[garzipan]

Hey all,
I have a '13 volt. when I have a full tank of gas, the volt says I have between 200 and 220 mi of gas range, not the advertised 300+ miles.
my oil life is 75%
my tires are all between 34-38psi

does anyone know why I am not getting the advertised range, or anything I can do?

Thanks!

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Hey all,
I have a '13 volt. when I have a full tank of gas, the volt says I have between 200 and 220 mi of gas range, not the advertised 300+ miles.
my oil life is 75%
my tires are all between 34-38psi

does anyone know why I am not getting the advertised range, or anything I can do?

Thanks!

Are you actually in Florida? That's low.

But if you do a lot of short trips your efficiency will be poor and it'll use that efficiency to estimate the gas range. Assuming you're driving electric on those short trips and would only use the engine on long trips then being in Florida you should find that you'll get _much_ better efficiency when you actually take a longer trip.

You'll want to up those tire pressures a bit. 34PSI is too low.

 

[caronjeff]

Air up the tires to 40. Sometime when the battery is depleted and she switchs to ICE mode, reset one of the trip calculators. Do this after the engine has warmed up for 5-10 minutes. On a smooth stretch of highway at 45-60 mph you should be seeing a calculated 36 to 40 mile per gallon. Another test, on an actual road trip do the math manually. Miles traveled full tank to refill, number of gallons divided into miles equal mpg. On my cross country road trips freeway travel left lane moving with traffic 76-80 mph I get about 35-37 mpg. At that speed a strong headwind can knock it down significantly, a tail wind of course helps significantly.

 

[viking79]

Hey all,
I have a '13 volt. when I have a full tank of gas, the volt says I have between 200 and 220 mi of gas range, not the advertised 300+ miles.
...
does anyone know why I am not getting the advertised range, or anything I can do?
Thanks!

I assume you are just looking at range estimate on the dash, not your actual range? That is set based on your current and recent driving habits. If you are making short trips in town it will be very low. The last trip I took it was maybe 200, however, it didn't drop for about 50 or 80 miles into my trip. My point is that is just an estimate based on recent driving style.

 

[ClarksonCote]

It's an estimate based on your (likely short) driving trips. If you took a long trip you'd have much better range than stated. Nothing to worry about.

 

[telveer]

2013 - Air up your tires at least to 38PSI, which is the manufacturer recommendation. I would personally do 42PSI .. this makes the sidewalls a little stiffer, prevents uneven wear and reduces chances of sidewall blowout - albeit offering a slightly "stiffer" ride.

As to the range estimate, if you are not using the gas engine much, or use it only for short duration, it can skew the stats and cause it to predict a lower range. Try to take a long trip (like 100 plus miles) on gas and observe what you get in the real world.

 

[Dakster]

That was our normal estimated gas range - even in Florida... Heck, up here in AK that dropped to 180, sometimes lower. I'll call it mountain road and cold weather driving, but they are referred to as hills and moderate temps. (Albeit 13% grade hills) Do the math when you fill up to see. We got "lousy" fuel mileage, as in, in the 20s. LOng highway drives in Florida produced mid to high 20s MPG, but we rarely used any fuel in Florida, so it's hard to say what our around town MPG would have been.

Best estimated gas range was around 360 miles, but that was when we were coming down from the high plains. I remember even the estimated battery range was large. Of course it was artificially high...

 

[garzipan]

thanks everyone for the quick responses!
I will definitely up the pressure in my tires.
I do a majority of my driving on battery in short trips (in florida), so I guess that's why my overall mileage seems to be skewed.

 

[hellsop]

Yeah, air up and take a nice long drive, of about 3 hours at under 65.. My typical warm-weather range on a full tank and full charge totals just over 400 miles, in a 2012. The less you do, the more the GOM atrophies.

 

[telveer]

... LOng highway drives in Florida produced mid to high 20s MPG...

Wow! Unless you were consistently climbing grades and gaining elevation, facing blizzard like head winds, had flat tires, or were driving well over the speed limit (or all the above), MPGcs in the 20s for highway driving is very unusual. Maybe something is wrong with your car. I get close to 40MPGcs in my 2013 on gas only road trips (100 + miles), and I am no lite foot.

 

[ctiomico2003]

I sometimes feel the same way about my 2013 Volt but I always have to remember my lead foot + some elevation != best range. I believe I get about 25 - 38 MPG per gallon depending on my drive, habits, weather, etc.

My guessometer is usually around 270 gas only, 300+ combined with a full charge.

 

[llninja]

thanks everyone for the quick responses!
I will definitely up the pressure in my tires.
I do a majority of my driving on battery in short trips (in florida), so I guess that's why my overall mileage seems to be skewed.

We all know what this low range means, you're driving like speed racer taking on porsches and lambos at stop lights. Admit it....

 

[wordptom]

The full-charge, or start of day range estimate, is based on your driving history, with emphasis placed on the more recent history (such as the efficiency of your drive home the previous day). The start of day range estimates are "fuel history specific." If the only time you use the gas engine is for short distances when it doesn’t have time to warm up, the gas mileage will be lousy, and if that’s how you’ve been using the gas engine lately, multiplying that by a full tank of gas will produce a very low range estimate.

Note that it also works the other way. If you drive but 20 electric miles a day, but are very efficient and use only 4 kWh of power to do that (i.e., 5 miles/kWh) and do it frequently, the computer multiplies the ev mileage by the full charge available power to produce high ev range estimates (e.g., Gen 2 Volts, with ~14 kWh in a full charge and no max readings on the display, could see estimates of ~70+ ev miles).

 

[rdunniii]

We all know what this low range means, you're driving like speed racer taking on porsches and lambos at stop lights. Admit it....

Not at stop lights but on the interstate at 75+, yup. Trying to keep 70+ eastbound up the Sierras is in the low 20s. 170 miles range at Roseville and 60 miles range at Donner summit. And they're only 75 miles apart. But then that 60 miles range is still 55 miles 45 miles later at Verdi NV still at 70+ so can't complain.

 

[VoltenRock]

Make sure you are actually getting a FULL tank. Many nozzles cut off WAY too early, giving the range you indicated. Best way is to check the actual gallons on the OnStar app when you think you have a full tank. It should be around 8.9

The Volt just rejects gas. It really does not like it.

 

[Tom17]

Keep your tire PSI between 40 and 42. I keep mine at 42 PSI.

 

[werdup]

Wanted to say this thread was very helpful. I similarly have a low reading on my gas mileage.

Electric 33 miles 95% full
Gas 228 miles full tank

I've been struggling to get the battery charged so been running gas a lot. And yes, I have been purposely speeding past people. Is there information on how these numbers are calculated? I bought it used, so I see the lifetime mpg was 75 but I'm getting less than 30 right now. I'd like to know more about how to take in this data.