Mountain Mode not needed (Gen 2)

6085 Views 25 Replies 11 Participants Last post by wordptom, Oct 5, 2018

obermd

Discussion Starter · Oct 1, 2018 (Edited)

It's leaf peeping season in Colorado, so this morning I filled my tank and headed for the mountains. I live at 5,700 ft above sea level and ran out of battery after a little over 47 miles and a net climb of 2,800 ft. I stayed in Normal mode the entire loop, driving over Kenosha Pass at 10,000 ft, Independence Pass at 12,095 ft, Vail Pass at 10,662 ft, and through the eastbound bore of the Eisenhower tunnel at 11,158 ft. I drove the posted speed limit the entire way and kept my Volt in Normal mode the entire time. Kenosha, Vail, and Eisenhower approaches are posted 65 MPH. Kenosha isn't that steep so my car was only pulling about 20 KW on the climb. Climbing Vail and Eisenhower my car was running about 40-45 KW power output and the ICE was happily screaming along. I was even able to accelerate up both passes to about 80 MPH using the Normal mode "low" buffer in the battery. The descent from Independence Pass to Aspen actually resulted in three bars of power being regenerated. When I got to down to Georgetown I got off I-70 for a bathroom break and had one bar of battery from the descent. My car correctly identified it as "gas" power and allocated it to the gas fuel economy number even after I restarted the engine even though the Classic Enhanced display showed battery power only upon restart.

Here's the Energy Usage display when I got home.

Electronics Multimedia Technology Electronic device Gps navigation device

The leaves were stunning with a variety of greens, yellows, and reds throughout the drive.

One other note: I was passed on I-70 by a CDOT (Colorado Department of Transportation) painted Chevy Bolt. Interesting...

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JoeReal

· #7 · Oct 1, 2018

A Volt with a 175 lb driver climbing up 10,150 ft would require 14.1 kWH of energy to fight gravity, or the entire available energy from a fully charged battery pack. But of course you still needed to account for rolling, air and internal resistances.

Going down from such height difference should regenerate 85% of 14.1 kWH of energy, but from, most are spent normally to counteract air resistance, rolling resistance and other internal resistances that's dependent on speed and distance traveled, and if you travel downhill for less than 30 miles, you should have at least 3 bars left.

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JoeReal

· #23 · Oct 5, 2018

Nanabanana said:
I really need to learn how to drive my Volt. You folks have opened my eyes. I have been driving my car since 2012 and I rarely use L or switch back in forth between the 2. Can you do this while you are moving? Wouldn't it damage the transmission. Obviously I have a Generation 1. I live 1.3 miles from my job. I drive to and from everyday. I do take my grandson to school and pick him up from afterschool daycare. And what is ICE? I am really not knowledgeable about this machine. I love my car. I hit a deer at 77 mph 2 years ago. I was driving at night. This care saved my life. It is a tank! Cost to repair was a little over $5,000.00. But it looks brand new. It hit the right front quarter panel. right where the inverter is. I need to read my manual so I know what my full capabilities are for EV use. I have 47,462 miles on the car. It is 6 years old.

What transmission affected by D vs L? LOL! The only transmission is the CVT.

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