[Christian777]

Couldn't find a relevant post so I wanted to ask everyone who had to replace or repair their first generation volt traction/high voltage battery: What was your typical use of the Volt like? How often and how far did you usually drive and charge? Did you notice the battery having issues after anything unusual happened? How old and how many miles were on the car when it went bad?

Trying to aggregate some data for failure points and life expectancy and appreciate your responses. Thanks.

 

[caronjeff]

Another very relevant question would be how often was the failed battery parked in freezing conditions, or extremely hot conditions without being plugged in.

 

[Steverino]

Another very relevant question would be how often was the failed battery parked in freezing conditions, or extremely hot conditions without being plugged in.

Of the two, only heat is a battery killer. And of course, without a definition, "extremely hot" is subjective.

The OP is not going to get very much data. The sample size will be small.

 

[clublife.peoria]

I honestly don’t know. I bought my 2012 used and it shows it has been titled in Georgia, Florida, Virginia, and Missouri over the years. I also don’t know how often it was plugged in, or sat in a hot parking lot without a charge, but do know that my HV battery failed around 9 years of use (based on the original in service data found via Carfax). YMMV…

 

[clublife.peoria]

Couldn't find a relevant post so I wanted to ask everyone who had to replace or repair their first generation volt traction/high voltage battery: What was your typical use of the Volt like? How often and how far did you usually drive and charge? Did you notice the battery having issues after anything unusual happened? How old and how many miles were on the car when it went bad?

Trying to aggregate some data for failure points and life expectancy and appreciate your responses. Thanks.

To try and answer to the best of my ability, as I only owned the car <7 months before my HV battery failure:

1. Typical use: to work and back, 105 miles round trip every day.
2. Charged whenever possible, at home and at work if I didn’t need to use the car during the day.
3. Yes. Lots of PPR in the winter, engine reviving to the moon, park it with 5-10 miles left on the GOM and come back to 0 miles of battery remaining.
4. 9+ years based on in service date, 6+ months of me using it. Failed at 76k miles but started doing some weird stuff 66,500-76k.

I honestly believe the previous owner knew this was coming and traded the car in. Bought for $10,250 out the door and had to replace the $9,500 HV battery within the first year.

If I didn’t love the car it would be SOLD by now.

 

[uchual]

Couldn't find a relevant post so I wanted to ask everyone who had to replace or repair their first generation volt traction/high voltage battery: What was your typical use of the Volt like? How often and how far did you usually drive and charge? Did you notice the battery having issues after anything unusual happened? How old and how many miles were on the car when it went bad?

Trying to aggregate some data for failure points and life expectancy and appreciate your responses. Thanks.

As said, I don't really see you getting many responses to your question.

If the idea is data compilation, you're going to have to put some effort and browse through the posts that talk about HV battery replacement. Then dig for cues in each post as for location, mileage and general maintenance status of each vehicle mentioned.

 

[clublife.peoria]

As said, I don't really see you getting many responses to your question.

If the idea is data compilation, you're going to have to put some effort and browse through the posts that talk about HV battery replacement. Then dig for cues in each post as for location, mileage and general maintenance status of each vehicle mentioned.

I honestly see this changing 5 years from now. The oldest Gen 1's are only 10.5ish years old right now. On the Toyota forums we have members talking about repairing vehicles that are 20+ years old. Once the Gen 2's are 10+ years old we will start to see battery issues there too, IMO. I really don't see these batteries going 15-20 years without any issues...

 

[caronjeff]

There’s no other car on the market today like the Volt. Many would like to extend the life of this car. My 2011 with 176,200 on the odometer still rides and handles like it did at 3 years old and 76K miles. Maybe I’ll put in a brand new $9,500 battery while it’s still available. That said actually my 10 year old battery seems healthy although degraded. The best she will do anymore is about 32-34 miles range, and typically 26-30. But the point is why throw away a perfectly good car in every other respect because of an weak battery. Is $9,500 getting us a brand new out of the factory battery?

 

[hellsop]

Maybe I’ll put in a brand new $9,500 battery while it’s still available. That said actually my 10 year old battery seems healthy although degraded.

Again, we have no evidence that there are brand new $9500 batteries. I, at least, suspect that there are $9500 batteries with mix-and-matched 10-year-old cells in them. That's obviously better than a dead battery. But may not be better than a Mach-E with a $7500 tax advantage tacked on.

 

[clublife.peoria]

Again, we have no evidence that there are brand new $9500 batteries. I, at least, suspect that there are $9500 batteries with mix-and-matched 10-year-old cells in them. That's obviously better than a dead battery. But may not be better than a Mach-E with a $7500 tax advantage tacked on.

Correct. The available batteries from GM are all remanufactured and have a little bit of a lead time as they need to be shipped. I have no idea how many they keep on hand, but based on their lack of wanting to just do battery swaps without serious diagnostics (oftentimes several days worth with a GM tech on the phone) I don't think they have too many available...