Nuclear Family: 2022 Chevrolet Bolt LT

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“No one knows the mind of a squid,” laughed my father while I attempted to dress my then-toddler son for a winter’s day out. Arms and legs were flailing like branches in the wind, scuppering attempts to don a warm jacket and pants on the lad. It was like trying to dress angry spaghetti.

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Flash forward a decade, and that bundle of erratic energy has morphed into a fine young man. Now headlong into what I wrongly assumed would be surly teen years, he’s yet to exhibit much of the churlishness your author surely deposited on his long suffering parents thirty years ago. In other words, his generation is alright.

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More than alright, actually. Even after weathering umpteen (yet necessary) disruptions to school over the past couple of years, and facing alien classrooms in which all are wearing masks like underage bank robbers. Staring down high school course selection, The Boy has developed a knack for science, particularly the nuclear sciences. Conversations about uranium and heavy water are not uncommon, though it must be said about the only knowledge your author has on the subject comes from hours of playing Fallout 4 on Xbox. Still, I listen with rapt interest, believing it’s a bad idea to douse the creative fires of young minds.

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All of which explains why we found ourselves being welcomed on the doorstep of Point Lepreau nuclear generation station on a hot August morning. As the only nuclear power plant on the east coast, it has been safely producing power since the early 1980’s and recently underwent a refurbishment preparing it for healthy future of generating clean electricity. With that in mind, Chevy’s new Bolt seemed like the right car in which to make the roughly 700 kilometre round-trip trek.

[ note: After this story was written, GM saw fit to recall every single Bolt they’ve ever made — including this all-new 2022 model — in order to complete a herculean task of cleaving open the battery packs and replacing their guts because of a fire risk. We’d be remiss not to mention this, and you can read more about it here, even though the recall happened subsequent to this trip.]

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Rather than simply building a so-called compliance car ( ahem Fiat 500e ahem ), GM has doubled down on the Bolt, imbuing it for 2022 with better charging tech and optional Super Cruise, not to mention a dose of updated styling. There’s a crossover-style variant, called the EUV, offered now as well, targeting customers who prefer than popular body style but are seeking all-electric motoring. Having also plowed huge investments in EVs at their other brands — including a six-figure electric pickup truck for GMC — it’d seem The General’s push to electrification goes beyond a cynical ‘just for looks’ marketing ploy.

This trip, of course, required some planning. Chevy advertises up to 417km of driving range on a fully charged battery, though constant-speed highway driving scuppers that amount by at least a tenth, thanks to an EV’s propensity to harvest electricity through regenerative braking, precious little of which occurs at flank speeds. However, sticking to city streets earlier in the week forced the Bolt’s maximum range estimate above 500km; given the amount of electricity dumped back into the battery each time the car decelerated by its aggressive regen system (which slows the car as if the driver has thrown out a metal grapnel), this figure is more than plausible.

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Also more than plausible? A future for science-minded young people in the nuclear industry. Despite bleatings from some corners of the peanut gallery, who’ll wail and gnash their teeth in an alarming display of NIMBYism, this type of power generation is clean and — properly managed — safe. The crew at Point Lepreau pride themselves on a record that’d make Elmer the Safety Elephant blush with envy. Training is constant at the facility, with lessons ranging from mechanical repairs to electrical maintenance to operation of the reactor itself. Fun fact: if an operator flunks an exam twice, they are no longer allowed to work on that type of equipment. If only we could hold our federal politicians to the same standard.

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The Boy soaked all this up like a sponge, wide-eyed and full of intelligent questions. Highlights? A replica of the main control panel for training purposes, plus conversations with professionals whose job it is to understand the finer points of nuclear fission — a process in which atoms are literally split apart to create energy. Spending time with the mountain of a man in charge of plant security was also illuminating, and put an exclamation point on why these facilities are run more tightly than Fort Knox.

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Head bubbling with ideas for the future and arms filled with nuclear science documents, the budding atomic doyen researched the North American Young Generation in Nuclear education programs on our way home, tethering his device to the Bolt’s built in 4G LTE WiFi. Level 3 DC fast charging stations are abundant and well-placed in New Brunswick, logically installed at predictable locations such as busy Irving fuel stations along major routes.

Charging times for the Bolt weren’t outrageous, with the Chevy juicing itself to about 80% capacity from near flat about an hour. That’s obviously longer than one would spend at a fuel pump, but within reason if you’ve planned to take a meal while you’re there. Some back-of-napkin math revealed that, in terms of monetary spend, the Bolt returned an equivalent to roughly 4.0L/100km when using public Level 3 fast chargers. At home, the calculation was half that amount, making the case for taking advantage of Chevy’s offer to front about $1500 towards the cost of a Level 2 charger in the homes of 2022 Bolt customers. Using that type of charger, topping off the battery each night while you slumber is a simple task.

After returning home, The Boy sought out a few educational opportunities using the network of contacts he had just built at Point Lepreau. The wealth of knowledge in this type of industry is vast, and as it turns out, more than willing to be shared with interested young people.

Perhaps the mind of a squid is starting focus, after all.