[65chevelle12volt]

Looking forward to picking-up my 2012 Volt on Wednesday - happy with my deal as well. Got the Ally lease special for 24 months, and bought 7000 extra miles so I have 18,500/year (the $0.15/mile I paid is refundable if I don't use all of the 7,000 extra miles, no refund on anything below 15,000/year. I drive a lot so better to prepay in my mind instead of being stuck with $0.20/mile at the end). Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the lease math - I did A LOT of homework on this and am an energy finance guy by trade.

2012 Black and Tan - demo with just over 1,000 miles. They came in at $1,400 below invoice and were right where they needed to be with my trade. Left some money on the table perhaps (they were still $400 above the "Total Less Holdback and Approx. Wholesale Finance Credit"), but it is the car I really wanted and glad I shopped around. I nearly pulled the trigger on one that was a less-desirable color for me, fully loaded and had a bunch of accessories I didn't need - would've ended-up paying an extra $50/month had I not shopped around a bit more.

I am a car enthusiast and driving the Volt was a lot of fun, not to mention the hundreds of dollars I will save in gas each month. I worked at GM as an intern in 2007 and the Volt was just emerging as a concept - have tracked its progress since then and very excited to get behind the wheel. I am trading an Acura TL, which I will miss, but I anticipate being able to go gas-free much of the time and will certainly not miss pouring dollars into the gas tank.

And I am fortunate to still have a 1965 Chevelle should I have the desire to burn some fossil fuels.

 

[bonaire]

Welcome to the PA Volt club. I'm located not far from you in Coatesville.

See if you can add your Volt onto Voltstats.net and you can also add into the PA Volts group there.

Yeah, you could have done a bit better but it does take extra time finding, negotiating and possibly shipping or flying to pick it up (bought mine in Florida, drove it back).

Do you have any Solar PV at your home? If not, it might be able to help "pay for" the fuel for the Volt if you can get a grid-tie system cheap enough. Our PECO electricity isn't really "EV friendly" like rates in other states.

 

[65chevelle12volt]

Do you have any Solar PV at your home? If not, it might be able to help "pay for" the fuel for the Volt if you can get a grid-tie system cheap enough. Our PECO electricity isn't really "EV friendly" like rates in other states.

I do not have PV at home, but my workplace does (I do renewable energy project finance and we have grid-tied solar onsite, including a parking lot canopy) and I will be plugging-into an outlet on the canopy. It is a standard 120v AC outlet, not really there for charging purposes but can be used as such. I won't be fully charging there during the day but the 9 hours or so I'm at work should help. I may pursue the Ecotality/Blink charger program and see if we can get a 240v on-site. I also am a part-time student at Villanova and I intend on looking into a charger grant for them as well - believe PECO will subsidize the first $2,000 of charging stations for institutions - Temple and Drexel both have stations already as well.

 

[saghost]

Assuming that you can charge at 12 amps, those nine hours should suffice to recharge the car unless the battery is utterly dead, and even then in some climatic conditions. Solar canopies on parking lots are an awesome solution I wish we saw a lot more of.

 

[bonaire]

65'12' - If you can make it, or anyone in our SE PA area, on Sept 25, we are having an EV night at this organization's meeting up near Allentown, PA (I go up route 100 to get there)

http://www.themarea.org/

It's not up on the site yet but Vera, who manages this stuff, invited EV owners to a discussion night and some test rides for members who have not yet seen/ridden in Volts, Leafs, Teslas and so on. I think we'll have a good number of EVs there that night. Most of the guys are "Solar/Wind" guys and a few Solar installers are there in case someone wants to talk about doing a system in the area. Since you are in the energy finance area, you may want to check it out. One of the engineers who comes to the meeting works in the Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle systems group of Air Products (at the nearby HQ). He has shown their $1 Million HFC SUV at prior energy fests and talked about the "Hydrogen Highway" (which Air Products is advocating).

 

[DonC]

Congrats on the car. You'll enjoy it!

 

[Dan Hue]

Welcome to the PA Volt club. I'm located not far from you in Coatesville.

Hi from me as well. I'm in the neighborhood too, Kennett Square to be precise.

 

[bonaire]

When I commute to DE 2x a week, I pass through Kennett Sq. on Rt 82. I noticed a silver Volt on the side of 82 at a farm along the western side of Rt 82. I imagine it may be Jeff Cobb who manages this forum, but haven't asked him. He's around Philadelphia and has a Silver Volt (if I remember correctly).

We should put together a get-together in the area some time. Maybe in conjunction with one of the old car show nights to show what the "young kids" are driving these days.

 

[Dan Hue]

@bonaire,

I'll have to look for that Silver Volt on Rt 82. Mine is a Blue Topaz. I commute every weekday to Wilmington via Rt 52. The GM dealer (Diver in Wilmington) said that he sold 30+, so they're around. I see one occasionally.

I'd love to meet and advocate for the car, as you suggest. A couple of colleagues have expressed interest in a test drive, and I will arrange one with them next week. They both need a new car, and I've talked them into at least consider putting the Volt on their list, which was not on their radar at all. One is a good friend, and very much Conservative (I lean towards Liberal), but he HATES (with a passion) paying for gas. It kills him, and his commute is right within the Volt's EV range. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Sphyrna]

Welcome to the Volt club (on Wednesday)! I'm another PA Volt driver, but on the other side of the state.