Hey folks, I just thought I'd pipe up again now that I've had my Volt on the road for a bit longer now.
During the winter I was getting a average 120mpg. The cold weather really is hard on your mileage but I think this winter coming I will find I can get better due to the things I learned driving the car over the winter. Things like below -4C the motor will come on occasionally to assist the battery in heating. At first I thought this was to aid the thermal management of the battery but then I found out later that it is more to help the cabin heating. Now at below -4C if I am commuting(not on a long trip) I set the climate control to fan only and use the heated seats instead. This uses much less gas. I understand that the 2013 will have 2 settings for the "ICE running due to cold" system that should be much better for new owners where you can set it to come on at -4 or colder at -10. In the winter here it regularly goes down to -4 but not to -10 near as much.
Now since the weather has warmed up I've seen a excellent improvement in EV range. I regularly get 50+miles to a charge. I drive mixed highway and secondary roads, about 50-50, at the speed limit strictly. I last filled my tank on March 11th and have traveled 4535miles on that tank so far.So roughly 785mpg!! And quite a few folks out there are getting well over 1200mpg!! I think I will have to get gas next week as I only have 2 gallons left in my tank and I don't like to run it too low.
As you drive the car more you figure out ways to maximize your coast and regenerative breaking to extend your range. Very much like adapting hypermiling techniques. For example Pulse and Glide, with the Volt because it doesn't have ICE assistance on acceleration it is less taxing on your charge if you slowly accelerate up to your top speed rather than to sprint up to it, then glide, and oh the glide on the Volt is amazing. Even in Drive(which has light regenerative breaking) the Volt seems to roll forever.
I now know over the life of the car I will be getting much better averages than what the EPA estimated for the Volt. That said I figure the added expense of the Volt will have paid for itself over 3 years instead of the 5-1/2years that GM figured based on the EPA figures. So I think I'll keep it !! LOL
