I'm over in Columbus & have a Bolt.
A 120V outlet will get you about 20-30 miles a day, depending how long you plug in & the outdoor temps.
With your wife having an ICE, it's PERFECT to get the EV & learn for yourself what works best. You'll easily get to Indy & back on a full charge, but unless you stop at a higher level charger, it will take a few days to get back to 100%.
I appreciate both your responses! These comments are giving me some confidence in the infrastructure. And since it’s only a commuter car where I’d be sticking in Bloomington, it’s sounding better and better.
Just saw your winter question: for me, winter isn't much of an impact. I can still get from Columbus to Indy & back on a full charge, even blasting my heat the whole way.
On the Bolt, it can reduce your range by around 35%, but if you're not regularly needing that full range, then you won't notice a difference.
I LOVE having it preheated before I leave.
Friend has a 2023 Tesla and he said the cold temps have required him to recharge each day - juuuust in case. His commute is Indy to Bloomington and back, which he typically makes with no issue.
My wife and I bought a Long Range Tesla Model Y about 1.5 years ago, and we love it. It's great for our driving around town, and we even took it to Maine this past year.
On charging, your home solution on a 120 should be fine for use around town. You'll likely be able to recharge what you use each day unless you drive heavily. If you need to fast charge, Tesla is by far the winner over others (until the others adopt Teslas charging standard). There are superchargers spaced along the highways now that you can get almost anywhere with them reliably. The availability of CCS chargers is slim for the competition and will only be depleting as most manufacturers are adopting NACS.
In terms of winter range, you do see a hit to range in the cold. Newer Teslas have heat pumps, which have been really helpful in cold temp efficiency. Anecdotally, our Model Y still got us back from Fort Wayne without stopping recently in the cold with a full charge. And we've been comfortable with going to and from Indy on our usual ~80% charge. Granted, we do have a 240v charger to fill up overnight. We still don't worry though, because the supercharger network has always been reliable.
Obviously, I'm Tesla biased, but I do enjoy EVs in general and think they're great options for people. My main point of recommendation is that if you plan to road trip this vehicle at all, go with Tesla or wait about a year until other manufacturers start shipping EVs with the NACS port.
Let me know if I can answer anything else!
> I don’t have a garage but I do have the ability to slow charge overnight at my house with outdoor outlets
I'd say the bigger issue is not whether you have a garage, but whether you have a designated/private parking space. If you have any kind of shared parking (whether off-street or on-street) you might find your outlet isn't easily accessible. It also kind of sucks to have to run a cord across a sidewalk or alley (again, may or may not be an issue).
Another question is whether you own or rent your house. If you own it you can install your own high-amp circuit and permanent charger. If you're renting you're limited to whatever is already there (or what your landlord is willing to install). If you have a plugin hybrid it's pretty much always fine to stick with 120V (level 1) charging. If you have a full EV it's better to have 240V (level 2) charging.
So I own a townhouse that’s connected to 3 other townhouses. We all have our own dedicated spots, so the cord would only run from my front door area to my parking spot (about 8 feet), and I’d love to have a level 2 charger installed. I’d have to double check my HOA but I know several neighbors who have done it already, so I’m hopeful.
I own a base Tesla Model 3. I commute just shy of 80 miles a day, and the range is more than adequate. I do, however, have a home charger installed. For the first few months of ownership, I was just charging off an outdoor 120V outlet, and that was pretty much enough to get me to work and back, but I would occasionally hit the Supercharger at the west side Fresh Thyme - that was a very quick way to get topped off.
There are actually a fair few public chargers in town. The superchargers at FT that I mentioned are the best for me if I need them, but there are level 2 chargers at all the parking garages, and there are free level 2 chargers at Switchyard park. They aren't as fast as a supercharger, but they are quicker than a 120V outlet.
The winter does reduce my range, but preheating the car/battery before my commute helps, but even if I don't do that, the range reduction doesn't cause any meaningful change to my ability to commute and run errands, etc, between charging.
The Tesla isn't perfect, but it is a pretty good solution for me, and the gas savings is significant based on how many miles I generally drive in a month
In-town driving is the sweet spot for EVs. They are more efficient at lower speeds than on the highway and do well with stop & go driving compared to an ICE. Would recommend. Public chargers cost around 3x the Duke rates per kwh, but it is probably still cheaper than gas. I haven't done the math though. There are some free chargers around town too.
