[alfon]

Here we are, my wife and I, on vacation at Wallowa Lake in north eastern Oregon, elevation 4,400 feet. We left at sea level traveled route 84 at 60-75 mph, speed limit about 50 miles or so east of Portland is 70 MPH. The Volt was loaded with all our gear etc. easily well over 4,000 lb's gross weight.

Arrived yesterday and went down to Imnaha and did some fishing and my wife took some nice videos.

Quite pleased with our 2016 Volt Premier cruising at 70+ mph and handled so much better than our 2010 Prius we used for the same trip about 3 years ago.

Right now at our cabin the dash screen reads 509.2 miles traveled just on gas with 10.73 gal's used for 47.5 mpg. Electric used is 32.7 miles with 8.1 KWH used, and 29 miles remaining. I don't believe our 2010 Prius could do much better or even match the Volt's figures.

Plan on going down to the Snake River Canyon, quite a ride in this vast wilderness area...

 

[saltsman]

Don't forget, camping in the Volt is the best feature of all.

 

[Cord]

And the built in pizza warmer ( if you got the electric heated seat option )

The other side of Oregon seems to be over 90 F this last few weeks hope it is cooler on the east side.

 

[alfon]

Yes, its cooler on the east side. The highest we seen the temp was 83F on the Snake River by the Oregon and Idaho border. Up in the mountains, 5,000 - 6,000 + feet it was 55 F.

 

[bjrosen]

Heading to Prince Edward Island tomorrow, I'll report about the availability of charging along the way. I'm curious to see if this trip would even be possible in a BEV and how much I'll be able to charge my Volt at my hotels. It looks like my hotels have wall outlets but no Level 2s, won't know if they will be available or not and how much charging I'll be able to get done with the Level I in the car.

 

[wws]

Heading to Prince Edward Island tomorrow, I'll report about the availability of charging along the way. I'm curious to see if this trip would even be possible in a BEV and how much I'll be able to charge my Volt at my hotels. It looks like my hotels have wall outlets but no Level 2s, won't know if they will be available or not and how much charging I'll be able to get done with the Level I in the car.

Ask the front desk person, who will probably refer you to someone on their maintenance staff. Perhaps they can find a 240v receptacle that you can plug into. (Presumes you have a portable EVSE or an adapter cable for your factory EVSE with a corresponding plug on it.) Talk with the manager suggesting they install some L2 stalls. Finally, if you find something usable, add them to plugshare if they aren't already there.

 

[bjrosen]

Day 1 report. Drove from MA to The Algonquin Resort in New Brunswick. Plugshare said they have two Tesla chargers and a wall outlet, they were wrong, no wall outlet. The Tesla chargers were both ICEed. Filled up at a decrepit one pump station before we crossed into Canada, Google Maps wasn't clear about the location of filling stations because the cell coverage is very spotty, if you take this trip you should note that there is one real gas station on the route, an Irving, but we had already filled up at the one pump station.

My Volt is having trouble with the roads in New Brunswick, it started making scraping noises immediately after we entered Canada in Saint Stephen, the sound stopped on the highway but resumed when we got off in Saint Andrews. The roads are bumpy but they don't look as bad as they sound. I pressed on all four corners to see if there was a shock problem, everything seemed good.

Gas mileage on the trip so far, 46.6MPG. I have half my battery left, I'll stay in Hold until we get to PEI, the Comfort Inn ar]t Charlottestown is supposed to have a wall socket according to Plugshare. There was a picture of it on Plugshare so maybe it exists.

 

[bjrosen]

Day 2. Drove from Saint Andrews to Charlottestown PEI. The roads got better after leaving Saint Andrew so there is much less scrapping, but not entirely eliminated. Two tire pressure sensors have stopped working, I'll have them checked when I get home, don't know if the rough roads had anything to do with it or if was a coincidence that the batteries died at the same time.

