326.4 mpg

[47of74]

I topped off my 2012 Chevy Volt's gas tank Thursday evening because my accumulated gas discount was about to start expiring in the next day or so. 

The car stopped counting the average mpg once it hit 250.

I plugged in all the numbers into my Gas Cubby app this evening after topping off and it said the average mpg for that tank of gas was 326.4 mpg.

Two observations here;

• Holy Shit.
• I <3 my car.

[church_of_dog]

Do you have any record of how much electricity -- in kilowatts, perhaps -- the car uses per X distance?

And do you charge it up at home or does it have regenerative braking?  Or some other form of charging?

I need to start learning about electric cars.

[47of74]

On 8/14/2016 at 10:04 PM, church_of_dog said:

Do you have any record of how much electricity -- in kilowatts, perhaps -- the car uses per X distance?

And do you charge it up at home or does it have regenerative braking?  Or some other form of charging?

I need to start learning about electric cars.

I looked and didn't see anything about kilowatts per X distance.  My car usually gets about 35 miles on a charge in the summer and switches to gas mode at that point.   I think it's about 3 to 5 miles per kilowatt, the battery has 16kw total but only uses 10 kw before it switches over to gas mode - it never completely discharges.  Yes the car has regenerative braking so it puts energy back in to the battery if you're braking or coasting along.

And yes I charge the battery at home.  Volts come with a 110v charger that plugs in to a standard three prong outlet - that takes about 10 hours to charge from empty.  I installed a 240 volt charger last year, that takes about four hours to charge from empty.

[church_of_dog]

9 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

I looked and didn't see anything about kilowatts per X distance.  My car usually gets about 35 miles on a charge in the summer and switches to gas mode at that point.   I think it's about 3 to 5 miles per kilowatt, the battery has 16kw total but only uses 10 kw before it switches over to gas mode - it never completely discharges.  Yes the car has regenerative braking so it puts energy back in to the battery if you're braking or coasting along.

And yes I charge the battery at home.  Volts come with a 110v charger that plugs in to a standard three prong outlet - that takes about 10 hours to charge from empty.  I installed a 240 volt charger last year, that takes about four hours to charge from empty.

Thanks, that actually helps give me a sense of how much it uses.  I would love to be able to charge an electric car from a home power system, but I think they just use too much for that to work.

[Cartmann99]

On 8/17/2016 at 10:53 AM, 47of74 said:

I looked and didn't see anything about kilowatts per X distance.  My car usually gets about 35 miles on a charge in the summer and switches to gas mode at that point.   I think it's about 3 to 5 miles per kilowatt, the battery has 16kw total but only uses 10 kw before it switches over to gas mode - it never completely discharges.  Yes the car has regenerative braking so it puts energy back in to the battery if you're braking or coasting along.

And yes I charge the battery at home.  Volts come with a 110v charger that plugs in to a standard three prong outlet - that takes about 10 hours to charge from empty.  I installed a 240 volt charger last year, that takes about four hours to charge from empty.

Does the owners manual advise recharging when the battery still has some usable charge left, or is it better for the battery to drive until it switches over to the regular engine before recharging? Thanks for sharing your experiences with the Volt! 

I've also been wondering about the upcoming all-electric Chevy Bolt*. We will probably be in the market for a new car in 1-3 years, so I need to start thinking about which ones to seriously consider.

*I don't think it's wise for Chevy to have two cars with such similar names. I think people are going to get the Volt and Bolt confused, but they didn't ask me. 

[47of74]

48 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

Does the owners manual advise recharging when the battery still has some usable charge left, or is it better for the battery to drive until it switches over to the regular engine before recharging? Thanks for sharing your experiences with the Volt! 

I've also been wondering about the upcoming all-electric Chevy Bolt*. We will probably be in the market for a new car in 1-3 years, so I need to start thinking about which ones to seriously consider.

*I don't think it's wise for Chevy to have two cars with such similar names. I think people are going to get the Volt and Bolt confused, but they didn't ask me. 

No the manual never said anything about that.  I just recharge when I get home regardless of how much is left in the battery.  The way the battery is configured it never actually runs out of charge, it always has a certain amount in reserve to help keep the battery conditioned. 

Yes I am aware of the Chevy Bolt.  I too have been bugging not only the guy who sold me the Volt every so often about the Bolt, but other area Chevy dealers as well.  I'm seriously considering it if they include a rapid charging option - which it appears they are.  A number of people have commented on how there might be some confusion over the names.  We'll just have to see how it pans out once it starts showing up at dealers. 

 

[47of74]

Just saw this cool video on the Bolt of a Chevy rep taking a guy on a test drive in a Bolt;

https://www.facebook.com/WRVoltec/videos/924173741045321/

Drool.  Experiencing strong pangs of covetous desire.

[PennySycamore]

I thought the 100 MPG I get on my MINI was pretty good, but damn!  It's nothing like 326!

My MINI doesn't actually get 100 MPG.  The mileage thing is out of whack. I don't care as long as my fuel gauge still works and the range gauge, too.

[47of74]

June was the high mark, with 8000 mpg for the month.  July was 272 mpg, and August was 82 mpg.  Still mpg like that is nothing to complain about.  The main reason June was so high was that I didn't take any road trips out of town that month and except for one day didn't run the battery completely down so I used only about a tenth of a gallon of gas the entire month.  In July and August I had some road trips so I used a bit more gas. 

[religiouslyconfused]

Do you hypermile?