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Old 10-07-13, 09:12 AM   #81
Robaroni
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Originally Posted by pinballlooking View Post
I don’t think EV’s are not just in town cars anymore. Tesla has amazing range I guy I know just bought a Leaf for his wife it is working well they don’t live in town.
We don’t live in town and the volt works very well for us. The have turned the corner and are no longer just in town cars.

The Volt will charge the 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.


If you are ever wondering about real world Volt users go here.
Volt Stats! Tracking real world usage of Chevy Volts in the wild...
Volt owners.
GM-Volt: Chevy Volt Forum
PB,
What really sticks out is the time using EV mode. Most of what I see being in the high 90%.
Just wondering what's the sked maint. on the ICE for that car?
Rob

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Old 10-07-13, 09:37 AM   #82
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The oil changes are based off the oil sensor but I don’t think it will let you go more than 24 months.
If you don’t use gas X amount of time maybe a year? (I will not see fuel maint. Mode because we use some gas.) It will make you use some gas so the tank does not become sludge.
You drive in L and you get more regen so you can slow down without using breaks and you recharge the batteries. This will make your brakes last a lot longer and save energy also.
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Old 10-07-13, 09:14 PM   #83
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pinballlooking,

An Ev still has to find a outlet, no matter how big there battery is. You can't get around it. Plan your trips carefully. I wish the USA was Ev friendly but it's not. I totally would love to dump oil and coal, a big reason why I have solar. I'm trying to be realistic. Ev is not prime time, I wish it was.
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Old 10-07-13, 09:24 PM   #84
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Not realty true The Volt can just run on its generator if you need it to. That way if you run out of EV miles it will just start up and still get you home.
2014 Volt: Electric Car - Hybrid Car | Chevrolet
The Volt is very prime time and the future is now.
Today my wife drove 80 miles and 4 of them were using gas. We did not have time to get a complete charge for the second run because she had other places to go. But no problem the generator just took over.
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Old 10-08-13, 09:13 AM   #85
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pinballlooking,

Thanks for the link, I thought the Volt was $42k. Prices have sure dropped.

The Volt is a Hybrid. That's the perfect car to own.

It's prime time for Hybrid cars.

I own a Prius Hybrid.

The Prius Plug-in is an Hybrid.

Leaf and Tesla is a EV.

I'm talking about electric vehicles (EV). It's not prime time for ev.
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Old 10-08-13, 09:21 AM   #86
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It all depends what you're wanting to do with the car. If you need a commuter, then the current EVs are more than enough. I know a leaf owner in the Milwaukee area and he has never had any issues with range. However, if you're a sales person who drives a ton of miles every day, or you want to take a cross country trip, then you're going to have issues to work around (but it can be done).
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Old 10-08-13, 09:29 AM   #87
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pinballlooking,

Will the Volt charge the traction battery while running on ice (internal combustion engine)? The Prius is built to do that. I can charge while driving. I was told the Volt can't charge traction battery while driving only from an outlet. That's why while driving on ice the mpg drops to around 32 and the Prius is still getting 55 to 60 mpg.
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Old 10-08-13, 09:35 AM   #88
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Daox,

Your proving my point, ev is great for in town. Hybrid is prime time.

Daox, I'm trying to make that exact point. Thanks.
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Old 10-08-13, 09:41 AM   #89
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pinballlooking,

Will the Volt charge the traction battery while running on ice (internal combustion engine)? The Prius is built to do that. I can charge while driving. I was told the Volt can't charge traction battery while driving only from an outlet.
There is a mountain mode the will charge the battery to a point but it really does not make sense because it is cheaper to just run on gas once the battery is depleted.
Regen still charges the battery after the ICE kicks on and it will switch back and to EV similar to the Prius after the battery is depleted.
The Volt still uses EV even at 85 MPH the Prius and others will not do this just yet.

The mode I like the best is the hold mode this forces the gas ICE to run. I use this when we go to the lake and we know we will drive past the range. A small part of the trip is interstate I switch to hold on that part. Then when we get off the interstate I switch back to EV mode. We use .25 gals of gas for the trip. You don’t have to do this but it will extend the EV range some on the trip.

I think the hard thing about any of the Hybrid EV or extend range EV‘s is you really need to look at how you use a car and decide if it works you.
We want to be able to use solar to power our car but sometimes we drive past a EV range so a EV only would not work for us.

This QA does better than I can at explaining the differences
http://www.chevrolet.com/volt-electric-car/faq.html

Mark

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Old 10-08-13, 09:48 AM   #90
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Prius charges the battery while running ice, breaking, and coasting up to a red light or down a hill.

Prius has Series technology, Volt is Parallel technology, there is a deference.

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