Cowmeat learns to drive the Volt

[cowmeat]

Crazy numbers you are getting!

I agree! Of course I live in flat, warm sunny Florida, which helps a lot

I've also tweaked my route to work over the years to where I've found what I believe is the optimal trade-off between speed, traffic, amount of stops, hills, etc . . . and I keep the OEM LRR Michelin Energy Savers at max sidewall pressure. I only use the Volt for my commute, rarely driving it on the weekends, and I actively hypermile every day. My average speed readout shows 31 mph, so all in all I think I'm in the perfect spot for seeing what a Volt can accomplish.

The best part is that I charge for free!

[conor_v]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

My progression of eco cars over the last six years (plus a 2-ton non-eco behemoth to start it off)

The Land Rover Disco got about 12 mpg no matter how I drove it, at a time when gas was around 4 bucks a gallon and the construction industry had nosedived, making it hard to pay the bills. At the time I was using it for my daily commute plus delivering newspapers in it 7 days a week, so the fuel expense was killing me.

This brought about the purchase of Black Widow, my trusty old Festiva. This was my first real eco car, and I P&G'ed my way to around 60 mpg in it. I bought it cheap and used it for my commute for a couple of years, plus I mowed yards on the weekend and the push mower, weed eater and blower fit really well in the back

Then there were Turtle and Ron Burgundy, two awesome G1 Insights that I had a blast in. A guy on here recently told me he's bought Ron Burgundy and will shortly begin the process of bringing it back up to specs. He should consider adding back on the 3-button shift knob when he gets the IMA up and running

And then there are the two Volts. It's never been so easy to hypermile as it is in a Volt, the car basically does all the work for you. The Volt works out perfectly for my 38.1 mile two-way commute, and my company lets me charge for free, so for my purposes the Volt is a win!

Ruby is beautiful! I agree with you on the hypermiling point even with the first gen Volt. I like the thread you got going here, cowmeat. Volt owners unite!

[cowmeat]

I agree with you on the hypermiling point even with the first gen Volt. I like the thread you got going here, cowmeat. Volt owners unite!

It's a pain to keep a fuel log in a Volt since it's a daily chore, but if you start a log it'll help you track your progress. I really try to keep up with mine in Ruby, I wasn't so great after a while in High Voltage


Also, if you keep a fuel log you can join me and my son in Team Volt in the team competition. It's easy to find team Volt, it's right up there at the top

https://ecomodder.com/forum/team.php?id=50

[ocnorb]

I've only had my '17 since February, but the car is putting up some impressive numbers already!

[cowmeat]

Is that pic from Fuelly or a site like that? It looks interesting although I didn't understand everything I was looking at

[ocnorb]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

Is that pic from Fuelly or a site like that? It looks interesting although I didn't understand everything I was looking at

Voltstats.net

The guy was able to get GM to open up the Volt database fed from Onstar. It's nice because there are literally zero user inputs. The data is all fed from the car.


I'm surprised you did not know about it. I've been using it since 2015 with my other Volt. You can register your car and it in at GM. It's a little cumbersome, but once it's connected it's Rock solid.

[ocnorb]

This is my wife's '13:

It is no longer getting the free Onstar so it shows as not currently authorized.

[cowmeat]

Yeah, that's why I didn't recognize it.

When my free Onstar promo was up they started hounding me about going with a package
I finally told the guy "Set me up with the free package"
He said "Sir we don't have a free one"
I replied "Sure you do, it's this one . . . click"
Pretty sure he got the message, I haven't heard from him lately

That worked for the Sirius people too. My stereo is now tuned to "Ipod"

[ocnorb]

But there actually is a free promo extension on Volt Onstar. They will try to upsell you. Just tell them no.

[cowmeat]

Had the best 38 mile commute I've ever had in a Volt so far this morning. 38.0 miles at 6.6 kWh used! I had 41 miles of EV range left, so I could drive another day before charging if I had a level 2 charger

Unfortunately it means I'm at work at 6:00 am on a Saturday

Which is why I don't feel bad about charging here for free