Apartment living with a Volt ?

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by JSH

However, you shouldn't full deplete the battery if you want it to last.

The BMS in the pack won't allow a full deplete, it will command the ice to start. It also won't allow a "full" charge either. I added 2 Kwh by charging to 398 from 388 volts something like chevy did on their post 2014 (?) packs

[rmay635703]

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 ?
.

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

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 )
.

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.

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.

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

[Cd]

@Rmay635703 :

I actually have joined that forum and have a couple of posts.
My user name is cDxA.

Here is the thread that has made me change my mind about owning a Volt or a Leaf :

https://www.gm-volt.com/threads/volt...mespan.340162/


Thank you for taking the time to write all of that !

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Cd

@Rmay635703 :

I actually have joined that forum and have a couple of posts.
My user name is cDxA.

Here is the thread that has made me change my mind about owning a Volt or a Leaf :

https://www.gm-volt.com/threads/volt...mespan.340162/


Thank you for taking the time to write all of that !

Unfortunately what you will find is that no car is like your Honda, the modern safety systems are unreliable and difficult to repair, all turbo cars are garbage for long term reliablity though some do better than they have any right to cough 1.4 Trax.

The closest to simple, easy to repair and reliable is the Mitsubishi Mirage

Even every Prius has the ticking timebomb of battery failure

Only other reliable car would be the pre-2010 Camry/Corolla, boring appliance like and reliable

That said folks have done $900 battery replacements in their garage with a few floor jacks on Volts

If utilities for the volt would be developed similar to the g1 Honda Insight I think battery failures could be made into a non-issue, most failures are $5 temperature sensors or a single cell in the pack.
The Volt is also inflexible at learning low battery capacity which bricks the car instead of just loosing capacity like the leaf.

Ah well the joy of the modern cars.

I’ve thought of buying a $3000 used Mirai and converting the a plug in with CNG
Ah well pipe dreams

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

all turbo cars are garbage for long term reliablity though some do better than they have any right to cough 1.4 Trax

No wonder Volkswagen is struggling to take forward its plan to resort only to turbocharged engines. GM also had trouble with the 2nd-generation Chevrolet Onix at its Brazilian launch, since local turbocharged versions retain the port-injection instead of featuring direct injection as its Chinese counterpart does.

Even every Prius has the ticking timebomb of battery failure

Considering the Prius has retained basically the very same engines (including the 1.5L now featured to the Prius C while the traditional and V models get the same 1.8L since the 3rd generation), some ease to refurbish the ICE may not be much of a problem as long as improvements are done to battery tech.

Only other reliable car would be the pre-2010 Camry/Corolla, boring appliance like and reliable

What does surprise me is that in some countries the Corolla retains a pretty conservative engine range, even more conservative than in my country.

I’ve thought of buying a $3000 used Mirai and converting the a plug in with CNG
Ah well pipe dreams

Replacing the fuel-cell with a portable genset?

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

No wonder Volkswagen is struggling to take forward its plan to resort only to turbocharged engines. GM also had trouble with the 2nd-generation Chevrolet Onix at its Brazilian launch, since local turbocharged versions retain the port-injection instead of featuring direct injection as its Chinese counterpart does.




Considering the Prius has retained basically the very same engines (including the 1.5L now featured to the Prius C while the traditional and V models get the same 1.8L since the 3rd generation), some ease to refurbish the ICE may not be much of a problem as long as improvements are done to battery tech.




What does surprise me is that in some countries the Corolla retains a pretty conservative engine range, even more conservative than in my country.




Replacing the fuel-cell with a portable genset?

Nah, the Mirai is a Lexus HS, and has the same hv battery
complete motor w/ transaxle is $300, CNG kit and adaption parts would be under $500

Still talking bank but a hybrid CNG would be interesting especially if I added a plug

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

Still talking bank but a hybrid CNG would be interesting especially if I added a plug

AFAIK there is at least one Prius with a CNG setup in Rio de Janeiro, yet it's not a plug-in.