Charging Information for Chevy Bolt
The Chevy Bolt charges through an industry standard J1772 connector. The car can charge at a maximum of 32A/240V via a third party EVSE. This allows the car to fully charge overnight.
The Bolt can be purchased with a DCFC option which will allow it to charge at CCS D.C. fast charge stations. This is only compatible with CCS stations, not CHAdeMO or Tesla Superchargers. The DCFC is not a post purchase add-on, so I would strongly recommend you purchase a Bolt with the DCFC add-on if for no other reason than resale value. Here's what the charge port of the Bolt looks like WITH and WITHOUT the DCFC option (with is the one on the left):
The Bolt also comes with a mobile EVSE that can charge at 12A/120V. The Bolt mobile EVSE can be used to charge from 240V sources with the use of external pigtail adapters.
If you taking an extended road trip with your Bolt, here's a good article full of great information about charging strategies to get you to your destination as quickly as possible.
Hill Top Reserve
By default, the Bolt will charge its battery to 100% full. This has two disadvantages. Regenerative braking won't work until the battery is slightly depleted, so your braking feel will be different and your driving won't be as efficient since the friction brakes will be used rather than recapturing braking energy into the battery. Also, repeated charging to 100% might reduce your battery capacity faster than if you had not charged to 100% every day.
I recommend that Bolt owners turn on a setting called "Hill Top Reserve". This limits the Bolt to charging the battery to 90% of capacity. This allows you to use regenerative braking right away and will likely prolong your battery life.
If you are planning a long trip, then remember the day or night before to set Hill Top Reserve off. While I am on my trip, I drive with Hill Top Reserve off, and then set it back on when I return home.
Tesla Chargers for Non Tesla Vehicles
There is another type of charger you can charge at with the right adapter.
Tesla has spent years installing and building a proprietary destination charging network at restaurants, hotels and businesses (not to be confused with their Supercharger network, which is different, and cannot currently be used by non Tesla vehicles). As of 2023, they have more than 35,000 locations that can provide (usually) free charging at a 32 amp or more charge rate. In addition, many Tesla owners will have installed a Tesla specific charger in their houses.
Non Tesla vehicles can also use these destination chargers if you have one of the following adapters (all three of these do the same thing, pick one):