Does this happen to anyone else regularly?

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I'm always 1 mile short of my destination and the ICE kicks on... for 45 sec.

I wish the car would check it's gps and know it's only got a mile to go... there really is enough juice left.

Well, it will start to get warmer now that spring is finally here; that should help. Try preconditioning while still plugged in, then only use the heated seats for your commute. Rounded to 1 mile, you only need to add an additional 2.6% to your current range. That should not be difficult to achieve.

1) Slow down.
2) Turn off the electric heat after preconditioning. Use the heated seats and steering wheel (if equipped)
3) Keep tires inflated to ~40PSI.
4) Find a route that uses secondary roads, you'll arrive a few minutes later but will be surprised at the Volt's EV range when driven at lower speeds.
5) Don't drive around with extra weight in the vehicle; Keep the fuel tank 1/3rd full (3 gallons)
6) Wash the Volt regularly

 

And with spring suddenly my 2017 Volt is Super Man. My GOM went from reading in the low to mid 40's to 59 miles yesterday. And if the last 2 years are any indication of how my Volt will perform my GOM will stay in the upper 50's to mid 60's until late fall.

 

Haha......all the time. My commute is 57 miles one way. During the summer, I can make it solely on battery charge as long as I don't drive like a nut. Inevitably, as I get off the highway about 3 miles from work.......I'm milking it for all its worth to keep that motor from turning on for that last 1/4 - 1/2 mile.

 

Just run the car for one mile when you start and it won't bother you at the end.

In all seriousness, this is an efficient and green thing to do! You are going to need to use a lot of battery when you get started to heat the car up, so using the engine for the first mile helps do that and also retains heat in the coolant loop after you switch back to battery mode for the second mile. You keep using that built-up heat on your drive, whereas when the ICE kicks on at the very end, that heat gets wasted after you park the car.

 

Just run the car for one mile when you start and it won't bother you at the end. ....

But if you are going to run the engine, go ahead and let the poor thing warm up all the way.
1 mile won't do that. Short cycles are hard on an engine and its oil.

 

^^ That's my major concern. Running the engine for 45sec 2 or 3 times a week is really not good for it.

When I do try to plan ahead and save extra power or run the ICE early in my trip, I always end up arriving home at the end of the day with several miles of charge left, wasting gas.

So I can either be nice to the ICE motor, or save gas, but not both.

 

Does this happen to anyone else regularly?

Not any more. Bought a Bolt And the trips I make in the Volt are within it's range.

 

Ah, you're still in the obsessed stage.

I was there myself during approximately the first 6 months of ownership with my Gen1, then I got over it. Charge every night and burn gas when you need to. You'll be happier as a result.

 

Does this happen to anyone else regularly?

View attachment 157917

I'm always 1 mile short of my destination and the ICE kicks on... for 45 sec.

I wish the car would check it's gps and know it's only got a mile to go... there really is enough juice left.

Quick question! Did the ICE actually turn on.

I’ve run into this situation where I’m a 1/4 mile a away and I notice the DIC flip to engine once that range reaches “0”.
I check the flow display screen and notice it’s still using battery, although the miles are being logged on the CS portion on the INFO screen. Then it shows 0 fuel used, like your screen does.
I run an OBDII dongle and log engine and charge parameters, so I know the engine didn’t start :/

 

Then it shows 0 fuel used, like your screen does.

The fuel usage is only shown in increments of 0.3 gallons. Any less than that and it won't register yet.

 

In my experience the engine needs to run 4 -5 miles before the engine coolant starts to circulate in the cabin heater core. At that point the coolant is between 150 - 160F but the engine is still not at full operating temperature. Whenever I need to use gas I try and drive 10 - 12 miles to ensure that the engine has reached full operating temperature (the engine coolant will reach 190F to 205F.) If you need the engine to run for short intervals then I would make sure to fully warm up the engine at least once a week to remove any moisture from the engine oil.

 

Does this happen to anyone else regularly?

View attachment 157917

I'm always 1 mile short of my destination and the ICE kicks on... for 45 sec.

