Chevy volt gas only mileage

[ksa8907]

So I bought a 2012 Volt partly due to the opinions collected here. I do like the car, lots of fun and much better than the prius, in my opinion.

So after some driving I have noticed that the torque app only tells me that I get between 30 and 38mpg when in gas only mode. I don't want to believe that, and I don't really, my cts could get 30mpg cruising at 60mph.
However, today on the way home I traveled 35.2 miles and only burned 0.7 gallons with an indicated average of 48.7mpg while keeping a steady 60 mpg without drafting, though I did have a significant tail wind around 15mph.

Interestingly, the car seemed to be pulse and gliding in that the generator would kick on and off as the battery was charged and discharged. I need to find a more accurate way to see instant mpg.

Does anyone have experience with that? I'll be scouring and likely posting over at gm-volt in the near future.

[Baltothewolf]

My buddy has a 2013 volt that I drove to Arizona (350~ miles) recently. At 75mph with cruise control on, I got 41mpg. And that was with running the A/C. Tires at 40psi.

[M_a_t_t]

Have you thought about getting an MPGuino? Fairly simple to wire in, and it auto turns on when the engine starts.

[ksa8907]

Originally Posted by M_a_t_t

Have you thought about getting an MPGuino? Fairly simple to wire in, and it auto turns on when the engine starts.

I need to better explore what would be the best option. Part of the trouble is I haven't devised a way to separate or properly factor in the miles driven in EV mode. When I park it each evening it tells me I averaged somewhere in the high 60's mpg, as though the 13.x kwh it takes to charge the car was free.

[rmay635703]

I should make a graph and you should read up on your cars tech at GM-volt if you want to optimize.

First off, basics, 44psi minimum, stock OEM tires only, heat at 68F eco (if you need it), preferably heated seats only until the gasser fires.
Preheat carefully (especially if you have L2 and your engine does not start) to avoid wasting lots of battery and gas off the bat.
Many volts have the wrong oil, you should use 0w30 synthetic in the winter instead of the 5w30 Dino juice many dealers slop in there.


The Volt is like the Prius and all GM products and gets epa ratings around 80F with 44psi in the tires.

You must use the stock OEM tire to get EPA MPG, any other LRR tire will drop a minimum of 3mpg, let alone snows or standard tires.

For every 10 degrees below 80F you will loose about 1mpg
This is the same as my cobalt and sadly the Buick before it.
My friends Gen iii 2013 Prius gets 28-36mpg all winter until it warms then mid 40’s.

So while I get 40 mpg at 60mph at 80F, guess what I get at 10F if I don’t drive slow?

Next,

ERDTT, you own a 2012 volt which is much more affected than later years,
ERDTT gets about 25mpg but allows/offsets heater energy use so you get more EV range, personally I hate ERDTT as it is so wasteful. I disable it and run without electric heat on my long trips to maintain 45+ EV miles and 38+ MPGcs even at -15f

You have a few options with a 2012

1. In the morning about a half hour before leaving (in cold) disable engine start and turn on the car plugged in to L1 with lights, heater (except the seat) turned off let it idle plugged in, the car should not start the engine and warm the battery then charge the battery increasing your range and gas mpg.
This can also be accomplished by setting the charge timer to have charging finish right as you leave.
Being a 2012 you might need the hold mode app to start the car plugged in without the ice firing up.
In your cars advanced settings there may be a erdtt setting which allows a cold or very cold setting (15f or 35f), depending on your heating efficiency and heat use you may gain range from one setting or the other

2. Get
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...VoltHold&hl=en

That app, if you use electric heat (I don’t) it’s very important to instead engage hold mode once your on the highway, otherwise you loose EV range and fuel economy (a lot)

You then manually cycle into EV mode once the car is warm and use eco heat mode then on out.
.

Another tip you need to be careful with is grill block, wai and insulation
The volt does not heat up to operating temp at 20F and lower with full heat running, 170F if my thermostat is correct, if you have a means to monitor temp a grill block, WAI and optionally engine insulation help you gain back some lost economy in winter.

The volt will run on e10 or e15 regular unleaded but gains a few mpg on non ethanol Premium, Premium around here is about a buck a gallon more so I run Kwik trip 88 which is e15, I seem to do well on that gas for reasons I can’t explain.

I will post more tips but basically no new car is remotely efficient in cold weather but with the volt you have a choice to avoid using half your energy on heat if you want

[ksa8907]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

I should make a graph and you should read up on your cars tech at GM-volt if you want to optimize.

First off, basics, 44psi minimum, stock OEM tires only, heat at 68F eco (if you need it), preferably heated seats only until the gasser fires.
Preheat carefully (especially if you have L2 and your engine does not start) to avoid wasting lots of battery and gas off the bat.
Many volts have the wrong oil, you should use 0w30 synthetic in the winter instead of the 5w30 Dino juice many dealers slop in there.


The Volt is like the Prius and all GM products and gets epa ratings around 80F with 44psi in the tires.

You must use the stock OEM tire to get EPA MPG, any other LRR tire will drop a minimum of 3mpg, let alone snows or standard tires.

For every 10 degrees below 80F you will loose about 1mpg
This is the same as my cobalt and sadly the Buick before it.
My friends Gen iii 2013 Prius gets 28-36mpg all winter until it warms then mid 40’s.