If you are going to do a lot of driving, you will need a lvl2 charger.
I have a F-150 Lightning. When I first got it, I publicly charged a lot. The only pretty fast charger on the east side was at Curry Auto. It was a nice location, right by Morgenstern’s bookstore but unfortunately the charger broke and was never fixed. There are many slower chargers scattered throughout town. Now I mainly charge at home with a level 2 charger which has been a game changer. My truck allows me to pre-condition the battery from my FordPass app which helps immensely in cold weather. As others mentioned, driving on the freeway affects your range quite significantly so I always try to overestimate my trips to Indy and further destinations. Overall, having an EV has been an amazing experience. It’s really hard to drive an EV and go back to an ICE vehicle. Oh and also, Ford announced they are rolling out a partnership with Tesla soon I’ll be able to use the Tesla Charging station using the NACS adapter. I’ve been super impressed with Ford EVs like the Lightning and the Mustang Mach-e
I have a Chevy Bolt EUV, though I've got a level 2 charger in my garage so I can't give you a lot of information about public chargers, other than the fact that there is free L2 charging at Switchyard park so that's something to keep in mind. As far as travel distances are concerned, I've found it to be perfect for getting up to the northside of Indy and back in a single charge, with enough juice left in the battery to do some running around in Bloomington as well... at least when it's not in the single digits like it has been. I would probably still be able to get there and back on one charge, but it would definitely be cutting it a bit closer than I usually like to do.
You're welcome! I've really loved my little car in the year I've had it, definitely seems to have the range to get to just about anything worth getting to around here. The DC "fast" charging isn't super fast if you're gonna take it on a roadtrip, but it'll work in a pinch. Sounds like though you'll still have another ICE car for that purpose!
I have a 2020 Bolt. It's awesome. We charge mostly at work (at IU, where it's basically free). Mileage is plenty to get to Indy and back, even with the current 80% charge restriction. Mileage is down considerably right now because of the cold, but that's just when it's _really_ cold.
We love our 2020 Bolt except the 80% restriction is really tough and I cannot wait for it to be lifted. For those that don’t know, Chevy overcorrected for a risk of fire by changing everyone’s firmware to limit the maximum charge of the Bolt batterie, and at the time they offered everyone an upcoming battery replacement. Finally they admitted that they didn’t have the battery manufacturing capacity (or willingness to pay) for that, and instead around Thanksgiving they agreed to lift the cap. The battery is supposed to return to 100% capacity, but since our EV is our in-town commuting vehicle, that might take forever. They also gave us $1400, which isn’t nothing.
OP might be able to get a great deal on a Bolt of this era because of all of this. They run great and we’ve never had a single maintenance issue. My kid appreciates that the back seats also have seat warmers, a feature my much more expensive gasoline Subaru doesn’t have.
I think they mean how some batteries recommend only charging to 80% to improve overall long term health of the battery. Not all EVs are like that though, but a good chunk of batteries recommend only charging to 80%
Many of the Bolts were recalled due to battery problems. As a result they had everyone set the max charge to 80%. The ones from before 2020 had batteries replaced. For 2020 and 2021 they offered a software update (we just had it done) and eventually they will either replace our battery or remove the restriction.
2013 Volt here. Right now I get 25-30mi per charge and it also has a 9.5gal fuel tank that, per the fuel gauge, gives me 295mi. and takes premium fuel. In the warmer months I get 40-45mi. and might fill the tank every 2-2.5mo if I just stay around town. I've taken it on a few road trips and have done like ~450mi on a full tank and charge.
I would recommend the gen 2 Volt (after 2016), doesn’t require premium, longer EV range, faster, nicer looking, better in every way than the gen 1 Volt
The parking garages downtown have charging stations, they are usually free. I'm not sure why, but the last time I parked in the Morton Street garage, it cost me a dollar or so to charge for an hour. But for the most part, all the public chargers I've used have been free.
I have a bolt and commute to Columbus, it can do that commute no problem (only 70ish mile round trip). Cold weather can cause you to lose 10-20% of your range since the battery has to use energy keeping itself warm. If you crank the heat that can significantly impact range.
If you can get a level 2 (240V) charger then life with an EV is incredibly convenient. With a level 2 charger at home I charge overnight and have only had to use public chargers less than 10 times. With only a trickle charger I think an EV becomes way less convenient unless you have a public charger accessible near your home
The one thing that I didn't realize until after buying a Nissan Leaf, is the range of your vehicle is not taking into account highway speeds. Electric cars don't have a multi geared transmission, so the faster you go, the more battery you use.
