In 2019 Tesla reduced the range of their cars with a software update. This was to address an issue of fires (that last little bit of full on a battery is hard to get right w/ temperature, manufacturing variation, etc). So, when our Chevy Bolt got a similar announcement, I was unsurprised. GM released the notice, but I suggested to my wife to just ignore it, they have a 2nd fix coming which restores the range by changing some other charging parameters. My rationale: we don’t live in a hot climate, its not damaged, the odds of it hitting were low, why reduce the range?
Well, yesterday my wife had to drop the car for service for a different thing (3.5 years, first service! EV are great!). And, well, they forced the change on her. Sigh. But, they made a “minor” mistake. Instead of reducing the range by 5%, they set the range to 5%. Yeah, no fooling. She could hardly make it all the way home from the dealer. After a couple hours on the charger, well, we are “fully charged” and set for 39km. But, well, it goes into limp mode around 10km, so more like 29k.
Range anxiety? Suddenly its here! Instead of the better part of 500km, we can drive to the highway!
Progress! get off my lawn.
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