We’ve been driving electric for a decade now, and the emergency gear I carry has changed over that time. Most of it I’ve never used, but it’s there if I need it.
I’ve always carried, let’s stay, “stuff” in the trunk. As a young man I drove used cars–very used cars that a bad habit of breaking down at the absolute worst time. For example, I used to carry a full tool box when I was driving an ancient Audi Fox because I needed it. I once had to screw down the top of the carburetor (yes this dates me) in the middle of a snowstorm on a lonely stretch of highway in the Texas Panhandle. Never again.
Fortunately, those days are long gone. Still, I carry what I consider essential items in our 2020 Bolt. Most of the items are common for any type of car; others are EV specific, like a portable charge cable and various charging adapters. Some I keep in the driver’s door pocket, the rest in a box in the trunk or stowed in cubbyholes under the trunk’s removable floor.
Online EV forums have many suggestions on what drivers should always have with them. (See Looking for a new emergency car kit for my new Bolt EUV!) Here is what I carry, keeping in mind that I am a nerd and some of this stuff is a holdover from the early days of EVs.
Driver’s Door Pocket or Glove Box
- LED flashlight
- Ice scraper
- Small Squeegee
- Microfiber cloth
- Charging dash card
Every driver should have a flashlight somewhere handy. LED flashlights are de riguer today because they are compact, bright, and last a long time. I also carry an ice scraper, mostly out of habit now. We seldom have frost in Bakersfield but we do encounter it on road trips into the mountains. We do use the small squeegee when there’s heavy dew on the car. The microfiber cloth is handy for wiping down the dash and mirrors. You hardly ever see dash cards these days. I occasionally use it when I am charging overnight at a hotel where there’s limited Level 2 charging. (And yes, I include my cell phone number.) The intent is to let someone know if it’s alright or not to unplug your car. Plug-in America used to offer one on their web site. It’s gone now so I’ve posted a copy to my web site: Plug-in America Dash Card.
Trunk
- 10 mm Wrench
- Li-ion jump pack
- Stadium blanket
- Space blanket
- Tire inflator kit
- Portable EVSE (granny cable or portable charge cable)
- Tesla to CCS & Tesla to J1772 adapters
- Folding shovel (entrenching tool)
There are times when electronic gremlins are at play. Things just don’t seem to be working right. The digital displays are wonky, and some features don’t work at all. This is when radical surgery is called for. You have to power down and reboot the central computer by cutting it off at the source: the 12-volt battery. You do this by disconnecting the accessory[1] 12-volt battery and to do so you typically need a 10 mm wrench—even for American cars, such as the Chevy Bolt. This usually does the trick.
Our 2017 Bolt died just a few weeks after we took delivery. It was dead as a doornail. (See Our Bolt is Back or How a 12-Volt Battery Can Kill an Electric Car.) The battery registered only 3.7 volts! That’s not anywhere close to 12 volts. Chevy never did find out what was wrong with it. They charged the battery, returned the car to us, and it worked fine for the remainder of the time we drove it. You’d think that the big traction battery would have kept the accessory battery charged. Wrong. The accessory battery is necessary to turn on the car’s computer that then energizes the contactor on the traction battery. Without the accessory battery an EV won’t go anywhere. The lesson we learned was to keep a small Lithium-ion “jumpstart” battery handy in case this ever happened again. The jumpstart battery just needs to be big enough to turn on the car’s computer via the accessory battery. The car will then take care of the rest. The EV forums are full of suggestions for inexpensive and compact jumpstart batteries.
The stadium blanket is useful to carry in the winter when you might get stranded. We’ve also found it useful for picnics or covering a cold, wet, bench on a picnic table. The space blanket fills a similar niche though it’s reserved for real emergencies.
