Spirited driving.. not that big of an impact on mileage?

[mhoepfin]

So the first 6 weeks with the Volt were all about let's see how conservative I can be with the car. Nice and easy all the time.

The last few days I have decided to open it up and not worry about. Quick start off the line? No problem... Racing past other traffic? Sure, let's have some fun...

Now I'm looking at my range and estimated mileage the last few days and it's only about 2-3 miles less than my days spent driving miss daisy. Is that all I'm gaining (or losing depending on point of view) by having some fun driving this thing?

[ViperRT10Matt]

Spirited driving will affect your range less than some AC use, and will affect your range FAR less than steady heater use.

[DonC]

That's probably about right. If you absolutely crushed it every minute then you'd see some big differences, but in normal driving you don't get that many opportunities to really hammer it.

[Jedi2155]

I'm starting to notice the same as well. Spirited driving a gas vehicle may have a lot more impact, but with all the regen capability, and overall good aerodynamics/low rolling resistance, its a far better vehicle for doing so.

[Dithermaster]

This is why I love my Volt.

I loved driving my previous car (an Audi A3 3.2L DSG) in a sprited fashion, but it killed my gas mileage and I felt guilty, so I didn't do it very often.

My Volt costs fractions to move around compared to the A3, so I feel no guilt at all when I zoom around!

[saghost]

Spirited driving will affect your range less than some AC use, and will affect your range FAR less than steady heater use.

This.

The best 10 mile one way commute I've had so far was 2.2 kWh - driving slightly under the 55 mph speed limit on the interstate that makes up most of my commute. Today I did it aggressively, at speeds I'm probably much better off not admitting to - and consumed 2.6 kWh

(of electricity generated by my solar panels - since I'm ~300 kWh ahead of the power company right now, I think of it as free power, though of course the investment in the solar panels isn't amortized yet.)

Heater use with conservative driving in the winter sometimes netted me 2.8 or higher. Clearly the impact of spirited driving isn't that large - and I feel much less guilty doing it. (Which may lead to a speeding ticket one of these days - it's just so easy to drive the Volt quickly...)

[Jedi2155]

Same here, I feel less guilty doing so as well which is a huge reason I got the Volt in the first place over a Prius. Understanidng how much more efficient it was, its like saying I'm only getting 60-70 MPGe instead of 110 MPGe.....its still SIXTY MPG!!

[tboult]

I did some experiments where I measured SOC and different accelerations.

Hard accelerations make a measurable but small difference. 0-60 all out (~8.9sec) takes 2.4% of the usable battery range and 0-60 at 22seconds (slower than most prius drivers) takes 1.9%, a difference of .5% or about .2 of a mile or EV range (if 100%=40miles).

So a few highly-spirited accelerations are not costing you much in range. Have some fun every now and then.
(What it does to long-term system reliability is a different question, just like high-revs in a ICE, the hard acceleration may be a bit harder on the motors).

[Jedi2155]

I bet the high acceleration has less of an effect on the motors than the batteries. That's my greater concern.