First road trip with the Chevy Volt
Seems that every time a journalist drives an EV they think "Let's go on a road trip". That makes about as much sense as getting a super car and thinking "Let's go to Home Depot and get some lumber". :-) Both might be able to do those things but that's really not what they are for. They are not reviewing what the car will really be used for. But I digress.
The Volt can do long trips using the backup generator. In the Volt the main electric motor can put out 149 hp where the generator can only put out 80 hp. In other words when operating on gas only there is only half as much horsepower available. Around town and at low speeds this is no biggie. But at freeway speeds, especially climbing mountains at freeway speeds, 80hp simply doesn't cut it. This is where "mountain mode" comes it. That mode holds some electric energy in reserve for when more than 80 HP is needed. We live in the Appalachian mountains so mountain mode is definitely needed.
For thanksgiving we went to visit relatives. They were interested in seeing the car and we needed to bring a bulky item that fit in the Volt's hatch but not in our sedan's trunk. We thought "why not take the Volt". It's a used car and we had only put on a couple miles under gas power. With mountain mode set instead of our usual sport mode off we went. Didn't take long before the gas generator was running. The car cruised well at freeway speeds. But climbing hills and accelerating did seem very sluggish. I had to really push down hard on the accelerator to make it go. Wasn't until the drive back where I was able to use cruise control that I realized the car had no problem keeping up it's speed. Even up hills. And I remembered that I normally drive in sport mode. Perhaps more of the sluggish feel was due to mountain mode having the throttle response of normal mode. Seems I need a sport mountain mode. Anyway.
Our drive to our hosts house was about 120 miles away. About 60 miles from home there was a free charging station. I needed to get a walk in (for exercise) some time that night so we figured we'd plug in the car there and try out charging on a trip. The journalists write about this like it's something we EV drivers do all the time. But we've owned the car for months and this is only the 2nd time it was plugged in anywhere but my house (first time was just testing out charging not at home for fun). The charge station was in a small town about 5 miles from the freeway. It can only charge one car at a time. So if someone is using it then your out of luck. But no one was. We went to plug in and found the chord REALLY short. But managed to park close enough to plug it in. Later we realized it was a retractable chord and it could be pulled out father. Doh. With the car plugged in we went for our walk.
About 45 min later we came back and headed on our way. Based on the gessometer (battery range gauge) I looked like we charged just about enough to cover the 10 mile detour to get there (5 there and 5 back). Charging on a trip to me seems ridiculous if the car has a back up generator in it. When we were nearing our destination we turned mountain mode off to get more miles on electricity before for arriving. We didn't time it too right and ended up with 3 or more miles left. oh well.
At my brothers house we plugged in. Only 110V though. The next morning I needed to run 70 miles to the airport (35 there and back). We got in late and I was leaving at 6am. Car wasn't completely charged. But most of that drive was done on electric but the gas engine generator ran for a portion of the trip. While waiting to pick up at the airport I notice I've went 154.6 miles only using 2.5 gallons. Which is an average of 60.3 MPG. Not too bad I'm thinking.
The next afternoon we went to the stores in it. Traffic was crazy and there was lots of stop and go. This is where an EV is at home and it makes the traffic more pleasant. My sister in-law, speaking of driving her EV, said it's "easier not to road rage when driving a cloud". I agree.
The next day we drive home. Another 120 or so miles. No stopping off to get a charge as that seemed silly and I have things to do. This time the trip is done none stop like I normally do. We drive the 125 miles using 3 gallons or 42mpg. Humm. Not so good. And if I subtract the miles driven on electric it's calculates to 32 mpg using the gas generator. My regular car can do that. And further proves the longer the trip the less beneficial an EV/Hybrid is going to be. They really are best used as city cars. But hey it could do trips. It could have driven across the whole USA if I wanted on gas. It's not a bad deal. But the next trip I took my BMW. It's more comfortable and the gas mileage was not that different as on that trip there was no time for plugging in.
