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Is a Volt right for me???

5K views 20 replies 18 participants last post by  Jeff N 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

I'm currently the owner of a Saturn Aura and I'm seriously considering trading it in for a Volt. However, my daily commute is 35 miles each way (30 miles hwy and 5 miles city). I know the Volt can only run for approximately 35-40 miles without using any gas, however, my daily commute is double that distance and I wouldn't have anywhere to charge it while I'm at work. My current car averages around 25 mpg, so I'm just wondering how much I would potentially save by driving a Volt. Would I still save a substantial amount of money, or is the Volt primarily for people with a much shorter commute?
 
#2 ·
It is not uncommon for people to get 40-45 miles out of a charge and the Volt gets about 40ish MPG in Charge Sustaining mode (running on a depleted battery) So you will use about 0.6 to 0.7 gallons per day on a 70 mile round trip.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Let's review "how much will I save". The Volt is great - but buying a new car to save money is not a proper statement. Just keep the current car and you will save $$ over buying anything new.

Now, what you would save is this: 70/25 = 2.8 gallons now
Volt would be 70 - 40 = 30 / 40 = .75 gallons with Volt for the round-trip (probably ~1.2 in winter)

You would save over 2.0 gallons of gas per day in the summer. That is ~40 lbs of CO2 not produced, per day, and after a few weeks, a barrel of oil. Maybe your employer or your area you park in will have charging capacity some day in the future.

Savings of cash is based on how much your kWH power is versus gasoline. But you will have car payments or lease payments and will be "cash negative" while you make those payments.

The Volt is not a way to "save money". Not yet. Never has been. It's a car you could choose over a competitor ICE only car in its class where you indeed would be using less gasoline every day and enjoying smooth electric drive along the way. You can spend the same money on a BMW 3-series, Acura, etc.

If you want to save money strictly on mpg alone, you could look at a Chevy Sonic (low initial price) or Chevy Cruze. Both 40mpg cars with price under $20K. But definitely not in the same class as a Volt. All of these models use the same 1.4L engine, including the Volt.

By the way, you can get a deal having a Saturn - any existing GM owners tend to get a favorable discount when looking at a Volt. One local dealer here told me this and was offering an extra $1K off a Volt if I was a GM owner (even without trade-in).
 
#5 ·
The Volt is a lot of car, for a lot of money. :) I'm not quite sure where your priorities are...

For the commute you described, there is no car that would get better economy on the market today, either in terms of cost or fuel use (you might be able to use a Leaf, but that's getting to where you can't be sure of getting home in bad weather. I'm also assuming you can't find a good deal on a used Tesla. :) ) The newest Prius does a little better on gas than a discharged Volt - but in the described commuting scenario, not enough. (the Prius would probably use around 1.5 gallons per day, the volt .5-1 - they cross over somewhere in the 100-150 mile trip range depending on your assumptions.)

There are undoubtedly cheaper cars, and the Volt isn't enough more efficient in your circumstances to make the difference in purchase price in a reasonable timeframe. Which brings us to the question of what you want in a car, and what the quality of your drive is worth to you. I've driven Priuses, and the Volt is nothing like it. In fact, I'm coming to realize that it may be the best car I've ever driven for stop and go traffic, especially in sport and low - able to zip into and out of gaps in traffic with the speed of thought, when you dare. At the same time, it's the quietest and smoothest car I've ever had or driven.

Is it justifiable on pure TCO terms? Seldom, and not in your conditions. Will it reduce you dependance on gas and foreign oil? from your description, it'll be 1/5-1/3 of the gas you burn now (plus ~$1.50 in electricity per night, depending on your provider and plan.) Is it worth the money in quality of life? I think so. Guess you'll have to decide.

I suggest a quick trip to your local dealer - GM has given dealers more than 2500 demo cars expressly to let everyone drive one, and the car usually sells itself very well on a test drive. (If you like peppy cars, be sure to put it in Sport for part of your drive.) I would assume dealers up that way have cars - I know Thomas Chevrolet in Media has one (and they sold me mine a little under MSRP in a painless transaction.)
 
