Gen 1 GM Volt Plug-In Hybrid (2011-2015)

Herm · Jun 19, 2012

A CUV will have much higher drag than a Volt so you will need the V8 range extender GM is talking about for the new Volt/ELR

Seriously, that might be a good justification for the 2.0L Turbo that is rumored for the next Voltec upgrade.

scottf200 · Jun 20, 2012

50 Million EV miles (80 total) @ http://www.chevrolet.com/volt-electric-car/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not bad for a "hybrid"

DANandNAN · Jun 20, 2012

Herm said:
TomT said:

A question for the Voltafiles: Does the Volt have an indicator, as does the Leaf , that shows the deterioration of the battery pack capacity?

Click to expand...

No it does not..

Well, not a meter, but you do get a readout of how much power was used on a trip. Most owners are right around 10.1 available. No one has reported a capacity loss on the forum. Obviously that's to be expected because of the TMS and GM's latest unconfirmed testing said packs up North could last 16 years IIRC.

scottf200 · Jun 20, 2012

DANandNAN said:
Herm said:

TomT said:

A question for the Voltafiles: Does the Volt have an indicator, as does the Leaf , that shows the deterioration of the battery pack capacity?

Click to expand...

No it does not..

Click to expand...

Well, not a meter, but you do get a readout of how much power was used on a trip. Most owners are right around 10.1 available. No one has reported a capacity loss on the forum. Obviously that's to be expected because of the TMS and GM's latest unconfirmed testing said packs up North could last 16 years IIRC.

I've had my Volt for over 15 months and starting my 2nd summer with it. It was mid 90's today.

A couple days ago in the low 90's I got my best EV mileage at just over 52 miles. I've gotten a few updates over the last 15 months when I've done tire rotations and the battery tunnel enh. It almost seems like my EV mileage has gone up and certainly have not scene it decrease.

Herm · Jun 20, 2012

DANandNAN said:
Well, not a meter, but you do get a readout of how much power was used on a trip. Most owners are right around 10.1 available.

GM said they would replenish that usable energy level from the unused margins as the battery ages

edatoakrun · Jun 20, 2012

scottf200 said:
...A couple days ago in the low 90's I got my best EV mileage at just over 52 miles...

Coincidentally, "A couple days ago in the low 90's I got my best EV mileage", also.

My LEAF went almost 113 miles, on a single charge, on a route that included about 6,000 ft. of total ascent, and the same total descent.

scottf200 · Jun 22, 2012

Posting below because questions about the Volt's battery came up in another thread in the past day. I had some post on gm-volt in the past couple days about this responding to a owner. SH and his DashDAQ always has good and qualitifed data.
Re: Volt, TMS, and battery temp
From this article:
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2011-chevrolet-volt-full-test-road-test

... requires its own coolant circuit in order to heat or cool the 288 cells to keep them in the optimal temperature range (32° to 90°F).

SAE article:

Temperature extremes can diminish a battery’s efficiency and rapidly accelerate battery aging, noted Frank Weber, Volt’s enthusiastic and laser-focused Global Chief Engineer who departed the program last year for Opel.

“For example, the delta between 70°F (21°C) and 90°F (32°C) can be critical to battery life,” he asserted. The battery is designed to work while plugged in, at temperatures from -13°F (-25°C) to +122°F (+50°C). The permitted temperature gradient within a battery cell, and from cell to cell, is 5 to 10 K.

A 50:50 glycol mixture is actively circulated through 144 metal “fins” between each of the Volt’s 288 cells. The fins are 1-mm-thick (0.04-in) stamped aluminum plates that conduct heat. The Volt’s pack has five thermal management circuits to handle the multiple subsystems. The system uses multiple electric coolant pumps (12- and 50-W) supplied by Buehler Motor of Germany. The pumps feature brushless dc motors and integrated electronics, and are designed to run extremely quietly, explained Robert Riedford, President of Buehler Motor Inc.