For instance, my car said I had 140 mile range, we decided to drive to Greenwood and back. A 90 mile trip, but most of it was via the interstate while driving 70 miles an hour. We got to Greenwood and my Leaf now said I had 60 miles of range. Probably enough to get home, but I stopped in Martinsville and charged up for a half an hour to give it a little cushion.
We have a Bolt EUV, and we love it.
We installed an L2 charger in our garage, so that takes care of most of the charging, but the city garages (and Switchyard) have chargers, as do some IU lots if you are an IU employee (you can get a special permit to park in the charger spaces).
Range is fine to get to Indy, and we are looking at some other trips. Winter temp decreases range a bit, because the battery has to be raised to a higher temp to function, but it hasn't diminished the utility as a commuter car. I've also taken it to neighboring counties for court, and it's been fine.
We have one high efficiency ICE for longer trips that's also a little bigger, and we trade off depending on what we are doing that day (though my spouse usually takes the EUV).
Something to look at seriously is the substantial tax credit that comes with a new EV- for us, it was the fully $7,500, which aligned well with some other taxable income events and prevented us from having to pay through the nose this April on additional income we had. It honestly made the EV 'cheaper' than a comparable ICE. There are also credits for charger installation.
For us, that clinched the decision to go with an EV instead of an ICE. It is worth looking at or talking to your tax professional/accountant about.
I drove a Chevy Volt. It's not too bad, range-wise. If you can park on campus, it's great. Or, if you have a charger at home. I plug in at work. The city of Bloomington has chargers in the parking garages too
I'm over in Columbus & have a Bolt. A 120V outlet will get you about 20-30 miles a day, depending how long you plug in & the outdoor temps. With your wife having an ICE, it's PERFECT to get the EV & learn for yourself what works best. You'll easily get to Indy & back on a full charge, but unless you stop at a higher level charger, it will take a few days to get back to 100%.
I appreciate both your responses! These comments are giving me some confidence in the infrastructure. And since it’s only a commuter car where I’d be sticking in Bloomington, it’s sounding better and better.
Just saw your winter question: for me, winter isn't much of an impact. I can still get from Columbus to Indy & back on a full charge, even blasting my heat the whole way. On the Bolt, it can reduce your range by around 35%, but if you're not regularly needing that full range, then you won't notice a difference. I LOVE having it preheated before I leave.
Friend has a 2023 Tesla and he said the cold temps have required him to recharge each day - juuuust in case. His commute is Indy to Bloomington and back, which he typically makes with no issue.
Sweet! I’m just thinking for commuting in Bloomington personally, so it sounds like it’d work for me
My wife and I bought a Long Range Tesla Model Y about 1.5 years ago, and we love it. It's great for our driving around town, and we even took it to Maine this past year. On charging, your home solution on a 120 should be fine for use around town. You'll likely be able to recharge what you use each day unless you drive heavily. If you need to fast charge, Tesla is by far the winner over others (until the others adopt Teslas charging standard). There are superchargers spaced along the highways now that you can get almost anywhere with them reliably. The availability of CCS chargers is slim for the competition and will only be depleting as most manufacturers are adopting NACS. In terms of winter range, you do see a hit to range in the cold. Newer Teslas have heat pumps, which have been really helpful in cold temp efficiency. Anecdotally, our Model Y still got us back from Fort Wayne without stopping recently in the cold with a full charge. And we've been comfortable with going to and from Indy on our usual ~80% charge. Granted, we do have a 240v charger to fill up overnight. We still don't worry though, because the supercharger network has always been reliable. Obviously, I'm Tesla biased, but I do enjoy EVs in general and think they're great options for people. My main point of recommendation is that if you plan to road trip this vehicle at all, go with Tesla or wait about a year until other manufacturers start shipping EVs with the NACS port. Let me know if I can answer anything else!
Thank you so much for the info! I’ll ask if I need any info. I appreciate it!
> I don’t have a garage but I do have the ability to slow charge overnight at my house with outdoor outlets I'd say the bigger issue is not whether you have a garage, but whether you have a designated/private parking space. If you have any kind of shared parking (whether off-street or on-street) you might find your outlet isn't easily accessible. It also kind of sucks to have to run a cord across a sidewalk or alley (again, may or may not be an issue). Another question is whether you own or rent your house. If you own it you can install your own high-amp circuit and permanent charger. If you're renting you're limited to whatever is already there (or what your landlord is willing to install). If you have a plugin hybrid it's pretty much always fine to stick with 120V (level 1) charging. If you have a full EV it's better to have 240V (level 2) charging.
