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How I Learned to Love a Lower voltstats.net Ranking

7K views 28 replies 23 participants last post by  JohnnyO 
#1 ·
Soon after acquiring my Volt in December 2011, I registered at voltstats.net and began tracking my efficiency performance. Despite many who had thousands of miles already logged in their Volts, I was confident that I could steadily increase my ranking over time. In those early days, that's exactly what happened. As I drove more and more in EV mode, I quickly fell into the top 100. Then I steadily could check my daily improvement in the ranking until ... one day when I started to slide in the other direction. "How could this be?" I asked myself. I was driving almost exclusively in EV mode. I seemed impossible to imagine that I could go down instead of up in the rankings.

Then I realized how much of a game changer this car is. As more people acquired and started driving the car, the more people that were driving almost exclusively in EV mode. At 95% and 473MPG (as of today), it is nice to see others doing even better.

So while I will likely continue to slide in the ranking, I take solace in knowing that it's not because I'm doing worse. It's because so many others are joining the group and doing - if only slightly - better.
 
#2 ·
Yup, it's nice to get the big picture- and not worry about stats. Those who would drive a gasser just to avoid messing with stats on particular trips are indeed missing the big picture. Just drive it...and drive it all the time! :)
 
#3 ·
The median car is 80% electric! (which implies a few cars are putting on a lot of gas miles and dragging the average utility factor down, since that's only 70%)

Me, I've taken several thousand miles of roadtrips in the car, and so I'm just over 50% electric, somewhere in the bottom 12% in utility factor on Voltstats.

But I'm still showing 75 MPG, and it's still the best and most efficient car I've had, so I'm not worried. :)
 
#4 ·
I'm not ready yet to embracy a lower rating. I've managed to claw my way up to #6. This while averaging around 1700 miles per month in my Volt.

Without a doubt this is the best car I have ever owned. I had to take my wife's car to the gas station yesterday and I was not very happy about spending any time at a gas station!

I'm looking forward to getting the Fuel Maintence Mode message in my Volt!
 
#5 ·
The top guy at 4,400 mpg + is untouchable... If my Volt wasn't my only car, I'd be up in the 4,000 mpg club as well.... I'll settle for 350 mpg anyday...

MrEnergyCzar
 
#6 · (Edited)
any chance of making it into the top tier went out the window by taking a 900+ mile trip when I oly had 600+ miles on the car. I'm still not over it and will most likely need therapy.

My 250+ mileage took a beating and is now creeping up to 74 total lifetime. On the plus my real world MPG of 39 MPG was the best Dino fuel mileage I have ever gotten in all my years of driving and I've been driving for over 45 years. And as a bonus that 39 MPG hand calculated bested the cars computer by 1.8 MPG. Usually built in fuel mileage displays are optimistic.
 
#8 ·
I'm one of those that bought my car out of state and drove it home.

To see how you compare to the normal folks that bought locally you can:

1) Change "Timespan:" to something other than "All Dates"
2) Click on "EV%" until the 100% are sorted to the top.

For a head-shaker click on "EV%" until the lowest %s are sort at the top (and set timespan to "All Dates" or 6 months). Several folks are less than 25% EV usage. That puzzles me.
 
#9 ·
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For a head-shaker click on "EV%" until the lowest %s are sort at the top (and set timespan to "All Dates" or 6 months). Several folks are less than 25% EV usage. That puzzles me.
Those are some weird cars. There are several at the bottom end there with impossible VINs (2011-99XXX) and large numbers of miles loaded, but only a very few miles in the breakdowns, all in April. Former demo cars that were never charged, and just now delivered to a customer, maybe?
 
#12 ·
Maybe those are the Pre-production Volts, of which I read some have been sold to fleets, or are still being used as test vehicles.
 
#15 ·
Once upon a time, long long ago, my 2012 was ranked #12. The I used the Volt as it was meant to be and took it on a 400 mile trip. My ranking plumeted, and I have been inching my way back. Yes, I have gas anxiety and I'm not proud of it. Still, using 3/10ths of a gallon of gas since Thanksgiving ain't all that bad.
 
