical but he arranged for a local dealer to bring down a car to test drive. I got sold and bought my own Bolt in December.

It's an all electric car with no transmission so quick smooth acceleration. The Bolt has a one pedal driving mode as the "gas" pedal also works as a break which slows down the car by pulling power to the battery. The car doesn't even pretend to be mechanical, a screen boots up when I turn the car on, you can shift into park by pressing a button. The rear view "mirror" is really a camera. When driving slowly there is a simulated view from above. A little freaky but it helps with parking. With Android Auto I basically have Google Assistant and Maps in the car which I prefer to an in-car navigation the Bolt doesn't have.

I get over 200 miles on a full charge and can plug in overnight to get enough power to get to work and back. The car has considerable safety features that warn about cars in blind sports or getting too close to the car in front of you or if you drift from lanes. The Bolt lacks any autonomous features even adaptive cruise control or parking assist. I suspect you could get significant autonomous behavior with a software upgrade but I doubt GM would ever do so.

The car is missing some basic features like power seats and a garage door button. No problem, I rigged up Google Assistant to open the garage door when I say the magic words. Far cooler than pressing a button.

It's not as sleek looking as a Tesla and nobody will shoot it into space but I'm driving the future and it is amazing.