How do the Volts do when actually driving in mountains - long steep grades for many miles. i ski quite often and was wondering how the car would do driving from denver to Vail or any other resort. 60-100 miles one way of all mountain driving? TIA
Mountain Driving???
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The only thing necessary is to stick it in MM before you get to about 15 miles range left. Then the Volt will maintain the battery at that level with extra battery power in reserve.
With that extra reserve, the Volt can climb any grade in the US, at any speed you like, with virtually no dropoff in speed.
I drove up the Grapevine in southern California with the car set at 75 mph and a fully loaded car, and the speedometer never dropped below 74 mph for the 15 mile grade. Another Volt driver posted the same thing, except he maintained 90 mph, and never dropped below 89 mph.
When you consider that most of the the other EVs can barely reach 85 mph on level ground, the Volt's performance is truly exceptional. Most other cars with automatic transmissions end up having to downshift one or two gears and slow down just to make grades like the Grapevine. And, you can hear them straining their guts out trying to maintain speed. The Volt, on the other hand, handles mountains effortlessly. You will be impressed, trust me.
With that extra reserve, the Volt can climb any grade in the US, at any speed you like, with virtually no dropoff in speed.
I drove up the Grapevine in southern California with the car set at 75 mph and a fully loaded car, and the speedometer never dropped below 74 mph for the 15 mile grade. Another Volt driver posted the same thing, except he maintained 90 mph, and never dropped below 89 mph.
When you consider that most of the the other EVs can barely reach 85 mph on level ground, the Volt's performance is truly exceptional. Most other cars with automatic transmissions end up having to downshift one or two gears and slow down just to make grades like the Grapevine. And, you can hear them straining their guts out trying to maintain speed. The Volt, on the other hand, handles mountains effortlessly. You will be impressed, trust me.
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If you put on MM when you start you can sail up I70 in the left lane at 75mph, way better than my wife's subaru. If you turn off MM at say idaho springs, you can drive the speed limit or above until about 2-3 miles before the tunnel, then it will feel just a bit sluggish (you'll feel the ICE running hard but it will not generating enough power for anything more than 65mph), still better than my previous honda. Even turnin it off at idaho springs, I never got the "reduce propulsion" mode and had no problem with traffic (but was in the right lane). I tried turnning MM off because I knew I would get regen from the tunnel. My timeing was a bit off (next trip I'll turn it off at george town). Even after the above, coming down from the tunnel, through dillion to keystone, I arrived at keystone, and when I restarted the car to check the range, I had 3m of EV range.. And the regen is awesome on the way home
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