[Alexbeck]

So I'm new and only know as much about the volt as I could find online. I haven't been able to plug my volt in as frequently lately after moving into an apartment. It's been about two weeks since it's last been plugged in...I go in last night after turning it off for about 15 minutes (with no battery charge obviously)...I hop back in, start her up...And I have 6 miles on the battery??? After that it drove on battery power for 6 miles. How is this possible???? I'm baffled

 

[Steverino]

The battery range displays an ESTIMATE. So after the car sat and had a chance to recalibrate, it determined that you may actually have a few more (or less) miles than it originally estimated.

How much can get put back on regen will vary from 100% on an empty battery going down a steep long hill to 2-3 miles. I can usually add about 5 miles on a mixed road 60 mile trip here in flatland Illinois, but that depends on your driving style as well.

 

[marlow]

I think that some here in the past have reported climbing pikes peek in there Volt starting with a full charge at the bottom and ending at the top with less than 1/4 of a charge and then going back down ending up with about 2/3 or 3/4 of a full charge.

 

[ari_c]

You can charge it up to full with a big enough hill. If the charge gets too high MGB motor is run backwards to prevent overcharging the battery.

 

[wordptom]

Be aware, too, that when in Extended Range Mode and the ICE is running, if braking regeneration puts power back into the battery, the car then runs on electric power to use that up, but continues to record the distances as Gas Miles. If you’re in Hold mode, rather than fully depleted battery mode, and switch back to Normal when regen has increased the state of charge above the Hold point, using that regen battery power will continue to be recorded as Gas Miles until the soc drops back to the Hold soc point. This surprises some people when they seem to be getting gas miles after they thought they had switched back to Electric Mode.

If you turn the car off when regen has moved the soc above the fully depleted soc (or the Hold set point) and later turn it back on again, the computer may decide to count the use of that power as Electric Miles when you use it, but it may also not count it as kWh Used because it is not grid power.

 

[GreenMonster]

If it can charge up this fast going downhill, why can't they make a super fast charger to fill it in a few minutes as if it's going downhill?

 

[srmarti]

If it can charge up this fast going downhill, why can't they make a super fast charger to fill it in a few minutes as if it's going downhill?

It would substantially increase the cost of the car for one thing. There are a number of other reasons, but perhaps they're too technical to explain here given your other posts.

 

[Roostre]

If it can charge up this fast going downhill, why can't they make a super fast charger to fill it in a few minutes as if it's going downhill?

They can. But your electrical system at home couldn't handle it. Fires bad.

 

[Ztirffritz]

Just put a windmill on your car so that as you're driving you recharge the battery. That should work, right? ;-p

 

[flyingsherpa]

You can charge it up to full with a big enough hill. If the charge gets too high MGB motor is run backwards to prevent overcharging the battery.

WOT is on record here emphatically stating it does NOT do that.

If it can charge up this fast going downhill, why can't they make a super fast charger to fill it in a few minutes as if it's going downhill?

Mountain Mode can charge at around 15kW, that's around 1C and is fastest I'd ever want to regularly charge my own battery. GM could have put a much larger charger in the car than the existing 3.3kW one, but it would have cost more and their design philosophy for the car seemed to be just using 1 charge per day (using gas after that) and charging overnight (so as not to "need" expensive home charging setups). Note that Teslas come with a 10kW onboard charger, and you can upgrade to two of those and charge at 20kW at home. That's 40A for one or 80A for dual... many homes would need a lot of upgrades to handle that.

 

[Loboc]

Regeneration means recovery of kinetic energy. Since any energy conversion is not 100% efficient, some energy is lost. Basically, you don't get it all back by slowing down after accelerating. (I've heard up to 80% though.)

 

[Aseras]

It's possible to recharge higher than "100%" going downhill. From Asheville NC to Spartanburg SC I've regened so much the volt stopped regen charging or even slowing down in L mode, felt like neutral.

Got over 17.8kw until I started running on gas ( driving from TN to FL ).

There's a video of someone "quick" charging a leaf by having a truck tow them with a tow strap until they regened to full in a few minutes.