Gen 1 GM Volt Plug-In Hybrid (2011-2015)

[surfingslovak]

Lyle Dennis, gm-volt.com founder, is apparently trading in his Volt for a C-MAX Energi.

I absolutely love and adore my Chevy Volt. I take pride in the role I played encouraging GM to produce the car and in helping to build public support.

I have had the honor of owning the eighth unit off the production line since December of 2010. So far I have driven the car 14,000 miles with a lifetime 190 mpg. It has been a fun high tech and dependable car. In fact I always imagined I would own the car for 20 or 30 years. That is until this summer.

I am married with three young children now 6,10, and 13 years old. When I first bought the Volt our second car was a gas-powered three row SUV.

My wife became enamored with driving electric as well, and so when our SUV lease ended, she decided to get a Nissan LEAF. The LEAF is an ideal car for her. She drives a large number of miles, about 1500-1800 per month mostly on short 20 or so mile back and forth drives often shuttling the kids around. In an SUV this needlessly burns a large volume of gas and requires frequent expensive trips to the gas station.

Click to open

 

[scottf200]

Lyle Dennis, gm-volt.com founder, is apparently trading in his Volt for a C-MAX Energi.

Clearly it is a good fit for his family of 5. Looking forward to his reviews of this Ford design.

See this blog for some good info on the Ford C-MAX Energi: http://www.c-maxenergi.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[edatoakrun]

So don't lump me in with your fabricated statistic.

A driver with a driving pattern that matched the average would get more EV miles out of a Volt than a Leaf. This follows from the facts that there are more trips over 100 miles than between 40 miles and 75 miles and that the Volt isn't limited by its EV range. Can't remember the numbers exactly but the Leaf would put on a maximum of 35 miles more for 6.6% of the days but the Volt would get 40 more EV miles on 20% of the days. Something like that.

Now if you don't go more than 35 miles from home but consistently go more than 20 miles from home then you'll get a different answer.

Or if you have a place you park for some time allowing L2 charging during the day, or access to DC charging, which no volt driver has, of course.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I've read that people are getting over 50 miles out of it if driving efficiently, but that's not me. I haven't bothered to attempt that, hence one of the reasons why Leaf didn't work out for me on the first place.

We'll see what winter time brings with heater usage and my driving, but the worst mileage so far I got out of it was 31 miles where I used heat entire commute and had 2 stops long enough for heat system to cool down and warm up. Again, no efficient driving here either, It was about 20 miles of freeway.

so you should be getting about 11 Kwh access to use? that equates to 3.5 mile/Kwh which is my average during winter freeway. granted probably too short a time, but have you noticed any differences in how much electric you are accessing now that the weather is starting to turn?

 

[scottf200]

so you should be getting about 11 Kwh access to use? that equates to 3.5 mile/Kwh which is my average during winter freeway.

Officially 10.3 kWh for 2011-2012, and 10.8 kWh for 2013
http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2012/Jun/0607_volt.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The all-electric vehicle range of the 2013 Chevrolet Volt will be 38 miles on a single charge, providing owners with a three-mile EV range increase from the 2012 model. The miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) will increase from 94 miles to 98 miles and the total range, including extended range operation, will be 380 miles.

Based on real-world experience by Volt owners since the vehicle launched in late 2010, engineers made minor changes to the material composition of the battery cell chemistry, resulting in improved performance and durability. Manganese spinel chemistry remains the foundation for the Volt’s battery system, but the amount of each material has been slightly modified to provide better life performance.
<snip>
In addition, the total storage capacity of the Volt battery has been increased from 16 kWh of energy to 16.5 kWh, and engineers have expanded the state-of-charge window to use 10.8 kWh of the total battery energy – up from 10.3 kWh used in the 2012 model

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

oh ok. thanks for that. i knew it was "around 11" 10.3 KW makes a 50 mile journey impressive and equates to my best days. i can easily get over 5 miles/Kwh right now (temps in 60's/low 70's) but have to stay off the freeway to do it. 80º seems to be the best temp for higher #'s

 

[IBELEAF]

I never really paid attention to numbers on Blink, but yesterday when I fully charged it I noticed it said it put 13 Kwh. So that's 1.7 kWh more then the pack should take. Hm...

 

[mwalsh]

I never really paid attention to numbers on Blink, but yesterday when I fully charged it I noticed it said it put 13 Kwh. So that's 1.7 kWh more then the pack should take. Hm...

