So I am curious. When i have about 5-10 km of battery range left, i tend to want to put car in hold mode - just so I don't deplete the battery completely. I know that I will run battery to empty, so I figure why not just stop the depletion all the way to zero, and hold some charge. Thoughts? Am I just being weird, as my daughter suggests? Lol..
Low battery vs no battery?
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+1 on the daughter diagnosis. LOL
The Volt actually maintains a minimum buffer of 15% charge even when the battery is "dead". No need to bother with putting it in hold to prevent too low of a charge. That's one of the things that sets the Volt battery apart from the Leaf and is part of the reason there are so few Volts with battery issues now. GM allows only about the middle 65% of the battery to be used so it never discharges below about 15% of total capacity and never charges above about 85%.
The Volt actually maintains a minimum buffer of 15% charge even when the battery is "dead". No need to bother with putting it in hold to prevent too low of a charge. That's one of the things that sets the Volt battery apart from the Leaf and is part of the reason there are so few Volts with battery issues now. GM allows only about the middle 65% of the battery to be used so it never discharges below about 15% of total capacity and never charges above about 85%.
Nothing wrong with that strategy if your going to use gas either way. I'll leave 3-5 miles on the battery and switch to hold mode. The car doesn't seem to rev the engine as high when there is more of a buffer. As I get 3-5 miles from home I'll switch back to EV and the game is to get home with zero charge remaining and the ICE doesn't turn back on
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Your daughter is very smart. She's a keeper. Listen to her.
Your fears are unfounded. The volt is very well designed and you're leaving money on the table and burning more dead dinosaurs as a result.
I sometimes turn on hold mode on the way home on a cold day to get the heat flowing, and on many occasions forgot to turn it back to normal only to drive into the garage with half a battery or more left. Face plant into the palm. I now just drive, let the car use Dino juice or electrons as it chooses.
Your daughter is very smart. She's a keeper. Listen to her.
Your fears are unfounded. The volt is very well designed and you're leaving money on the table and burning more dead dinosaurs as a result.
I sometimes turn on hold mode on the way home on a cold day to get the heat flowing, and on many occasions forgot to turn it back to normal only to drive into the garage with half a battery or more left. Face plant into the palm. I now just drive, let the car use Dino juice or electrons as it chooses.
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The ONLY time I try to "manage" the system myself is when I know or think I will exhaust my battery less than a mile from my destination. I then switch to hold to ensure I arrive at my destination on the battery. I hate pulling into my sub-division, can see my house and the battery exhausts and the ICE starts only to run for 30 to 60 seconds.
That can't be good for all the ICE components. It doesn't even get up to temp and then I'm parking and plugging in. So there are time's you may want to manually manage this. But not many.
That can't be good for all the ICE components. It doesn't even get up to temp and then I'm parking and plugging in. So there are time's you may want to manually manage this. But not many.
With our 2016 Volt I like to keep 10 miles or so of electric left in the battery when my wife and I take a drive down the Oregon Coast via Highway 101. This way we can place in electric going through the several small towns and cities. On the way home I just place in electric mode about 8 miles or so from home and usually make it with 1 or 2 miles to spare on electric and still get well over 45 mpg on gas.
If you are going farther than your electric range, switching to Hold once you reach highway speeds, and switching back to electric when your remaining electric range and distance to destination match, is actually a good idea.
Your case is different. You are switching to Hold so the battery does not drain completely. However, the Volt already does that for you. Gen 2 Volts do not use the bottom and top 15% of the battery. Gen1 Volts are even more conservative (they only use 65% of the whole battery). So, unless the situation I mentioned above is happening, you are unnecessarily wasting gas.
Your case is different. You are switching to Hold so the battery does not drain completely. However, the Volt already does that for you. Gen 2 Volts do not use the bottom and top 15% of the battery. Gen1 Volts are even more conservative (they only use 65% of the whole battery). So, unless the situation I mentioned above is happening, you are unnecessarily wasting gas.
If you don't want to think about it too hard, just put the car in Mountain Mode. It will then deplete the traction battery down to about 14% usable (as displayed by the myChevrolet app), and run in CS mode after that. This reserves about 2 kWh (14.4x0.14), or about 7-8 miles of electric range to use at your destination via switching back to Normal Mode.
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