Bought an EV (Volt)

[SK360]

So back in 2012 when I bought the C6 the wife also wanted a new vehicle so we traded her 2010 Escape in for a 2013. At the time we loved the Escape and thought it was a great move.


Fast forward now 2.5 years later and the car has been recalled 5 or 6 times now including one where we were in a Hyundai Santa Fe rental for 2 months. The MyFord Touch Infotainment system is the biggest piece of shit and about once a week she would get in and have no audio until she turned the car off and turned it back on, last week it just decided to have no audio period no matter what you did so it went in Thursday for service. I have been trying to get her to let me trade it for a Volt for a while but Thursday was the last straw, she said I could start looking (In her mind this meant maybe in a month or two we would be in a volt.... LOL). Also it got 21mpg constantly at normal highway speeds. A far cry from the advertised 30.


Found a 2013 Volt Premium (Heated Leather Seats and doesn't have that ugly White center console the base models do) with 26k on it for $18,5k (Window sticker in the glovebox shows MSRP at $41,300) in Cuyahoga Falls Ohio so I drove the escape up with a cracked windshield and worn front tires and accepted being $2.5k upside down on it to get rid of it.

Can't say enough good about this car so far. Lot of misconceptions out there about this car and EV's in general, it is truly a pleasure to drive. On my wifes first day commuting we got 43.8 miles on a single charge with 10.7kWh used to do that. I am currently paying right around 13.5 cents a kWh so figure it cost us $1.44 in electricity for those 43.8 miles compared to 2 gallons of gas it would have been in the escape. When I drove it home from the dealer there was no charge so I had to drive it on home on all gas, averaged 37mpg.

[Dan B.]

Be careful........you may mistake it for a new Camaro........

2014ChevyCamaroZ28NYC08.jpg

[JeffreyCole]

Does the volt run 100% electric until the charge is gone, and then switch to gasoline, or does it select on demand similar to a Prius?

[SK360]

Does the volt run 100% electric until the charge is gone, and then switch to gasoline, or does it select on demand similar to a Prius?

It will run on 100% electric until it depletes its charge in normal or sport mode. My wife has been making her commute on straight electric.

Mountain mode will run on electric until it hits 45% charge left and then switch to gas to reserve some power to use both gas and battery to help pull up steep grades if you know you have to go up a mountain pass. If it is below 45% charge it will run the gas motor at full speed to build up a charge and then drop back down.

Hold mode which was added for 2013 lets you switch to the gas motor on the highway and reserve whatever power you have remaining for city driving. Good for long trips since the gas motor does pretty good on the highway and electric shines in traffic or city driving.

It also does Regenerative braking and other energy reclaiming things like the Prius and you can actually watch the kWh used display count backwards when going downhill.

[JeffreyCole]

Thats pretty sweet. What is the expected range on full electric, and what does it require to charge it at home?

110v? 220v?

Special adapter?

Just curious as to how these things work.

[SK360]

Thats pretty sweet. What is the expected range on full electric, and what does it require to charge it at home?

110v? 220v?

Special adapter?

Just curious as to how these things work.

35 miles for 2011-2012 and 38 miles 2013+ is the advertised number. People are getting in the mid-upper 40's in the summer depending on driving style etc and even some get 50's. Winter range can drop into the upper 20's because of the temps and the heater sucks up a lot of juice, if you have the heated seats the car can automatically turn those on and try to balance it out with the heater to keep you warm that way.

Right now we are charging on a standard 110v with the charger that comes with the car, it defaults to 8amp draw which charges fully in 16 hours and if your wiring/breaker is up to the task you can switch it to 12amp which gets it done in 10 hours. We are using 12amp charging without an issue overnights for her commute. If you buy a Level 2 charger which requires a 40amp 220v circuit it will fully charge in under 4 hours. We are buying thedak's old Level 2 charger and will install it soon, it then becomes much easier to gain some range back when at home for only a short period of time.

You can also plug in to public charging stations which are for the most part free to use. We are going to Phipps Conservatory tomorrow night for an event and they have 2 EV charging stations avail for free use. Will probably get 60-75% of a charge from the time we are there.

[Tom]

Is the electric motor a combined unit with the trans? I looked at some pics online but I can't really tell whats going on.

[SK360]

Is the electric motor a combined unit with the trans? I looked at some pics online but I can't really tell whats going on.

It's some kind of transaxle, 2 separate electric motors and the gas... Lot of engineering in this bitch. lol.

[JeffreyCole]

lots of shit to go wrong with this bitch. Lol.

Fixed that for you.

[SK360]

Fixed that for you.

lol, cars are pretty rock solid... 8yr/100k warranty on the electric drivetrain and batteries. Couple of guys out there with 200k+ miles.

Electric motors have a lot less moving parts then gas.

[Dan B.]

lol, cars are pretty rock solid... 8yr/100k warranty on the electric drivetrain and batteries. Couple of guys out there with 200k+ miles.

I bet that's a kick ass message board.

[JeffreyCole]

I bet that's a kick ass message board.

Different strokes for different folks.

[turbo83coupe]

I bet that's a kick ass message board.

BAHAHAHHAHAA!! You win quote of the week!!

[somethingclever]

BAHAHAHHAHAA!! You win quote of the week!!

I really did LOL when I read Dan's line....

[ERR0RMACR0]

Electric cars are so interesting--would love to have one for short trips and stuff.

[TooFast98Cobra]

I don't recycle and don't plant trees but congrats on the buy .

[SK360]

I don't recycle and don't plant trees but congrats on the buy .

I recycle but I don't plant trees either, bought it to save $ on her daily commute. The lack of cats on the C6 balance out the environmental impact.. LOL

[sutyak]

lol, cars are pretty rock solid... 8yr/100k warranty on the electric drivetrain and batteries. Couple of guys out there with 200k+ miles.

Electric motors have a lot less moving parts then gas.

Dang that's a lot of 35 mile trips!

[SK360]

Dang that's a lot of 35 mile trips!

Not sure anyone has managed to do that on 100% electric. lol.

Here is the leader on voltstats

http://www.voltstats.net/Stats/Details/1579

EV Miles:	77868.42	#1 / 100%
Total Miles:	222835.32	#1 / 100%
EV %:	34.9%	#1006 / 2.4%

[RUTHLESS]

If these electric cars ran the same way the brushless conversion on my Losi LST does I would have bought one years ago. I couldn't keep diffs in the rear of that trucks from the power increase over gas.