Turned on heater first time. Range dropped 20 miles

Chevy Bolt EV Forum

Help Support Chevy Bolt EV Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

razz

New member
Joined
Apr 8, 2019
Messages
1
Have owned my Bolt for 2 weeks. Usually rely on steering whell and seat heaters. Works fine, even though I live in VT. I turned on the heater for the first time and range estimate immediately dropped from 150 to 130. Didn't recover when I turned heater off after about 4 seconds. Is this normal?
 
Yes, the heater consumes a lot of power, at least initially. Heating all of the air blowing into the cabin takes a lot more power than heating the seat and steering wheel.
 
Yes, it's normal. A lot of people use the heated seats and heated steering wheel but not the cabin heat.
 
You can minimize this, by turning down the temperature, and by running it intermittently; only when you need it.

The heated seats and steering wheel use a couple of hundred watts, at most. The heater uses a couple of thousand watts, at least.

If the Bolt had a direct heating windshield defroster (like the e-Golf has), then that would be great. These work a lot like the rear defroster, but you can barely see it in the glass.
 
Back
Top