There might be something wrong with the driver... are you driving it like Jeff Gordon? Don't worry, my 2013 guessometer says 28, but in the spring and summer it climbs. I don't think anyone has reported any battery degradation to date. I used to drive like a grandpa trying to eek out every last EV mile. Now I just drive, taking on ramps and offramps at high speed and taking on any pony cars and ricer boys at stoplights. The dash still says I'm getting 73 MPG (take that, Prius fans) when it used to be in the 90's and occasionally break 100mpg.
2014 Gas Range
I recently purchased a 2014 Volt. The battery seems to work fine however I don't think I have seen its full potential being that here in KC, MO we are in the dead of winter. When fully charged it estimates 31 miles. I am hoping that estimation it higher with warmer weather however the battery could have degraded some too. A bigger concern I have is the gas range. When researching I always saw 38 miles for battery and ~345 miles for gas with premium fuel. Unfortunately even with premium fuel my estimated gas range is 200-215 miles. That is a serious loss of miles. I was expecting a range comparable to my previous traditional ICE Hyundai Sonata but I am losing about 100 miles. Has anyone else experienced this? Could something be wrong? Does the ICE lose range in the winter too? Does the range estimation provided not factor in mpg well enough to calculate a 345 mile range?
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Yeah, come back to the family with oil changes every 20k+ miles, 70-255 MPG, barely ever any brake work, a much lower fuel bill, and a ride smoother than a Rolls Royce.I have only been driving the car for a week so most of the stats would be from the previous driver or others who test drove the car. I am far from a cautious or fuel efficient driver but the green ball thing has helped my acceleration and breaking. I think I am over thinking it with the battery and range as my family was appalled at the idea of an electric car (battery going out/furutre maintenance/reliability etc) but from all my research and everything on these forums I have found little to nothing negative.
Don't worry come summertime, you'll be hitting 40s and even 50s if you drive like a grandpa. Speed kills, so if you have two route, one at interstate and one slower with few stops, thenslower one always wins in the range game. But again, beating a mustangs and camaros off the line is a whole lot of fun. You've got them from 0 to 30 mph, it's only when they get roaring from 30-75 mph that they can catch you.
Yes, 70-75 mph will kill your range. Doing the same trip at 55-65 will yield more range, but gas is relatively cheap, and you definitely don't want to be a laggard on some of our nation's highways where people might run you down, give you strange looks, and share finger gestures.I can say that with a 270 mile trip, you should easily make that on one tank. I've taken the drive from here to Vegas which is right around the 300 mile mark and arrived close to empty, but not entirely (low fuel w/15 miles battery left due to MM). I will admit, I was a bit disappointed in that figure, but my car also has about 73K gas miles and no history or engine maintenance other than regular oil changes. I recently replaced the plugs in it and although they looked practically new, I feel better. I will be doing that drive again this weekend and am looking forward to the comparison. I think the original 350 mile estimate didn't take into account sustained 70-75 mph drives which do have a noticeable affect on mileage.
If you filled with regular, I would add premium as soon as you have room in the tank to add any fuel, and keep doing so to continue to raise the octane level. On the flip side, I wouldn't go so far as to get the tank drained by the dealership. Many run on regular and haven't reported issues, but I for one am not going to deviate on what the owner's manual says for a gen 1.I appreciate the replies. I was extra concerned because I am driving it to Oklahoma to visit family for Christmas and usually I don't stop for gas with a normal ICE car (270ish mile trip). Hopefully the long drive will fix the estimations as you both have suggested.
Basically it is running in ERDTT 80% of the time lately and all I take is short trips living in the city so I am making the estimate drop pretty drastically with those driving habits. It probably also didn't help that when loaning/test driving the car for a few days I ignorantly filled it up with regular fuel which probably threw off the estimates.
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