Chevy Volt (good earth day post.)
 

I was not sure where to post about a EV car but Conservation seems to be a good place since we are really conserving gasoline!
I have posted about it in my solar thread but I always thought it should stand on its own.

The Volt is really an EV with extended range generator.

When in EV mode it just uses the battery. Up to 100 mph so I am told anyway because I have never driven it that fast.

We bought a Chevy Volt Feb 2013 we love the car.

We have driven 20,029 EV miles solar power so great Earth day number.

We have driven 4,092 miles on gas we have used a total 119 gallons of gas in the car.

No oil changes, no trip back to the dealer. I did rotate my own tires and have the windows tinted.

The Volt will charge @ 120 volts but we use 240 a full charge takes about 4 hours for a full charge. The very nice thing with the volt is when your charge runs out it switches to gas and keep going. This is even better for people like us that don’t live in town. So if you need gas for part of your trip the first EV part still allows some great MPG.

It is about $1.20 to charge with .10 kwh power but even better if you have solar. Solar and EV’s go hand and hand.

We have enough solar capacity to cover our house and charge our car most months.
Chevy Volt Electric Car | FAQ | Chevrolet

Here is a picture my Volt getting a drink at Greenville SC Zoo free EV power provided to promote clean driving.


If you have an EV lets hear from you. What do you have how is it working for you?

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...st-voltzoo-jpg

Our 14 month old Chevy Volt just hit 1,001 gallons of gas saved.
We have 26,006 miles on it with a lifetime MPG 201 (we have used 129 gallons gas since buying it)
We have driven 21,510 electric solar power miles.
No oil changes needed. That has saved doing 8 oil changes for that many miles.
No reduction in EV (elect Miles) on a charge actually we get more now but that is because we a use to driving it now.


For my nonsolar power fiends.
Our power cost .10 KWh we get about 40 miles on a charge (more is the summer less in the winter this is adv)
The cost of electricity to drive all those miles was $645 the cost of gas was $3,300. (I put gas cost @3.30)
8 oil changes @20 =$160
Without solar the savings was still $2,814.7

Very nice. I really like the idea of a Volt with the smaller EV range and then a backup engine when needed. I don't need much range to go to work and back each day (14 miles total). So, it would almost never spin up the engine.

It has really worked out good for us. We drive our kids to school 39 miles round trip charge up and do it again in the afternoon. So we drive 80 or more EV miles a day.

The other day I was picking my son up from a party and I did not go the interstate I got 50 EV miles on a one charge. (40-42 when it is warm out in more the norm)

You would not need gas until you did a longer weekend trip.

Yep, it would be great. My main hang up is I'm not willing to dish out that much for the car. However, I am thinking about doing a DIY PHEV conversion on a car of mine... if I ever get time to get around to doing it! I've helped a few local guys build EVs of different sorts (cars, trucks, motorcycles), and my riding lawn mower is a EV conversion done by myself. Its a heck of a lot of fun.

They are not cheap but cheaper than they were.
Volt with the new lower price is about 32,000 – 7,500 Fed tax credit = 24,500

Some states give a tax credit SC gives $1,999 tax credit. That puts it at $22,500
It is alot nicer than most $22,500 cars. The also run 0% interest on top of that for time to time.


It will be fun reading about your conversion.

I have talked to a few Volt owners locally and they are somewhat happy with them. The reason they aren't really happy is because they don't get the results like you have shown and that's because of our climate here. We run the AC in cars basically 9 months a year and that drops the range allot. But then you add in the drop in mileage due to the fact that our temps are so hot and that has a big effect on how well batteries output and charge and heat dramatically shortens battery life.
The people I have talked to here rarely go a day driving without the engine starting once. Also we have allot of miles to drive for everything here.

That said even with the drawbacks it still isn't a bad car though when I compared economics the daughters little Versa note was equivalent to operate unless you have free charging stations or solar.

