Apartment living with a Volt ?

[cowmeat]

If it helps...

I may start working from home shortly and at that point I'm probably just going to sell my Volt. I would only need a vehicle for short hauls it wouldn't make sense for me to keep it since I already have a truck available and the Volt would end up sitting most of the time

[oil pan 4]

Work from home is just one more step closer to eliminating disposable income, time off, your job all together.

[ME_Andy]

Do you mean in a good way or a bad way, oilpan?

[ME_Andy]

Originally Posted by Cd

Did you see the part about safety ?

...

Well I have OCD as well, and I stress about the amount of pollution I would create to drive that short trip every single day.

Sorry. Admittedly, tact and safety are not near the top of my list

But from my mindset, putting yourself in a 2-ton vehicle to drive a couple blocks (or whatever) won't help you get out in the world and interact any better. It's probably bad for your health and the environment, too.

[redpoint5]

Your mental well-being and resilience to social challenges is way more important than the unmeasurable difference driving or not driving would make to the environment. Of course, it's easy for me to say that not having a dysfunctional level of OCD, but reinforcing dysfunctional circuits leads to further disfunction. I know, because in all the ways I'm dysfunctional, staying in my comfortable routine only makes it worse.

[freebeard]

Golden Zeppelini in 30x stainless. With a flaming bagpipe on a ring mount?

edit: You could park it in a hallway.

[Cd]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Your mental well-being and resilience to social challenges is way more important than the unmeasurable difference driving or not driving would make to the environment. Of course, it's easy for me to say that not having a dysfunctional level of OCD, but reinforcing dysfunctional circuits leads to further disfunction. I know, because in all the ways I'm dysfunctional, staying in my comfortable routine only makes it worse.

The more I look into a Volt, the more it looks like I just might go for a good used one.
I read some more on the Volt forum, and there are at least two posts about driving a Volt for months ( or years ! ) without plugging it in.
It looks as though no damage will come to either the ICE or battery this way, and I plan to charge the car every two weeks or so.

I found out that there is even a charge station at the WalMart just across from my job.
It is almost always blocked by ICE cars though.

I got to looking at the charge rate.
It is 30 cents per minute.
The Volt takes 3.5 hours to charge using one of these chargers, but I will buy used, and that means it will take even longer to charge.

So does this mean that it would cost at least $63 to get enough charge to drive 30 miles ? ( and probably less with the old battery )

( 30 cents per minute x 3.5 hrs. )


Even if I'm only adding 20 minutes worth of charge per week, that still doesn't change the fact that I'm paying $63 ( best case ) to drive 30 ( again, best case ) miles of EV.

Surely my math is wrong.

I could drive nearly 50 miles on one gallon of gas at less than $3 in my Civic.

[JSH]

Personal opinion - I would not buy a PHEV or EV if I didn't have a place to charge. Public chargers are really expensive - especially if you live in a state that requires companies to charge by the minute and you have a PHEV or EV with only a 3.3 kW charger.

I would walk to work like you say you do today and buy a regular hybrid for trips / city errand. Sounds like you are 1/4 mile from work.

2nd gen Prius are cheap and dead reliable (I've had a 2005 and 2009)

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Cd

The more I look into a Volt, the more it looks like I just might go for a good used one.
I read some more on the Volt forum, and there are at least two posts about driving a Volt for months ( or years ! ) without plugging it in.
It looks as though no damage will come to either the ICE or battery this way, and I plan to charge the car every two weeks or so.

I found out that there is even a charge station at the WalMart just across from my job.
It is almost always blocked by ICE cars though.

I got to looking at the charge rate.
It is 30 cents per minute.
The Volt takes 3.5 hours to charge using one of these chargers, but I will buy used, and that means it will take even longer to charge.

So does this mean that it would cost at least $63 to get enough charge to drive 30 miles ? ( and probably less with the old battery )

( 30 cents per minute x 3.5 hrs. )


Even if I'm only adding 20 minutes worth of charge per week, that still doesn't change the fact that I'm paying $63 ( best case ) to drive 30 ( again, best case ) miles of EV.

Surely my math is wrong.

I could drive nearly 50 miles on one gallon of gas at less than $3 in my Civic.

Is the 30 cents per minute for L2 slow charging, or for DCFC? I'm not even sure if the Volt had an option for DCFC, and apparently all of Google doesn't know either. I'd never pay that anyhow, seeing as electricity is generally 12 cents per kWh, and you'd be getting 1/10th of that on a slow charge, so about 20x more than you'd pay at home.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Is the 30 cents per minute for L2 slow charging, or for DCFC? I'm not even sure if the Volt had an option for DCFC, and apparently all of Google doesn't know either. I'd never pay that anyhow, seeing as electricity is generally 12 cents per kWh, and you'd be getting 1/10th of that on a slow charge, so about 20x more than you'd pay at home.

Google tells me the Volt has a 3.6 kW Level 2 charger.