Chevrolet Bolt a fun ride for reporter

Jun. 12—I picked up a 2021 Chevrolet Bolt EV to test drive on May 19 from Vernon Chevrolet, located at 175 Hartford Turnpike in Vernon.

In order to take it out, I showed my license and insurance card and signed a form allowing the dealership to use my insurance if I managed to crash the car. I'm happy to report that didn't happen — the test was smooth, in more ways than one.

Before driving off the lot, I got a brief walk-through of the car's features.

The Bolt has a large touch screen in the center of the dash, with which one can control the climate settings and radio, and view information about the car's state of charge and expected range of travel. Another screen sits in front of the driver.

Having these two screens lit up, and the start button glowing are the only ways to tell the car is on when it's "idling," if it can be called that. Otherwise it's completely silent and vibration-less.

Over the next few hours I drove the car about 30 miles, interspersed with stops to explore the computer system.

Here are a few things I learned:

When accelerating, the car doesn't make much noise. No rumbles, roars, or burbles. Instead, I noticed a slight whine of the type that I would expect to hear from an electric motor.

It wasn't obtrusive. I found that by the time the car reached about 30 mph, the wind and road noise covered up the whine. I never heard it while driving on the highway.

When I had the window open it was even less noticeable, and when I had the radio playing at my normal volume, the music covered it up.

Accelerating was always easy, whether from a stoplight or merging onto the highway. It was aided by the fact that the Bolt's transmission has a single speed. It never shifts, so it felt like it could keep accelerating forever.

Particularly when merging onto the highway, I was able to catch up with the speed of traffic without an issue.

For those who like to use the air conditioning in the summer, it will affect the vehicle's range. I turned on the air at one point and it immediately dropped my projected range from 260 miles to around 225.

I didn't leave it on long enough or drive far enough to see what the end result would have been, but when I turned the air conditioning off, the range went back up.

In connection with that, I was particularly interested by one feature of the car that keeps track of the impacts to its range, either increasing or decreasing it. It logs in four categories — driving technique, climate settings, road terrain, and outside temperature.

Each category gauge starts at zero and moves negative or positive on a horizontal scale.

In addition, above and below the estimated range on the driver's information screen, the car lists a minimum and maximum estimated range. While driving, a thin bar on the dash moves up or down, indicating if the range is closer to the maximum or minimum.

I had fun test driving the car. At one point I showed it off to co-workers, who were alternately amazed and somewhat disturbed by its silence. Overall though, they were also intrigued by the concept and had lots of questions.

A few days before testing the Bolt I sat down with Miguel Rios, a salesman at Vernon Chevrolet, and the dealership's EV expert to talk about the car. Naturally, Rios leases a Bolt of his own.

He's also sold around 10 Bolts in the last few years.

The most common question Rios gets from customers is, "but what if I want to" and fill in the blank with a question you might have. He says many times, he'll question how often they do such a thing, like go on a 500-mile trip, and the answer is usually not often.

Rios also says that he drives his Bolt just like a gas car. He doesn't draft behind tractor trailers, and he uses the air conditioning when it's hot and the heat when its cold, and he makes it to work each day just fine.

For breaking news and happenings in North Central Connecticut, follow Matthew Knox on Twitter: @MatthewPKnoxJI, and Facebook: Matthew P. Knox JI.