For now, it'll be indefinitely permanent. I'll have almost 0 chance of being able to charge it as I don't have access at work either. I love driving it on electric, but when the gas kicks in, ehhh.
Moving to a place with no electric outlets does not necessarily mean you can’t own a Volt and drive it on electricity (and is the window sticker rating of 37 mpg when using gas really that insufficient?).
Just to be clear, the Gen 1 Volt is always running on electricity. When its battery is depleted, the gas engine gets clutched to the smaller electric motor and generates electricity as needed to fuel the main motor. GM calls this "electric-like" driving because, even in Extended Range Mode, the electric motor is propelling the car.
If you cannot recharge from a wall plug at home or at work, you could use your 2015 Volt’s own ability to self-charge itself to the ~4 bar state of charge level. If your daily commute is no longer than ~15 miles in each direction, your daily commute could still be all-electric. You just recharge by, so to speak, plugging into the car’s gas generator while parked instead of into the wall.
The Self Charging Chevy Volt youtube video shows a 2012 Volt using Mountain Mode to recharge a fully depleted battery to the MM-maintained level (~14 ev miles, or ~4 bars) while parked. The process takes 15 minutes, using 0.36 gallons of gas. I’ve done it with my 2012 Volt, achieving similar numbers. Might take only a bit more for a 2015 Volt.
Try the MM-recharging while parked procedure once to get your own numbers for gas used and time needed to recharge. Then drive until your battery is again fully depleted to learn how far you can drive on that MM-recharged power.
If using 0.36 gallons of gas (or whatever your number is) to MM-recharge the fully depleted battery will provide enough battery power to drive X miles, is the distance you can drive using 0.36 gallons of gas in Hold Mode (or while fully depleted) about the same X miles? More? Less?
Sure, the cost of gas to self-charge your Volt to the MM-maintained level is probably more than the cost of electricity from the wall at home needed to recharge the battery to the same level, but it does enable you to keep your Volt and to drive it on battery power.
...and, using gas to self-charge would increase the acceptability of using public L2 chargers (around your home, or work, or grocery store) that charge about the price of a gallon of gas to fully recharge your Volt... and might also spur the inclination to see what else is available... two blocks from my sister’s home is the movie theater parking lot at a local mall with two free L2 charging spots that are rarely occupied... the L2 spots by the local Kohl’s stores in my area are free to customers... or perhaps a very-heavy-duty extension cord would reach from an outlet in your home to your car to permit 8 amp charging...
