Glad to know you are liking your new Volt. You did not mention if you are preconditioning your Volt in the a.m. before you leave. If you precondition your Volt you can enjoy the comfort of always starting out in a warm car and also know that the Volt has preconditioned the temperature of the coolant in the battery heating/cooling loop.
If you choose to precondition, so that the gas engine does not start at colder temperatures you can set the Engine Heat Assist While Plugged In setting to be No so that the gas engine will never run while your Volt is plugged in. You also can set the Engine Heat Assist to Deferred mode so that the gas engine will only come on (once you unplug and manually start your Volt) when the outside temperature is 15 F or below, else by default the gas engine will start whenever you start your the Volt and outside temperature is 35 F or below.
Preconditioning the Volt to heat the car will use some of the battery's charge but since the preconditioning cycle is only 10 minutes the battery drain is not extreme. If you are charging your Volt at Level I (110VAC) the energy recovery time after preconditioning the car is quite a bit longer than if you are charging at Level II (230/240VAC). With Level II the energy used to precondition the Volt will be completely recovered in approx 25 minutes (this includes the 10 minutes while preconditioning plus 10 to 15 minutes after the precondition cycle automatically ends.) Since you will be driving downhill, if you unplug your Volt near the end or just after the 10 minute preconditioning cycle ends this will actually leave some extra battery capacity that can be used to store the energy from the regenerative effect as you drive downhill to lower elevations.
If you choose to precondition, so that the gas engine does not start at colder temperatures you can set the Engine Heat Assist While Plugged In setting to be No so that the gas engine will never run while your Volt is plugged in. You also can set the Engine Heat Assist to Deferred mode so that the gas engine will only come on (once you unplug and manually start your Volt) when the outside temperature is 15 F or below, else by default the gas engine will start whenever you start your the Volt and outside temperature is 35 F or below.
Preconditioning the Volt to heat the car will use some of the battery's charge but since the preconditioning cycle is only 10 minutes the battery drain is not extreme. If you are charging your Volt at Level I (110VAC) the energy recovery time after preconditioning the car is quite a bit longer than if you are charging at Level II (230/240VAC). With Level II the energy used to precondition the Volt will be completely recovered in approx 25 minutes (this includes the 10 minutes while preconditioning plus 10 to 15 minutes after the precondition cycle automatically ends.) Since you will be driving downhill, if you unplug your Volt near the end or just after the 10 minute preconditioning cycle ends this will actually leave some extra battery capacity that can be used to store the energy from the regenerative effect as you drive downhill to lower elevations.