I wish the car would check it's gps and know it's only got a mile to go... there really is enough juice left.

Forget about the ICE, you only need one more mile. What you really need to do for that last mile is not accelerate hard, or go over about 15 mph. I live about a mile from the freeway, and when I get home from a trip where I've used up all the EV miles, so long as there aren't a lot of cars around, I just baby it home and the ICE won't kick-in despite the switch over on the DIC.

Otherwise, in the winter if you are going well beyond your range, take the advice already given to run the engine early in your trip. Your EV range will then greatly increase anyway (check your score after you've heat up the engine coolant and you'll see how much you benefit from that).

 

^ This. There is a speed threshold where the ICE will not kick on easily. I'm not sure what that speed is. But you can stretch at least 1/2 mile out of it. It might irritate other drivers, so using other hypermiling techniques are preferable.

 

The solution is simple. Sell your house and buy one that is 1 mile closer to where you are going.

 

It's kind of been hinted at, but if you fail with the driving slower, less heat, tires pumped up, etc. strategies and you're consistently a mile short, I'd put it in hold mode while you're doing 60ish on the highway and leave it there until the coolant hits 200. You may travel 4-5 miles during that time and will likely end up with an excess of EV range when you get home, but you'll get excellent efficiency on the ICE at highway speeds, and you won't have those short jogs on the engine, regardless of whether those concerns are actually an issue.

In any event, I think higher temps will solve this problem for you during the spring and summer.

Or you can trade it for a Bolt, which will obviate this problem but could create many others.

 

Around here its one more degree

at 20c , I can get to work and back on one charge plus a mile or two, can handle that by plugging in a work
At -10c , I can get to work , but I use 80% of my battery one way , plug in at work
At -12c , goes back to using half the battery one way but the engine also runs half the time
don't know how many times I wished it was 1 deg. warmer

 

Switch to Fahrenheit, then it will be 2 degrees.

The ICE is running when this happens to me. I pick up about 20* coolant temp.

It is bad for the ICE to not come up to at least 125* each time it runs. This is the temperature needed to assure condensation does not occur inside the motor. When condensation does occur in the motor, it can cause rust to form. The water will also mix with the oil, degrading it.

Every once and awhile and it's not a big deal for the engine to short cycle. Frequent short cycles (like what happens to me) will allow significant amounts of water to build up inside the motor. Over time, this will take life off the motor. Extreme circumstances can cause catastrophic engine failure.

I have to keep a mental note of how long it's been since it got up to 180* and make sure I run it often enough to boil out any water.


My drive does not allow much hypermiling. 1 mile from house to interstate. 75mph speed limit for 17 miles. 1/2 mile from interstate to work. Some days I do 76mph and run out of juice. Some days I do 82mph and have 3 miles of range left.

 

Why would 125F engine coolant temperature be hot enough when water boils at 212F? The gas engine is not fully warmed until the engine coolant is between 185 - 205F. The engine oil temperature would be between 220 - 250F, warm enough for any moisture to be released.

 

Because at 125*, condensation is not likely to form inside the motor.

If you run the engine until the water temp hits 185*, it will take another 10-15min of running to get the oil to the same temp.
Warm water temps and cool oil temps will cause moisture to condensate on the surface of the oil. A minimum water temp of 125* allows enough heat to get into the oil to prevent condensation.

A warm motor prevents new condensation from forming. A hot motor will boil off any accumulated condensation.
Under ERDTT, the motor cycles between 125* and 145*. So some engineer decided that 145* is hot enough to not cause short cycle issues.


Did some mountain driving at 12,000+ feet this weekend. Saw water temps of 226*. Oil happy now.
ICE reported 49.6mpg over 230 miles in the mountains.

 

Interesting. I would have thought that the oil temperature would rise faster than the coolant temperature as the oil is closer to the combustion process taking place in the cylinders. Also, there is less oil volume than there is engine coolant volume. In the Volt, at least, there is no separate engine oil cooler. So why would the engine coolant temperature reach 185F so much faster than the oil? I would have thought there is a close correlation between the temperature of these two engine fluids with one lagging the other only slightly.