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81.8 Miles On A Single Charge / No Elevation Change

15K views 39 replies 20 participants last post by  bro1999 
#1 · (Edited)
I had been planning this for weeks. Finally had a warm day, no rain, and no other activities to get in the way. Temperature was perfect. Started out 89F, cooled down to 80F by the end of the drive.

Before I started, I inflated my tires to 60 PSI, from their usual 52 PSI.

I only stopped once during the drive
A police officer pulled me over wanting to know what I was doing. Told him I was testing the electrical range and he let me on my way!

I was averaging 8.5 miles / kWh before it got dark forcing me to turn on my lights. I ended with 8.35 miles / kWh at the end of my drive.

This "test" was round trip to the same charger and there was virtually no elevation change on my drive.

 
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#13 ·
I think if Ari had a 2014 Volt, he could do it, as the '14 Volt has about 9-10% more usable capacity than a 2012.
 
#4 · (Edited)
So Ari C, you've got to give us more details about the trip. What speed did you select to attempt this feat? How long were you driving? Hiw much range did you have left when you made it back? How did you find any place where you didn't have to stop (except for the popo "It's the PoPo... Act naturally!)
 
#5 ·
I averaged 23 MPH, my speed varied from 20 to 25 MPH where I coasted some in neutral. I had 0 miles left when I finished! I found a section of road where it was possible to drive continuously without ever stopping. The beauty is there are free chargers right on this road!
 
#6 ·
What would you have done if that 0 miles of range turned on your ICE to end your ice avoidance streak?
 
#9 ·
Neither, it's called Memorial Day, so I had the day off.
 
#11 ·
The 60 psi seems dangerous to risk a tire malfunction. 52 is also high enough to push it past the max pressure rating.

I do want to run mine a little harder but have been happy with 41, warmed to 42-43 when driving.
 
#12 ·
It's probably fine at 25 MPH. It might have been an issue at highway speeds.
 
#15 ·
That's my secret!!!
 
#17 ·
The record for the Chevy Spark EV was done on a race track. So anyone who wants to establish their own EV range record can ask for time on a private race track, too.
 
#20 ·
Let ari borrow your 2014 for a day! I'm sure he's willing to find out. :D
 
#21 ·
Wow! That's a nice achievement ari-c!

So for me to do this with my '14, would I need to have a certain amount of prior hours on the batteries? Do the batteries need to be 'broken in' to get the maximum miles? (Can you tell I'm not a battery scientist?)

There are a number of roads here in California that would allow uninterrupted cruising. I could easily see someone breaking this record in the near future, so enjoy your status while it lasts, ari-c! ;)
 
#23 ·
Great Job, did you use cruise control? turn off DRL's?, turn off Traction control/collision avoidance? tape your body gaps? remove the rear seat bottoms and back, head rests, floor mats, passenger seat and air pump?

how about the front air dam, do you have a the old (2011) longer one?
Not that I want to encourage anyone else, but I'm trying to give you some ideas for ways to creep this number higher the next time you have 4 hours to test this..
did you wait at the charger for a full charge? or walk to a nearby restaurant of a much needed break?
 
#25 ·
I did not think of turning off traction control, now I have to try again j/k

Cruise control does not work under 24 MPH. Anyway, I found this driving easier than when I did than when I did the same thing with cruise control at 30 MPH. Required more concentration to keep the car at specific speeds so I was quite occupied the whole time.

I have the original longer air dam. Not sure if it would make much difference at these lower speeds. I also had both front windows cracked about 1.5" due to the temperature.

DRL were turned off until it became too dark and required me to turn on the lights. I noticed a significant impact from the lights and should have started about 1.5 hours earlier.

I waited at the charger. I brought my laptop and caught up on work when I waited for it to charge on both ends. I also had to wait for a 90% charge after it was done so I could get home 100% EV! I actually waited too long and make it home with over 20% left. I wasn't going to take a chance!

After that drive, my projected range was over 55 miles when checking the charging state with RemoteLink and dividing the current range by the percent charged. I also have a picture of it stating 50 miles range with 9 bars! Pretty cool in a 2012 Volt. I just need to do this a few more times and I could get it to 8 bars and 50 miles range.

Another peculiar thing is that the estimation did not work so well. Usually the battery estimate and miles driven are pretty close when it drops to 50 %. The point at which they matched I still had 6 bars left.
 
#28 ·
I would not have found it without help. Never thought of checking FedEx field. I was talking to an eVgo representative and he told me about the chargers. When I looked at it on Google maps, I knew I had to go there and check it for myself. When I saw there were no stop signs or traffic lights, I knew it was perfect.

