The Volt, driving to Boston from Hudson, NY

Room with large Roman Goddess statue, MFA Boston.

I took a road trip last week, driving to Boston via the Mass Pike on Tuesday morning, and made very good time, arriving at the Museum of Fine Arts a little after 2pm.  I left with a full charge, which read 38 miles of battery life, and stayed in normal mode until I got to Rt. 66 outside of Hudson, where I switched to Hold mode to save the battery for when I arrived in Boston. Good thing I did it turns out.  I stayed in Hold mode on the highway until I was taking the exit off the Pike into city driving, when I switched to Normal mode, going electric in town.
After going to the Museum of Fine Arts, I then went to a garage near the hotel where I was staying, that I'd found through Chargepoint, a service which you sign up for that operates EV charging stations across the country I think. Certainly in the Northeast.  I found my way to the EV charging stations and one was available, however I couldn't figure out how to make it work. Turns out the app isn't enough, you have to have a card that the station scans to release the plug. (I did call after I got home, and it turns out you can use the app, but no directions were on it to tell you how, and this garage was underground and that feature depends upon GPS location services. I could also have called, but who knew? I certainly didn't at the time) The garage attendant attempted to help, they have a card that allows access, but their card didn't work. So I was unable to charge my car in Boston, despite there being a charge station. That was very frustrating.  Good thing I saved my battery, when I parked for the night I still had twenty miles of range left.
The next day, I drove to the Harvard Art Museums, electric all the way, and parked there, again no charging stations were available for the public, Harvard parking has a few but they are available only to Harvard faculty and students.  But I still have enough battery life to get me out of the city driving. On the return trip, once beyond the traffic on the Mass Pike, I switched to Hold mode with only 6 miles of charge left on the battery, saving it for when I got closer to Hudson, where I then went back to normal and exhausted the charge.
Overall, for the return trip to Boston and Cambridge of 370 miles, I got 46 miles to the gallon, including the electric charge I started out with. That doesn't matter to me, since the electricity came from my solar panels, and is carbon free energy. The whole point of this exercise is to reduce the carbon I use in my life, and the solar panels have allowed me to do that, along with the Volt.
I am loving the Volt now that the weather is warmer, the mileage is now what I was expecting, and even more.  It is like having two cars, an electric car for short range local driving and a gas car for longer trips that still gets good MPG.  A pretty neat trick that Chevrolet has pulled off, and a good intermediate vehicle for this transitional time when we go from fossil fuels to electricity for transport.  The infrastructure isn't there yet for worry free all electric travel, thus the Volt is perfect for now.

Above is a shot of the driver information screen showing that I had 40 miles of battery life to start my day with! That exceeds the 35 to 38 miles per full charge that the 2013 model was advertised to have.  The warmer weather and low resistance tires designed for the Volt makes a big difference!

Driving the Volt real world, part 2

Report from April 9, 2015

The volt is not a normal car. Chevrolet is touting it as an electric car, but it does have a gas engine and that causes some confusion in the public, myself included. The natural assumption is that the gas engine drives the wheels directly, as we are so used to that idea from normal cars and even from hybrids.  However, Chevrolet does say the gas engine is a “range extender”, basically a generator of electricity which helps recharge the battery and can power the electric motor. But even their schematics of the drive train show times when the power from the gas engine goes directly to the wheels. However, in real life, I cannot recall ever being aware of the gas engine directly powering the wheels, it is truly a range extender I’ve found.