So while I get 40 mpg at 60mph at 80F, guess what I get at 10F if I don’t drive slow?

Next,

ERDTT, you own a 2012 volt which is much more affected than later years,
ERDTT gets about 25mpg but allows/offsets heater energy use so you get more EV range, personally I hate ERDTT as it is so wasteful. I disable it and run without electric heat on my long trips to maintain 45+ EV miles and 38+ MPGcs even at -15f

You have a few options with a 2012

1. In the morning about a half hour before leaving (in cold) disable engine start and turn on the car plugged in to L1 with lights, heater (except the seat) turned off let it idle plugged in, the car should not start the engine and warm the battery then charge the battery increasing your range and gas mpg.
This can also be accomplished by setting the charge timer to have charging finish right as you leave.
Being a 2012 you might need the hold mode app to start the car plugged in without the ice firing up.
In your cars advanced settings there may be a erdtt setting which allows a cold or very cold setting (15f or 35f), depending on your heating efficiency and heat use you may gain range from one setting or the other

2. Get
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...VoltHold&hl=en

That app, if you use electric heat (I don’t) it’s very important to instead engage hold mode once your on the highway, otherwise you loose EV range and fuel economy (a lot)

You then manually cycle into EV mode once the car is warm and use eco heat mode then on out.
.

Another tip you need to be careful with is grill block, wai and insulation
The volt does not heat up to operating temp at 20F and lower with full heat running, 170F if my thermostat is correct, if you have a means to monitor temp a grill block, WAI and optionally engine insulation help you gain back some lost economy in winter.

The volt will run on e10 or e15 regular unleaded but gains a few mpg on non ethanol Premium, Premium around here is about a buck a gallon more so I run Kwik trip 88 which is e15, I seem to do well on that gas for reasons I can’t explain.

I will post more tips but basically no new car is remotely efficient in cold weather but with the volt you have a choice to avoid using half your energy on heat if you want

The dealer installed brand new firestone fr710's, so we'll see if those are any good. I do plan to run full synthetic 0w30, used that in my cts also. I have a voltec L2 charger, it's the only charger I have.

I drive 59 miles each way so it will be interesting how erdtt affects my miles. I have only used the battery 4 days yet and I have gone from about 28 miles on battery to 34 today, the car sat on the lot dead for about a month before I got it.

I will most likely be ethanol blending because I can buy it for about 35% less than 87 E10. This last tank I averaged 45 mpg hand calculated after subtracting 95 miles of EV miles. Not too shabby. Also, I have the front lisence plate mount on this car and the entire lower grill blocked except behind the plate mount, air can still get behind it. Engine coolant temps stay very normal, 160 to 188f.

[rmay635703]

It sounds like your doing fairly well considering.

I don’t think you will be happy with the cars range and efficiency with those tires long term, you won’t see as massive of a summer time boost in range and MPGs.
Typically you loose about 5 miles EV range with them but as they wear you will gain back a couple miles.


They may be desirable to you for winter traction though I would recommend getting a pair of $30 volt sized ecopias from Walmart s clearance rack for at least the front so you can have winter and summer tires (the front tires affect range more than rears)

Time will tell I suppose

If your into e85, I strongly recommend this

https://www.hptuners.com/forum/showt...une-(Volterado)

[ksa8907]

To reduce the amount of information spread all over the forum, I think I will use this thread as my "build" thread.

I have decided to track my mileage per charge and just use the reported gallons consumed and the miles driven in ER mode. Mileage tracked on this site will be in ER mode only, ignoring my EV miles. This will obviously create some inaccuracies as erdtt will boost EV range.

Speaking of EV miles, I put the car in mountain mode to reserve 10 miles of charge. There was quite a bit of traffic on 31/465 this morning so I took some side roads and my display moved from 10 miles to 6 miles after driving about 10 miles in normal mode, so non-highway use makes a MASSIVE difference in EV range.

Also, at second look, the torque app does appear to be pretty accurate with the instant mpg display but the trip mpg meter records 0 miles when the engine shuts off even when in ER mode.

[rmay635703]

As you learn the cars quirks you will slowly become more efficient.

EV mode is much more efficient below 50mph, slower the better

Gas mode is somewhat complex but generally more efficient at 40mph and higher with a “steady foot” coupled with no stops.


Since you have L2 the following is very useful in cold weather

Burping - the key to Voltec bliss?

Ari_C is the guy


Over about a year I optimized my twice weekly long trip to be 10 miles shorter, mostly lower speed but only about a half hour “longer”
Following that path I can get up to 72 miles EV summer and only use 0.56 gallons of gas on a 100 mile drive.

Generally when you increase your real EV range on a trip you will also decrease gas use.
There are some circumstances where lower gas MPGcs will actually lower trip fuel consumption by allowing more EV operation.

Good Luck,
The volt is a fun car for a hypermiler

[ksa8907]

Update for today. Electric cars are great in stopped traffic, almost no effect on electric or gas usage. Freezing rain this morning had me sitting on a closed highway for almost an hour.

So far, I absolutely love electric driving. This 1st gen volt has very sharp handling, I love it, would be amazing with sport tires and not lrr's.