The motel has several wall outlets but they are all ICEed. The wall outlets aren't really meant for cars and I don't really think I would want to use them even if they were available. The EVSE cord would have to run across a side walk, and I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving it unprotected in this area.

On the way to PEI we stopped at Hopewell Rocks. They have a couple of charging stations but they are Rio Tinto, they don't work with Chargepoint which is the only card I have. The price was $1.50 an hour, a bit pricey. When I pulled up to the chargers several guys came up to me to ask about EVs, I filled them in on the Volt's capabilities.

 

[marcusm]

Thanks


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[jcanoe]

Those TPMS batteries should last at least 7 years.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Day 1 report. Drove from MA to The Algonquin Resort in New Brunswick. Plugshare said they have two Tesla chargers and a wall outlet, they were wrong, no wall outlet. The Tesla chargers were both ICEed. Filled up at a decrepit one pump station before we crossed into Canada, Google Maps wasn't clear about the location of filling stations because the cell coverage is very spotty, if you take this trip you should note that there is one real gas station on the route, an Irving, but we had already filled up at the one pump station.

My Volt is having trouble with the roads in New Brunswick, it started making scraping noises immediately after we entered Canada in Saint Stephen, the sound stopped on the highway but resumed when we got off in Saint Andrews. The roads are bumpy but they don't look as bad as they sound. I pressed on all four corners to see if there was a shock problem, everything seemed good.

Gas mileage on the trip so far, 46.6MPG. I have half my battery left, I'll stay in Hold until we get to PEI, the Comfort Inn ar]t Charlottestown is supposed to have a wall socket according to Plugshare. There was a picture of it on Plugshare so maybe it exists.

Although ME-9 is the fast route to Eastern New Brunswick, you're in rural Maine there so there isn't much. The vacation-home money's on the coast along US-1.

The Irving you're referring to is presumably the Irving Big Stop in Baileyville, ME at the intersection of ME-9 and US-1. Tesla has a permit to put a Supercharger there, but given their cost-cutting I'm not expecting it to be built this year.

There are also gas stations in Calais, ME itself.

I'm not sure what "decrepit" gas pump you used. There's a place in Cherryfield, ME that has a couple of old pumps, but I wouldn't call it decrepit. I guess you hit a one-old-pump convenience stores along the route.

It's only 77 miles from Eddington, ME to Baileyville, ME and with a small population in the area people along Route 9 are going to be OK stopping at those convenience stores if they're not regularly heading to Bangor/Brewer, Ellsworth or Baileyville/Calais areas anyway.

We did pretty well in our 2013 Volt on a trip to NS and PE last year. I don't remember the road noise being loud. But we were heading straight to Halifax, NS so were on the highways. What are your tire pressures? And what tires do you have?

 

[caskConditionedAle]

I'm curious to see if this trip would even be possible in a BEV

Judging from your reports, it sounds like you're lucky to be driving a Volt.

 

[alfon]

Got back home 082718 from vacation. Here is the result:

My wife and I just got back home from using our Volt on vacation. The Volt was fully loaded and easily weighed well over 4,100 lbs gross weight. We left at sea level and stayed at Wallowa Lake, Wallowa Co. Oregon, elevation 4,400 feet. We climbed the mountain roads in the Snake River, Hells Canyon area to an estimated elevation of 6,000 - 7,000 feet.

We never charged the entire trip, only the full charge from home. I kept all gas receipts the entire trip and filled up yesterday at Costco, same place as when we left and the same fill method, slow speed, lowest on pump handle, and when it auto clicks off no more gas is dispensed.

All gas was 87 octane regular gas. Trip total was 1281 miles, electric from full charge from home, 54.1 miles with 14.6 KWH used.

Total gas only miles, 1226.9 / total gas used for those 1226.9 miles, 24.379 gal's = 50.3261 mpg. We have a 2010 Prius I don't believe it could have done any better for mpg than the Volt under the same cargo load, highway speeds up to 75 mph and elevation gain etc.