87% efficiency. I'd say that's about par for the course when L2 charging. Maybe a little better than some.

 

[palmermd]

Lyle Dennis, gm-volt.com founder, is apparently trading in his Volt for a C-MAX Energi.

I absolutely love and adore my Chevy Volt. I take pride in the role I played encouraging GM to produce the car and in helping to build public support.

I have had the honor of owning the eighth unit off the production line since December of 2010. So far I have driven the car 14,000 miles with a lifetime 190 mpg. It has been a fun high tech and dependable car. In fact I always imagined I would own the car for 20 or 30 years. That is until this summer.

I am married with three young children now 6,10, and 13 years old. When I first bought the Volt our second car was a gas-powered three row SUV.

My wife became enamored with driving electric as well, and so when our SUV lease ended, she decided to get a Nissan LEAF. The LEAF is an ideal car for her. She drives a large number of miles, about 1500-1800 per month mostly on short 20 or so mile back and forth drives often shuttling the kids around. In an SUV this needlessly burns a large volume of gas and requires frequent expensive trips to the gas station.

Click to open

This was quite a surprise to me. I thought he'd have the car forever. Apparently he is accepting offers on Vin#8.

First he bought a Leaf to be the Volt's companion and now the Volt is out and the Ford is replacing it.

http://gm-volt.com/2012/10/09/lyle-dennis-is-trading-in-his-volt-for-a-ford-c-max-energi/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Lyle Dennis, gm-volt.com founder, is apparently trading in his Volt for a C-MAX Energi.

I absolutely love and adore my Chevy Volt. I take pride in the role I played encouraging GM to produce the car and in helping to build public support.

I have had the honor of owning the eighth unit off the production line since December of 2010. So far I have driven the car 14,000 miles with a lifetime 190 mpg. It has been a fun high tech and dependable car. In fact I always imagined I would own the car for 20 or 30 years. That is until this summer.

I am married with three young children now 6,10, and 13 years old. When I first bought the Volt our second car was a gas-powered three row SUV.

My wife became enamored with driving electric as well, and so when our SUV lease ended, she decided to get a Nissan LEAF. The LEAF is an ideal car for her. She drives a large number of miles, about 1500-1800 per month mostly on short 20 or so mile back and forth drives often shuttling the kids around. In an SUV this needlessly burns a large volume of gas and requires frequent expensive trips to the gas station.

Click to open

This was quite a surprise to me. I thought he'd have the car forever. Apparently he is accepting offers on Vin#8.

First he bought a Leaf to be the Volt's companion and now the Volt is out and the Ford is replacing it.

http://gm-volt.com/2012/10/09/lyle-dennis-is-trading-in-his-volt-for-a-ford-c-max-energi/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

sounds like a money play to me. if he offers it at $100,000 that will reveal a lot about his intentions

 

[Rusty]

This was quite a surprise to me. I thought he'd have the car forever. Apparently he is accepting offers on Vin#8.

I may be mis-remembering from back in the day when Dr. Lyle picked up his Volt. But my recall is that his Volt was a lease...

 

[evnow]

This was quite a surprise to me. I thought he'd have the car forever. Apparently he is accepting offers on Vin#8.

I may be mis-remembering from back in the day when Dr. Lyle picked up his Volt. But my recall is that his Volt was a lease...

No. He will sell his Volt ...

 

[planet4ever]

I don't know about you guys, but if we had two cars and three young kids I think we'd want to be able to fit all the kids in the only one of our cars that can travel long distances without really long stops every hour or so.

I have a great deal of respect for the good Doctor. He has had a huge part in promoting the Volt, and thus in starting the US down the path to a future of driving with minimum dependence on fossil fuels.

Ray

 

[palmermd]

I don't know about you guys, but if we had two cars and three young kids I think we'd want to be able to fit all the kids in the only one of our cars that can travel long distances without really long stops every hour or so.

I have a great deal of respect for the good Doctor. He has had a huge part in promoting the Volt, and thus in starting the US down the path to a future of driving with minimum dependence on fossil fuels.

Ray

Correct. It is a testament to the Leaf that he sold the Volt and not the Leaf.

 

[scottf200]

a)

I may be mis-remembering from back in the day when Dr. Lyle picked up his Volt. But my recall is that his Volt was a lease...

