Keith Tanner said:Victory!
With such a close margin, you'll be very aware of the changes in range with the weather. That'll be interesting.
Yeah and the winter tires aren't helping.
This morning it was -2C and the engine ran 3 or 4 times to heat the cabin. At 3C this afternoon, no engine use at all. That's not a big swing.
In reply to NGTD :
Thanks, 16' is what I'm thinking of doing. It looks like a lift might work in there.
Hasbro (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to NGTD :
Thanks, 16' is what I'm thinking of doing. It looks like a lift might work in there.
A lift would be tight, I'd need more height.
NGTD said:This morning it was -2C and the engine ran 3 or 4 times to heat the cabin. At 3C this afternoon, no engine use at all. That's not a big swing.
There's a setting for the outside temperature threshold below which the engine will run to heat the car. Sounds like yours is set to 0C. You can probably set it lower if you want; mine is set to 15F.
Keith Tanner said:
One thing I've always wondered about the PHEVs is their highway manners. The ICE is sized with the expectation that it will have the battery to help out (or is it the other way around?). So how does it feel when the battery is no longer much help and you're still pounding along the 401 at triple digits?
Did a 350 km, mostly HWY run to pick up the kids yesterday. Squeezed 79 km out of it in EV mode. The remaining was in hybrid mode.
I noticed no difference in performance running at 115km/hr. The gas engine was still helped out by the electric going up hills etc. Acceleration is still better than my 2.5L VW Rabbit and I averaged 54.7 mpg (US) on the trip. My Rabbit averages about 26.6 mpg(US) in the winter, so I still doubled that and a bit. The only difference seemed to be that the gas engine was the primary mover and the electric kicked into help. I am assuming that the retained capacity in the batteries after it kicks out of EV mode, plus some charging is used to help out the gas engine.
I'm still impressed.
So, I had a 400 km run where I never managed to get a full charge. That included:
- son driving around town for about 2 hours for practice
- run to drop of kids to ex (mostly highway)
- run to work this morning (mostly highway and mostly electric)
The result was about 56 mpg (US) on gas and 46 mpg (US) on the gas/electric equivalent scale.
Rollin up to about 3000 km so far, in almost 3 weeks. I've only filled up twice in 3 weeks and I used to fill up twice a week with the VW.
Car continues to impress - 2 tanks have averaged 3.19L/100 km but the one had the long highway run on straight hybrid mode. My commuting days I've been running about 2L/100km which translates to 118 mpg (usg).
With a long commute, not having to fill up a few times a week really does save some time and hassle! It doesn't sound like much, but I found it to be a big deal when I could go all week without having to fill up.
You don't realize how generally unpleasant fuel stops are until you stop doing them :)
Coming up on a month of ownership. I love this thing.
Interesting developments:
Keith Tanner said:You don't realize how generally unpleasant fuel stops are until you stop doing them :)
Right?! I leave my truck at home and take the LEAF as much as possible, even for some tasks the truck would really be better for. It's not that I can't afford the $5 in fuel the truck needs for a quick errand, it's that I hate having to do a second errand to get gas.
Coming up on 3 months of ownership. I've put over 13,000 km on it.
I've had a few "Shift to Park" messages lately, so a shifter replacement may be in my future. I'll take it to the dealer first but the warranty has expired so we'll see what they respond with.
This has improved things!
Now every journey will begin with a full load of electrons! Nice. Any difficulty in the installation? It looks like you might have had to add a dedicated panel.
Did you mount the charger inside for more flexibility - ie, you can park inside the garage as well?
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I needed power in the garage anyway, so I had a local electrician run a 240V panel out there. The garage has had no power in the 2 years that I owned the house. I've had to run everything off extension cords.
Now I can finish wiring the garage 120V and put a 240V plug in for the welder!!
I did mount the charger inside and then drilled a hole to run the cord outside. So yes I can also park inside.
My FLO charger is programmed for no charging between 0700 and 1900 weekdays to avoid peak rates and I guess it also protects me from the remote possibility that someone try's to steal a charge. I can override that using the app, as the unit is connected to the internet.
Haven't been here much to update, but this happened last week!!
