Route Planning
1 - 20 of 23 Posts
Any chance of plugging in for a few hours while at your destination? If not, then you will use approx. 1 gallon of gas for the 100 mile round trip. Mountain mode is not an efficient way to recharge the battery, will use more gas than if you just used Hold. The greatest variable will be your speed and the outside temperature. If you keep your speed to no faster than 65mph in warm weather you should be able to easily exceed 53 miles on battery and better than 42mpg using gas.
Yes, but not L2, and only for a few hours. So not many miles to be gained.
In general I understand this. But since most of this is highway, at some point I think I want to use up all 50+ electrical miles. Maybe on the way home I can just estimate when my electric range is about equal to the distance away.
Joined
·
13,358 Posts
I've pulled into my driveway enough times leaving miles on the table that I've stopped trying games like this. When I was a hypermiler trying to eek out every mile this was something I would try. Now I just burn my electrons early in my 65 mile (soon to be 50 miles now that the daughter is on summer break) commute.
On your 100-mile round trip (with no real opportunity for significant recharging), the extra 5-7 electric miles you may get by artful use of Hold will offset only 5-7 gas miles, amounting to a potential gas savings of a very small amount of gas (1 pint?) between recharge opportunities.
That leaves you with preferential choices. Do you value the ability to use quiet battery power when driving on urban streets or on particular sections of the drive? Using Hold mode when driving fast allows you to preserve grid power for that use.
Don’t care? Then don’t use Hold merely because you’re driving fast. If you can do the entire trip from home to the destination in Electric Mode, then do it... You’ll only need to run the ICE during one leg of the trip, on the way back.
Like that quiet driving, but worried about switching too late and arriving at the recharging station or home with grid power still in the battery? So what if you spend a few more pennies for gas on a few gas miles instead of using up that unused electric power on electric miles... the unused power has already been paid for during the previous recharging session; it remains in the battery, leaving you with less to recharge.
That leaves you with preferential choices. Do you value the ability to use quiet battery power when driving on urban streets or on particular sections of the drive? Using Hold mode when driving fast allows you to preserve grid power for that use.
Don’t care? Then don’t use Hold merely because you’re driving fast. If you can do the entire trip from home to the destination in Electric Mode, then do it... You’ll only need to run the ICE during one leg of the trip, on the way back.
Like that quiet driving, but worried about switching too late and arriving at the recharging station or home with grid power still in the battery? So what if you spend a few more pennies for gas on a few gas miles instead of using up that unused electric power on electric miles... the unused power has already been paid for during the previous recharging session; it remains in the battery, leaving you with less to recharge.
Joined
·
6,863 Posts
Lot's good advice here. But I think we over think this stuff. If I had a 100 mile trip with essentially no chance charging, I'd drive on the battery anytime I'm BELOW 55MPH and in HOLD mode OVER 55MPH. And finally make sure you don't arrive home with ANY range left in the battery.
But you know what, if you just drive in normal mode I'd bet you'd be pleased with the results. The Volt is pretty smart.
Enjoy the drive. Safe travels and cheers.
But you know what, if you just drive in normal mode I'd bet you'd be pleased with the results. The Volt is pretty smart.
Enjoy the drive. Safe travels and cheers.
Joined
·
13,358 Posts
Here's the thing, if you drain the battery early, you are guaranteed that the ideal destination where you want to charge is taken or broken, whereas if you save your electrons, that charging station will be available, and you won't need it. This happens nearly every time for me.
The beauty is, if I were in a BEV, range anxiety would drive me nuts. In the volt, just drive baby, refueling at the gas pump is easy.. In fact I recommend everybody just stop trying to hypermile and drive like Jeff Gordon. It took me two years of tinkering with every technique I could find on this forum before I gave it up and now drive it like I stole it, eating up poney cars and ricer boys at every stoplight.
The beauty is, if I were in a BEV, range anxiety would drive me nuts. In the volt, just drive baby, refueling at the gas pump is easy.. In fact I recommend everybody just stop trying to hypermile and drive like Jeff Gordon. It took me two years of tinkering with every technique I could find on this forum before I gave it up and now drive it like I stole it, eating up poney cars and ricer boys at every stoplight.
Yes, if basically none of the drive is below highway speed then just drive, but stay within the posted limit, DON'T SPEED. Set your cruise control at the speed limit, and you'll have a less stressful drive in return. Speed is the biggest killer of range.
On my longer 210 mile drives which go from 35 to 65 to 70 mph zones, I'll use hold mode to maximize electric usage on the lower speed areas.
Joined
·
348 Posts
I recommend using EV until you're well onto the highway, then switch to hold. Once you're nearing your exit, switch back to normal. After a few trips like this, you'll be able to effectively use all your battery in the most efficient way.
Here're some tips.
1) You want to keep your ICE running for a long time. Start-Stop is ok (Like what happens in-town), but not as efficient as saving its use for highway miles.
2) Do not be afraid to use all your EV miles. Returning home from a long trip with even 1/4 your battery defeats the purpose of driving an EV.
