So freeway driving...

3049 Views 22 Replies 16 Participants Last post by Shivetya, Mar 21, 2017

Shivetya

Discussion Starter · Mar 20, 2017

did my searches, read a few of the hits.

so when doing the long trip, I get once or twice a year from Georgia to Ohio. This route certainly has hill country in Virginia and West Virginia but Kentucky and Tennessee on the return leg isn't flat either.

So EV till freeway then hold when leaving the on ramp, turn off hold when leaving freeway and so on? Does anyone attempt any charging while out on long trips? Is that even worthwhile. Or just flip on mountain mode and let the car sort it out?

I cannot see taking the charging cable unless staying at a relatives home. Figure if the hotel has a charger/s they would have cables attached. Granted getting the spot may be an issue

1 - 20 of 23 Posts

telveer

· #2 · Mar 20, 2017

Unless I am staying overnight or for extended periods at one spot (read 2 hours or more), and charging equipment is easily accessible, I do not bother charging on the road (in other words, I am opportunistic).

As for EV vs Hold, I switch to Hold as soon as I hit the highway. If my destination has charging facilities, I try to reach with as minimal EV range as possible. And if there are mountains, I use Mountain Mode.

Qinsp

· #3 · Mar 20, 2017 (Edited)

Shivetya said:
did my searches, read a few of the hits.

so when doing the long trip, I get once or twice a year from Georgia to Ohio. This route certainly has hill country in Virginia and West Virginia but Kentucky and Tennessee on the return leg isn't flat either.

So EV till freeway then hold when leaving the on ramp, turn off hold when leaving freeway and so on? Does anyone attempt any charging while out on long trips? Is that even worthwhile. Or just flip on mountain mode and let the car sort it out?

I cannot see taking the charging cable unless staying at a relatives home. Figure if the hotel has a charger/s they would have cables attached. Granted getting the spot may be an issue

The HOLD on Freeway method is what we do. If we know there is overnight charging, I kick it out of HOLD 10 to 40 miles before we arrive, depending on charge level.

It's barely worth the effort to do remote charging on the Volt. However, if you are taking a 1 hr break, and there is a FREE L2 charger (go to Plugshare.com and go into filters, turn on:

EV Charging (J1772)
120 Outlet
All various brands of chargers

Then turn OFF:
Payment Required

A J1772 can pick up 10 miles in an hour or less than $1 worth of gasoline.

We normally only do overnight charging when it's free at hotels or within walking distance of a hotel. The Payment Required sites cost wildly more than gasoline.

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Runion

· #4 · Mar 20, 2017

I have a thought as well. As we do have regen, is it even worth the effort to put her in EV mode to catch the regen when going down long steepish hills to capture any regen then back on hold for the flat lands and hills? Or is that just a silly thought?

Thanks
R

TSquare

· #5 · Mar 20, 2017

Runion said:
I have a thought as well. As we do have regen, is it even worth the effort to put her in EV mode to catch the regen when going down long steepish hills to capture any regen then back on hold for the flat lands and hills? Or is that just a silly thought?

Thanks
R

If the hill is long enough and high enough that "normal" cars require the use of their brakes to keep from going too fast, then yes, switching back to EV mode is a good thing. If these "hills" are big enough to require "truck run off areas" then you will find that "L" mode works nicely. You can maintain your speed without using the brakes and regen at the same time.

caronjeff

· #6 · Mar 20, 2017

There are no interstates east of the Mississippi which require mountain mode. Just hop in the car and drive. We always take the EVSE, charge at daughters house and final destination, our month long Florida place. Took a St. Pattys day dinner trip to Inverness and totally happened upon free public L2 charging! Last parking spot in the lot as well, the other EV spot was Iced!

jcanoe

· #7 · Mar 20, 2017

Without knowing your exact departure and destination locations this appears to be about 500 miles, 8 hour drive. Assuming you plan to drive from Georgia to Ohio in one day, the only opportunity to charge for any length of time will be before you depart, while you are in Ohio and prior to your return.

