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What's the highest indicated mileage you've ever seen for your EV range?
![Speedometer Auto part Car Vehicle Odometer]()
I got the 8.9kW option on my 2017 Volt
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I must be missing something here. Our 2016 Volt has a usable battery capacity of 14 KWH or so. What is the 8.9 KW option? Is this a new option for extended range on the later model 2017 Volt's from GM. If it is this is the first time I have heard of it....
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That's dangerously underpowered... I would take it back and get the regular 110kW configuration.
The 2016/17 does get a bonus. It pushes 120kW when you take to the spurs to it.
Confusing title not withstanding, 87 miles per charge is great for a Gen 2 Volt.
Having said that, Ari C (Hypermiler Extremus) managed to eke 81.8 miles out of his 2012 Volt with the original 16kWh battery, using about 9.8kWh to do it! Early Gen 1 Volts however do not display more than 50 miles estimate (later models can go up to 60, I believe). Looks like there are no such limits in Gen 2 Volt .. or maybe Ari C will find out. I believe his wife got a Gen 2 Volt.
Having said that, Ari C (Hypermiler Extremus) managed to eke 81.8 miles out of his 2012 Volt with the original 16kWh battery, using about 9.8kWh to do it! Early Gen 1 Volts however do not display more than 50 miles estimate (later models can go up to 60, I believe). Looks like there are no such limits in Gen 2 Volt .. or maybe Ari C will find out. I believe his wife got a Gen 2 Volt.
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I can probably get 100 miles of EV range indicated. One day when the conditions are right, I'll give it a shot. As most people know, the end result of 87 miles indicated was much less than the actual miles driven.
The EV range is almost never correct. The gas gauge is the same way. I understand why but I'd much rather have gauges that show kW remaining for the battery and gallons remaining for the gas. Just give me the raw numbers and I can figure out the rest. It's especially annoying when the gas gauge displays "LOW." Yeah, we know gas is needed but how much is actually left? When I had my Prius, CAN variables were used to read the amount of fuel left in the tank and hoping the Volt has the same data on the CAN. The battery data looks like it's there.
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Right! Pump up your tires to 60psi and drive slow, 23 MPH, level ground, no wind, windows up, everything off in the car.
Anybody can do it. But it's +2 hrs of your life, for what?
What's with the title to this thread?
You mean actual mileage attained when the battery hits minimum, of course. (leaf display) 66 miles for me, but the figure is fairly meaningless since you can tweak it every which way by how and where you drive. A better question would be "how far can you go in normal driving when the temperature outside is 25F?" The answer is always "it depends".
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Sometimes my commute to work is 2 hours and it gets boring when that happens. The 87 indicated miles wasn't displayed after charging overnight, it was displayed after driving 42 miles to work.
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Ha, ha - he must have driven a good portion of those first 42 miles downhill and only depleted one-third of the battery (4.66 kW) so it displays 87 miles AER when he arrived at work.
When did he run out of battery on the way home? Immediately after driving 10 miles uphill?
You'll consume 1 kW for every mile you drive up a 7% grade. I know, been doing it for 3 years.
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Don't forget to drive downhill both ways!
For what?
Why do 0 to 60 and 1 mile sprints? Drag races? That is one extreme. This is the other
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Careful with your units... you keep using kW when you mean kWh (the equivalent of saying "horsepower" when you mean "gallons of gas").
Must be some commute if you drove 42 miles to work and arrived with a full charge still remaining in the battery and less than 1 gallon of gas used!
So, show us what you can do with the raw numbers... your photo shows 10 green bars of power, i.e., 100% of the ~14 kWh of full-charge available power, and 9 blue bars of gas, or 90% of the 8.9 gallon full gas tank capacity (= 8.0 gallons). If your ev range is not 87 miles, nor your gas range 297 miles, what is it?
By the by, our friend Ari C drove his wife’s Gen 2 Volt 114.0 electric miles using 14.4 kWh of power (7.9 mi/kWh), and was rewarded the following day with a full charge ev range estimate of 85 miles.
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I think .3kW's were used on the way to work and gas was used for a lot of that mileage. On the way home, probably 55 miles were electric and yes, most of it was uphill. Work is 6 feet above sea level and home is around 1000 feet above sea level.
That's the point. It's a crappy way of showing the driver how much mileage is left. If you drive on flat highways, your climate is the same all year round and you have the same driving habits all of the time, the estimated miles remaining will be very accurate.
Yes. That's because the estimated miles are based on the past driving cycle and the current driving cycle. The estimated mileage continually updates as you're driving.
When I left home, my estimated EV mileage was 46. When I arrived at work it was 87. Ari had the opposite experience. His previous driving cycle had a huge amount of miles and that's why his full charge was 85 miles. However, both of our Volt's charged to ~14.4kWh. That's why having a gauge that displayed kWh remaining would be better, IMO.
There is a distinct difference between the full charge, or start of day, range estimate and the on-the-fly estimate made after you unplug and start driving.
The start of day range estimate is based on your driving habits and history, with emphasis on the more recent history. Ari’s full charge estimate of 85 miles was based not on the huge amount of miles he drove the previous day, but on the achieved electric mileage of 7.9 miles/kWh that day. Some Gen 2 driver who drives only 16 ev miles a day, and uses only 2 kWh to do so, may also end up with a full charge range estimate of ~85 miles.
It’s not until you unplug and start driving that the computer modifies the range estimate using factors other than the remaining amount of fuel (i.e., by terrain, environment, and driving habits). You started to work with a full-charge estimate of 46 ev miles. While you were driving downhill in Electric Mode using very little fuel, the range estimate soared because your electric mileage soared, not because your fuel supply doubled. The 87 mile estimate was reasonable for the downhill driving conditions. That changed when you stopped driving downhill, but the photo in the original post was taken before additional driving data was gathered that would have modified the estimate.
The driver’s display gives you a gauge showing kWh and gas remaining, each green bar representing 10% of the full charge available power, and each blue bar representing 10% of the full tank gas volume. The gauges in the photo tell you that you have ~14 kWh of power and ~8 gallons of gas. You’re ready to start home from work. You haven’t recharged, so the 87 mile ev range estimate is reflecting the mileage on your downhill trip to work. Will you be able to reach home on that 14 kWh of power? Unlikely, it’s uphill in that direction. Perhaps you could drive in Electric Mode until your electric fuel gauge reads 1.4 kWh (i.e., one green bar), then switch to Extended Range Mode until you’re close to home. If your goal is to use up that final 1.4 kWh of available power just as you reach home, how many miles from home should you be when you switch back to Electric Mode? Will your method of estimating range based on the gauge readings be more accurate than computer’s range estimate based on the driving conditions met as you drive home?
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