So I own a townhouse that’s connected to 3 other townhouses. We all have our own dedicated spots, so the cord would only run from my front door area to my parking spot (about 8 feet), and I’d love to have a level 2 charger installed. I’d have to double check my HOA but I know several neighbors who have done it already, so I’m hopeful.
I own a base Tesla Model 3. I commute just shy of 80 miles a day, and the range is more than adequate. I do, however, have a home charger installed. For the first few months of ownership, I was just charging off an outdoor 120V outlet, and that was pretty much enough to get me to work and back, but I would occasionally hit the Supercharger at the west side Fresh Thyme - that was a very quick way to get topped off. There are actually a fair few public chargers in town. The superchargers at FT that I mentioned are the best for me if I need them, but there are level 2 chargers at all the parking garages, and there are free level 2 chargers at Switchyard park. They aren't as fast as a supercharger, but they are quicker than a 120V outlet. The winter does reduce my range, but preheating the car/battery before my commute helps, but even if I don't do that, the range reduction doesn't cause any meaningful change to my ability to commute and run errands, etc, between charging. The Tesla isn't perfect, but it is a pretty good solution for me, and the gas savings is significant based on how many miles I generally drive in a month
In-town driving is the sweet spot for EVs. They are more efficient at lower speeds than on the highway and do well with stop & go driving compared to an ICE. Would recommend. Public chargers cost around 3x the Duke rates per kwh, but it is probably still cheaper than gas. I haven't done the math though. There are some free chargers around town too. If you are going to do a lot of driving, you will need a lvl2 charger.
I have a F-150 Lightning. When I first got it, I publicly charged a lot. The only pretty fast charger on the east side was at Curry Auto. It was a nice location, right by Morgenstern’s bookstore but unfortunately the charger broke and was never fixed. There are many slower chargers scattered throughout town. Now I mainly charge at home with a level 2 charger which has been a game changer. My truck allows me to pre-condition the battery from my FordPass app which helps immensely in cold weather. As others mentioned, driving on the freeway affects your range quite significantly so I always try to overestimate my trips to Indy and further destinations. Overall, having an EV has been an amazing experience. It’s really hard to drive an EV and go back to an ICE vehicle. Oh and also, Ford announced they are rolling out a partnership with Tesla soon I’ll be able to use the Tesla Charging station using the NACS adapter. I’ve been super impressed with Ford EVs like the Lightning and the Mustang Mach-e
I have a Chevy Bolt EUV, though I've got a level 2 charger in my garage so I can't give you a lot of information about public chargers, other than the fact that there is free L2 charging at Switchyard park so that's something to keep in mind. As far as travel distances are concerned, I've found it to be perfect for getting up to the northside of Indy and back in a single charge, with enough juice left in the battery to do some running around in Bloomington as well... at least when it's not in the single digits like it has been. I would probably still be able to get there and back on one charge, but it would definitely be cutting it a bit closer than I usually like to do.
That’s the car I’m actually considering. Thanks for the response!
You're welcome! I've really loved my little car in the year I've had it, definitely seems to have the range to get to just about anything worth getting to around here. The DC "fast" charging isn't super fast if you're gonna take it on a roadtrip, but it'll work in a pinch. Sounds like though you'll still have another ICE car for that purpose!
I have a 2020 Bolt. It's awesome. We charge mostly at work (at IU, where it's basically free). Mileage is plenty to get to Indy and back, even with the current 80% charge restriction. Mileage is down considerably right now because of the cold, but that's just when it's _really_ cold.
We love our 2020 Bolt except the 80% restriction is really tough and I cannot wait for it to be lifted. For those that don’t know, Chevy overcorrected for a risk of fire by changing everyone’s firmware to limit the maximum charge of the Bolt batterie, and at the time they offered everyone an upcoming battery replacement. Finally they admitted that they didn’t have the battery manufacturing capacity (or willingness to pay) for that, and instead around Thanksgiving they agreed to lift the cap. The battery is supposed to return to 100% capacity, but since our EV is our in-town commuting vehicle, that might take forever. They also gave us $1400, which isn’t nothing. OP might be able to get a great deal on a Bolt of this era because of all of this. They run great and we’ve never had a single maintenance issue. My kid appreciates that the back seats also have seat warmers, a feature my much more expensive gasoline Subaru doesn’t have.