One nice thing about the Volt is the level of control the driver has over the mode the car drives in. It takes some getting used to but offers the ability to maximize the use of the battery for when it makes the most sense, and employ the gas engines energy when that makes sense. The battery has very limited range, touted at 35 - 38 miles, but this winter it has been 30 miles or less. Again it may be the cold weather effecting the range and snow tires. Regardless, when I drive to New York City, I have found it best to use the Normal setting in town, and switch to gas when on the highway, back to battery, Normal, when driving in NYC.  The Volt allows you this level of control.  The drive settings are Normal, the default setting, which uses the battery until it is exhausted and and switches to the gas generator. In that state, when battery is exhausted and the gas engine is energizing the car it behaves much like a hybrid in that the engine comes on and off depending upon the driving conditions, at low speeds it can be electric, any exertion or faster and the gas engine comes on.  The other drive modes are Sport, Mountain, and Hold.  Sport is as the name implies is truly sporty.  It is great when the battery has a good charge then the Volt becomes truly a nimble vehicle, very responsive and quite fast. Mountain is a strange setting, it keeps the battery half full, so if you are above that, it is running normally with battery power, and it switches to gas when it hits that limit. If it starts out below half full, the engine does double time, both powering the electric motor and feeding electricity to refill the battery.  It is quite disconcerting to have the gas engine laboring away on high, while one is going along at a moderate speed.  The idea is to save enough electric power to help go up mountains and hills.  The other setting is Hold, which simply puts the car into gas mode and saves the battery for when you go back to normal. I have found Hold quite useful for long trips, I engage it when on the highway so it goes into gas mode and stops draining the battery and go back to Normal when in a town setting when one is doing stop and go traffic, and it is nice to not have any emissions. 

This brings me to the weirdest aspect of driving the Volt, the disconnect between the accelerator pedal and the gas engine. One is so used to expecting that when you depress the accelerator, the gas engine responds, it is called a gas pedal for a reason.  However with the Volt there is no direct correlation between pressing the accelerator pedal and the gas engine, and when it doesn’t respond as expected, it is disconcerting. On most cars the when you press the gas pedal you give more gas to the engine. Not so in a Volt. When I go to the Hold mode, the gas engine comes on and runs according to the electric needs, wether to run the motor turning the wheels or recharge the battery when it gets depleted below the level set for it.  So when you are going up a hill, both the engine and the battery are feeding the motors turning the wheels, when leveling out, the engine will still be going full speed to replenish the battery, even though the motor isn’t needing that much power and you have stopped depressing the accelerator.  That is the weird part, the disconnect between what you hear with the engine and the pressure you put on the accelerator. 

April 16, 2015
I purchased my Volt this winter, December 30th, and I got snow tires on it immediately, given my past experiences with a front wheel drive in the snow.  I think that has had a dramatic effect on my mileage, judging by how my car is performing now that I took them off last Friday. I just drove down to New York and back, Tuesday and Wednesday, about 240 miles or so. I’d noticed that the battery showed over 30 miles when fully charged, while all winter it has shown under 30. Driving down to the city, once I got beyond Hudson city limits and it was highway driving, I put the car into the Hold mode, and drove on the gas engine’s power to conserve the battery for city driving.  Even so, over the course of the over 100 mile trip, I was averaging about 45 miles to the gallon, as good as I got with my prior Jetta hybrid.  Once in the city, I cruised along emissions free on the battery power. The garage where I park my car does not have a set up for charging electric cars, but fortunately, I had over 20 miles left on the battery so I was fine for the return trip. On the return trip, I drove out of the city on electric power, until I got to the Sawmill, about 10 miles. I then switched over to Hold to save power for the mountains midway on the Taconic.  By switching on and off the gas through the hold mode, I was able to cruise home getting about 48 miles to the gallon on the return trip, pretty good I’d say!

The volt definitely seems to prefer warmer weather, I'm curious to see how it performs as the spring moves into summer. I'm very happy now with my Volt, I was having doubts, but now realize that its lack of performance battery wise and mileage wise, was due to the cold and the snow tires. Let us see how it fairs this summer.

Driving the Volt, in the real world part 1.