And a very interesting post in the past few days from SH on gm-volt

This morning I drove rather aggressively, and so I was showing 2.4kWh used for my 10.1 mile commute and a battery temp of 82F (outside gauge said 83F) when I parked. When I got in the car after nine hours of high temps increasing to triple digits (car said 106F when I finally started it,) it showed a battery temp of 90F; I'm not positive if the TMS hit the battery - if so it didn't use much power (there's a 1-200 Wh discrepancy with some of the numbers that could be TMS activity,) and the 16 degree delta could be the result of thermal mass and insulation.

The remote start hit the fan hard pretty quickly - for the majority of it the remote start was drawing around 5 kW while it ran, with momentary drops to 2.8/3.0 and an instantaneous peak of 5.4 kW. I could also hear the radiator fan running.

It seemed to prioritize the cabin - the battery didn't change from 90 for the first few minutes - but by the end of the ten minutes the battery showed 84F, clearly showing the battery was being cooled effectively. From the changes to the "battery remaining" calculation off of the reported SoC in the DashDAQ, the remote start used ~650Wh - but when I started the car, is showed 3.2 kWh used (the discrepancy I mentioned; the SoC often has a slight mismatch to the overall use for some reason - it always starts showing 10.2-10.4, but it;ll show zero when the engine kicks on and the car will say 9.9 used.)

When I turned it on, the car was soon hitting the same 5kW in Park; by the end of my drive home even though the fan was at the same speed and the air blowing cold, the draw was down to around 2kW (colder recycled air means less work for the compressor causing the reduced draw?) and the battery average temp was down to 75F.

scottf200 · Jun 23, 2012

scottf200 said:
50 Million EV miles (80 total) @ http://www.chevrolet.com/volt-electric-car/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Not bad for a "hybrid"

This is all (most) Volts:

.
.
.
This is from ~10% of Volts on voltstats.net:
Dramatic upswing in progress!!

Blue is 2012 (as of June 23 that is why it is shorter)
Green is 2011

Herm · Jun 24, 2012

Thanks Scott, nice pure data.. what does "EV MPVDD" and "MPVDD" stand for?.. sorry if it was posted previously.

LTLFTcomposite · Jun 24, 2012

Local news article, generally positive with a few stupid comments thrown in for good measure. Little by little awareness builds.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-06-22/news/fl-chevy-volt-vasquez-20120622_1_electric-cars-chevy-volt-chevrolet-volt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

scottf200 · Jun 24, 2012

Herm said:
Thanks Scott, nice pure data.. what does "EV MPVDD" and "MPVDD" stand for?.. sorry if it was posted previously.

No problem. "EV MPVDD" = EV Miles Per Vehicle-Driven-Day

GRA · Jun 24, 2012

LTLFTcomposite said:
Local news article, generally positive with a few stupid comments thrown in for good measure. Little by little awareness builds.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-06-22/news/fl-chevy-volt-vasquez-20120622_1_electric-cars-chevy-volt-chevrolet-volt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Which comments do you consider stupid? I read it, and there was nothing there that was a glaring error. It seemed quite factual, if a bit cutesy.

scottf200 · Jul 3, 2012

How the Chevy Volt Became a BMW
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11451833/1/how-the-chevy-volt-became-a-bmw.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BMW as a brand started becoming an "in" car 30 years ago and has continued to make progress with only a couple of minor hiccups along the way. In terms of overall prestige and respect, very few -- if any -- car companies today command the admiration of BMW, and for good reason.
<snip>
After almost three years of development, the GM team showed the production version of the Chevy Volt on Sept. 16, 2008 -- before the bailout and the 2009 bankruptcy. Two years of durability testing and preparing the factory in Detroit followed, and when the production car was finally put into the hands of experienced automotive journalists in October 2010
<snip>
On April 11, 2011, the automotive press reported that the Chevy Volt project manager, Frank Weber, had left GM in favor of moving to Munich and become head of BMW's efforts to match the engineering of the Chevy Volt. If you search YouTube, you will find a very long list of videos of Frank Weber describing the details of, and singing the praises of, the Chevy Volt. That trail stops in early 2011. I can't find a single video of Frank Weber following BMW's high-profile hire of him April 11, 2011.
<snip>

scottf200 · Jul 9, 2012

GRA said:
Herm said:

Regarding using Mountain Mode from Tahoe to Sacramento.. just flip the switch and turn MM on as you leave your house, all it does is reserve a bit more energy in the battery... on a long distance trip the extra drop or two of gasoline you will use is inconsequential.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I know, I was more interested in whether the ICE can maintain freeway speed up the hill by itself (I'd think not), and if not, how far you could go in the respective modes before the battery power ran out and you were stuck in the truck lane getting your power from the ICE only.