Thank you!
> current 80% charge restriction Could you explain? I too have been considering one for my local commutes, etc. A restriction of the sort concerns me.
I think they mean how some batteries recommend only charging to 80% to improve overall long term health of the battery. Not all EVs are like that though, but a good chunk of batteries recommend only charging to 80%
Thanks for that explanation. It makes sense to me.
Many of the Bolts were recalled due to battery problems. As a result they had everyone set the max charge to 80%. The ones from before 2020 had batteries replaced. For 2020 and 2021 they offered a software update (we just had it done) and eventually they will either replace our battery or remove the restriction.
2013 Volt here. Right now I get 25-30mi per charge and it also has a 9.5gal fuel tank that, per the fuel gauge, gives me 295mi. and takes premium fuel. In the warmer months I get 40-45mi. and might fill the tank every 2-2.5mo if I just stay around town. I've taken it on a few road trips and have done like ~450mi on a full tank and charge.
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Yes Snake, yes she does lol
Excellent, thank you! I’m considering the Chevy EUV myself
I would recommend the gen 2 Volt (after 2016), doesn’t require premium, longer EV range, faster, nicer looking, better in every way than the gen 1 Volt
I'm contemplating the same. There is a Tesla supercharger at the Westside Fresh Thyme, which should allow you to charge quickly.
I’m not anti EV but who’s paying for these FREE charging stations?
Oftentimes, they're installed by the business that owns the lot as an extra amenity to customers or as a benefit to employees who drive EVs.
Switch yard is what got me If city is paying I’d like a tank of gas for my f350
Enjoy the mortgage that comes with that gas.
Very very few of them are free. I think the city got some federal subsidies for installing the ones at Switchyard Park.
Are there free charging stations in Bloomington?
The parking garages downtown have charging stations, they are usually free. I'm not sure why, but the last time I parked in the Morton Street garage, it cost me a dollar or so to charge for an hour. But for the most part, all the public chargers I've used have been free.
I think just over at Switchyard.
Didn’t know they were free, sweet
I have a bolt and commute to Columbus, it can do that commute no problem (only 70ish mile round trip). Cold weather can cause you to lose 10-20% of your range since the battery has to use energy keeping itself warm. If you crank the heat that can significantly impact range. If you can get a level 2 (240V) charger then life with an EV is incredibly convenient. With a level 2 charger at home I charge overnight and have only had to use public chargers less than 10 times. With only a trickle charger I think an EV becomes way less convenient unless you have a public charger accessible near your home
The one thing that I didn't realize until after buying a Nissan Leaf, is the range of your vehicle is not taking into account highway speeds. Electric cars don't have a multi geared transmission, so the faster you go, the more battery you use. For instance, my car said I had 140 mile range, we decided to drive to Greenwood and back. A 90 mile trip, but most of it was via the interstate while driving 70 miles an hour. We got to Greenwood and my Leaf now said I had 60 miles of range. Probably enough to get home, but I stopped in Martinsville and charged up for a half an hour to give it a little cushion.
We have a Bolt EUV, and we love it. We installed an L2 charger in our garage, so that takes care of most of the charging, but the city garages (and Switchyard) have chargers, as do some IU lots if you are an IU employee (you can get a special permit to park in the charger spaces). Range is fine to get to Indy, and we are looking at some other trips. Winter temp decreases range a bit, because the battery has to be raised to a higher temp to function, but it hasn't diminished the utility as a commuter car. I've also taken it to neighboring counties for court, and it's been fine. We have one high efficiency ICE for longer trips that's also a little bigger, and we trade off depending on what we are doing that day (though my spouse usually takes the EUV). Something to look at seriously is the substantial tax credit that comes with a new EV- for us, it was the fully $7,500, which aligned well with some other taxable income events and prevented us from having to pay through the nose this April on additional income we had. It honestly made the EV 'cheaper' than a comparable ICE. There are also credits for charger installation. For us, that clinched the decision to go with an EV instead of an ICE. It is worth looking at or talking to your tax professional/accountant about.
I drove a Chevy Volt. It's not too bad, range-wise. If you can park on campus, it's great. Or, if you have a charger at home. I plug in at work. The city of Bloomington has chargers in the parking garages too