50 kms in 9.5 months. I have doubled what the PO did in 3 years in less than 1 year.
I remain quite happy with my Volt.
Now that you've been through all the major seasons...how's the summer vs winter experience? How different is your commute with the hot vs cold weather?
In reply to NGTD :
I grew up in Fenelon Falls, now reside in Orillia.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Completely different actually. Summer allows for plenty of range and absolutely no gas use while commuting. AC isn't hard on the battery,
Winter - the car cycles the engine regardless, however to put it in perspective, I might use 2-3L a day vs the 12L or so the Rabbit used. I also try to avoid using the heat when I can, I just really try to avoid using much gas. It's like a game.
You find certain points where the gas is more efficient. For commuting the best range vs speed balance is 93 km/h. Slower doesn't gain much but bumping it even to 95 km/h starts to diminish the range. I'd love to see this with just a bit more range but that would steel space.
Putting on the snows definitely hurts the range too vs. the Michelin LRR tires on it and gives significantly more road noise. Car is very capable in the snow with decent winter tires.
My commute in the winter uses up almost all my range vs. in the summer I have arrived at work with almost 40 km of range left. The 120V charger that I use at work typically will not get the car all the way back to full charge, if i deplete most of the battery. It takes almost 13hrs to do that. So I know that if I run the battery down, I am almost always going to run in Hybrid mode on the way home.
Love the car - even more than I thought I would!!
warpedredneck said:In reply to NGTD :
I grew up in Fenelon Falls, now reside in Orillia.
Cool - I've only been in Fenelon for about 2 years.
NGTD said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
The 120V charger that I use at work typically will not get the car all the way back to full charge, if i deplete most of the battery. It takes almost 13hrs to do that.
Does the Gen 2 have the 8A/12A option in the charging menu? My Gen 1 will only charge at 8A on 120V by default unless I manually bump it up to 12A.
obsolete said:NGTD said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
The 120V charger that I use at work typically will not get the car all the way back to full charge, if i deplete most of the battery. It takes almost 13hrs to do that.
Does the Gen 2 have the 8A/12A option in the charging menu? My Gen 1 will only charge at 8A on 120V by default unless I manually bump it up to 12A.
Yes - Gen 2 has the 8A/12A option, but it defaults to 8A. I have forgotten to move it to 12A only once.
It's pathetically slow at 8A.
Just passed 1 year of ownership - 63.513 kms (39,465 miles), averaging 105 mpg (USG).
It's a workhorse - daily commute, parts runs etc. (Gotta love hatchbacks).
The car has been everything I thought it would be and more. I've also learned how to get the most of it.
The day I bought it.
Utility - those are 4 265/70R17 Dunlops for the 4Runner!! Room to spare.
You can run on straight EV at -5C by using just the seat heater and steering wheel heater. You have to open the window just a bit to prevent fogging.
What most cars look like in the winter up here :-(
Wow, it's been a while since I popped in here.
I am at 2 years ownership and I'm up over 160k kms. So far, so good (knock on wood). I have hit the end of the Voltec powertrain warranty, so I'm on my own now.
I've lost about 0.5 kwh on useable capacity but the Volt just keeps on delivering. I've learned to use the ICE on colder mornings to get the entire car warmed up. Seems to be easier on the battery. My lifetime average is still almost 100 mpg (USG).
Unfortunately on the last work day before Christmas a Deer decided to try to occupy the same space as the Volt, at the same time. Got me just in front of the driver's door. Smoked the mirror and dented every body panel on the left side of the car. It's currently in the body shop, so the 4Runner is doing commute duty at it's less than 20 mpg!
Hmm, I've been looking into getting a Bolt, but reading thru your thread today has made me do a bit of thinking. Bummer about the derr encounter!
My daily commute just cut in half to 40mi, so for weekday use my gas usage would be zero. Doing a quick look, it seems like they price similar to or less than a Bolt for the 2017-19 range, and eligible for the $4k US tax credit.
My wife just found a silver one with this cool interior:
Time for a dive down the rabbit hole...
Following some Volt groups you'll want to learn about the 'shift to park' and Battery-ECM (BECM) issues that have been coming up with the Gen2 cars.
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