A new EV forum = The inevitable Bolt EV seat complaint thread!

I would be great if there were aftermarket seats available. Just change out the whole seat!

 

The seats are easy to modify, both bottom and back. Add a layer of foam underneath the factory foam by peeling back the upholstery. Going below preserves the shape and avoids burying heater elements. I'm much happier since doing so...

 

How do you peel back the upholstery? Do you have to cut it?

 

Oh, heavens, no. It's all completely reversible and not that hard. There are clips on the underside of the bottom cushion and the back is almost like a ziplock baggy... I don't know if this new forum allows links out, but I have two that can help.

A robertlmathews on Youtube posted this for the bottom cushion:



My video for the seatback enhancement

https://www.facebook.com/gary.aulfinger/videos/vb.1205452640/10211934025045075/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

 

That was my suggestion, the first time this subject came up for discussion on InsideEVs.

Unfortunately, as noted in the parent post, the seats have built-in airbags. Replacing the seats would make the car less safe, making it a non-starter for many or most.

 

Great tip! Seems simple enough. So simple it makes you wonder why chevy doesn't do it

 

I went to a local EV meetup in Baltimore this weekend and was able to sit in the seat. My car has sport seats and that's how the BOLT seats felt to me. They didn't bother me initially. Not sure how I'd feel on a long trip. The cushioning did feel lacking but the asymmetrical design didn't bother me at all.

If the 2018's try to improve the seats it would probably be a good thing.

 

I find the premier seats in my Bolt to be fine on our recent road trip. Not the best seats I have ever had. Not the worst.

Certainly improved seats wouldn't be a bad thing!

 

thanks for sharing

 

From the Edmunds review:

"The seatback frames have lost their padding. Most of the bolstering around your ribs and shoulders is simply leather-wrapped metal, so turning to look over your shoulder when backing up smarts. I guess they really want you to use the backup camera. Oh, and GM needs a new seat supplier."

 

I was both astonished and shocked to read that GM has no plans to change the front seats in the new model year. To me this is very clear evidence that GM doesn't care if the car sells well or not. To be cynical, I guess from GM's viewpoint it doesn't matter so long as they only make ~30,000 per year, since they will almost certainly sell all they can make, even with problematic front seats.

I had hoped that GM would increase production and improve the car to make it more appealing, but it seems pretty clear GM has no interest in doing that, at least not for the coming year.

 

I make no claim to be an authority on the subject; I'm just repeating what a recent Green Car Reports article said:

"2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV: minimal changes, same range and price"

* * * * *

As far as Bro1999 being a source for a rumor to the contrary: I don't want to get into mud-slinging and unprovoked personal pejoratives here on the Forum; I'd prefer to keep discussion here on a more thoughtful and civil level than all too frequently happens in comment threads to InsideEVs news articles. Let's just say that I think that person has a very firmly established reputation of almost never posting comments which are either factual or reasonable. Bias is one thing; we all have biases. But the vast majority of his posts go very, very far beyond mere bias. I think most reasonable people would agree with that assessment.

BTW -- I have no idea what you mean when you say Bro1999 is "a Bolt EV mod". Certainly he is a strong Bolt EV fan and apologist, but if he's a "mod" as in "moderator", then I'm unaware that he's a moderator on any website related to InsideEVs!

 

I have now seen from a few people online that the Bolt seats are changed for 2018. But that GM has not made announcements on this fact. Bro is not the only person I have read this from.

The most specific claim from someone was on the chevybolt.org forum. He stated that he talked to Chevy employees/engineers who were testing their vehicles.

The employees stated that the 2018s will have updated seats. But that GM will just play it off like nothing ever happened with no announcements. Considering this was a first year attempt at making a new kind of seat for Chevy, I would be surprised if there weren't tweaks for 2018 or 2019.

http://www.chevybolt.org/forum/162-chevy-bolt-ev-likes-dislikes/6506-front-seats-ouch-34.html#post257185

"I know I'm just a random person on the internet, so you can choose to believe or not....

But I live near a preferred route for Bolt engineers to road test the vehicles. I've had a couple chances to speak with them during charge stops.

One of them told me, without any doubt, that the seats are redesigned for 2018. He stated it was already a done deal. I checked his Bolt and it was still a 2017, not a pre-production 2018. If I run across a pre-prod 2018 I will adttempt to get a picture of the new seats.

This is great news for those who are interested in Bolt but could not get comfortable in the existing seats. GM will probably not make any announcement on this, for obvious reasons. We'll hear it first from reviewers and/or spy shots."

Of course, we will not know if any of this is true until we can take a look at the 2018s. They should begin heading to dealers by the end of this month.

 

I believe he means on one of the Bolt EV facebook group and maybe on one of the Bolt EV forums?

To be fair to Bro, he is a Tesla-hater. He lies about Tesla. Not much reason for him to lie about what someone told him about the Bolt. Although certainly his information could be wrong.

 

I certainly hope it's true! I find it rather frustrating that GM has a car which appears to be, overall, well-engineered; one which is truly compelling aside from a couple of rather obvious flaws... the lack of DCFC charging as standard equipment being the other. If they fix those seats, then hopefully that will go a long way towards making the car more appealing to people now driving gasmobiles!

 

Well maybe now I'm just showing my own bias, but it seems to me that he makes far more posts about Tesla -- almost entirely counter-factual and more than merely biased -- than he posts about everything else put together, including his support for GM and its cars. I do agree that there's no reason to think he's saying anything about the Bolt EV that he does not believe is true. It's just that when someone is that obviously unconcerned about the difference between truth and FUD -- FUD being a campaign of deliberate intentional disinformation, not merely misinformation -- I see no rational cause for thinking anything he posts has any factual basis.

In the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", the villagers quit believing the lying little boy even when he was telling the truth. That's a lesson that, unfortunately, some adults still have not learned.