Driving for that length of time, every little bit makes a difference. Even headlights had around a 2 mile range difference. So yes, worn tires I think played a big part. I bet a Volt with new tires would fall a bit short of what I was able to do. That also was one of the reasons I wanted to do this sooner than later. I was afraid of one of my tires failing and then I would miss my opportunity to try this.
 
#30 ·
Fantastic achevement, rock hard bald tires will always give the lowest rolling resistance.

I was told by someone involved in engineering the Volt, that for the 2011, 2012 Volts that the theretical max range (with standard tires and inflation) was about 70 miles and that that would be at a constant 30 MPH on a stright and level course. This may have also assumed that the driving lights were on requiring the faster speeed to minimise that and other uses of power in the car.

It is interesting to see the effect that the lights had on the efficency at 25 MPH.

My personal best was 56 miles with 40 PSI in the tires, on a combination suburbon and rural roads, with normal weekend traffic, traffic lights and stop signs. (in some places tring to keep my speed under 45 MPH without blocking traffic was not easy).
 
#31 ·
I was told by someone involved in engineering the Volt, that for the 2011, 2012 Volts that the theretical max range (with standard tires and inflation) was about 70 miles and that that would be at a constant 30 MPH on a stright and level course.
I did the exact same drive at 30 MPH and was able to go 66 miles. This was last summer, so tires had about 18K less miles on them, and PSI was at 50, not 60.
 
#34 ·
Well, I've told everything that I did, even revealed my secret location. So, it's open for someone to best my results. I may try again someday if my battery pack has to be replaced and I have a 16.5 kWh battery. I don't foresee that for years though, considering after 52,000 EV miles its as good as new.
 
#35 ·
Ari, did you shut off everything possible for your test run? Dim/turn off nav display, even go as far as pulling the Onstar fuse? That must save a few watts.

btw, I read your writeup on your attempt...I was wondering if you caught the attention of law enforcement. That cop might have thought you were doing a dry run or something. :D
 
#36 ·
I don't have a NAV, I guess I could have dimmed the display down, did not think of that. Radio was off and I also turned BlueTooth off on my phone. I forgot to turn off traction control. Not sure if that uses any power unless it is needed. My biggest mistake was starting about 1.5 hours too late. I figure that cost me about 1.5 miles. I even have HID headlights.

At first when I was pulled over, I thought it was because I had not turned on my lights yet as it was starting to get dark, just not too dark yet. However, I immediately turned them on afterwards. Policeman did stay for about another hour. Not sure if his shift was over, but I outlasted or outbored him!

Here's my writeup on InsideEVs: Just How Far Can A Chevrolet Volt Go On Electricity? How About 81.8 Miles
 
#38 · (Edited)
So I had to pick up the wife at Dulles International yesterday, and instead of paying to park, I decided to wait in the cell phone waiting lot till she got off the plane. Dulles does have L2 charging stations, but at $5/30 minutes garage parking fee ($17 daily cap), it wasn't worth it to charge this time. I had to circle around the airport loop a few times, and I thought "this might be another spot someone could do a long-range EV test run.". The loop is just about 1 mile in length, elevation between 273-296 feet, and it has the aforementioned charging stations. For someone coming back from a flight that charged up when they left, that is somehow not exhausted and has time to kill, this could be another option. Of course you probably will raise some eyebrows trying to drive around the loop for 4 hours. :p

While the airport was pretty busy, I wasn't impeded in any way during my 2-3 loops.

Map Text Line Diagram Technical drawing
 
#39 ·
So I had to pick up the wife at Dulles International yesterday, and instead of paying to park, I decided to wait in the cell phone waiting lot till she got off the plane. Dulles does have L2 charging stations, but at $5/30 minutes garage parking fee ($17 daily cap), it wasn't worth it to charge this time. I had to circle around the airport loop a few times, and I thought "this might be another spot someone could do a long-range EV test run.". The loop is just about 1 mile in length, elevation between 273-296 feet, and it has the aforementioned charging stations. For someone coming back from a flight that charged up when they left, that is somehow not exhausted and has time to kill, this could be another option. Of course you probably will raise some eyebrows trying to drive around the loop for 4 hours. :p

While the airport was pretty busy, I wasn't impeded in any way during my 2-3 loops.

View attachment 53930
So of one were to loop around this route for 4 hours, do you think someone with airport security would notice? I'd be disappointed if they didn't pull you over to ask what you are up to like your other run. But maybe it's busy enough at the airport that you would just blend in.
 
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