[WS-Mtns]

I picked up a less than 1000 miles loaded 16 in Texas on Monday. On the drive to Colorado, just over 900 miles, I tried many time to get some regeneration onto the battery.

I spoke with the Volt Advisers twice.

I tried Low, Mountain, both at once. My trip took me over several mountain passes. I tried Mountain on the flats prior to climbing. Used Hold to climb.

The most I got was 6 miles of battery range.

Their have been no service issues on the car, but I suspect it was always on gas because the lifetime MPG on it was about 26 at delivery.

As a 2014 owner I know this is not what to expect.

Your thoughts?

 

[ClarksonCote]

It sounds like you may not understand the process for regen or the ways to successfully verify it is working correctly. It's really transparent and something that I've never heard of breaking, but let's go through a couple terms, etc. here...

What "range" is displayed (range remaining for the vehicle) is an estimate based on many factors, and it's unlikely you'll ever see "6 miles of regen" (or a 6 mile increase in estimated range) because you're also using that range all the time as well. It is basing the estimate on your average energy use, not what you're doing instantaneously.

There's also the center display that counts Electric miles or Gas miles. Once you've used up the initial battery charge, all miles will be counted as "gasoline" miles, even if you're going down a steep hill and the engine is off, since the energy for all these miles was still ultimately derived from gasoline. These counters aren't telling you when the engine was on or off, it's telling you if the energy came from a wall outlet or gasoline. Regen recaptures energy from one or the other, but the mileage reported is tracking where the energy was ultimately derived from. Hopefully that makes sense.

To properly observe regen, you should switch to one of the advanced screens in the DIC that show instantaneous power usage in kW. That will show over 100kW of usage when you're accelerating, and as much as 60kW of regen (or -60kW) when you're decelerating from high speeds. At lower speeds it will be more on the order of 10-30kW of regen, and as the car slows down, the regen decreases.

Alternatively, you can use the regen paddle to feel your car slowing down without any use of brake pads.

If these behaviors are present (negative kW on the DIC or car slowing with regen paddle use), your car is most definitely using regenerative braking. You just may not see it in the range estimate since, on average, you're using far more energy than you're recapturing.

Congrats on your new Volt!!

 

[BAZINGA]

Are you seeing a MINUS number in the power display? If so regen is adding power back to the battery. It won't add much maybe a 1 or two at most.

 

[wordptom]

Big difference between regenerative braking (i.e., regen) and Mountain Mode recharging...

When the Volt is slowing down, or descending a hill, the car’s momentum can transform the primary electric motor into a generator, recharging the battery.

When you switch to MM, the ICE is clutched to the secondary electric motor to work as a generator to recharge the battery.

When regen happens during Electric mode driving, the kWh Used number can go down (kWh Used = grid power used less regen added) and using it will increase the number of electric miles driven. If it happens during Extended Range mode driving, the kWh Used remains where it is and using it adds gas miles. The Volt will regen the same and subsequently travel the same distance in both driving modes using that battery power. The car doesn’t care if it’s counted as electric or gas miles.

MM, if necessary, will recharge the battery to create a buffer of power to be used when high power demands require more power than the ICE output is capable of delivering. Gen 2 ICE output is more powerful than Gen 1's, and the need for this buffer of extra emergency power has been reduced, if not actually eliminated (fewer driving conditions exist where it might be needed). Your 2016's MM buffer is only ~2 bars of power (~9 ev miles), whereas your 2014's was ~4 bars (~14 ev miles). If you switch into MM before the battery soc has dropped to the MM-maintained level, your Volt remains in Electric mode until the soc drops to that level. It then switches on the ICE, using no more gas than Hold mode would unless high demand driving conditions use some of that reserved power. It normally doesn’t recharge the battery unless you switch to MM after the soc has dropped below the MM-maintained level. Because MM recharging occurs when driving in Extended Range mode and uses extra gas to do so, distances driven while using it will count as gas miles.

Your full charge range estimate is based on historical data regarding your driving habits. Once you start driving, it becomes an "on the fly" estimate influenced by the driving conditions you are experiencing. When the estimated range increases, it’s often based more on the current conditions than on any regen put back into the battery. Driving downhill, for example, will increase the estimate not because you’ve put some regen into the battery, but because the car thinks you’re going to keep driving downhill, and downhill mileage is better than level terrain mileage.

 

[16513]

The Driver Info display also has a color indicator for when regen is in effect. On the display I use there is a horizontal yellow band with the instantaneous Kw number in the center. On regen, this band is green. If your regen paddle doesn't provide aggressive slowing from 40 mph on down, the system is defective.