[Larryakoch]

When I have exhausted the electric range I don't see new miles posted to the range. Am I still getting regen benefits?

 

[scrambler]

Once the battery is empty, you are running using electricity produced by the Gas engine.
During that time, all regen miles will be credited to the gas engine, because you are recuperating energy that was generated by the gas engine.

 

[freshcut]

The Gen 1 does the same thing. I've zeroed my "GOM" just prior to going down a long grade down here in socal (grapevine for those familiar). Normally I can recoup about 10 miles of range but my GOM stays zeroed out and all miles are considered gas in my energy usage page. I do however notice that for several miles beyond the base of the descent my ICE stays off and I'm running exclusively on EV.

So with that, the long answer is, yes, but it doesn't show anywhere except in your mpg rating since those miles may count as gas miles, but your gallons used does not increase.

 

[Sean-a-Tron]

Once you enter REx mode, you can no longer use your EV battery how you choose. Until you plug in, all energy energy gained is used how the Volt's computer sees fit. All of those miles will unfortunately show up as gas miles.

 

[ClarksonCote]

Once the battery is empty, you are running using electricity produced by the Gas engine.
During that time, all regen miles will be credited to the gas engine, because you are recuperating energy that was generated by the gas engine.

This just about sums it up. EV miles are counted for electricity from the grid, not electricity generated from gasoline. Ford is the only one that counts regen miles as EV miles, which is extremely misleading. I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been any lawsuit forcing them to stop.

 

[El Dobro]

Look at the bright side, when in EV mode, you can watch your kWh usage click down when you regen. 7.6, 7.5, 7.4 ....

 

[llninja]

Stop looking at your DIC and center display and just drive. It doesn't really matter which bucket the metric gets reported in as your overall mileage is king. Remember when ICE vehicles had no MPG meter at all and you had to compute it by dividing the odometer reading by the fuel pumped? A giant piece of black electrical tape can get you back to retro where you just drive without all of this advanced telemetry.

 

[AZ EV Driver]

At least on my Gen1 I have been able to "game" the EV range. On a trip that included a 4k ft increase in elevation and a return back down. I put the Volt in "Mountain Mode" from the start of the trip up as well as all driving at elevation. As soon as I started back down I put the Volt in "Normal" driving in EV + regen, and then back to MM when I encountered some up hill sections and range dropped to about 5 miles. When I started down hill again back to Normal. In this case all miles driven on the ICE while in MM were counted as GAS miles and all miles driven in Normal (EV + regen) were counted as EV battery miles. The result was 68.6 EV miles and 74.9 gas miles (2.48 gal = 30.2 mpg) - great EV miles, poor gas economy. Without having "Hold Mode" it's the only way I've been able to figure out how to boost the EV miles taking advantage of regen on a trip like this. Admittedly it is "gaming" the system - sort of.

VIN # B0985

 

[alfon]

With our 2016 Volt I have noticed when my wife and I take a trip down the coast, 130 miles or so total, and 60 miles or so on gas, when I arrive a few miles from home, I usually have a few miles of electric left and then with the battery exhausted and 0 range indicated I'm still running on electricity for a mile or so and the computer is adding them as gas miles. Just seems strange like those electrons just appeared preventing the gas motor from starting up. No complaints last fishing trip we ended that trip with 60.2 mpg on gas, 57.9 miles, and nearly 70 miles on electric. That is about as good as it would get for our 2010 Prius for gas mpg's.

 

[obermd]

Just seems strange like those electrons just appeared preventing the gas motor from starting up.

This is how the car is designed. When running ICE the car will still regen. Whenever enough electric power has built up in the battery (above hold mode, mountain mode, or "discharged" state) the Volt automatically switches over to electric, especially at low speeds. The car is programmed to drive electric as much as possible.

 

[wordptom]

Regenerative braking was designed as an alternative to friction braking for electric cars. That it also recharges the battery is a bonus, but it’s called regenerative braking, not regenerative refueling. Braking is performed in all modes of driving, and the use of that regen increases the efficiency of the driving mode under which it was created.

The Gen 1 Volt has been said to allow the driver to experience electric driving when using grid power from the battery, and "electric-like" driving when using gas-generated electricity. The energy usage screen allows the owner to evaluate the Volt’s performance under the two "electric" modes of operation. For the Gen 1 Volt, 100% of the odometer miles are in this sense "electric" miles. It is unclear why using gas-generated electricity to fuel an electric car’s electric motor is not considered "electric" driving.

 

[Steverino]

It is unclear why using gas-generated electricity to fuel an electric car’s electric motor is not considered "electric" driving.

Because it was paid for by gas dollars, not home electricity dollars. The regen is not a perpetual motion machine, it did not generate the electricity out of thin air. Instead, it's recapturing some of the electricity created by the gas engine. Hence gas miles not electric miles.

 

[wordptom]

Sorry, Steverino, if my posting was unclear. I was musing why an electric car must be powered by grid electricity to be considered as "driving on electricity" (are fuel cell car distances called "hydrogen" miles?). The Gen 1 Volt uses a gas generator to create electricity as fuel for the electric motor to propel the car in extended range mode. In doing so, the Gen 1 Volt continues to run on electricity after the battery is fully depleted.

The Gen 1 Volt’s energy usage screen identifies distances driven on grid electricity as "electric" miles and distances driven on gas-generated electricity as "gas" miles. I think that’s intended to enable the owner to use the "electric" stats to compare the Volt’s performance as an electric car (using grid power) to any Tesla, Leaf, or other BEV, rather than to separate "grid-powered" miles from "ICE-is-on-and-using-gas" miles (lots of battery-powered miles are recorded as "Gas" miles). I suspect this failure to clarify that the Volt switches from grid power to gas-generated power when the battery is depleted, and doesn’t just switch from electric motor propulsion to gas engine propulsion, helped promote the development of the Gen 2 Volt as a gas hybrid car, rather than as a more powerful gas-generated-electricity-powered car, when in Extended Range Mode.

As for regen attribution, it actually seems a bit more complicated than we want it to be. Braking regeneration on level terrain (as distinct from downhill regen) recaptures some of the battery power used to accelerate the car, it doesn’t recapture battery power used to maintain speed. If you accelerate in Normal, you’re using grid power. If you then switch to Hold Mode (or fully deplete your battery), and THEN slow down, the regen is technically recapturing the grid electricity from the wall that was used to accelerate the car way back when, but since the braking (regen capture) was done while driving in Hold (or after all your grid power has been used), the use of that regen is then credited to Gas miles.