Quote:
Originally Posted by Cd
My aparments will let me charge on a standard 110 outlet at the office.
Maybe one or two sessions of an hour per week.
What might that get me in EV range on a 2011 Volt with maybe 130,000 miles ?
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Depends on the temperature outside
Battery conditioning can kill a half hour of charging but yes 3miles an hour is about right, if you are too low into the battery buffer(empty battery) an hour might keep you stuck in gas mode replenishing the buffer
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cd
I'd also like to ask how you all deal with the HUGE blindpots on the car.
I have seen that there was an option for blind spot alerts.
What can you tell me about this ?
I have seen aftermarket systems for around $500.
Is the stock version pretty good ?
What about some of the other safety alerts ?
If you have them on your car, please comment.
I really need the alerts, since I have problems turning my head to look to my side ( fused vertebrae )
What was this option called ( what option name should I look for when buying used - such as "driver safety alert package" )
The car does not actually brake if it detects a car in front of you, correct ? ( I'm wondering if an aftermarket system would brake the car )
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For me all modern cars have huge blind spots and are agrivating, I’ve gotten used to it but it sometimes means I put it in P and look out the door in tight situations happens less lately but early on was irritating
Also I’m not the one to ask about safety features as even those on the Tesla I find frustrating
That said most Volt Premiums will have at least Safety 1, mine has all 3
Which is a backup camera, lane departure, forward and rear alerts and proximity alerts when parking.
Although the car doesn’t brake if you drive in L and use cruise control the car will beep and slow somewhat as it exits cruise on a proximity alert.
There are aftermarket conversions for super Cruze but no comment there either
Only way to know the safety level is to check the car carefully or ask the seller as most listings don’t properly list the safety packages.
That said the Gen I Volt is built like a tank, in a crash Volts have demolished trucks, SUVs and other vehicles while keeping their occupants safe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cd
I also wanted to ask about what years are best for us hypermilers.
I want to spend less than $7,000 on the car, so will be looking at older versions.
So the 2013+ models have instant usage and other geeky info ?
That is something I would definately want !
The more info the better !
But is this something that can be added as a software update ?
If not, is there something like a Scanguage, but for EVs ?
I just recently found out about "hold" mode.
From what I understand, this helps your gas mleage if you know you are going to take a long highway trip, since it shuts off the generator.
Could this also be added as a software update, or are physical parts involved that are not on older cars ?
Would I have to look for the "premier" versions of the car to get the good safety features ?
If i find a cheap 2011 Volt, what will I miss out on with a 2013+ car ?
I'm looking at Volts, because I have seen good ones for under 7K.
I have seen Prius Plugins that have around 20 miles of EV range. That may be fine for my situation, but they are more expensive than the Volt.
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I recommend you join GM-volt.com and do a search ditto on joining the Facebook volt repair group by Brian Baptista
The old Volts 2010 had some oddities like the serial on the screen and a hard drive in the radio
There are cell phone apps that very manual add hold mode to 2011/2012 Volts along with engine on off and buffer depletion modes
The 2013 + have more useable battery, different roof colors, heated seat options on the base model, hold mode, more instrumentation
The 2016+ are the best for hypermiling the 2015 on down are best for mods and tuning
The Gen 1 are really only hypermilable in warm weather with the OEM Goodyear tires, like an old Insight anything but OEM really affects economy and EV range.
A few people have developed techniques to hypermile but the Volts control codes are hard to detect in normal driving.
EV Hypermiling is easy, fully inflate the tires and drive slow with slow acceleration and deceleration to get good range. Did you notice my efficiency screen shot?
The scangage itself works with the volt but it can brick the car if communication is intermittent
There is a specialty monitoring device made for the volt but it is very expensive ($600+) you can read about it on GM-volt
https://www.gm-volt.com/threads/a-ca...-users.150449/
On the cell there are utilities like mygreenvolt that can give some of the functionality back without dashdaq