Can a Chevy Bolt Work as Your Mobile Office? We Found Out

I’ve worked from home my entire career, but for those of you employed in a non-essential sector, the last couple months have no doubt been a significant change of pace. You may feel liberated from your commute; you may be marveling at how redundant physical offices have become. You may also be noticing something else: your home can be an awful place to work from.

The distance between your personal and professional life that you once took for no longer exists. Distractions abound. Household to-do lists weigh on you; you’re far too close to snacks and leftovers; your dogs, taking advantage of your presence, beg to go outside at five-minute intervals. And that’s before you get to the current realities of significant others on their own Zoom calls and children requiring constant attention.

At home, it’s hard to develop anything resembling a workflow. And, even if your commute stinks, there’s something to be said for novel sights, new people and fresh air. In less-extraordinary times, I escape to coffee shops. Distance, caffeine, and the odd bacon-egg-and-cheese help me focus. Putting on real pants for an outing feels productive.

But with my standard getaway closed off, I needed another way to create a quiet workspace. I had an epiphany. Why not work from the Chevy Bolt EV I was testing?

On paper, a Bolt should be an adequate mobile workplace. It provides shelter, a large reserve of electricity and wireless Internet. You can move it to whatever environment suits your creative needs and have a view to rival any corner office.

Sure, a Bolt isn’t Tom Brady’s stretched Escalade. But it is really affordable right now. Chevy’s current offer — at least in my area — offers the chance to lease a Bolt for $249 per month. Even with the down payment, the total cost averages out to $319 per month — a little more than $10 per day.

Now, that number is more than I customarily paid for food, beverages and parking while working over a typical month. But it’s also less than a dedicated desk would cost at my closest WeWork ($380 per month). And unlike the WeWork desk, a Bolt can be your means of transport when you’re not working.

To see if a Bolt could serve as a mobile office, I chose to spend the day working from alongside my neighborhood lake. The view was pleasant; parking was free; plus, it was less than a mile from my home if something went wrong (or I had to use the facilities). It sounded serene…at least, in theory, as I’d factored in neither the landscaping crews nor the resident geese.

Prep Work

I didn’t do much due to time and budget-related reasons. My main requirements for work are my hands and a computer. The one purchase I made was a power inverter — the best my Amazon points could afford — as the Bolt only has an 12-volt outlet at the front of the vehicle. With more time, I would have bought a $10 Lack side table from Ikea to rig up a de facto standing desk (a plastic storage tub I had at home worked in a pinch). Some form of cooler would have been nice, though my Miir water bottle sufficed.

Power Supply

In one sense, the electricity felt limitless. Keeping the car on (albeit without AC and infotainment) to charge my laptop and run the wireless drained almost nothing. I used up a total of seven miles of range for the day, and about six of that was from driving. The only real annoyance was having to turn the car back on every couple hours, after it shut itself down.

Where I was limited — probably for inverter-related reasons — was how much juice I could draw from the outlet. It was enough to charge devices, but not enough to operate my electric kettle to make tea or to get the heating pad I was using to treat a recent back injury up to an adequate temperature. Plan on stopping at Starbucks if you want coffee.

Internet

For this experiment, I pretended I hadn’t driven a bunch of GM test cars that all use the same default wireless password. It took more time than I’d like to admit to realize I needed to hit the OnStar button to find it. The 4G LTE signal worked decently well, for work purposes; I was able to write, surf the web and video chat, though it did cut out a few times.

Wi-Fi in a Bolt costs $20 per month for unlimited data, which seems reasonable. That said, if you can park somewhere to access a hotspot from your cable provider or elsewhere, that might be the better option. When I used the Bolt on an errand later in the week, I parked outside of a Wendy’s to hijack their superior connection (though I opted not to brave the interminable drive-through line for fries and a Frosty).

Ergonomics

The Bolt was serviceable for a mobile office, but far from ideal. The car itself is narrow and tapers toward the rear of the vehicle; you can’t fold down the seats and create an elaborate rear lounging setup. I’m 5’11”, and the car was not big enough for me to stretch horizontally across the rear seat. It was also difficult to climb in and out of the small rear hatch.

