vskid3 finally gets an (almost) EV, 2013 Volt

[vskid3]

Looks like I can hit 50 miles on a charge. Technically it wasn't a single full charge; I drove about 30 miles then let it charge for a few hours before driving the rest. I snapped the pic at 10.6kwh because that's about what most 2013s use on a full charge. 4.75mi/kwh isn't bad for using AC for a bit and lots of hard acceleration.


I thought this car would help me get over wanting a full EV, but now I think it's only making me want one more. :P Maybe I'll have to replace the Prius with a Spark EV in a year or two.

[vskid3]

Went for a little drive up into the mountains the other day and recorded something interesting with the MyGreenVolt app on the way back. On the 4.9 mile, ~800ft drop, drive home, I ended up generating 0.2kwh. I don't remember how much power it took to drive up, but I think the charge ended up being about the same kwh/mile as usual. Many sources say hills are bad for range, but my experience so far is that they don't make much of a difference overall.


I've used preheating a couple times because the temperature here has plummeted the last couple weeks. It was about 42F out when I started it today. Battery had finished charging at least 10 hours prior and was at 48F at the start. The 10 minute preconditioning used 0.5kwh (probably a bit more, took me a minute to get my phone connected), 76% of which was used to get the battery to 59F (which turned the bar from red to green, so I guess that falls into the normal operating temp range). It'll be interesting to see what happens with lower temperatures or having the charge finish just before preconditioning. I'll have to see if I can get the Volt's PIDs working in Torque so I can record and graph the temps and energy usage.

[vskid3]

So far, I've been averaging just over 50% EV miles since I started using VoltStats a couple days after getting the car. All of my daily driving is electric. I've raised the lifetime average on the center screen from 40.9MPG to 41.6MPG, not bad when you consider how little I've driven it compared to the total miles.

Did my first mod, blocked the lower grill with cardboard (will upgrade to coroplast soon). I'm trying out Velcro wire ties instead of zip ties because it seems silly to try to reduce fuel consumption while throwing away plastic zip ties every time something needs to be removed. They're holding up so far, we'll see how they handle winter. Engine gets a little warm at highway speeds with outside temps in the 70s. That shouldn't be an issue again until spring.



I've done some rough measurements for belly panels. I'm hoping the weather gives me a nice day to work on them before winter sets in. I should be able to get it pretty smooth under there. It would be awesome if I could eliminate the need for that giant air dam, it scrapes so much.

[vskid3]

Sold the Volt yesterday. It was a great car, but we're expecting our first and wanted to reduce our expenses.

On the bright side, some of the pics I took for the ad turned out quite nice.

Higher resolution if anyone wants it.

[MetroMPG]

Hey, congrats and congrats!


Did you reduce the fleet, or replace it with something else?

[vskid3]

Thanks!

Reduced the fleet, just the Prius, bikes, and shoes now.

The new owner is an enthusiast, so at least it'll be appreciated. He showed up in a Gen2 Prius with 230k miles towing a trailer with his electric motorcycle on it. Couldn't have picked a better new home.

[MetroMPG]

Ha - perfect new owner.


Did his electric motorcycle have an electric scooter strapped to the back?