Running AC does not take that much range away now running the heater does take a lot of range away.

When I got 50 mile on one charge the other day the AC ran the whole time. I would like to see them switch to a heat pump for heat.

The lithium batteries are really pampered they are water cooled and they are warranted for 8 years 100,000 miles. There are people with 50,000 EV miles that have not lost range.

Here are some actual Volt drives numbers.
Volt Stats! Tracking real world usage of Chevy Volts in the wild...

With all EV or EV extended range cars you need to look at how you use your car and see if it is a good fit.
They are not the right fit for everyone but for lots of people the work very well.

It has some of the highest owner satisfaction of any car.
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/11/29/c...er-satisfacti/

The Volt is also crazy conservative on how much pack capacity you use. It has a 16 or 17 kWh pack, of which you can only use 12 kWh (I believe). Reducing the depth of discharge with this technique is what gives the Toyota/Ford hybrids the ridiculously long battery life they have.

Todays Volt has a battery pack of 16.5 kilowatt-hours, of which it uses only 10.8 kWh–or 65 percent.

Thanks for clarifying. :)

I was reading the face book Q&A with a Chevy Volt engineer

here is the question to him

In testing the battery, how long do you think it will last past the 100,000 mile warranty?

Here is a quote from GM
“We have batteries under test at our battery lab in Warren, Mich. exceeding 200,000 miles. They are performing to our expectations – Bill”

This is great news.

We are at 22,495 EV miles and increasing.

65 EV miles today no gas usage just solar power.

But is that 200,ooo simulated miles in six months, or 200k miles driven over 7 years? I'm still skeptical about the battery packs in the hybrids.

The Volt is obviously a different beast, but I talked to a guy at hybridfest a few years back who had 350k miles on his first gen Prius with an original battery pack. That would have made his car nearly 10 years old and a crazy amount of miles on it. For those in the know, Toyota hybrids seem to have virtually no issues. Honda on the other hand hasn't been as lucky... IMO the Volt was very conservatively designed and will last a long time.

On Volt stats the most EV miles I see is 74,411.22
Volt Stats: Details for Volt #2011-00338 (Joe's Volt)
Chevy warranties the battery’s 8 Years/100,000 in CA it is 150,000 miles
This car has only been out sense 2011 so it will be a while for actual time and road miles.

But one thing is for sure Volt drivers are saving a lot of gas.
“Chevrolet Volt Drivers Cover Half a Billion EV Miles, Says GM”
25 million gallons in fuel savings for the U.S. alone.

Chevrolet Volt Drivers Cover Half a Billion EV Miles, Says GM

The mystery of the Chevy Volts that go more electric miles than Nissan Leafs

I think it has to do with range anxiety and with the volt you know the gas generator will just take over.
Yesterday I had 2 EV miles left when I got home on a 41 mile trip. if I did not have gas generator backup I would not cut it that close.

This is very cool news.

“A recent survey found that 32 percent of electric vehicle (EV) owners in the western U.S. have solar panels on their homes.”


This Is Why It Makes Sense to Pair Solar With Electric Vehicles : Greentech Media

Another good read

Need a New Car? Combining Solar Panels and Electric Cars Makes Perfect Financial Sense
Need a New Car? Combining Solar Panels and Electric Cars Makes Perfect Financial Sense | EnergySage

I am living this and if you install your solar yourself the numbers work out much better than what they have stated.

Is the best explanation on how the Volt operates I have seen to date.
Chevrolet Volt Drive Simulation - YouTube

Here is someone taking apart a Volt battery pack to be used to power another car.
Dissecting the Chevy Volt's electric drivetrain - YouTube
Same guy looking at the inverter.
2013 Chevy Volt Motor, Gearbox, Inverter - YouTube
I really hope I can use one of these battery packs to power my home someday.

You can tell school is back here. We drove 100 EV miles today and used 0 gas. luckily it was sunny so the solar covered the house and the car charging 2 ½ times.