You could shave 50 gas miles off of each leg of the trip, or 10% of the total miles, plus whatever driving you do while in Ohio. That is approximately 2.4 gallons @ 42mpg. Assuming the price of a gallon of gas in Georgia and in Ohio is $2.25, that is $5.35. 100 miles @ 3.1 miles per kwh is 32 kwh. If you leave with a full battery and drive 50 EV miles on the trip to Ohio you only need to charge the Volt for the return trip. 16kwh is more than the Volt's available battery (14kwh) but accounts for charging losses. Assuming you can find a free place to charge the Volt overnight, before you leave for home, then your cost for the first (or last) 50 miles of the trip home is $0. At $1 per hour Level II commercial charging rate it will cost approx. $5 to charge the Volt (5 hours @ 208V, 15 amp), or more if the rate per hour is higher. At my work location I pay $0.20 per kwh to charge, that would be $3.20 (this is much cheaper than most commercial charging locations.) The cost of gas to drive 50 miles is approx. $2.68 (1.2 gallons @ $2.25). So unless you can charge at a free location for the return trip then just plan on using the extra gas.

Instead of carrying your Level I EVSE consider bringing a spare tire and tools along for the trip.

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Taser54

· #8 · Mar 20, 2017

Given that the charging cord stows away beneath the trunk floor, why leave it at home?

flyingsherpa

· #9 · Mar 20, 2017

TSquare said:
If the hill is long enough and high enough that "normal" cars require the use of their brakes to keep from going too fast, then yes, switching back to EV mode is a good thing. If these "hills" are big enough to require "truck run off areas" then you will find that "L" mode works nicely. You can maintain your speed without using the brakes and regen at the same time.

I'm confused by this comment... Volt still does the same regen in Hold mode. There is no advantage to switch in and out of Hold to regen down a hill (well, ok, the computer will probably report the regen'd miles as gas miles if you're in Hold, but that's just odd bookkeeping, you're getting the same regen amount either way). Now if you engaged Hold with a completely full battery and then drove to a long descent, you'd quickly hit a situation where the computer won't allow more energy into the battery (because it's full), so regen will stop. So when you anticipate a long descent, it could be beneficial to only engage Hold once you have drawn the battery down a few bars so the unusually large amount of regen has somewhere to go.

saghost

· #10 · Mar 20, 2017

Runion said:
I have a thought as well. As we do have regen, is it even worth the effort to put her in EV mode to catch the regen when going down long steepish hills to capture any regen then back on hold for the flat lands and hills? Or is that just a silly thought?

Thanks
R

If you're on cruise control in Low and have the battery level low enough to absorb the energy, the car will recapture whatever energy is available automatically, with no additional effort or input from the driver - and either shut the engine down for a while at the bottom of the hill or run it at lower rpm than would otherwise be required to make use of the extra energy.

freshcut

· #11 · Mar 20, 2017

flyingsherpa said:
I'm confused by this comment... Volt still does the same regen in Hold mode. There is no advantage to switch in and out of Hold to regen down a hill

I see your point on this comment. The only thing I can come up with as to the benefit of switching back to normal rather than keeping it in hold would be to reset the hold threshold. I.E. you engage hold mode with 4 bars remaining, regen to 6 bars by the end of the descent. By keeping in hold mode would use the excess 2 bars before reengaging the ICE. Switching to normal would reset the hold threshold to 6 if hold was engaged at the bottom of the descent giving you that much more available for more efficient use than on a freeway.

jcanoe

· #12 · Mar 20, 2017

Taser54 said:
Given that the charging cord stows away beneath the trunk floor, why leave it at home?

I was just pointing out that the Level I EVSE would be of little use on this particular trip while a spare tire and tire changing kit would be a good thing to have when far from home.

I never carry my Level I EVSE in my Volt so I don't think about where it could be stored. In the Gen II Volt there is a storage compartment on the left side of hatch storage area for the EVSE. I use this space to store other car stuff.