I was able (albeit just barely) to make my standing desk work in the back with the rear hatch open. But using the seats as intended proved to be the most comfortable option. With your knees slightly raised, the front passenger and rear seats offered a decent laptop resting position. And if one were to camp out in a Bolt (or, say, take a quick nap between Zoom calls), the best option would be to recline the front seats fully.

Verdict

Other EVs would have been more practical and comfortable than the Bolt as a basis for a mobile office. But other EVs would also cost a lot more. If you live in California, where could park by the beach every day and could access the HOV lanes…you could do worse than work from a Chevy Bolt.

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One of Our Favorite Cars Could Soon Gain Turbo Power

When it comes to affordable compact cars, the Mazda 3 sits near the top of our list. Stunningly stylish, delightfully comfortable and entertaining to drive, it’s nearly perfect; the only demerit of note is a stereo with a frustratingly steep learning curve.

Well, that and one other thing: a slight lack of power. The Mazda 3 may have plenty of zoom-zoom, as the company likes to say, but its naturally-aspirated 2.5-liter inline-four is somewhat lacking in vroom-vroom — especially considering both the upmarket positioning Mazda is aiming for and turbocharged competition like the Honda Civic.

That might be about to change. According to Jalopnik, the Mazda3 is set to gain a turbocharged motor for the 2021 model year — one that should significantly up its straightline cred.

According to internal dealer documents reportedly leaked to Jalopnik by a trustworthy source, the 2021 Mazda 3 will add a turbocharged engine to both its sedan and hatchback lineups. Unless the small brand is hiding some sort of teeny turbocharged motor deep in its halls (which, considering both Mazda’s comparatively limited resources and stated unhappiness with small turbo engines), that will presumably be the same 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-four found in the Mazda 6, CX-5 and CX-9.

In those vehicles, the turbo four pumps out 250 horsepower (albeit on premium gas; it’s downrated to 227 hp on 87 octane) and a beefy 310 pound-feet of torque. That’s significantly more than the Hyundai Veloster N‘s 260 pound-feet and even more than the Civic Type R‘s 295 lb-ft — both of which lie right on the edge of the power outputs that a front-wheel-drive car can handle without uncomfortable levels of torque steer. So it shouldn’t come as a shock that the same reports claims the turbo 3 will also only come with all-wheel-drive, to better control that power in all conditions.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, the dealer leak also says that this turbo engine will only come connected to a six-speed automatic transmission, not the six-speed manual offered on some Mazda 3 variants. We say not surprisingly because the AWD Mazda 3 isn’t available with a stick shift even with the less powerful engine, and the company’s lineup doesn’t pair a manual with the turbo four anywhere else, either. We say sadly because…well, a stick shift AWD turbo Mazda hatchback would pretty much be a dream car for us.

Still, Mazda’s automatic is one of the best in the game, so it shouldn’t keep the car from being fun to drive. And while it may not quite be a reborn Mazdaspeed3 of yore, a zippy near-luxury hatchback with AWD grip still sounds spectacular.

As for when we’ll see this sweet new Mazda: Jalopnik’s report didn’t cite an exact timeframe, but the “2021 model year” indication suggests it should arrive by this fall. Here’s hoping.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

The BMW 5 Series’s 2021 Facelift Avoids the Awkward Grille, Adds More Tech

When it comes to midsize luxury sedans, few pack the panache and reputation of the BMW 5 Series. It, along with the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, have been the standards by which every other car of similar size and price — the Audi A6, Cadillac CTS and Lexus GS just the most notable among many — have been judged for decades.

So when a new one rolls out — even just a mid-life facelifted version — we take notice.

The 2021 BMW 5 Series doesn’t look drastically different from its predecessor, but it’s changed enough to be distinguishable from the pre-facelift version at a glance. The headlights and twin kidney grilles have been redesigned to be more similar to the current 3 Series; thankfully, the massive grille-ification that’s affected the current 7 Series and the upcoming 4 Series doesn’t seem to have affected the 5er. Surprisingly for a midlife update, the car has grown 1.2 inches (though the wheelbase appears to remain the same), giving it a sleeker profile.

