Looking to ecomod my Chevrolet Volt (extend its electric range)

[ocnorb]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Over how many miles travelled in total, ocnorb?

Took delivery on Saturday. My commute is 35 miles or so round trip, but I've carpooled with my wife one day and I went for a drive on Sunday so its about 110 miles since Saturday.

On Monday I left home with 44 miles on battery, arrived at work showing 27 miles of battery left. Long hill out of work had me back up to 30 miles of battery when I hit the highway! Awesome regen. We then drove across town to have dinner and pulled back into our driveway with 1 mile left. Also it was 100 F outside according to my dash display so A/C was using more battery than usual.

[WindyDrew]

Originally Posted by ocnorb

I'm also a recent Volt convert...

IIRC, the grill block is shuttered and automatically opens to cool the electronics, battery cooling or ICE radiator as needed. I've never seen mine open... So far I haven't burned a drop of gas.

Subscribed.

The upper grill or lower?




Made it up to 49 after a few weeks of 55 and 60 mph trips. Making it every day on electric and back. 3 weeks since fill-up and still chugging

[MetroMPG]

Nice! With which new modifications in place?

PS: I had my first in-person chat last week with a Volt owner I met at a party. He offered to let me drive it, but I had to decline because... too many beers!

[ocnorb]

That's awesome WD!

I may be mistaken on grill shutters. We took the Volt up Big Cottonwood Canyon on Sunday. It's the canyon where Brighton and Solitude ski resorts are for those unfamiliar with the area. Our home is at 4250 ft asl and the route took us over 9700 foot asl Guardsman Pass.

I purposely put the car in Hold mode with about 19 miles left on battery gauge. This forces the generator to run. The car did the climb wonderfully. At one point I passed an Suv and found myself doing 75 mph up the canyon. The generator really revved up after this pass!! Very different feel from most cars because the motor speed is controlled by demand and is not coupled to the throttle. At the peak I jumped out to see if the grill shutters were open, but they had not moved.

After going over the peak I shifted to regeneration (L) and dropped down into Midway. The battery meter just kept climbing until it hit 60 miles!!! I must have actually been charging the top 20% of battery capacity that GM reserves.

Overall we did 138 miles over a very steep route and used about 1.7 gallons of fuel and 10kw of electricity.

[WindyDrew]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Nice! With which new modifications in place?

PS: I had my first in-person chat last week with a Volt owner I met at a party. He offered to let me drive it, but I had to decline because... too many beers!

Yes, I also deleted my drivers mirror temporarily. Too ugly to share though. I bought a 3d printer to fab up mirror delete plates, still waiting on dhl!

Working on a grill block next. I want 60 miles range at 60 mph

[WindyDrew]

Originally Posted by ocnorb

That's awesome WD!

I may be mistaken on grill shutters. We took the Volt up Big Cottonwood Canyon on Sunday. It's the canyon where Brighton and Solitude ski resorts are for those unfamiliar with the area. Our home is at 4250 ft asl and the route took us over 9700 foot asl Guardsman Pass.

I purposely put the car in Hold mode with about 19 miles left on battery gauge. This forces the generator to run. The car did the climb wonderfully. At one point I passed an Suv and found myself doing 75 mph up the canyon. The generator really revved up after this pass!! Very different feel from most cars because the motor speed is controlled by demand and is not coupled to the throttle. At the peak I jumped out to see if the grill shutters were open, but they had not moved.

After going over the peak I shifted to regeneration (L) and dropped down into Midway. The battery meter just kept climbing until it hit 60 miles!!! I must have actually been charging the top 20% of battery capacity that GM reserves.

Overall we did 138 miles over a very steep route and used about 1.7 gallons of fuel and 10kw of electricity.

I have yet to get big regen numbers but have a decent hill to regen on the way home that I use. I make sure I work my way up to 60 by the time I get ready to go down and I let it do full regen in L until I get to about 35mph. Then I gradually speed back up to 55 in the valley before the hill climb. I usually end up with 4 miles more range than I had before the hill at the top of the next hill. Makes me feel like I'm breaking physics.

[rmay635703]

My best, albeit under different circumstances

[WindyDrew]

Well. LED headlights are a bust. Will not work in a Volt at all! Guess I'll get 35w hids. People seem to have good luck with them.

[jray3]

WindyDrew, I don't see any report on which Level 1 EVSE you are using. The Volt has come with a few, as I hear. One defaults to 8 amps unless you select 12 amps every time, one was recalled due to 16 gauge wires that tended to overheat, and all of the Voltec EVSE seem to have had high failure rates compared to the Panasonic units supplied by Nissan and Mitsubishi.

Since you said that 8 hrs at work isn't enough to completely recharge, I'd focus on fixing that and make sure you're using a 12 amp EVSE (on a standard 15 amp outlet). 12 amps would be plenty to refill the Volt's 10.4 useable kWh, but if you have access to a 20 amp 120V outlet, you could go all the way up to a 16 amp L1 EVSE, which should recharge the car within six hours. I've used the dual voltage SPX/Bosch Power Express since 2011 due to its user-adjustable settings, but there are better options out there now for an adjustable L1 EVSE.
(The SPX design put the amperage trim pot within a bumper that collects water and kills the unit if you leave it sitting on its back in the rain...)

[WindyDrew]

I actually use an openevse dual voltage charger. It's great but the volt won't allow more than 12a charging that I am aware of. I have a 20a circuit that I plug into that isn't used anywhere else in the building but I'm not aware of the capability of the volt to charge at 16a at 120v. I do get 80%charge which has been getting me home in the summer but in the winter with a strong north headwind, I'm going to be severely lacking in range.