Via DB and a FB post:

I drove the Volt from Phoenix to LA this weekend, and it performed admirably.

I drove like a bat out of hell and still got 36 mpg over 900 miles.

What was most impressive was the long mountain climb on I-10 East out of Palm Springs over the Continental Divide. This is one of the longest and toughest climbs in the country. I was climbing at speeds as high as 75 and 80 mph, keeping up with the super-size pickups. If the Volt can climb this mountain, it can climb just about anything.

scottf200 · Jul 10, 2012

Really a cool thread/post by gm-volt's wizkid057 (** not still some of it is in-progrss **)

Measured-power-usage-of-various-items-and-est-d-impact-on-range
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?15057-Measured-power-usage-of-various-items-and-est-d-impact-on-range" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

GRA · Jul 10, 2012

scottf200 said:
GRA said:

Herm said:

Regarding using Mountain Mode from Tahoe to Sacramento.. just flip the switch and turn MM on as you leave your house, all it does is reserve a bit more energy in the battery... on a long distance trip the extra drop or two of gasoline you will use is inconsequential.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I know, I was more interested in whether the ICE can maintain freeway speed up the hill by itself (I'd think not), and if not, how far you could go in the respective modes before the battery power ran out and you were stuck in the truck lane getting your power from the ICE only.

Click to expand...

Via DB and a FB post:

I drove the Volt from Phoenix to LA this weekend, and it performed admirably.

I drove like a bat out of hell and still got 36 mpg over 900 miles.

What was most impressive was the long mountain climb on I-10 East out of Palm Springs over the Continental Divide. This is one of the longest and toughest climbs in the country. I was climbing at speeds as high as 75 and 80 mph, keeping up with the super-size pickups. If the Volt can climb this mountain, it can climb just about anything.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that, although that climb is hardly the longest and toughest or anywhere close, and it certainly doesn't cross the Continental Divide. I plugged Palm Springs-Phoenix into Google maps and then GPS Visualizer; peak elevation is only 1,719 feet, minimum -36 ft. for a max. climb of just 1,755 ft. Compare that to Sacramento to Truckee, 20 ft. to 7,243 ft. (Donner Summit) in 90 miles, or Sac-SLT, 20'-7,388' in just over 90 miles. Oakdale to Lee Vining is 158'-9,946' in 120 miles. And crossing the real Continental Divide on I-70, say Grand Junction to Denver is probably longest of all; 4,593'-12,061' in about 180 miles.

Stoaty · Jul 10, 2012

"Don’t Like Your New Chevrolet Volt? Just Return it. Chevrolet Offers 60 Day Returns"

http://insideevs.com/dont-like-your-new-chevrolet-volt-just-return-it-chevrolet-offers-60-day-returns/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Now that's some good marketing!

garygid · Jul 16, 2012

Is there a low-end Volt available now at (some) dealers, that
sells for around $33k instead of the the higher-end "$43k" Volt?

Is it a new "model", or stripped of features, or what?

scottf200 · Jul 16, 2012

garygid said:
Is there a low-end Volt available now at (some) dealers, that sells for around $33k instead of the the higher-end "$43k" Volt? Is it a new "model", or stripped of features, or what?

There is no low-end Volt or new model. http://www.gm-volt.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and various news articles would have been written on it. It would have been easy to find if it were true. I'm sure it is just some used Volt without the $7500 credit.

garygid · Jul 17, 2012

Apparently GM is now offering a $5050 factory rebate,
presumably to boost sales as many Volts arrive at dealers.

Gen 1 GM Volt Plug-In Hybrid (2011-2015)

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!