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 ⇐   November 5th, 2017   ⇒ 

Copyright 2017 Michael Anttila

Believe it or not, my Prius is 13 years old. It is still a great car, and my original plan was to drive it for 15 years, but this year I decided to try to get a fully electric car before the next provincial election. There is a really good Electric Vehicle Incentive Program right now that knocks a whopping $14,000 off the price of a new electric car, and I'm a little worried tha the program might be cancelled next summer depending on which political party is in power.

Given where we live and our driving patterns, we need a car with a lot of range. Since I wanted to go fully electric, that limited me to five options for electric cars: Tesla Model S, Tesla Model X, Tesla Model 3, Bolt EV, and the 2017 Nissan Leaf. The first two cars were crossed off the list immediately due to price, leaving the Model 3, Bolt and Leaf.

So earlier this year I decided to reserve a Model 3, and then wait to see what the new Leaf was going to be like when they announced it in the fall. By the time July came around, it was pretty clear that I would have to wait until late 2018 or early 2019 for a Model 3, and it was also clear that the new Leaf would not have the same range as the Bolt and would have the same kind of battery life problems that plague the old Leaf. Another thing that pushed me towards the Bolt was that my friend and coworker Steve bought a blue Bolt EV Premier this spring, and I was able to test drive it and get a feel for whether the car would suit me. So, just before Blue Skies I cancelled my Model 3 reservation and put a deposit down on a 2017 Bolt EV at my local Chevy dealership.

At the time, they told me that all of the 2017's were sold for the year and that I would have to wait for the 2018 model. I said that was fine as long as I got it before the provincial election. Then in October I got a surprise phone call saying that my order had been picked up for the 2017 model year and that I would be getting my car early!

So, I'm now a proud owner of the EV club, and so far the first month with the car has been great. It will be even better once I get my Level 2 charger hooked up and I can wake up to a fully charged car every morning.

So here is the first picture I took of my new car. I opted for the LT (the cheapest) version of the Bolt. Chevrolet wanted at least $500 for any colour other than white, and my favourite colour (dark red) was $600. I decided I would rather save that money for something other than paint, so that is how I wound up with a white car.

Technical Details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + EF 24-105L at 40mm, ISO 1600, f/8 for 1/25th of a second.

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