Myronbg

· #13 · Mar 20, 2017

As others have commented, I use EV in cities and Hold on the freeways. However, when going up & down hills & in CC, I use Low going down the hill as it maintains the speed I selected otherwise the speed increases, in hold in D, going down hill.

TSquare

· #14 · Mar 20, 2017

flyingsherpa said:
I'm confused by this comment... Volt still does the same regen in Hold mode. There is no advantage to switch in and out of Hold to regen down a hill (well, ok, the computer will probably report the regen'd miles as gas miles if you're in Hold, but that's just odd bookkeeping, you're getting the same regen amount either way). Now if you engaged Hold with a completely full battery and then drove to a long descent, you'd quickly hit a situation where the computer won't allow more energy into the battery (because it's full), so regen will stop. So when you anticipate a long descent, it could be beneficial to only engage Hold once you have drawn the battery down a few bars so the unusually large amount of regen has somewhere to go.

If you leave it in Hold Mode while going downhill, you do get the same effects from regen, but at the bottom of the hill, the ICE will shut off because your battery is now above your 'hold setting". It will use the battery only until it's SOC returns to your "hold setting point". By switching to EV Mode on the downhill side then re-engaging Hold Mode at the bottom of the hill you reset the Hold Mode SOC to the new higher level. You received some "gravity sourced" free charge into the battery.

SuperJ

· #15 · Mar 20, 2017

TSquare said:
If you leave it in Hold Mode while going downhill, you do get the same effects from regen, but at the bottom of the hill, the ICE will shut off because your battery is now above your 'hold setting". It will use the battery only until it's SOC returns to your "hold setting point". By switching to EV Mode on the downhill side then re-engaging Hold Mode at the bottom of the hill you reset the Hold Mode SOC to the new higher level. You received some "gravity sourced" free charge into the battery.

You also get to count your mileage as EV (on the energy display) if you care about such things. Otherwise it counts the mileage as ICE even though you aren't burning any gas.

hellsop

· #16 · Mar 20, 2017

SuperJ said:
You also get to count your mileage as EV (on the energy display) if you care about such things. Otherwise it counts the mileage as ICE even though you aren't burning any gas.

But your MPGcs will be awesome.

flyingsherpa

· #17 · Mar 20, 2017 (Edited)

TSquare said:
If you leave it in Hold Mode while going downhill, you do get the same effects from regen, but at the bottom of the hill, the ICE will shut off because your battery is now above your 'hold setting". It will use the battery only until it's SOC returns to your "hold setting point". By switching to EV Mode on the downhill side then re-engaging Hold Mode at the bottom of the hill you reset the Hold Mode SOC to the new higher level. You received some "gravity sourced" free charge into the battery.

But if you plan on using all your charge by the time you reach your next charging station (and you should), there is no difference. The regen gets used to move the car the exact same amount in either scenario (it may show a difference on the screen, but that's just funny bookkeeping).

Edit: I see above where someone commented that you could use that method to save the extra bars of regen for use in non-highway driving where they are a bit more efficient. I concede that point, though it's a small benefit and I don't think it's worth playing these games (IMHO, others are free to disagree). Perhaps if I found myself in a scenario where I had only a few bars, a long descent, and knew I was going to be doing a ton of city driving w/o the opportunity to recharge... maybe I would do this. Not likely anywhere in my half of the country.

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Shivetya

Discussion Starter · #18 · Mar 20, 2017

So how many actually tote along a spare? This is the first no spare without run flats but I cannot honestly remember the last time I had a flat except on my bike

Qinsp

· #19 · Mar 20, 2017

LRR tires have thinner plies. A nail that would bent against a regular steel radial often will go into a LRR tire.

I put self-sealing tires on the 2017 and 2016. So far so good. We have had 4? flat tires in 4 years with 3 Volts. None in the pickups.

srmarti

· #20 · Mar 21, 2017

I just drove in hold mode and didn't bother looking for charge opportunities. I had too much else to do anyway.

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