We are at 24,253 EV miles and increasing. Saving buying 1,130 gallons of gas so far.
Charging with Solar Power.

I will have to do my first oil change pretty soon we have 29,289 miles on the car and oil life is down to 10% remaining life left on the oil.

This is pretty cool they have 66,460.74EV miles and they posted they have no range loos at all so far this is good news.
https://www.voltstats.net/Stats/Details/371

We had 110 EV miles today this is about 2 3/4 charges with a total 24,709 EV miles. So far and no range difference.

Chevy Volt Owners Pass 1 Billion Total Miles
Volt owners have saved over 32.5 million gallons of fuel.
Chevy Volt Owners Pass 1 Billion Total Miles


We have driven 28,260 EV miles and saved 1,318 gallons of gas!

Official GM media release
http://media.gm.ca/media/us/en/gm/ne...ltecdrive.html

Official Volt 2.0 Powertrain YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6R5JOoYT_s

How much range do you loose in winter?

AC does not really take that much range off. But heat is a different story.
It has to heat the battery and the passenger compartment. It usually drops us down to about 33 EV miles.
On cold days my wife will precondition the cab while it is plugged in this helps warm up the car using the house power. The heater is not near as strong as AC is. They need to install a heat pump! Maybe Volt 2.0 that will be announced in Jan.

I really need to move the car in the grange that would help even more.

We are under two years and we have a life time MPG 209.
83% EV miles total 29,174 solar powered EV miles.
On star posts my cars info to this web site.

Volt Stats: Details for Volt #2013-02615 (Flynn's Light Runner)

It is amazing how much money in gas we have saved. We have saved buying 1,360 gallons of gas so far. Most of that was with gas @3.50 a gal.

The Volt gets
Kelley Blue Book Best Buys of 2015: Electric/Hybrid Car
http://www.kbb.com/car-news/all-the-...ar/2000011407/

Yeah, I've been watching for the news on the new Volt. It looks like they're going to make some substantial updates. I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Here is PLUG1N post I thought some others would like to see it.
63,122 EV miles in three years.

Here is a quote from his post.
"By around year 7, my gas savings will have paid for my investment in my Volt. Probably year 6 or sooner if I include maintenance.
I plan on keeping my Volt for a long time. I have no interest in upgrading to Volt 2.0. Plus I am keen to find out how many EV miles I can get out of my battery. So far no degradation at 63,000 miles. "

This is not typical results.
We have 29,831 EV miles in less than two years. But we have driven 6,162 gas miles in that time lifetime mpg 205.


http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1417723439







here is a link to live stats.
https://www.voltstats.net/Stats/Details/371

Ok more Volt info.
First Chevy Volt To 200,000 Miles

Reliability is always on our minds buying new tech.
Here is sparkie Volt 2011 Volt just went over 200,000 miles 72,000 EV miles

Volt Stats: Details for Volt #2012-07353 (sparkie)

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1417799569

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1417799569


Here is a Nissan Leaf just hitting 100,000 miles
http://insideevs.com/first-nissan-le...-100000-miles/
but it has a capacity is down about 21% so he is shopping for a new battery pack.

Wow that is a lot of miles! Its great to see they're holding up so well.

Yes Erick (sparkie) drives 220 miles a day to work. We only drive 80-100 but mostly EV miles.

I have been watching the higher mileage cars to see how they are doing. We will be there in no time at all and I want to know what is in store for us. Since the Volt only came out 2011 there is not a lot of data yet on high mile cars these guys are breaking new ground. But that ground looks good so far.

A lot of Volts are coming off lease so the used market should be filling up with them. I have seen them selling for 15-22K with 15-36K miles on them. The tax credit and current model price reduction has helped drive the price down.

Some people will be picking up some nice used cars.

I keep an eye on them every once in a while on craigslist. The cheapest I've seen is $13k for a 2012 that had 100k miles on it already.

