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TESTED: 2022 Chevy Bolt Tops EPA Range by 7%

Refreshed Bolt EV beats predecessor by a mile. Literally.

  • written by
    Director, Vehicle Testing
    Jonathan Elfalan has worked in the automotive industry since 2005. As a director of vehicle testing at Edmunds, Jonathan has tested and reviewed thousands of cars and written thousands of car-related articles over the course of his career. Jonathan got his start testing cars for Road & Track magazine as a newly minted mechanical engineer grad from University of California, Irvine, and has also contributed to Motor Trend and the Associated Press. He likes to say he learned to drive a manual transmission in a rear-wheel-drive mid-engine vehicle but often omits it was his family's 1991 Toyota Previa minivan.
  • The 2022 Bolt outperformed its EPA-estimated range of 259 miles, covering 278 miles on Edmunds' real-world EV range loop
  • That total puts the 2022 Chevrolet Bolt in 12th place overall on our EV range leaderboard and fifth among non-luxury models
  • The new Bolt went 1 mile farther than its predecessor, which carried the same 259-mile EPA rating

The 2022 Chevrolet Bolt has an EPA-estimated range of 259 miles on a single charge. As far as non-luxury EVs go, it's in second place for the longest EPA range on the market as of this writing, trailing the Volkswagen ID.4 Pro by a single mile.

Despite the Bolt's new look, it shares its foundation and electric powertrain with its predecessor, which explains why its EPA range and consumption figures are virtually unchanged. We put those figures to the test on our standardized EV driving loop.

Testing the Bolt in the real world

Edmunds tests every new electric vehicle on the same real-world driving loop to see just how far it can travel from a full charge down to zero miles remaining. If you look at our EV range leaderboard, you'll see that most EVs have matched or exceeded their EPA range estimates in our testing. The 2020 Bolt outperformed its 259-mile range estimate by nearly 7%. With slightly warmer weather conditions (60 degrees for the 2020 versus 71 degrees for the 2022 car), we expected the new Bolt might travel just a bit farther.

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2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV

2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV

At the end of a long day of driving, we had traveled a total of 278 miles in the 2022 Bolt, 7.3% more than its EPA estimate and a single mile more than we managed in the 2020 model last year. That's a solid result, though it leaves the 2022 Bolt in fifth place in its class in terms of real-world range, trailing the Hyundai Kona, the Kia Niro and two versions of the VW ID.4.

Just to confirm all possible variables at play here, we compared the weights of the Bolts we tested to their official factory figures and found them to be quite accurate.

2020 Chevrolet Bolt Premier

Chevy: 3,563 pounds
Edmunds: 3,569 pounds

2022 Chevrolet Bolt 2LT

Chevy: 3,589 pounds
Edmunds: 3,587 pounds

2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV

2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV

So how much did those 278 miles cost?

Although total range is at the top of most people's minds when it comes to EVs, energy consumption is an important factor as well. This determines how much your miles will cost you. The unit of measurement for consumption, the kilowatt-hour, can be thought of as the EV equivalent of a gallon of gasoline. Just like gas, the price of electricity varies depending where you live. For example, you'll pay about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour in Utah as of this writing, whereas in Hawaii it'll run you about 33 cents.

So, what can 2022 Chevy Bolt owners expect to pay at "the pump"? After charging the battery back to full, we calculated an Edmunds consumption rate of 25.7 kWh/100 miles, which is 8.2% more efficient than the EPA estimate of 28 kWh/100 mi. That means that if we lived in Hawaii, our 278-mile trip in the Bolt would have cost us $23.58, while if we lived in Utah, that same charge would cost just $7.15.

2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV

2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV

How does that compare within the EV world? Let's look at the Hyundai Kona Electric, which is comparably priced and similarly sized to the Bolt. In our test of a 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric, we measured a consumption rate of 22.3 kWh/100 mi. So that same 278 miles in the Kona would have cost $6.19 in Utah and $20.45 in Hawaii. You'd save a few bucks with the Hyundai, but not enough to really impact your bottom line.

How about a gasoline-powered rival? Running a 2021 Mazda 3 Turbo hatchback for 278 miles on regular fuel would have set us back $43.62 in Hawaii ($4.08 per gallon) and $41.49 in Utah ($3.88 per gallon) at current prices, assuming we got the 3 Turbo's EPA-estimated 26 mpg combined. Based on these numbers, if you average 10,000 miles a year, driving a 2022 Chevy Bolt could save you an estimated $722 per year in Hawaii and $1,235 per year in Utah.

For more information on how we test EV range and how each vehicle performed, we invite you to visit our Real World vs. EPA testing page, which includes both our EV range leaderboard and a table with detailed test results. Our EV range leaderboard is embeddable and will automatically update every time we add a new vehicle.

Edmunds says

While the 2022 Chevy Bolt continues to be one of the range leaders in the non-luxury segment by official EPA range estimates, our real-world testing has shown consistent results that put it in fifth place overall. Its 278-mile result is still commendable, but this test serves as a good illustration of how real-world testing paints a more complete picture for EV shoppers. For our latest comprehensive ratings of all electric vehicles, head over to Edmunds' EV rankings page.

Jonathan Elfalanby

Jonathan Elfalan has worked in the automotive industry since 2005. As a director of vehicle testing at Edmunds, Jonathan has tested and reviewed thousands of cars and written thousands of car-related articles over the course of his career. Jonathan got his start testing cars for Road & Track magazine as a newly minted mechanical engineer grad from University of California, Irvine, and has also contributed to Motor Trend and the Associated Press. He likes to say he learned to drive a manual transmission in a rear-wheel-drive mid-engine vehicle but often omits it was his family's 1991 Toyota Previa minivan.

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