3) Bring an L1 charger with you. If you're visiting friends or family, they may let you charge up.
Here're some tips.
1) You want to keep your ICE running for a long time. Start-Stop is ok (Like what happens in-town), but not as efficient as saving its use for highway miles.
2) Do not be afraid to use all your EV miles. Returning home from a long trip with even 1/4 your battery defeats the purpose of driving an EV.
3) Bring an L1 charger with you. If you're visiting friends or family, they may let you charge up.
Even a few hours on L1 can yield significant EV range.
Charging at 120V and the default 8 amps: 1 hr: 2.7 miles, 2 hr: 5.4 miles, 3 hr: 8.1 miles, 4 hr: 10.8 miles
Charging at 120V and 12 amps: 1 hr: 4 - 5 miles, 2 hr: 8 - 10 miles, 3 hr: 12 - 15 miles, 4 hr: 16 - 20 miles
You can lock your L1 EVSE to the J1772 port and also loop the charging cord through the front left wheel and secure with a padlock so it is not easy to steal. Except for vandalism, the worst that would happen is that someone might unplug the EVSE from the power outlet.
If you can recover 20 miles of EV range using L1 charging plus some regen and keep to the speed limit while driving you could probably make the 100 mile round trip on the battery + 1/2 gallon of gas. Ignoring the electrons moved that's 200 mpg, not bad at all.
Definitely possible depending on the day.
JRRF, this is exactly your answer and what I do when I have trips of length with mostly freeway miles. Just use your Nav System or preferred cellphone app and when your miles to home is a bit less than the estimated range on the DIC then flip back to electric on the freeway. I say a bit less (maybe 5 miles, depends on how many freeway miles are still in front of you) because you will use it up a bit more at freeway speeds. You'll get better at knowing when to flip to electric after you've done it a few times.
Joined
·
926 Posts
Honestly, if it's a one-off trip, just drive your Volt since it's got a backup plan for you already (ICE). But if you really want to start hypermiling, have you considered following site for trip planning:
https://www.evtripplanner.com/
I takes into account elevation and though it's meant for Teslas, you can at least compare routes to see if one particular route consumes less energy than another. Another thing you can do is compare the to-from routes in terms of elevation changes. I use Google Earth for this. You just set a route and right-click the route and select "Elevation Map". See attached screencap for one of my commutes for an example. I take that commute heading to work sometimes since it only uses 6 kWh (average 52F ambient). If I take that commute home, it uses 7.5 kWh (average 70F ambient). All the while, I use almost no HVAC except for some windshield defogging (maybe 1-2% Climate on my energy distribution screen).
https://www.evtripplanner.com/
I takes into account elevation and though it's meant for Teslas, you can at least compare routes to see if one particular route consumes less energy than another. Another thing you can do is compare the to-from routes in terms of elevation changes. I use Google Earth for this. You just set a route and right-click the route and select "Elevation Map". See attached screencap for one of my commutes for an example. I take that commute heading to work sometimes since it only uses 6 kWh (average 52F ambient). If I take that commute home, it uses 7.5 kWh (average 70F ambient). All the while, I use almost no HVAC except for some windshield defogging (maybe 1-2% Climate on my energy distribution screen).
Attachments
Gallons are not sufficiently granular for expressing fuel consumption in PIHV and the Metric system is too hard to understand so
I propose a new standard. Henceforth PIHV fuel economy will be expressed in SVs and BGs.
1 SV is the amount of liquid automotive fuel that that it takes to fill one Starbucks Venti cup (20 oz.) In addition to the SV there is also the Starbucks Trenta (ST) (31 oz.)
1 BG is the amount of liquid automotive fuel that that it takes to fill one 7-Eleven Big Gulp cup (30 oz.) In addition to the BG there is the Super Big Gulp (SG) (40 oz) and the Double Gulp (DG) (50 oz.)
So your 100 mile round trip will require approximately 3 SVs or 2 STs or 2 BGs of gas. That is to say 33 miles per SV; 50 miles per ST and also 50 miles per BG.
I propose a new standard. Henceforth PIHV fuel economy will be expressed in SVs and BGs.
1 SV is the amount of liquid automotive fuel that that it takes to fill one Starbucks Venti cup (20 oz.) In addition to the SV there is also the Starbucks Trenta (ST) (31 oz.)
1 BG is the amount of liquid automotive fuel that that it takes to fill one 7-Eleven Big Gulp cup (30 oz.) In addition to the BG there is the Super Big Gulp (SG) (40 oz) and the Double Gulp (DG) (50 oz.)
So your 100 mile round trip will require approximately 3 SVs or 2 STs or 2 BGs of gas. That is to say 33 miles per SV; 50 miles per ST and also 50 miles per BG.
Joined
·
13,358 Posts
Better yet, how about the universal measure of beer: pint, quarter keg, half keg, keg.
In college there were a group of guys who got some Greek sweatshirts made with TKB, tappa kegga beer.
Joined
·
894 Posts
If you really want to maximize safety and efficiency, then simply drive 55 MPH on the highway using cruise control.
1 - 20 of 23 Posts