Our Volt just went over 30K solar powered miles. With 1,400 gallons of gas saved under two years.

Only maintenance required was a couple tire rotations and one oil change.
I do the tire rotations and the oil change. I run mobile 1 one with AC Delco OEM filter it was about $32 for the oil change. Not bad for 36k miles.


http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...2014-12-09-jpg

The New redesigned Volt 2.0 was announced today.
50 EV miles and 41 MPG combined.
They say it will come in at a lower price also. Faster 0-30 and faster 0-60 times.
It no longer requires premium gas. All kinds of other upgrades.
2016 Chevy Volt arrives with 50-mile EV range, 41 mpg

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/201...ild-2015010818

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1421083475


I really like lot of the things they changed they worked with current Volt owners to see what they wanted changed. They really addressed most of what everybody wanted.
All that being said we will not be moving away from our current Volt. We have 31K solar powered EV miles and the car is doing great.

I think the first Volt was to see if they could do it and how it would work out in the wild. Now this version is for the masses.


Some pictures of the new two electric motors.
http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/28/2...ttery/#image-6

I agree, the new Volt looks great, and the improvements made to it are very nice. I'll be looking forward to seeing what they do with it price wise.

They have not release pricing yet but the have said in the past 30K before tax credits was the target. That puts it @22,500 after 7,500 Fed tax credit unless you have state tax credits we have 2K on top of federal tax credit.

That would put it @20,500 for us in SC. some other states have bigger tax credits than we do.

There are a lot of Gen one Volts coming off lease this will reduce their value even more.
So a great deal on a Gen one Volt might be a good option also.

Can a Plug-in Hybrid Save you Money?

Try this “My Plug-in Hybrid Calculator”

PHEV Fuel Economy

It is very cool you can put detail information on your driving then switch between cars to see what one will save you money.

For people with solar you can enter 0 for the price of power and it will show your savings.


A video of the highlights
2016 Chevrolet Volt Preview: 2015 Detroit Auto Show - YouTube

I am always posting my Volt numbers. Here is another 2013 Volts numbers.
This is what he wrote about it. He drives even more than we do.


"A tale of Mike and Danielle's Chevy Volt.. The hard numbers.

No its not 4,350 mpg.. Like some others..

But "153" mpg over 64k miles is not too shabby.


Saved 3,000 "gallons" of fuel vs GMC truck @ 17 mpg.. At average of $3.50 over that time equals $10,500.00 USD actual cash saved on fuel.

Shocked more people do not own this amazing car."

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1421692463

A guy posted on face book this cool picture.
He says the
“turbine relatively disappointing, excepting massive rebate. 45' tower, windy location...puts out enough power to run a small refrigerator...The 60 solar panels I have ~ 10KWh have been keeping the energy (grid-connected) negative, to the tune of saving ~ 5K/yr.”


Good old CA high elect rates.
As you probably already know he has a Chevy Volt and a Tesla. (pictured)
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1421959995

I like his organic Alarm system as well as his cars.. happy looking beast.

$5k a year on electricity!!!!? What's he powering?

Yes I tried to get his rate info he said his rate was Rate 7 PGE I am not from CA so I don’t know how much that is. I also tried to find out how much he produced for last year. He did not share that info.

I have a 12.5 KW roof solar array and 2014 We made 19.5MWh depending on has rate his 10K array in CA could be saving lots of money. He makes wine at his place.

He shared his install cost.
“First install of 7+ KWh ground array, 44 200W panels was in the neighborhood of 55K, maybe 7 years ago. Second install of 16 240W roof mounted panels 30K+ about 3 years ago. The output of the 16 Sunpower panels is pretty close to the output of a single 22 Panel ground array.”

I am sure glad I did a self-install for $1.77 watt before tax credits and .76 watt after tax credits.
This price includes TED monitoring and every wire, clamp, glue fittings….
My install was only about two years ago solar has come way down in price.

His cars would of consumed a lot of the 5k in electrical savings.