My 2011 has 188,000 miles on it. My on board charger failed some 5-6 years ago and was replaced by my dealer under the Voltec warranty. The fault was that it would charge on L1 120V but not on L2 240V. Try both chargers on yours and see if maybe L1 works. But my opinion is to fix it. My math calculation shows I’ve saved $20,000 on gasoline in 180,000 miles vs the BMW 3 series it replaced. So you should save the $2,000 expense in 18,000 miles. Assuming you can plug in regularly. Side note: Change the 12V battery if it’s age is unknown, or it’s older than 4-5 years. Catastrophic expense has been caused by simple failure of the 12V.
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Yes my 2011 has an untouched HV battery. I’m probably a bit better off than other northern Volt owners (Michigan) in that I have a small furnace in my garage area. It only runs in very cold winter weather, thermostat is set on 46 or so. The garage is partially earth sheltered as well and never goes above 70 in summer. I believe control of the battery temp this close probably is helping it’s longevity. It always plugged in and spending 95% of its life in that garage. Still gets 27-32 miles range.ThanksIs your HV battery original and unmolested?
I tried an L1 charger when the car was "home" in AZ a couple weeks ago, no dice. The HV battery, which has always been fine, is the unknown. Fixing it for $2500 is a no brainer, but it would stink if it didn't buy much trouble free time/mileage. As of today they can L2 charge daily for cheap (possibly free, we haven't figured out if it affects their utilities at all), but they are renters so it is always possible they'll end up somewhere that charging isn't a daily thing. The 12v battery is less than a year old...
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