My experience test driving a Tesla has shaped my expectations and desires from an electric car.  The Volt is engineered to drive as much like a normal gas car as possible.  In normal mode and drive transmission setting, it is indistinguishable from a normal car.  However, put the transmission on the Low setting, and the car becomes like a true electric car, very responsive, immediate regenerative braking when lifting the foot off the accelerator, and put the car in sport mode and transmission on low, and it is very Telsa like in its driving. I find that keeping the car in Normal, with transmission in low, works fine for me.  I use Drive transmission on longer drives, as it coasts better and is easier.  But I love the responsiveness of Low, and not needing the brake for much.  Just around town, the car is a dream to drive, it feels like a sports car, quick acceleration off a stop, and very responsive and solid. 

Long drives are a very different matter.  I have read up quite a bit, not surprising given my obsessive nature, and learned that hold and mountain modes are good to retain battery reserve on longer drives. My aim was to employ the gas powered mode while on the highway, where the gas is most efficient, and switch to battery when in New York City.  My first trip this winter when going down to NYC I overdid the hold mode, and did not have very good mpg on the way down, powered by the gas engine most of the way.  My MPG was in the high 30’s.  However, I was able to cruise the streets of Manhattan completely on electric and emissions free. Prior to buying my Volt, I had asked the garage I use most, if they would have a plug available for recharging and they said they would. So this was the first time I came in with it and after some looking we found a spot where I could park and plug in my Volt.  Interestingly, this is the first plug in car they have seen in their garage, and this is in the heart of Manhattan.  The drive back I fared better mpg wise.  My car was fully recharged overnight, and I cruised electrically through Manhattan to the West Side highway. I stayed electric until I hit the Sawmill Parkway, and put the car into mountain mode, to keep a reserve for the mountains midway up the Taconic.  This worked well, it kept a battery reserve of half, and drove well. On the return trip I got about 50mpg using up the battery range going over the mountains. 

A general comment, one thing I have observed, is that at highway speeds, in gas powered mode, the car drives sluggishly with very little oomph to the acceleration.  You can get up the high speeds, but it takes effort, which probably is a good thing for me, I’ve gotten enough speeding tickets. So I find that in the Volt, I’m driving at or just above the speed limit, and feel comfortable there.  Probably a benefit for me!

This sluggishness at highway speed may be characteristic of the Volt. I was at first thinking that it happens while the gas engine is providing the power, as the car is so quick at slower speeds while in electric mode.  Driving in gas mode is disconcerting at first for one used to a performance gas powered car. I owned an Audi A4 for a few years, and had two Jetta’s, a TDI, and the aforementioned hybrid.  All are responsive and speedy gas cars.  You could accelerate at highway speeds about as quickly as you could at slower speeds. Not so with the Volt.  I will have to learn to drive differently, passing is probably not a good idea unless the person in front is really slow! 

Solar panels and cars, and buying a Volt

Dear Reader,
This blog post is different from what I usually write about, but is something I spend a lot of time thinking about, and has been an adventure. That is climate change and my desire to do something about it in my life. Here is how I have done so.

2015 is a year of new beginnings. I finally got a solar system installed an operational on my roof. My building has a flat roof, which faces South, and is well positioned for solar. I looked into getting solar panels over the summer, but there were questions about the roof structure, it is unconventional and the engineer wasn’t sure the roof could support the panels and the ballast weight to keep them in place, about a ton and a half.  Being in Hudson, my building is an old one, probably built in the 1890's or turn of the 20th Century, and was originally a three story building, but in 1955, the building next door burned down, thus the empty lot next to me which is now a municipal parking lot. When this neighbor burned, it took off the 3rd floor of my building and they put a new roof supported by struts on what was the floor of the 3rd floor. Further examination and review finally revealed that while unusual, the roof structure is adequate to supporting a solar system, so the installation proceeded in December, and National Grid finally installed a net meter December 31st.  Perfect timing. 