Inside, the Live Cockpit Professional digital instrument panel now comes standard, as well as a larger 12.3-inch touchscreen display for the iDrive infotainment system. Apple CarPlay, blessedly, comes standard, as do navigation and Android Auto. For those who prefer to go without leather, new perforated SensaTec leatherette brings contrasting stitching for a bit more panache (though you can get leather upholstery if you want, of course).

The biggest changes, however, come under the hood, where added electric assistance comes to both the six-cylinder 540i models and the four-cylinder plug-in hybrid 530e sedans. The 540i has been upgraded to mild hybrid status, thanks to a new 48-volt electrical system connected to a starter-generator that can supplement the 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six with up to 11 horsepower; more importantly, though, it enables a more seamless stop/start system, which can kill the engine as the car decelerates at speeds of up to 9 mph. It also enables the gas engine to be turned off while coasting at speeds from 16 to 99 mph, both in Eco Pro and Comfort modes.

The 530e and 530e xDrive PHEVs, in turn, now combine a 181-hp turbocharged inline-four with an electric motor that’s integrated into the eight-speed automatic. A new feature called XtraBoost enables the electric motor to punch up an extra 40 hp above its sustained max of 107 hp for up to 10 seconds; so implemented, the 530e can summon up 288 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque for that ten-Mississippi burst.

In addition to the four-cylinder plug-in hybrid 530e and six-cylinder 540i, both of which come in rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive forms, the 2021 5 Series also offers a twin-turbo V8-powred M550i, which only comes in AWD xDrive form. (We’ll have to wait for another day for updates to the M5.) Sadly, we still don’t get many of the versions available in other markets, like the 5 Series Touring station wagon body style or the 340-hp 540d turbodiesel inline-six version. But short of starting a revolution in favor of getting Americans to love diesel-powered station wagons, we’ll just have to be happy with what we have.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

Toyota’s Toughest Truck Could Turn Into a Ford Raptor Rival, Thanks to the Next Land Cruiser

The Tundra may be a capable beast and the Tacoma renowned for its durability, but when it comes to Toyota’s toughest pickup, there’s no disputing which truck gets the honor: the HiLux. The midsized rig has been kicking ass and taking names all around the world for more than 50 years; while it was replaced by the Taco here in the U.S. back in 1995, elsewhere on Earth, its rugged, simple nature and nigh-on indestructible build quality means it serves as the de facto default vehicle for people in tough trades and lands with rough roads — or no roads at all.

And thanks to the next-generation Land Cruiser, it could even turn into a rival for the Ford Ranger Raptor.

That’s the word from Australia’s CarsGuide, at least. (And the Aussies know their HiLuxes and Land Cruisers.) According to CarsGuide, Toyota has at least kicked around the idea of a GR HiLux — a high-performance off-road version of the truck — even going so far as to trademark the name Down Under.

“we are not ruling truly out any model from GR modification,” a Toyota spokesperson said, according to CarsGuide. “We race the HiLux in Dakar, so it’s definitely not out of the question that we could see a vehicle like that some time in the future.”

Toyota, though, has also said such a truck would require a powerful diesel engine that could fit under the truck’s hood. Right now, no such engine exists.

But the upcoming 300-Series Land Cruiser is expected to ditch its existing gas and turbodiesel V8s for turbocharged V6, and according to CarsGuide‘s sources, that SUV’s new six-pot turbodiesel is expected to make its way into the HiLux. Assuming it cranks out at least as much power as the existing Land Cruiser‘s oil-burning V8 (which spits out 268 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque), it should be grunty enough to blow away the Ranger Raptor; that truck only comes with a turbodiesel inline-four, after all, and makes 210 hp and 370 lb-ft.

Of course, even if the Toyota GR HiLux does come to pass, will we ever see this badass Toyota here in the United States? With the HiLux gone from our shoresfor a quarter-century, the odds would be slim even if Toyota knew there was a niche for a diesel-powered high-performance midsize pickup here. Ford doesn’t even bother bringing the Ranger Raptor here, after all. Still, never say never; at the very least, maybe we’ll get lucky and see Toyota slot some go-fast off-road bits onto the next Tacoma.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.