Driving my 2017 for the first time on a long trip requiring gasoline I wondered if I wanted to get the most mpg out of my gasoline should I be in normal mode or hold. I realize hold is normally used to save battery for city driving later but if that is not a constraint which mode gives best use of gasoline at highway speeds and why?
ICE mode efficiency
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I'm sure others will chime in, but running the battery dry in normal versus forcing the ICE on in hold will not impact the mpg/efficiency of the ICE. There may be some benefit to using mountain mode if you anticipate seriously hilly terrain, but I'm betting any effects will be negligible.
For short trips, where you may only be on the highway for a short period of time and few miles, it is more efficient to just use the battery (Normal mode.) If you want to maximize your gas fuel economy you need to get the gas engine up to full operating temperature. This can take as long as 20 minutes of driving on gas using Hold mode, you want to get the engine coolant temperature up to approx. 190F. If you truly want to maximize your fuel economy when using gas (or electricity) be sure your tires are properly inflated (many prefer to set the tire pressure to 2-3 lbs over the recommended 36lbs.) Also, keep your speed to 65mph or less. Driving fast takes more energy whether running on gas or electric.
I've put a few thousand highway miles on my Volt recently, and I continue to better than average ICE/Hold milage if I keep some charge in reserve and reset the hold level whenever it drops below the red line.
Per Volt Stats, I'm at 69.19 MPGcs and that's all interstate/turnpike driving at speeds averaging over 70 MPH. The car is almost certainly reporting an inflated number, probably due to my technique confusing the software, but I do get significantly more range than reported by the range guess-o-meter ... an extra 50 miles in some cases.
As always, I will make sure to use all the electrons before stopping where I can charge.
As mentioned above, when switching to or from Hold mode, be aware of the inefficiencies of a cold ICE engine. Switch to Hold when the car will use the ICE long enough to reach an efficient operating temperature. The car won't cool off much if you use Normal for short bursts (e.g., decelerating/accelerating in and out of toll stations), but be mindful of turning off the ICE long enough to have it cool off (check the coolant information display to gauge this).
As always, Chevy did a good job designing the drivetrain. You'll do fine just driving the car. I'm only offering these suggestions if you enjoy squeezing out some extra mileage.
Per Volt Stats, I'm at 69.19 MPGcs and that's all interstate/turnpike driving at speeds averaging over 70 MPH. The car is almost certainly reporting an inflated number, probably due to my technique confusing the software, but I do get significantly more range than reported by the range guess-o-meter ... an extra 50 miles in some cases.
As always, I will make sure to use all the electrons before stopping where I can charge.
As mentioned above, when switching to or from Hold mode, be aware of the inefficiencies of a cold ICE engine. Switch to Hold when the car will use the ICE long enough to reach an efficient operating temperature. The car won't cool off much if you use Normal for short bursts (e.g., decelerating/accelerating in and out of toll stations), but be mindful of turning off the ICE long enough to have it cool off (check the coolant information display to gauge this).
As always, Chevy did a good job designing the drivetrain. You'll do fine just driving the car. I'm only offering these suggestions if you enjoy squeezing out some extra mileage.
For longer trips, I switch to Hold once up to speed on the highway and retain battery for use in potential stop/go traffic. Once within range of my destination, I go back to Normal. Driving this way, I have averaged just over 45MPG on the ICE for the life of the vehicle.
We have a 2016 Volt Premier model and so far are closing in on 15,000 miles. Voltstats.net states we are averaging 44.8 mpg lifetime on the gasoline engine. Last trip we averaged over 47 mpg driving 127 miles just on gas highway driving with 4 adults in the car for a 170 mile roundtrip to Portland Oregon. I would anticipate summer conditions to bring that up to 50 mpg on the gasoline engine.
My wife and I usually leave for a shopping trip to the Portland Oregon area with a full charge and drive on electricity and at about 10 miles of electric range left I place it in hold mode. Then I know in heavy traffic and in the city I can go back to electric with the push of a button.
I have noticed our Volt when driving just on the gas engine is increased in mpg from when new. Back when new we were getting in the low 40's to mid 40's or so mpg's, now it seems we are always well over 45 mpg and this is not summer conditions as when we purchased our Volt in July 2016.
The 2016-17 Volt appears to be a well designed and a very fuel efficient engine using 87 regular octane gasoline at that. The last trip we were probably at 4,300 lbs in weight when you consider 4 adults in the car and over 47 mpg on the engine that's pretty hard to beat in my book....
My wife and I usually leave for a shopping trip to the Portland Oregon area with a full charge and drive on electricity and at about 10 miles of electric range left I place it in hold mode. Then I know in heavy traffic and in the city I can go back to electric with the push of a button.
I have noticed our Volt when driving just on the gas engine is increased in mpg from when new. Back when new we were getting in the low 40's to mid 40's or so mpg's, now it seems we are always well over 45 mpg and this is not summer conditions as when we purchased our Volt in July 2016.
The 2016-17 Volt appears to be a well designed and a very fuel efficient engine using 87 regular octane gasoline at that. The last trip we were probably at 4,300 lbs in weight when you consider 4 adults in the car and over 47 mpg on the engine that's pretty hard to beat in my book....
Where do you see that? Got another 2017, I've forgotten a lot of stuff, since I rarely drove the previous one (it was my wife's car).
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