Keep it plugged in if you can. It will automatically run the a/c to cool the battery and keep it healthy (if it's only for a few days). If you were to leave it for months at a time, from my understanding you should park it with the battery at 50% and leave it unplugged.
The car will cool it's battery when necessary, whether it's plugged in or not - Doesn't it seem really odd that anyone would recommend leaving it plugged in for 'a few days' yet leaving it unplugged for 'months at a time'?
Except no one has ever produced any documentation or evidence of a Volt's battery temperature management system (TMS) cooling the battery pack when the Volt was not plugged in.
Except I heard mine come on when it wasn't plugged in. Same sound it makes when I plug it in and charging the battery. It's warm (80) but not that warm. Only heard it the once though (so far), had the car almost three months.
Not sure what that sounds like or where it comes from or why it would come on. The car had been sitting there for some time, it's not like it had just been used. I do know it sounds just like the whirring sound the car makes when I'm charging it.
For just 5 days I would leave it plugged in. I have left mine plugged in for over 2 months, on the belief that it would cool itself during the summer months, but lately I have read that it will only do this for a week or so. After that it won't cool the battery even if it is plugged in. So if I ever have to leave it for more than a week in the future I will drain it to about 50% and leave it unplugged.
I also usually put a "battery tender jr" on the 12V battery, but for only 5 days I don't think that would be needed.
As a result of spending a lot of time away from home in the past, I have only about 25K miles on my 2013. It still feels like a new car.
The battery had been getting around 9.8 kwh / 42 miles per charge but in the last week or so I ran it all the way to zero before recharging a couple of times and yesterday I was up to about 10.3 kwh 44 miles used when I pulled into the garage, with 3 miles remaining. That's with A/C running on ECO set to 73 degrees the whole time. Pretty good for a 5 year old battery.
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