How to improve the Volt efficiency with a GPS

3994 Views 4 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Cybereye, Jun 19, 2008

ClaBerCla

Discussion Starter · Jun 16, 2008

I think it's possible to improve the VOLT efficiency with a GPS and with a "Go back home" push button.
If the ride is more than 40 miles, then batteries need to be charged by the generator. If you want to go back home and improve your VOLT efficiency, then just push the "Go back home" button on the dash.
Then, the VOLT computer will know that you want to go back home. With the help of the GPS, the computer will verify the distance between the car location and your house, the traffic and the number of stop needed. With these informations, the computer will stop the gas engine exactly at the right time to get a 10% charge in the batteries when the car will arrive at home. Then the efficiency will be increased by 20% because usually, the generator keeps the SOC (state of charge) at 30% capacity.
I would like to get your opinion please.

Thank you!

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Steel

· #3 · Jun 17, 2008

I think personally that it would be better to go 30-95 and just use a dynamic braking system if you're regen braking down a hill and the batteries have reached 100%. The low end of 30% will still be needed for the long uphill accelerations as it's quite difficult to pull the heat out of the ambient air and turn it into work, but switching the motor generation to a heat sink is really easy. I suspect much of it has to do with battery life.

Question though: if you live, say, at the top of Mt. Washington, start off to work with an 80% SOC, will the car allow you to brake-generate the batteries up to 100%?

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