 Today we're going to talk about electric vehicles. We are currently sitting in a 2020 Chevrolet Bolt, which is an all-electric vehicle that Chevrolet just recently put out not too long ago. We're just going to go through a couple of technical things and we're going to try to maybe try to ease something that's kind of a new term as of late in the last decade called range anxiety. We're going to do something a little different today. We're going to drive this thing as we're shooting the video here. Me and Feeb are going to go for a little drive and we'll kind of walk you through a few things here on the Bolt. So, let's get started. All right, so obviously one thing you're going to feel when you get in here and kind of as you're getting the whole experience is it's really quiet. Obviously you've got no engine running. You're hearing a lot of the other road noises as you're driving on the road, which is good. You've got two big displays when you get in and start driving, which is kind of bigger than a lot of the gasoline cars you see. There's a lot more information to kind of take in and keep track of that people that buy these electric vehicles want to be aware of what's going on. So, there's a lot more information to see, so that's why you get the bigger screen. It's going to show you on here what you're using for kilowatts. A kilowatts is the amount of electricity that you're using as you're driving. You're also going to see your range and how many kilometers you've got left before you basically run into energy, which is no different than a gasoline engine. Gasoline engines give you a range as well, how many kilometers till empty. I think where this whole range anxiety kind of comes into play is you can't just pull into a gas station in 15 minutes, fill this thing up and you're back down the road again. You kind of, people feel like they're more stuck or if they run out, then you know they're going to take longer to get filled up and stuff. So, there's a lot of things that affect your range and there's a lot of things that you can't control and there's a lot of things that you can control. So, we're going to go over a few of those things and kind of help ease that anxiety and maybe if you're thinking about making the leap into an electric vehicle, this might be the information that you need. So, first things first, environment. Environment's a big thing on how much range you're going to get. So, obviously colder temperatures, snow and slush in the road is going to bring down that range. Obviously, the slush and stuff on the road, it's not going to roll as easy, so you're going to use more electricity that way. It's no different than burning more fuel if you had a gas engine. When it's cold outside, you're going to be using your heater and because there's no coolant going through the vehicle to try to absorb that heat from a combustion engine, they're going to have to use electricity to heat up the coolant in these things. So, you're going to burn some electricity there as well. So, those are a couple of factors like hills. Hills is another one. If you're in a really hilly area in your commute back and forth to work, then obviously you're going to burn more electricity there. The flatter you are, the better. The more stopping and starting in your commute is going to affect it as well. No different than a gasoline engine. So, there's a lot of things that affect the mileage. So, people will be, you know, they buy these EVs and they're supposed to be good for roughly about 420 kilometers of range, which is great. And they notice that when they fill it up, they're getting a lot less than that. And that's because you got a factor in all that stuff that plays a big part in it. So, pretty much all electric vehicles have is what they call regenerative braking. So, there's a lot of myths about regenerative braking. And regenerative braking is the ability to, as the vehicle is slowing down to decel, it'll actually use that energy to and put it back into the batters. And that'll help extend your range. The interesting thing about the Bolt is there's kind of four levels to that. So, basically, the four systems work like this. You've got your kind of stage one, which is you're driving down the road and you're not touching anything. You're in D here on your shifter. And if I let off the gas on the dash, it's showing me that it's generating six kilowatts, five kilowatts as we're slowing down. So, we're generating some power and we're putting it back into the batter. So, the next stage that you can do, there's actually a regen button here on the back side of the steering wheel on the left-hand side. And that, if I'm pressing that, will actually help slow the car down a little more. So, what we'll do is we're going to roll on here 50 kilometers an hour again. And if I just press this button on the back of the steering wheel, it really kind of lunges the car forward, lunges it ahead. And that is, that's me basically increasing the drag of that electric motor and using that forward momentum to generate even more power. Now, the next stage of it you can do is actually on the shifter here, you'll notice there's a D and an L for drive and low. So, the reason why this is important is because most people are never going to drive around their vehicle in low gear. And that's what they think that means in most vehicles, in most cases, they're right. But the L in this is actually towards the regenerative braking. So, if I just go ahead and pull that down into low gear, it's actually not going to be in a low gear. What it's for is it's going to apply more regenerative braking and so you're going to get more of a feel of it slowing down when you let your foot off the gas without pressing that button on the back of the steering wheel. So, that's another stage, we're going to call that stage three. So, what we're going to do is what we call stage four. So, that's going to be a combination of using the button on the back of the steering wheel here and leaving it in low gear. So, I don't need to use the brake anymore other than to obviously for emergency stops. And I don't, and obviously to hold the vehicle if I'm on a hill or something, right? So, you still need the brake. But just for your regular driving, you can decel almost to a complete stop and also, you know, gauge yourself in traffic and stuff without touching the brake. There's been some bolt owners report that where it's an averaged or estimated that you're going to get around 420 kilometers of range to a full charge, you know, obviously in perfect conditions. There's actually some people that are reporting over 500 kilometers of range on a single charge by doing this one foot driving procedure, which is great. One thing to also keep in mind that some people ask me, well, what about the drivers behind you when you're driving with these, you know, in this stage four or using one of these regenerative braking modes? GM's actually thought of that. So as we're driving along here and I either use the button, use the low gear on the shifter or both as the vehicle slows down, the vehicle computer actually turns on the brake lights automatically for you. So even though you're not, you know, putting any input into the brake pedal, the brake lights are working back there as well, which is great. One of the things I guess that people kind of don't realize or you do realize, but one of the things with the range anxiety kind of blew me away was the average commute for the average Canadian in a day is roughly anywhere from 65 to 75 kilometers. So in these things, you know, you're saying at 415 or 470 kilometers to a charge, right? So realistically, for most people, you know, most Canadians driving these things, we could really drive these things for, you know, two, three, four days, even longer if you do these regenerative braking tricks and tips. If you haven't tried it out, if you have a bolt and you haven't put it in low gear and tried that paddle on the back of the steering wheel and gone through those different stages, I definitely encourage you to try it. And if you, if you take one out for a test drive, you should definitely give it a, give it a shot and take one of these out for a drive because you might be pleasantly surprised and knowing you have a bit more control over, over your own range and things like a quick charge if you get stuck somewhere, you know, might really help you get over that hurdle of making the leap and buying one of these things. And like I say, if you haven't tried one, get out and try one because they're, they're pretty cool to drive. Anyway, that's been another edition of Mechanic Monday Tech Talk and we look forward to seeing yous.