While I was considering the solar panel system for my building, I got interested in the idea of an electric plug in car, that could be charged from the solar system, truly low carbon.   I had researched hybrid and plug in cars two years ago when I got my VW Jetta Hybrid. When I was car shopping then I also looked at the Ford Fusion and C-max, and got seriously interested in the Chevrolet Volt.  However, all were much more money than the Jetta Hybrid, and I do love the way that VW’s drive, so I traded in my perfectly good Jetta TDI, for the Hybrid. It was a great car, had everything I wanted, navigation, heated and power seats, sun roof, etc.  But while it drove beautifully, its mileage wasn’t so stellar. On long drives to the City I could do 40 to 45 mpg, around town, I was doing 30mpg plus.  Over the lifetime of my ownership of the car, about 20,000. miles of driving, I got an average of 37mpg. Ok, but not really that great. 

So during the fall of 2014, with the prospect of going solar,  I did more research on plug in cars, and went and test drove a Tesla. This was partly inspired by the owner of Lotus Electric which did my solar system install, who drives a very sexy fire engine red Tesla, which he took me on a brief ride in. They are amazing cars, rocket-ships in comparison to normal cars.  So I went to the Mt. Kisco Tesla showroom to test drive one and was struck by the responsiveness of electric motors.  When driving a Tesla, you only need one pedal for most of your drive, the accelerator pedal when depressed engages instant torque from the motor, the moment pressure is lifted, the strong regenerative braking comes into play, slowing the car down immediately. You can come from full speed to a full stop in very little distance simply by lifting your foot off the pedal.  Nothing like an internal combustion engine car.  It does take getting used to, but I could see the potential.  The acceleration of  a Tesla is like nothing I’ve ever experienced as a driver before, it is more like a sports-car  than a regular car.  But at 100 grand for the model I’d want, it seems out of my range at this time in my life. An object of lust!  And the range, while 200 plus miles on a charge, is still an issue, given how few super-charger stations there are along the highways.  I like to take long trips, Montreal, New York City, Provincetown, Boston, etc, and it would be a challenge in a true electric car, but certainly possible in a Tesla with super-charger technology. 

The solar panels installed on my roof, December 2014

I had pretty much resigned myself to keeping my perfectly good and enjoyable Jetta Hybrid for a while when in December, as my solar panels were being installed and finalized, I decided to look at used Chevrolet Volts.  All of a sudden, it seemed very doable to get a plug in car. When I was looking two years ago, a new Volt was $43,000., and I found a 2013 Volt with just 12,000 miles on it, for $21,000. So I went to test drive it and of course, I loved it.  While it didn’t have all the bells and whistles I wanted, no built in navigation, or heated seats, it offered a way to have an electric car relatively affordably.

My new Chevrolet Volt, taken January 1st,  2015

I traded in my VW Jetta, but as a comment on the skewed priorities of our market driven society was the fact that my Jetta Hybrid was worth less than I’d thought it should be, and it was explained to me by the dealer that gas is cheap, so gas efficient vehicles are worth less!  It was the first time that I had a car whose trade in value was less than what I owed on it, and I’ve gone through quite a few cars in my short time of driving.   Here we are, in the midst of what some term a climate crisis, and gas is cheaper in the US than ever, and high mpg cars are devalued, right when we need them the most to save ourselves.  Another demonstration of how the market does not value things for the better of our species.

Regardless of the above, I did surrender my Jetta Hybrid, and got the Volt.  It is great to come home, plug it in to recharge, as I do my cell phone, ipad, computer, and so many other devices in my life. At the moment I only have a 120 volt outlet, so it takes about 10 to 16 hours to fully recharge, but that is fine, I plug it in and overnight, it is ready go again. I am finding that the range is not the 40 miles per charge as advertised, but 30 miles.  Perhaps that is due to the winter cold sapping the batteries efficiency, and affecting the mpg while driving.  I did get winter tires, and had the air dam removed as it scrapped the ground too often, and coming into my garage.  That no doubt will affect the efficiency and range.  Even so, 30 miles is enough for me to do my daily errands, so I’m not complaining. And I expect the range to improve in warmer weather.