#17 ·
Don't feel too bad Bazinga - I got mine early October and had to drive it pure gasoline most of the winter till I got my solar system upgraded - I quickly found my backup generators used twice the gas per effective mile put into the car as the built in engine. I didn't join voltstats for that reason - why drag the averages down? I've been driving largely pure electric since January and am just now cracking 70 mpg lifetime. It's only going up from here, and I have a very nicely almost broken in engine I can probably justify changing oil on before next winter this way.
 
#18 ·
Well I'm not even on the first page of the all time stats. I bough out of state and drove it home.. started at 45mpg lifttime average with 1000 miles.. Deep hole to climb out. Up to 166. I like to look at the last few months.. But even now I take what longer trips I can using it.

If you need to feel better just go check out the second most efficent PHEV.. The plug in prius
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AptkktKEhdz9dGF0WWdUZEpqWWdJOGhDWlFsWDBUdGc#gid=10
 
#20 ·
I happen to be near the bottom. 37% EV. With my current job, I make 2 trips a week that are about 120 miles one way, 240 miles round trip. And there is nowhere to charge at the half way point (the town only has 1 charge station, and it's at a Nissan dealership that is no where near anything worth walking to, and there are no 120v outlets I can use anywhere either).

Despite this less than ideal situation, I still make good mileage; close to 40 mpg -- higher if you calculate in the 94 mpge of the first 35 or so miles.

Given my current commuting situation, there are a few other cars out there that would give better overall mileage (not very many, but there are a few). So why did I buy a Volt? Because I wanted a Volt. It is still far more efficient than my previous car (which was averaging about 23 mpg). And, like many others, mileage is only one of many reasons I wanted it. My current commuting situation won't last forever -- I would estimate 2 more years of that commute at the most -- and I plan on keeping the Volt many more years after that.

I am on voltstats.net. Am I dragging down the numbers? I'm indifferent on that. It seems reasonable to say that it is at least as good for voltstats to show real world numbers as opposed to inflated numbers due to selective participation. Lets just say, I'm not making the numbers worse, I'm making the other driver's numbers better. :)

Why do I live so far away from somewhere I have to work? As many other things in life, it is a compromise. A lot of factors play into where I live and work. The current commute is a pretty negative factor, but weigh all factors together it adds up to my current best case scenario. Hopefully I can improve on it in the future, but at any given time, you have play the cards you've got.
 
#21 ·
I am one of the guys at the bottom, the problem for me the battery is to small. There is almost no place I can go that I don't need the engine to get home, usually 1 to 1.5 gallons. Also we do a fair amount of travel. Life time is at 48mpg and climbing, ICE has also been climbing 33 to 40+ now. That does not disturb me as the electricity cost is zeroed out by my own refinery. I would like someone to run a survey of the number of Volt owners that charge there own vehicle. I don't know how. What other car can you produce your own fuel?
 
#27 ·
I'm closer to the top because almost everywhere I go is within a 40 mile round trip. The exception is the Denver airport, but lately I've been parking at Canopy and charging there. The wind turbines out front make me feel a bit better about using someone else's juice rather than my home-made stuff.
 
#22 ·
I'm currently at 539 lifetime mpg and trying to work my way up. The car had 700 miles on it and had 7 gallons of gas burned in it when I purchased it, because it was a dealer demo. I've burned 2.8 gallons since Feb. 1st, and my daily routine is all electric with no problem, and now I have the 240 charger in the garage, so I expect to work my way up over time. :)
 
#23 ·
I started in a big hole by purchasing a dealer demo with 4500 total miles, of which, over 2000 were GAS miles. Ouch! I'll never know the prior life of my car, and much like dating a new girl, I really don't want to know. :)

With workplace charging and a 65 mile RT commute, I've inched my way from 75 lifetime MPG to 91 mpg over the last month.
 
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