The Chevy Bolt doesn’t carry a spare tire. Instead it uses Michelin self-sealing tires that work surprisingly well. (See Chevy Bolt Self-Sealing Tires Work But More Difficult to Repair.) Nevertheless, we drive to remote places well out of cell-phone service. If something goes wrong, it can be a long walk for help. Others have chosen to install a spare tire in the wheel well in the trunk. We haven’t gone that far, but we did add a tire inflator and sealant to our kit. (See Chevy Bolt Tire Inflator Pump and Tire Sealant – Part Numbers.)
Most Bolts have been shipped with a portable EVSE or portable charge cable (sometimes called a granny lead) buried in the wheel well where the spare tire would normally sit. Every EV should have one–even if you never plan to use it. During the early days, we invested in a powerful portable EVSE that could charge the car as fast as it could take it. (See Jesla High-Power Mobile Charge Cable (EVSE) for EVs.) While we’ve never taken the GM-issued EVSE out of its plastic bag, we did carry our Jesla portable EVSE on a recent 1,200 mile road trip and put it to use—for the first time in years. Using it overnight at friends allowed us to skip a charge stop on the next day’s drive.
I also carry two adapters for use with Tesla charging equipment. The first is a Tesla or NACS[2] to CCS to fast charge the Bolt at a Tesla Supercharger. This is a heavy-duty adapter that can carry up to 500 amps at 1,000 volts DC. Tesla has been building Supercharger stalls at a frenetic pace for years and their stations are now nearly everywhere. Even so, there are far more CCS DCFC stations suitable for the Bolt than there were just a few years ago. So it’s unlikely that I will ever need to charge at Tesla Supercharger, but if I do, I can. Having the adapter gives me peace of mind and reduces any lingering range anxiety I might have.
The second is Tesla to J1772 for use at Tesla’s Level 2 “destination chargers” at hotels for overnight charging. For many years Tesla installed destination chargers at hotels. In many locations they also installed a few J1772 EVSEs. On occasion I’ve found all the J1772s occupied and had to use one of the Tesla EVSEs to charge overnight. Having the adapter made the difference between getting a full charge overnight or having to drive to a DCFC station in the morning.
I also carry a small folding shovel or military entrenching tool. We’ve taken our Chevy Bolt places where the only other vehicles we saw were 4x4s. We’ve never used the shovel, and hope we never have too. Once we were forced to go off road around tumbleweed filled road cuts and thread our way through muddy tracks. We nearly got high-centered once on a rutted track going into the Sierra. That was a close call. For most though, the entrenching tool is a bit over-the-top.
Others have included
- 120-volt outlet tester
- High visibility vest
- Spare tire & Jack
- Compact umbrella
- Paper/Tyvek coveralls & gloves
On the chevybolt.org forum one driver noted he carries a 120-volt outlet tester. He would use this to test a 120-volt outlet before plugging in his portable charge cable. Some outlets, especially in older homes, have worn terminals or are improperly grounded. Unlike a toaster, an EVSE draws high current for a long time. Worn terminals can be a fire hazard and most EVSE’s won’t even work if there’s not a proper ground. This is not hypothetical. I once fielded a call from a Bolt owner on a road trip having trouble charging her car. She had plugged in her portable EVSE and it wouldn’t work. I told her how to troubleshoot it and sure enough she called back to say it was an ungrounded outlet. She ended up charging elsewhere.
If you’re stuck along a busy highway, a Hi-Vis vest can mean the difference between life and death. I never rode my bike in traffic without a high-visibility vest made just for cycling.
If you have a flat tire and you can’t get road service or don’t have an inflator, you’ll need a scissor jack and a spare tire. Most of us don’t carry them because they take up so much space.
If you have to crawl under the car for any reason, a Tyvek or paper coveralls will come in handy. You can strip them off and toss them when you’re done, while keeping your street clothes clean enough you can jump back into the driver’s seat without damaging the upholstery.
Check the forums for more suggestions and why the driver thinks it’s important.
[1] The 12-volt battery powers all the accessories. It was known as the “starter” battery in a gas-powered car.
[2] North American Charging Standard.