#6 ·
If your electric rates are comparable to national average and we peg gas at $3.50 per gallon, you'd save about $5.06 each commuting day in fuel with a Volt (full charge @ ~$1.50, .875 gallons premium gas). Maybe $1300 a year, plus some more from cheaper weekend driving? If you could charge at work, you'd save about $6.80 a day if you had to pay the same rate for electric. Personally if I had that long a commute with no hope of charging at work, I'd prefer a Leaf, I like the idea of gas free commuting over using some every day.

Don't buy a Volt, or other EV, purely with the idea of saving money. The initial costs are still too high for that. Buy one because you want a nice new car, and after the tax credit + fuel savings + less maintenance, the premium isn't that much if you keep it for a reasonably long time.

If you just want lowest cost of transport, generally you are better off sticking with an old car, or trading it in for a used car of not too much higher cost, with better mileage.
 
#8 ·
I agree with Don C. Choose the Volt because it is what you want.
 
#9 ·
My commute is about the same. I now use about $0.80 worth of gas/day. I'm getting great mileage. No regrets. There is no way the Prius is as nice a drive.
 
#10 ·
The Volt is a performance car, and people pay more for performance. In this case the performance is not just acceleration or speed, its fuel consumption and smooth quiet driving. It is a luxury car with great contributions for preserving our environment and nation.
 
#11 ·
This statement could be in a GM "what are customers saying" brochure :)
 
#12 · (Edited)
Also, you may be swayed by "low volt sales" as reported in the press and may be worried about buying a car that isn't in demand.

Right now, it looks like Volts are selling at over 50/day and on some days much more (nationally). So, the sales rates are going up along with the deliveries to dealers which were slow in September. Many were in-transit for a few weeks (some still are). Since they are making 1000 per week (in terms of Vin numbers reported) and some are being exported (good for this country) then the Volt's appeal and acceptance just continues to grow.

I say 50/day based on number deltas on cars.com. Some dealers might add their cars to the web site, others may not. If a customer orders a car and then it ships to a dealer and is about to be delivered to the customer, why would they advertise a sold car for sale if they already have a few advertised? So, the sales numbers could be much higher. I'm estimating a 2000+ US sales month for the Volt for October. Since they have hit VIN number 9000 or so this week for the 2012 models (production started up mid-July) - it might even be higher than 2K. September was 723.
 
#13 ·
As others said, its not going to save money over keeping the saturn. If its an ending lease, the lease on the VOLT is a pretty good deal. (But leasing is never about saving money in the long run).

If you are looking for ammunition for a family discussion, where money is only a secondary issue (and desire is first) here is my take. As others said, the "independence" argument can be compelling.

Overall with your described commute you'll probably average 90-120mpg. (70 miles round trip about .6 gallons summer, a bit more in winter). My volt is at about 60% EV and my lifetime average is 98mpg (finally broke 100 last week, but need to take a longer trip in the snow and ice this week). You can check out people's real-world milage on voltstat.net and see the averages of people. If you presume 13kw to charge, you can then estimate the Miles per Dollar (MPFD). You should run the numbers with your cost to charge (which varies too much to just do a generic computation).


I believe the suggestions about buying Prius or Cruize might be valid if you want to keep it 2-3 years, but if you look at 5 or more they don't have a better TCO for you. As I recall (bonaire can correct me I'm wrong" with the PA rebates you could be "in" a base Volt in PA for about $28K after discount. That is not a huge delta over a Prius. If you do the TCO computation using your rates you can then determine the "premium" you are paying, if any, for the many technological, and quality advantages of the volt. I plan to keep mine for 10+ years and even if I just average 50% EV usage, its lower TCO than a Prius or Cruize and way less than the BMW 325i.
 
#14 ·
I love my Volt, but if I was going to drive it on gasoline every day I wouldn't be very happy. The Volt in CS mode is not a particularly fun or quiet car. The engine is rev'ing up and down, and you only have 80 HP (minus losses) to work with.

