The 2016 (gen 2) Volt is coming, whats new? UPDATE: first drive review

[NeilBlanchard]

It looks sleeker and less chunky. I hope they lower the Cd significantly, and that there is headroom / legroom in the back seat for me (I'm 6'-4"). If so, then they will be moving more Volts out the door.

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

It looks sleeker and less chunky. I hope they lower the Cd significantly, and that there is headroom / legroom in the back seat for me (I'm 6'-4"). If so, then they will be moving more Volts out the door.

...so, maybe, the 2016 Cruze will likewise have a lower CdA value, since they both use the new Delta-II body-shell?

[HiFlite]

Observations with my 2013 Volt:

1) The EPA numbers are very misleading in their application to real world experience. Running 50% purely on battery and 50% in charge-sustain mode, my car's lifetime mpg is 77 mpg. Other than driving carefully, no "hypermiling" was employed. (The Volt doesn't respond to it very well anyway.) Mpg while in CS mode is right at 40. Cost per mile on electricity is 2 cents in summer, twice that in winter. Net energy cost per 10k miles is ~$500. If the Volt II magically doubled its efficiency over the Volt I, I'd save $250/year ... big whoop!

2) Purchase cost is a lot less than people think. First, GM lowered the base price for 2014 models to $35000. The federal tax credit is $7500 (far more than any other hybrid), so that brings it down to $27,500. Other incentives often bring the net cost to well below $25,000.

3) Maintenance cost is approximately zero. I just had my first oil change done after 1.5 years. Nothing else was needed.

4) CS mode mpg in the city kinda stinks, 30ish, but it is easy to avoid. For example, I live less than a mile from the freeway. So, taking a trip to the big city, I run on battery until reaching cruise speed on the expressway, then switch to CS-mode where the engine will come on to maintain the present State Of Charge. The engine is most efficient under these conditions, so mpg runs around 42. Reaching the big city, I switch to normal mode (all-electric) for urban driving. If I can recharge there, the 160 mile there and back trip comes in at 80 mpg, if not, around 58 mpg.

5) The Prius is a fine car, no doubt, and on longer trips can be more efficient that the Volt. The one-day, 850 mile trip I took last year averaging 44 mpg in the Volt, could have been done in the Prius at, what, 55 mpg. *However*, the Prius is a crude car by comparison, like the base Corolla is to an Avalon. I doubt if I could have taken the beating of driving 13 hours in a Prius in one day (though it couldn't be worse than the 1980, 45 mpg Datsun 210 I used to drive).

6) In the same vein, I consider electric drive to be the best luxury option since the invention of air conditioning. While only 1/2 of my miles are pure electric, probably 85% of my driving *time* is. That time is frankly, wonderful. At this point, regardless of cost savings or not, I can't see myself ever getting daily driver that does not run most of the time solely on electric power.

YMMV!

[MetroMPG]

Thanks for the first-hand report, HiFlite!

Originally Posted by HiFlite

Other than driving carefully, no "hypermiling" was employed. (The Volt doesn't respond to it very well anyway.)

Curious what you mean by this. I have done a fair amount of urban EV driving, and driving style made a huge impact on range in my experience. (As it does in any ICE car or hybrid.)

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Thanks for the first-hand report, HiFlite!

Curious what you mean by this. I have done a fair amount of urban EV driving, and driving style made a huge impact on range in my experience. (As it does in any ICE car or hybrid.)

The volt doesn't hypermile very well while the gas motor is running, the only way I have found to "hypermile" is to drive 35-55mph DWL with the gasser idling along and then hold 5 miles per KW once the buffer fills and the motor shuts off. Doing this can increase the 40mpg the car gets on its own to around 45mpg, it doesn't go much higher though, but then again I have never driven in temperatures sustained above 40 degrees outside either. Car may also be breaking in and I am told after the first oil change the car is a different animal (my first complimentary oil change will be in a few days due to the car being nearly 2 years old without driving a mile)

The volt hypermiles easily in EV mode when it is warm out.

Cold its almost better to drive inefficiently because of all the parasitic losses on non-user controllable things such as the battery warmer and erdtt.
(below 24 degrees and I draw 1-3kw with the lights off, heat off and car in neutral)

I have found I can get the parasytic losses to go away for a bit if I accellerate hard at every stop. I am guessing hard accel and regen warm the battery a bit, sadly they only stop it for a relatively short period of time.

Ah well.

[HiFlite]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Thanks for the first-hand report, HiFlite!



Curious what you mean by this. I have done a fair amount of urban EV driving, and driving style made a huge impact on range in my experience. (As it does in any ICE car or hybrid.)

YW! Driving style has a huge impact on efficiency, of course. What I mean by hypermiling is the constant (and irritating to other drivers) cycle of acceleration and coasting used by some in the Prius style hybrid community.

As a game, I've tried multiple driving styles in getting to work. What the Volt has vs most other cars, is 5 distinctly different modes of slowing down:

1) "Normal", that is, shifter in (D)rive. Releasing the gas pedal gives a very light regeneration mode. While it's supposed to simulate the action of a normal ICE automatic transmission car, IMO it's closer to freewheeling than that. Estimated drag on the car ~500 W.

