Dear GM,
I was excited by the prospect of a slightly larger version of the Bolt EV. Very few details about the changes existed prior to the official announcement, and a lot of information still currently does not exist. I reserved a "First Edition" the moment I was able to, before I even bothered to read about any of the changes. First I'd like to talk about the changes that you did make that I am glad to see.
Though I anticipate not really using it often since it doesn't suit my style of driving, the available adaptive cruise is a definite improvement. I won't get into supercruise at all, because you're shipping a feature incomplete version of it compared to what technology you have on existing vehicles.
I find the seats in my 2018 to be very comfortable, but for the sake of others, I'm glad you've improved them. Living in Michigan, I don't see the ventilated option as being very useful. I also would rather forgo the cost increase that a powered seat entails since I generally don't have others driving my car.
Wireless Android Auto/Carplay is a definite improvement, but I haven't heard anything about how good the implementation is.
Getting rid of the shifter isn't really something I care much about, but I'm very glad you decided to make "One Pedal Driving" a persistent setting. It's super annoying that "L mode" in the EV has to be selected every time the vehicle is turned on or shifted from reverse. Sometimes I push the shifter back too fast and it's still in "Drive". Seriously irritating to back out of the garage, slap the shifter down twice, get to the end of my driveway, lift off the pedal, and the car tries to keep cruising into the road until I get on the brake.
Questions I have that remain unanswered based on my real life experience in my 2018 Bolt EV:
So I watched your presentation. I kind of stopped being able to pay attention after this part: "And a handful of modes, like Sport mode!" ... and... what other modes? Is one mode a handful? Do you have really tiny hands or is sport mode just really large? Is there going to be a mode to preheat the battery for a DC charge perhaps? Maybe a detent in the pedal where it gets harder to push when you're not driving "eco friendly" anymore?
Is there ANY WAY to force the car to start to warm the battery prior to arriving at a DC charging station if the vehicle was previously left unplugged overnight? A standard precondition in this case does not. Arrival at a charger in the winter, even after 20 minutes of highway driving, now means ridiculously long charge times. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD give us a way to force the car to warm the battery up in anticipation of a DC charge. Not having this makes longer trips in the winter time an absolute non-starter if you are not plugged in overnight.
Embedded navigation is now an option. I assume it's identical to the one that is in my wife's 2019 Volt, but there's obvious changes I'd like to see. Energy assist in the My Chevrolet app is hot garbage. A lot of that is probably due to the limitations in what you're allowed to do on Android Auto. This functionality should be built into the navigation system, should be able to use the information directly from the car, historical energy usage for accurate estimations, etc. I haven't actually used the Tesla version of this but it's so clearly obvious that none of your engineers have either, because everyone praises how well it works for road trips.
Lack of AWD as an option. So the EUV is 6 inches longer but you still couldn't make AWD available? I heard some bullshit from the lead engineer that he thought his customers weren't going to want it. I WANT IT. Actually the lack of AWD is the biggest reason I have no desire to trade my EV in for the EUV, and will end up cancelling my reservation.
The first recall for the Bolt supposedly fixed your OTA capabilities. But it's been three years since then and there still has never been an OTA update. Quality of life fixes that went into the newer model years weren't put into the older model years. This is something that's completely unacceptable to me for a company that wants to be on the leading edge of EVs. I know that you don't historically make these kinds of fixes, but it's 2021, and there's a huge amount of a vehicle that's controlled just in software. I don't trust that you're going to change your attitude about this for any of your future vehicles. The Hummer is on my short list of expensive vehicles I've got reserved that I'm interested in. Show me that you mean business about OTA by pushing an update for my 2018 Bolt EV that adds target charge mode and separates the heat and A/C buttons.
Plug 'n charge. I even asked a higher up for your charging program and he didn't allude to this ever being a capability. He said that a lot of my complaints resonated within his department, but I haven't seen anything marketed about this happening for any GM vehicles. Again, this is something that should be made available for any of your previous vehicles that have CCS capabilities. I don't care if I have to bring the car into the dealer for the update. Work with the charging companies and just do it.
Official tow rating. I've got a 2" receiver on my Bolt. It tows a 2000 lbs trailer just fine, even at freeway speeds. You say it wasn't meant to do that. Why would the larger version of the Bolt still lack this basic capability of an SUV? You know for a Utility vehicle, not being allowed to tow anything reduces the utility of the vehicle by a LOT.
I'm sure there's more, but I expect none of these things will happen even if you read it.
-Brian McPherson