The Volt can do long trips using the backup generator. In the Volt the main electric motor can put out 149 hp where the generator can only put out 80 hp. In other words when operating on gas only there is only half as much horsepower available. Around town and at low speeds this is no biggie. But at freeway speeds, especially climbing mountains at freeway speeds, 80hp simply doesn't cut it. This is where "mountain mode" comes it. That mode holds some electric energy in reserve for when more than 80 HP is needed. We live in the Appalachian mountains so mountain mode is definitely needed.
For thanksgiving we went to visit relatives. They were interested in seeing the car and we needed to bring a bulky item that fit in the Volt's hatch but not in our sedan's trunk. We thought "why not take the Volt". It's a used car and we had only put on a couple miles under gas power. With mountain mode set instead of our usual sport mode off we went. Didn't take long before the gas generator was running. The car cruised well at freeway speeds. But climbing hills and accelerating did seem very sluggish. I had to really push down hard on the accelerator to make it go. Wasn't until the drive back where I was able to use cruise control that I realized the car had no problem keeping up it's speed. Even up hills. And I remembered that I normally drive in sport mode. Perhaps more of the sluggish feel was due to mountain mode having the throttle response of normal mode. Seems I need a sport mountain mode. Anyway.
Our drive to our hosts house was about 120 miles away. About 60 miles from home there was a free charging station. I needed to get a walk in (for exercise) some time that night so we figured we'd plug in the car there and try out charging on a trip. The journalists write about this like it's something we EV drivers do all the time. But we've owned the car for months and this is only the 2nd time it was plugged in anywhere but my house (first time was just testing out charging not at home for fun). The charge station was in a small town about 5 miles from the freeway. It can only charge one car at a time. So if someone is using it then your out of luck. But no one was. We went to plug in and found the chord REALLY short. But managed to park close enough to plug it in. Later we realized it was a retractable chord and it could be pulled out father. Doh. With the car plugged in we went for our walk.
About 45 min later we came back and headed on our way. Based on the gessometer (battery range gauge) I looked like we charged just about enough to cover the 10 mile detour to get there (5 there and 5 back). Charging on a trip to me seems ridiculous if the car has a back up generator in it. When we were nearing our destination we turned mountain mode off to get more miles on electricity before for arriving. We didn't time it too right and ended up with 3 or more miles left. oh well.
At my brothers house we plugged in. Only 110V though. The next morning I needed to run 70 miles to the airport (35 there and back). We got in late and I was leaving at 6am. Car wasn't completely charged. But most of that drive was done on electric but the gas engine generator ran for a portion of the trip. While waiting to pick up at the airport I notice I've went 154.6 miles only using 2.5 gallons. Which is an average of 60.3 MPG. Not too bad I'm thinking.
The next afternoon we went to the stores in it. Traffic was crazy and there was lots of stop and go. This is where an EV is at home and it makes the traffic more pleasant. My sister in-law, speaking of driving her EV, said it's "easier not to road rage when driving a cloud". I agree.
The next day we drive home. Another 120 or so miles. No stopping off to get a charge as that seemed silly and I have things to do. This time the trip is done none stop like I normally do. We drive the 125 miles using 3 gallons or 42mpg. Humm. Not so good. And if I subtract the miles driven on electric it's calculates to 32 mpg using the gas generator. My regular car can do that. And further proves the longer the trip the less beneficial an EV/Hybrid is going to be. They really are best used as city cars. But hey it could do trips. It could have driven across the whole USA if I wanted on gas. It's not a bad deal. But the next trip I took my BMW. It's more comfortable and the gas mileage was not that different as on that trip there was no time for plugging in.
Post script: Some might balk and say that the Volt can do better than 32 mpg on gas only. Well yes it can. If driven on a flat road and at low speeds it will. Our drive down there was more stop and go and slower traffic and the trip was from a higher elevation to a lower elevation. On our return trip we had more weight in the car (another passenger) and going from a lower elevation to a higher elevation was working against us. And with the higher speeds comes worse gas mileage. 32mpg on gas is what it did. I've seen other people that have posted results for long drives with Volts. On gas only (not including miles done on battery) 32 mpg is not that unusual.
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