Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s introduction to electric vehicle ownership was interesting. The engineer claimed that Tesla CEO Elon Musk reprimanded him in an email exchange for buying a gas-guzzler in 2013 instead of a Tesla Model S.
He has since bought the vehicle and has been often spotted at Tesla Superchargers and talking up Tesla on his various social media accounts, which is why it was surprising when he said that he was looking into trading it for a Chevy Bolt EV earlier this year.
Now that the Bolt EV is actually available in California, where the Woz lives, he didn’t actually end up buying one; instead, he bought another Tesla – and highlighted the vehicle’s main advantage on the Bolt in the process.
When Wozniak first floated the idea of trading his Tesla for the Bolt EV in September, we noted that he will miss Supercharging during his road trips:
“On his Foursquare account, the engineer can often be seen checking-in at Tesla Superchargers across California. Tesla’s Supercharger network and the Model S’ capacity to DC fast-charge at 120 kW are really what enable Tesla’s vehicles to go on road trips. While the Bolt EV has somewhat of a similar range with ‘more than 200 miles,’ its charging capacity is whole other thing.”
At the time, GM hadn’t confirmed the charging rate of the Bolt EV, but it has since confirmed that it is limited to 50 kW – potentially going up to 80 kW, but that’s another story.
That’s almost three times slower than Tesla’s charging rate and it means that on a road trip, after depleting the ~230 miles of the Bolt EV’s range, you have to stop for 2 hours to get a full charge.
It seems to have played a role in his decision – or his wife Janet’s decision since she is apparently the one who bought the car yesterday:
The Woz said that he is still considering the Bolt EV for a daily driver, but that “Tesla’s the only game in town” when it comes to long distance travel:
“I’m still considering the Bolt. It had a lot of things nicer about it than the Tesla. But I’m concerned about how it would work on our favored road trips. So far, Tesla’s the only game in town for that.”
He didn’t offer details about what he finds “nicer” in the Bolt EV, but he did say that “user conveniences are well thought out and the functionality is great”.
GM’s marketing was happy to use Wozniak’s comments when he talked about trading his Tesla for the Bolt EV, so hopefully now they will use his comments to step up their DC fast-charging game.
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