Driver Logs Indicate Volt Mileage Varies Greatly Depending On Battery Charge

Take my own experience. I climbed into a Volt in Tehachapi, California, for a drive back to Los Angeles. The car had been used during the day, and the instruments showed the battery had 13 miles of charge left. My route included a 900-foot climb almost immediately, and the day was hot, so I had the air-conditioning on. The IC engine fired after 10.9 miles.

Once on freeway I initially set the cruise control at 70 mph. Just before Palmdale, I ran the car in mountain mode, increasing the speed of the IC engine to add extra charge in the battery before the climb into the mountains. I switched mountain mode off at the base of the hills, and then ran with the traffic -- 75-80 mph -- pretty much all the way back home to L.A. I used 2.8 gallons of gas for the 123.2 mile trip -- an average of 44 mpg.

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Joe_Limon - 10/14/2010 11:11:10 AM

0 Boost

44mpg on no charge doing 75-80mph through the mountains? Sounds about right.

uaw_lax - 10/14/2010 11:22:06 AM

0 Boost

"Driver Logs Indicate Volt Mileage Varies Greatly Depending On Battery Charge"

The same for any other car driving habits play an even bigger part.

Agent009 - 10/14/2010 11:34:48 AM

+3 Boost

Hybrids in general are hypersensitive to driving styles.

dumpsty - 10/14/2010 11:36:18 AM

+5 Boost

Agreed. This point should be obvious I guess.

You forget to charge up overnight, don't expect to receive a full range of battery operation.

Agent009 - 10/14/2010 3:59:32 PM

+1 Boost

of course the avg American consumer will never charge the darn thing and then sue because it didn't get 100 MPG.

uaw_lax - 10/14/2010 8:00:44 PM

-1 Boost

009 your correct about that point I remember the Prius having the same problems with sue happy buyers.

JRobUSC - 10/14/2010 2:02:39 PM

+1 Boost

Read the article. They averaged 127mpg in 233 miles of mixed driving. City, highway, mountains, driving hard, driving soft, driving fully charged, driving with no charge. They did everything, and got 127mpg. Here's another take on the time they spent with the Volt.

http://blogs.motortrend.com/6719595/green/127-mpg-this-volt-story-must-be-told/index.html

Agent009 - 10/14/2010 4:01:41 PM

+1 Boost

BUT, you have to also look that they almost ALWAYS topped off the car with a charge. Something the average consumer probably won't do when running errands. Heck the avg consumer can't even check the oil, or know where the dip stick is!

JRobUSC - 10/14/2010 5:12:48 PM

0 Boost

sure, but try doing what they did with a Leaf. There's no room for "almost always charged it" with the Leaf. Even if you did charge it "always" instead of "almost always" you still couldn't come close to using the Leaf the way they did the Volt.

91z4me - 10/14/2010 3:15:52 PM

+3 Boost

THIS JUST IN!!!

Water is wet.

More at 11.

Agent009 - 10/14/2010 4:02:51 PM

-1 Boost

I enjoy my water freeze dried when camping. Just add water and enjoy, it is quite refreshing.