Still seeing 10.2 - 10.4 before extended range operation on my late 2012, (I think Australian '12s are '13 specced anyway)

Temperature variations likely effect the charging and discharging efficiency, but not so much the capacity.

Keep notes on your readings and build up a better long term picture. We'll all benefit from your science.

 

I wish I could answer. I've got a 2012 with 41,000 miles and am experiencing the same thing. After the last 3 times the battery fully discharged I used 9.4 to 9.8 kWh. I used to get upper 40 miles per charge in the summer and now I haven't even hit 40 miles per charge.

 

i found my 2013 was suddenly not giving me 10.5 kWh per charge, actually around 8 kWh.

The dealer updated the software three modules in the car and the problem was fixed

If you would like the modules numbers please contact me via direct message

I had a post showing the module names up on the forum that was taking down by someone and looking
into that issue

 

My 13 varies from 10-10.6 usually settling on 10.2

 

Sounds like you're doing the right thing by doing full charge/discharge, no stops. If your Volt has the prior faulty software that my '13 had, it would start to get much, much worse with frequent stops and parking the car more than 30 minutes at a time would result in somewhere around a 5 mile drop in EV range--usually EACH time.

You're still just a hair in the "normal" range as I would get 9.8-9.9 sometimes, depending on conditions--but you should be getting 10.2 or more regularly. Mine always dropped a little in the summer, never sure why. Make sure you measure your actual EV range on similar routes, speeds, conditions, etc. I did a 30-day log which showed the loss of EV range to demonstrate the problem to GM and (eventually) get it fixed.

40K miles seems too early for normal range loss, although parking frequently in the hot sun unplugged for a long time could possibly accelerate it. The Volt battery is pretty well shielded though and should run its usual battery maintenance once you restart it, so you would need to do this a lot for the temperature to creep up in the HV battery and reduce lifespan.

 

My 2012 got 10.2-10.4 when I first got it. Somewhere around 50K I noticed that I would no longer hit 10.0. Now at 61K I only seem to get between 9.4-9.6.

 

I usually get ~10.2 - 10.5 kWh both winter and summer, but only have ~34,000 miles on my 2013. Weirdly perhaps, if the drive cycle includes using HOLD mode, the total comes out somewhat less, especially if I engage/disengage it several times during that cycle.

 

I used to get 10.2 kWh or so on my 2014, but now at 41K miles, it's 9.8 to 10.0. My commute is such that I'm pure electric nearly all the time (get EMM pretty regularly in summer months), so wonder if the capacity gauge is drifting because it's not getting to the very bottom of the operating window much.

Thinking about this, this is something like a 2% shift - still very small, and could be that start of range drop, or could be drift of the coulomb counter. Seeing others of the same vintage reporting similar drops suggests it a bit of real capacity reduction.

Can someone explain to us how to get a better reading of actual battery capacity? Do we need a VCX nano? Does the kWh from last charge, that's available from OBD2 readers, tend to be more meaningful than the kWh dash display?

-Lumos
2014 gen 1, 41k miles, > 90% electric

 

I used to get 10.2 ~ 10.4kWh per charge, but now I am only getting 9.x kWh.
I am in the testing phase, and I went through two cycles. I got 9.8kWh and 9.9kWh. I started this fully charging and discharging cycle because I noticed that I was only getting 9.xkWh a couple of times.
Is this just loss of capacity due to the age of the battery? How are you guys Volt doing?
I have 2013 Volt with 40,000 miles on it.

Since you have a 2013 this may be relevant.
N172130460 Software Update Error Affecting Battery Cell Voltage Balancing GM Recall

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...130460-Software-Update-Error-Affecting-Battery-Cell-Voltage-Balancing-GM-Recall

 

My 2013 has 113,000 and I get 10.4

 

I don't even look any more. Don't nerd out keeping spreadsheets and plotting charts of this stuff. Drive with a lead foot and smile at the thought that you're still blowing away any Prius in both MPG and fun.

Mic drop

 

I was seeing battery capacity gauge drift, not actual loss of battery capacity

OK, some of the capacity loss I'd reported a few weeks ago was the battery gauge drifting because I don't run my battery down to CS mode very often.

I did a long weekend of driving, and depleted the battery to CS mode a couple of times. Now the car shows 10.4kWh from the battery, more than I'm used too! We know the battery gauge can drift ( and we see it in laptop batteries all the time, it's a battery fuel gauge functionality is pretty commonly prone to drift like this), and so what had seemed like that start of capacity loss seems to really just be noise in the energy delivered display.

-Lumos
2014 Gen1

 

OK, some of the capacity loss I'd reported a few weeks ago was the battery gauge drifting because I don't run my battery down to CS mode very often.

I did a long weekend of driving, and depleted the battery to CS mode a couple of times. Now the car shows 10.4kWh from the battery, more than I'm used too! We know the battery gauge can drift ( and we see it in laptop batteries all the time, it's a battery fuel gauge functionality is pretty commonly prone to drift like this), and so what had seemed like that start of capacity loss seems to really just be noise in the energy delivered display.

-Lumos
2014 Gen1

I think that is the case for me too. Or maybe it was caused by the recalibrated battery. Or both.
I usually don't run down to CS mode either. I usually fully charge everyday and use about 6kWh per day.

These are the last 10 fully charge and discharge cycles(starting from the oldest to most recent):
9.8kWh, 9.9kWh, 9.9kWh, 9.8kWh, 10kWh, 10.2kWh, 10.6kWh, 10.6kWh, 10kWh, 10.2kWh.

I've noticed that my Volt draws more energy to fully charge. It has increased from 11.xx to 12.xxkWh (about .6kWh more).

 

I am usually around 10.2, but I do not keep track. I've seen a 9.9 and I've seen a few 10.6

 

How do you find out that number? I just got an email from BC Hydro saying I used 4 Kwh more than same period last year (we're billed every two months). At 8.9 cents a Kwh that's 36 cents more over two months and that's running two TV's instead of one like last year. Think how much money I'd save if I had two Volts!

 

In my 2012 (in service Aug 2011) with 37,000 miles I'm seeing 9.4-9.6