Why I Chose to Buy Not Lease the Chevy Volt
http://gm-volt.com/2010/12/28/why-i-chose-to-buy-not-lease-the-chevy-volt/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

b)

I don't know about you guys, but if we had two cars and three young kids I think we'd want to be able to fit all the kids in the only one of our cars that can travel long distances without really long stops every hour or so. I have a great deal of respect for the good Doctor. He has had a huge part in promoting the Volt, and thus in starting the US down the path to a future of driving with minimum dependence on fossil fuels. Ray

Correct. It is a testament to the Leaf that he sold the Volt and not the Leaf.

Via: http://insideevs.com/why-im-trading-in-my-chevy-volt-for-a-ford-c-max-energi/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jim F: Hello Lyle, Why not trade in the Leaf for the C-Max and keep the Volt. It seems like the obvious alternative to me. Just saying.

Lyle D: Not really. We can all do our weekend family drives in the Leaf – we cannot in the Volt and with the Leaf we never use any gas. The C-Max will still use gas.
[UPDATE from gm-volt thread]
And
Lyle D: We cant trade in the Leaf with just 3 months out of 36 months.

c)

[via gm-volt thread] Ha ha! It's none of my business but, had he asked me, I would have told him that from a professional standpoint he couldn't have made a worse decision. Very bad move IMO. His claim to fame is that he started gm-volt and his brand is the Volt. By dumping the Volt he's more or less given all that up, much like Coke would do if it announced it was now going to make ice tea and would no longer be involved in soft drinks. Now he's more or less nowhere. Volt folks are not going to embrace him and he there isn't going to be a similar niche with the Energi.

I don't think he thought it through.

 

[Stoaty]

[via gm-volt thread] Ha ha! It's none of my business but, had he asked me, I would have told him that from a professional standpoint he couldn't have made a worse decision. Very bad move IMO. His claim to fame is that he started gm-volt and his brand is the Volt. By dumping the Volt he's more or less given all that up, much like Coke would do if it announced it was now going to make ice tea and would no longer be involved in soft drinks. Now he's more or less nowhere. Volt folks are not going to embrace him and he there isn't going to be a similar niche with the Energi.

I don't think he thought it through.

From a professional standpoint, he is a neurologist. The Volt doesn't fit the needs of his family, so he is getting another car. This doesn't erase his legacy.

 

[scottf200]

2013 new power gauge in DIC show batt vs ICE pwer n CS/ER mode

JLG facebook post showing regen only:

PJW gm-volt post showing regen and hold mode functions:
Aside: Notice it is on the basic display with the battery on the left and fuel pump on the right.

PJW gm-volt post showing fairly hard acceleration (leaves disappeared from green ball on right):
Aside: Notice it is on the alternative display with the battery on the left and economy indicator ball on the right.
Aside: Notice leaf as the "target" where the green ball normally floats?

- Center of the display seems to be showing what is going to/from the motor(s).
- Left Upper - kW scale showing output from traction battery
- Left Lower - kW scale showing output from regen
- Right Upper - kW scale showing what generator is producing
- Right Lower - not used

 

[cwerdna]

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/target_8/Volt-no-jolt-LG-Chem-employees-idle" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Factory has yet to ship out a single battery

Updated: Thursday, 18 Oct 2012, 7:44 PM EDT
Published : Thursday, 18 Oct 2012, 4:58 PM EDT

By Ken Kolker

HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) - Workers at LG Chem, a $300 million lithium-ion battery plant heavily funded by taxpayers, tell Target 8 that they have so little work to do that they spend hours playing cards and board games, reading magazines or watching movies.
...

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/target_8/Volt-no-jolt-LG-Chem-employees-idle

Factory has yet to ship out a single battery

Updated: Thursday, 18 Oct 2012, 7:44 PM EDT
Published : Thursday, 18 Oct 2012, 4:58 PM EDT

By Ken Kolker

HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) - Workers at LG Chem, a $300 million lithium-ion battery plant heavily funded by taxpayers, tell Target 8 that they have so little work to do that they spend hours playing cards and board games, reading magazines or watching movies.
...

nice

 

[scottf200]

Various questions about the cost of LEAF batteries.

Using the Volt battery part number we can see $2725 ($170/kWh) at one place and $2594 ($162/kWh) at another. Certainly this is without the markup or core exchange. Seems too cheap so perhaps we/I'm reading this wrong. The diyelectriccar forum thread show an exchange that indicated it was right.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=20979876+battery" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;