Some Chevrolet Volt Drivers Opt For Electric-Mode Only – USA Today

[saghost]

Please explain how "snowflake" on VoltStats has only 1.3% EV miles after having driven over 10,000 miles. I hope that's wrong, yikes.

I'm really wondering if the 99XXX cars (and this snowflake, which has a normal VIN) are reporting wrong, somehow. They also report remarkable CS fuel economy - snowflake is somehow getting 66 mpg on gas, and one of the 99XXX cas is reporting 100 mpg on gas alone!

[Logical_Thinker]

I'm really wondering if the 99XXX cars (and this snowflake, which has a normal VIN) are reporting wrong, somehow. They also report remarkable CS fuel economy - snowflake is somehow getting 66 mpg on gas, and one of the 99XXX cas is reporting 100 mpg on gas alone!

THAT is a very valid question.

[MrEnergyCzar]

i don't use gas, my mandatory maintenance mode ran yesterday on my way home from work. it ran for about 1 1/2 minutes and used .1 gal/gas.

Save even more gas by pulling over and letting it run....

MrEnergyCzar

[DCFusor]

So far, I've never hit maintenance mode and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if I did. I avoid the urge to "game" voltstats by having never signed up. If I'm going to burn some gas, it might as well go to pushing the car directly, rather than getting a round-trip loss through the batteries anyhow - the only reason to do differently is to "cheat" on your voltstats rating - totally bogus IMO.

And BTW, it's almost impossible to have that ICE run and it not be putting charge in - it will do it in MM or maintenance mode (pop the hood) in the driveway if the car is on but not moving. While that makes your stats look better, it's ignorant and still pure cheating. Proud of that? I wouldn't be.

I got mine last October, and drove on mostly-gasoline all winter. Didn't have enough spare solar then, and I'm a heat freak. We know the Volt's electric heater is a design disaster - maybe the only one in the whole car. This year, I'll have enough solar, and will be trying an 800w ceramic space heater instead of using the silly "heat the engine coolant loop out in the cold with electricity" plan, so my mileage should continue to go up. But it's just now breaking 70 lifetime at 3.6k miles. In other words, about twice the Cruze LT for the privilege of driving a far better car that is still far better even when running on ICE (and snow, sorry 'bout the pun).

I've tested and that ceramic heater (running off an inverter in the 12v system) will just about burn your legs off in a few seconds...
And it will heat the car better and quicker in the driveway, plugged in, since it's not trying to heat the out of doors like heating the engine does.

[solar_dave]

Well my wife is pretty proud of her last 5K miles on 2.2 gallons. My I could care a lot less. I do like being at 235 mpg and charging both off the solar system however. Less out of pocket the better. Less going to OPEC the better.

[cmr]

Save even more gas by pulling over and letting it run....

MrEnergyCzar

it's not going to measure less than one tenth of a gallon and since it only ran for about 1 min 30 seconds at less than 30mph i don't think it would have saved anything. if it would it wouldn't be measurable and pulling over to the side in traffic is unsafe.

[BAZINGA]

We do some silly things to avoid using gas, but aside from it bordering on OCD (I've been accused of this myself) once I got over my 900+ mile trip that was 90% gas I'm over obsessing.

It's sort of like getting your first dent or scratch on a new car. At some point you just say what the hell and drive it.

[Chris Harvey]

Interesting stats discussed.

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...ic-mode-only/1

I also find it very suprizing how many Volts on voltstats.net have very low EV mile percentages. There are 21 with less than 30% EV miles.

I'm not sure if GM takes the time to publicly reference voltstats since it's a private site, but it seems like a really good way to get lots of stats you can use. Unless perhaps you get your own feeds and analytics directly from Onstar?

[Dan & Nan]

I'm really wondering if the 99XXX cars (and this snowflake, which has a normal VIN) are reporting wrong, somehow. They also report remarkable CS fuel economy - snowflake is somehow getting 66 mpg on gas, and one of the 99XXX cas is reporting 100 mpg on gas alone!

Yup, something is amiss. I think those outliers should be removed until things are figured out.

[toidvolt]

I'm really wondering if the 99XXX cars (and this snowflake, which has a normal VIN) are reporting wrong, somehow. They also report remarkable CS fuel economy - snowflake is somehow getting 66 mpg on gas, and one of the 99XXX cas is reporting 100 mpg on gas alone!

Maybe they are the test mules for the next generation of cars, or their experimental vehicles.......