I LOVE the car in electric mode, and luckily I'm almost always in electric mode - 253 MPG lifetime, 16 mile round-trip commute :)
 
#17 ·
I love my Volt, but if I was going to drive it on gasoline every day I wouldn't be very happy. The Volt in CS mode is not a particularly fun or quiet car. The engine is rev'ing up and down, and you only have 80 HP (minus losses) to work with.
Umm... No. You have the full 110kW (149 HP) you have in battery mode - unless you manage to deplete the whole battery reserve the car holds on to - and according the GM the only way to do that is to charge up several miles of mountain grade at ~70 MPH (that's why they created mountain mode, which expands the reserve to insure you keep all 149 HP there, too.)

I disagree about the quiet part, too - on the freeway I find it quite imperceptible. In town, it's a little annoying during moderate-hard acceleration, but still not as loud as many cars I've driven, including my Eos. The main thing about it is the sound seems unnatural, because the engine sound doesn't change with wheel speed like everyone expects.

As for fun, it depends on what you like - the Volt is never the fastest car out there, but in CS it still has the same intuitive peppy instant throttle response, although with the engine revving it doesn't feel nearly as effortless.
Walter
 
#15 ·
In my personal opinion, i don't think you can justify the purchase price of the Volt on operational costs or savings alone. Otherwise i would get the Prius at 50 MPG or the new Chevy Cruze at about 36mpg. Both in my estimation offer a savings over the volt just considering price and operating costs over the life of the car.
Joe
 
#20 ·
I have pretty much the same scenario as you, a 90 mile round trip to work. initially I thought I wouldn't be able to charge at work. Then I found 110v outlets and a guy with a converted prius plugging in, so I asked and was allowed to plug in. Then, due to a couple of others who purchased volts and my companies desire to do the right thing, they installed eight, yes EIGHT, 240v chargers, free to the public.

Even when I didn't think I'd be able to charge at work the effective gas mileage was still a dramatic improvement over my 20mpg Pilot. Don't forget to include the dramatically reduced costs in maintenance - your oil changes will occur a lot less often, there are no fan belts to change, etc. For me it'll probably be at 50,000 miles before my first oil change. Also, I may never ever need to do brake job. With my Pilot I got 105,000 miles out of each brake job (1/2 of my commute is freeway, the other half I just got good at feathering the brakes. The Volt in (L) has great regenerative braking, so my actual use of mechanical brakes is usually from 10 mph to a full stop.

The city driving when the gas engine is running is still a LOT quieter than my Pilot or our Toyota Sienna. A LOT quieter! Listening to Audiobooks, classical music, or any other music that has a lot of dynamics sounds SOOOO much better in the volt.

I believe there's a study showing that the 5 year TCO between a volt and a cruze was about $1,500. For $300 more per year I'm driving a car that is dramatically more fun, a lot quieter, looks a lot better, thanks to the weight of the battery drives great in the rain/doesn't get pushed around when passing trucks driving in the opposite direction (2 lane roads), and I'm sending a lot less money to the oil companies/foreign oil war lords.

I call the Volt my protect the troops, protect the trees, mid-life crisis car that actually makes financial sense for ME.

Go for a couple of test drives. Enjoy the zero shifting, the instant torque, the "game like" qualities of trying to best your battery mileage, the much quieter ride, and you'll be hooked.

Yes, initially it seems like a lot of money for the car, but really run the numbers. Put in all of the other driving you do (kids events every week, grocery store runs, etc). Do you come home have dinner then go back out for errands? In that hour, with a 240v charger, you get another 12-14 miles of battery life. That adds up. FOR ME, all of that put together means I'm spending $450 month less on gas. Yes, for the next 5 years that same money goes towards the car payment, but after that that's how much I'll be saving. Considering I keep my cars 10+ years that will add up. Yes, the battery mileage will go down over time. But still, it's a (for me) 40 mpg car when burning gas.
 
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