Tires are all at 44 PSI as well. Local trips mpg's on gas are higher and electric range is higher as well, 65+ electric miles per full charge. Now with our Volt down to Tillamook Oregon along the coast have been gas only mpg's for the 126-130 mile roundtrip have been averaging in the mid to high 50's for mpgs, with a few over 60 mpg, just on gas of course. Of course speed range from 25-60 MPH and the elevation change is about 600 feet.

The infotainment screen for energy appears to stop recording gas only miles and total trip miles after 1000 miles. However the computer continues to record gal's of gas used and mpg on gas. The screen read when we returned home 25.03 gal's used for 48.9 mpg. The miles for the trip were from voltstats.net when we left and when we returned minus the 54.1 miles on electric.

Now of course this is summer conditions in winter mpg's on gas and electric range would not be as high.

 

[bjrosen]

Those TPMS batteries should last at least 7 years.

I think they should be under warranty, the car is 2.5 years old and has 29K on it. The TPMS sensors lasted about 7 years on my last car, seems strange that they should die in two. Also they are functioning today.

 

[bjrosen]

Judging from your reports, it sounds like you're lucky to be driving a Volt.

It's pretty clear that a Tesla would be unusable in the Maritimes, a PHEV is absolutely required there. There are no superchargers in New Brunswich or Prince Edward Island so a BEV would be entirely dependent on destination chargers. We stayed at a fancy resort the first night that had a pair of Tesla chargers, they were both ICEed so a Tesla driver would have been totally screwed. We are staying in a Comfort Inn on PEI, it has some wall chargers, all ICEed, but those would be useless to a BEV because it would be impossible to get enough charge from a Level I overnight to go anywhere. I'm using about 7 gallons a day, costing me $28 Canadian. My Volt is getting a little better than 45MPG so the 7 gallons translates into 315 miles a day, not possible in a Tesla unless there are superchargers which there aren't.

The thing that the Volt is doing badly is handling the frost heaves on the roads. An SUV wouldn't notice them but the Volt rides low so I've been scraping bottom occasionally. It was really bad in Saint Stephens and Saint Andrews but it got better after that. PEI seems to be better than New Brunswick. Frost heaves are probably inevitable because their winters are so cold. Learned an astounding fact when visiting a lighthouse today. They had pictures of the ice boat men who used to travel between PEI and NB a century ago. The salt water between PEI and NB freezes over in winter, or did before large ships because the ships now act as ice breakers, that's an seriously cold winter.

 

[FI Spyder]

It pays to be on the right (as in correct) coast, that is the Left coast, as we have Tesla chargers, free L2 chargers up and down the Island and no ice on out lakes and rivers (except for the odd winter night or a week on a really cold winter) let alone on the salt water.

 

[bjrosen]

Friday, PEI. At the North Point Light on PEI there is a big wind farm with a free EVSE. Unfortunately it wasn't operating, the staff there said that salt air is terrible for chargers and that it's been dead for weeks, they don't know when it will be fixed.

 

[JuneBug]

Friday, PEI. At the North Point Light on PEI there is a big wind farm with a free EVSE. Unfortunately it wasn't operating, the staff there said that salt air is terrible for chargers and that it's been dead for weeks, they don't know when it will be fixed.

Wow, that's gotta be frustrating. That looks like a quick-n-dirty installation. They could have installed it in some kind of weatherproof enclosure to protect it from the elements.

 

[bjrosen]

Dissapointing for me because I didn't need the power, but according to plugshare the last two cars that tried to use it were a Tesla and a Leaf. I don't know how either of them made it to that station, they must be local because neither has the range to do a round trip from Charlottestown, if they were counting on it they would have been screwed.

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[bjrosen]

Just looked at the plugshare history, the last time this EVSE worked was 2013. This location is a wind farm plus a wind interpretive center that is promoting wind power and yet the PEI government, which owns the charger, can't be bothered to fix it.

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