2) "Low", that is, shifter in (L)ow. Releasing the gas pedal gives rather aggressive regeneration, similar say to slowing in a manual transmission in 1st gear from 20 mph. Drag on the car ~10,000 W (depending on speed).

3) "Neutral". This is unique to the Volt AFIK. As soon as one shifts into (N)eutral, the gas pedal has no effect. By computer magic, just enough power is applied to the motor so that there is zero torque on the drive wheels. (I plan on doing some coast down measurements which should give about the purest aero drag measurements one can get from street car.) It's hard to find a perfectly flat street, but from 35 mph in neutral, I can coast about 1 mile.

4) Brake regen. For the first part of the brake pedal travel, the only braking is from the motor. Drag on the car: up to 20,000 W (depending on speed).

5) Friction braking. Push the pedal down hard enough and the normal brakes engage. The battery can only take so much charge rate before damage. Also, for quick stops the rear wheels need to be engaged for stability. Every complete stop, no matter how gentle, will engage friction braking at low speed. E = 1/2 mv^2.

Okay?

Getting there

The thing to remember about regen is that only about 60% of the kinetic energy absorbed by the system can be returned to the wheels. However, coasting, especially in the Volt's Neutral, is nearly 100% efficient. Volt's "Drive" is close.

So the style that's most efficient for me is (D)rive and using the momentum to coast when approaching stoplights, etc.

Why does hypermiling work for a Prius? First, gas engines are most efficient under full load at full throttle. Second, the only way to get power into the battery is through regen. Apparently, cycling the engine artificially lets it run enough more efficiently while accelerating to compensate for the losses caused by aero (at a speed faster than you wish to average) and for the loss in turning that extra kinetic energy into battery power.

In CS (Charge-Sustain) mode, the Volt hypermiles for you! Basically, the engine always runs at full load and full throttle. In situations when that is not possible, it shuts off!

Even under pure battery power, the accel/decal technique doesn't work. At a steady speed ~45+ mph, the small motor/generator engages with the main motor in such a way that its rpm is reduced go be more efficient. Accelerate from there at a significant rate and the small motor detaches from the large, allowing it to spin faster to maximize power. This is less efficient than simply maintaining a steady speed.

Originally Posted by rmay635703

The volt doesn't hypermile very well while the gas motor is running, the only way I have found to "hypermile" is to drive 35-55mph DWL with the gasser idling along and then hold 5 miles per KW once the buffer fills and the motor shuts off. Doing this can increase the 40mpg the car gets on its own to around 45mpg, ...

The volt hypermiles easily in EV mode when it is warm out.

Cold its almost better to drive inefficiently because of all the parasitic losses on non-user controllable things such as the battery warmer and erdtt.
(below 24 degrees and I draw 1-3kw with the lights off, heat off and car in neutral)

I have found I can get the parasytic losses to go away for a bit if I accellerate hard at every stop. I am guessing hard accel and regen warm the battery a bit, sadly they only stop it for a relatively short period of time.

Ah well.

It's possible there's a way to squeeze a little more out of the Volt with hypermiling technique, but I'm skeptical. One problem is that, in both my experience and the gm-volt forum experimenters, the on board energy displays get easily confused when the engine is used. Either a DashDaq or a systematic test is required to get to the real story, IMO.

Correct, cold complicates things. At a stop, car 'on', but HVAC, radio, etc 'off', the Volt draws about 350 W (though the display says 500 W). Full cabin heat is 6 kW and battery heat, when needed, is about 2 kW. When the parasitic load is high, minimizing trip time becomes more important.

Do you park overnight or in a garage? Being from Michigan, I drive in a lot of cold weather, but don't see the battery heat come on very often. However, I usually park overnight (and charge) in my attached garage which is considerably warmer than outside. The battery pack is well-insulated so even though I park in a ramp for 9 hours at work, the pack temperature will imitate the 15 hours it spends at home.

YMMV!

[Cobb]

The techniques "should" work on all vehicles. The eco mods should work with no problems. Even if the engine runs, P&G should vary the load enough if you pick the right speeds. Maybe with the weight the speeds need to be lowered?

[Daox]

The latest teaser is in. I haven't watched the video (blocked at work), but I thought I'd at least post it for you guys.

2016 Chevrolet Volt: Another Video Teaser, This One On Snow And Ice

[MetroMPG]

Here's the direct YT video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28R0z2dgreM

[jcp123]

Pardon my ignorance,

I hope they do something about the interior of the Volt? It looks like a bunch of touch controls on the centre stack? I am not sure how that's effectively supposed to work, as I find the tactile differentiation of different controls to be the #1 way to mess with radio and HVAC without looking away from the road. Besides, it looks to tech-geeky to me.

That aside, the Volt is, in my mind, what a hybrid should have been from the very start. Even Matt "Smoking Tire" Farah has one and claims to have averaged some stupid good MPG number in it (something like 88mpg?). And I rather like the chunky looks outside.