1 year with a Volt

Chevy Electric Car Forum Volt
#1

Its been 1 year and the data is in,
13,232 total miles.
11,646 are EV miles. That will calculate to 283 MPG (47 gallons of gas)
Best miles per tank = 3993.94
Best EV miles in 1 day = 90.28
Best miles without any gas =1202.9
I’ve consumed
3,300kWh of power @ 7 cents/kWh = $231
47 gallons of gas @$4.00/gal = $188
$419 to go 13,232 miles = 3 pennies/mile.

We use the Volt for everything,
1 - 900 mile road trip
1 - 160 miles road trip
several 100 mile road trips.
Everyday to work.
I only charge at home

To all you Nay sayers.
The Volt is the most economical, most versatile, no limiting car ever made.

A dedicated Meter started at zero 1 year ago

#2

Awesome to see the numbers out there. I just have to convince my wife to overlook the “looks” of the car… ha ha ha

#3

Just look at the Prius and then look at the Leaf, then take another look at the Volt - Problem solved.

Personally I think the Volt looks great from the front, pretty good from the side, so so from the back.

What it can do, is what is really attractive. Today is 7/16/14 and I have not bought gas since November 2013. 7 months and 6,800 miles on the same tank of gas. My cost is 2 pennies per mile on electric. When I buy a coffee refill at work for $1 I realize it costs me only 70 cents to commute my 36 miles (less than a cheap coffee) how painless is that? I’m not sure how everyone is not tired of the weekly extortion of $50-$80 they have to spend on gas. “Have to” not want to. I got tired of it. The Volt is the most misunderstood Vehicle of all time. GM thought they had a game changer when they came out with the Volt. The problem is they over estimated the intelligence of the general population. Go over to GM-Volt forum and see how many owners love their car. Then look at voltstats.net and see real world performance collected by OnStar. Prepare to be blown away

#4

When someone is running on the same tank of gas for 9 months is there any concern of the gas going bad? Just wondering…

#5

That is a great question and is something that the Volt engineers designed into the Volt for you. Its called "Fuel Maintenance Mode"
Putting Thought into Putting Gas in the Chevy Volt | PluginCars.com

On top of the tank being pressurized (to preserve fuel life). The Volt keeps track of the age of the fuel and if no fuel has been added in about one year it will display a prompt that it wants to burn off some of the fuel so you can add enough fresh fuel to get the average age of the fuel to an acceptable range. This would be done in normal driving and is automatic. If you could go a year without adding fuel that would truly be a good thing. There is another automatic mode called EMM (Engine Maintenance Mode) that will happen after 6 weeks of no engine use (I have seen this several times). The engine will come on and burn 1/10th of a gallon just to keep the engine fresh and the oil circulating. You really just need to get in and drive, the car will do the rest.

Oil changes at up to 2 years apart.

Besides tire rotation every 7500 miles the manual requires very little maintenance.

Air Filter and trans fluid every 45K is recommended
Spark plugs at 97K
Brake fluid and coolant system flush at 150K

Fairly maintenance free car.

This is me

Volt Stats: Details for Volt #2013-20901 (Jon’s Volt )

#6

Thanks for the info, definitely interesting way of handling a potential problem

#7

[quote=Jljeeper;21126]Just look at the Prius and then look at the Leaf, then take another look at the Volt - Problem solved.

Personally I think the Volt looks great from the front, pretty good from the side, so so from the back.

What it can do, is what is really attractive. Today is 7/16/14 and I have not bought gas since November 2013. 7 months and 6,800 miles on the same tank of gas. My cost is 2 pennies per mile on electric. When I buy a coffee refill at work for $1 I realize it costs me only 70 cents to commute my 36 miles (less than a cheap coffee) how painless is that? I’m not sure how everyone is not tired of the weekly extortion of $50-$80 they have to spend on gas. “Have to” not want to. I got tired of it. The Volt is the most misunderstood Vehicle of all time. GM thought they had a game changer when they came out with the Volt. The problem is they over estimated the intelligence of the general population. Go over to GM-Volt forum and see how many owners love their car. Then look at voltstats.net and see real world performance collected by OnStar. Prepare to be blown away[/quote]

You don’t have to convince me, I like the look of them, and I honestly think she is coming around to the looks of it. Especially compared to the Leaf and the Prius.

I think they are amazing and for the driving that we do, we could easily not fill up more than once every month or 2.

#8

Today Sept. 1st 2014
The last time I purchased gas was December 2013. 8,013 miles ago. So many people get hung up on the 40 mile battery range and miss the entire point. If you could just commute or most of your commute was within the 40 miles it adds up to a huge savings very quickly. I used 5 gallons to go 8000 miles and this pushed my lifetime average to over 400 mpg (20,000 miles).

#9

Do you worry about the gas in the tank going stale?

#10

No

The Volt takes care of that. The Volt keeps track of the age of the fuel and adjusts the age as new fuel is added. Any fuel that hasn’t been diluted with new fuel in a years time 50 % of the fuel will be burned and you will have to add fresh fuel to reset to tables. You are notified of this process and it is all automatic. It’s kind of a good problem to have. I won’t get to that point since I have a several hundred mile trip planned in a couple weeks.

The Volt has a hi pressure fuel tank that helps preserve the fuel. You actually have to wait for depressurization to finish before the Volt will let you remove the gas cap.

#11

Interesting.

Tell us about air conditioning.

#12

[quote=OLD HOUSEBOATER;21628]Interesting.

Tell us about air conditioning.[/quote]
Yes The volt comes stock with air conditioning.

People still don’t understand the Volt. I told a coworker I was driving to Portland next week (140 miles) he asked how I was going to do that? Am I gonna stop and charge every 40-50 miles? I rolled my eyes and said why would I do that? I’m driving straight through like every normal person does.

Update 9/18/14
Lifetime 415 MPG at 21K miles
Last gas purchased was 12/2013 some 8,400 miles ago.

Volt Stats: Details for Volt #2013-20901 (Jon’s Volt )

Volt Stats: Details for Volt #2013-20901 (Jon’s Volt )

Try to get that in a Toyota.

#13

The Volt is definitely misunderstood. When I mentioned my intent to buy one, I was usually asked if I wasn’t concerned about running out of power.
Now that I actually own one, I have no regrets whatsoever. The car has always made a lot of sense to me, a basically electric vehicle without the concerns of range. One has only “to think outside the box” to realize what a huge advantage this is.

What I didn’t expect was the degree of luxury and trim. Coming from a Chrysler 300 SRT, I was resigning myself to a big drop-off in luxury and features. I have been pleasantly surprised in this area. The car has most of the luxury items the 300 had, and the technology package is better. (Sorry Chrysler owners but MyLink is better than Uconnect). The ride is exactly the same which was the biggest surprise of all to me. The only features that I’ve lost are size, and my sun roof. (But I think I’ve gained a bit in gas mileage). :wink:

Now I did buy a fully-loaded Volt, I admit that, but with the $8500 rebate here in Ontario, it wasn’t such a bad hit. The bottom line is that I thought I would really miss my 300, and I don’t at all. I’m a proud and happy owner of a Chevy Volt.

#14

Jack

I’m a 34 year GM retiree, you made my Day!

Rodney

#15

I try to “tells it like it is.” This is not to put down the Chrysler 300 SRT. It’s a great car (my favorite to date and I’ve owned Maximas, Acuras, and Camrys). But right now I’m thinking that the Volt has the potential to unseat the 300 as my favorite all time.