New Volt Owner!!

[ShannonVolt]

Hi, picked up my new '12 Chevy Volt May 5th from Joe Bowman Chevrolet in Harrisonburg, VA. So far I'm REALLY impressed with the car. I was expecting 35-40 EV range but already getting 45 EV range! I'm surprisingly shocked! Talk to you all soon!

Shannon

[Jedi2155]

Enjoy all the love you'll be placing in your Volt. It is certainly a car you can really appreciate.

[saghost]

Congrats!! Welcome. The biggest single factor in range is HVAC settings. Outside temperatures matter quite a bit even if you turn off the heat, too. But it's an awesome car even when you end up using a little gas. Lots to learn here, have a look around. You also may want to consider joining Voltstats.net - it uses OnStar to keep track of mileage and efficiency for you, and also allows us to build fleet usage numbers - nearly a thousand cars and 6.4 million miles so far (at an average of 120 mile per gallon, ignoring electricity.)

[drbruns]

Shannon. Congrats on the new Volt. My son will be attending James Madison in the fall. I will probably be making many trips to Harrisonburg in the next four years. Let me know where I can get some good charging opportunities while I'm there.

[jegund]

Go JMU! Great school and great town. Love the history and scenery. You'll love the Volt. Congrats.

[Frugger]

Glad to see there is another Volt in central VA. I'm in Charlottesville and just picked up mine 3 weeks ago from Jim Price. One thing I've noticed is a complete lack of public charging stations in central VA. I work in Los Angeles and you can't throw a stone without hitting a charging station. The complete lack of any alternative energy incentives in Virginia (except for a special license plate) is embarrassing.

[gaulfinger]

Congrats!! Welcome. The biggest single factor in range is HVAC settings. Outside temperatures matter quite a bit even if you turn off the heat, too. But it's an awesome car even when you end up using a little gas. Lots to learn here, have a look around. You also may want to consider joining Voltstats.net - it uses OnStar to keep track of mileage and efficiency for you, and also allows us to build fleet usage numbers - nearly a thousand cars and 6.4 million miles so far (at an average of 120 mile per gallon, ignoring electricity.)

I second that! And welcome you, too!

[DonC]

Congrats on the new car and welcome to the forum. Those who own one are frequently surprised that it actually exceeds expectations. It's one heck of a piece of technology.

[tangentlin]

Welcome to the club, check out voltstats.net and there are many Volt'ers out there sharing the passion.

[BAZINGA]

saghost nailed it, HVAC is the single biggest impactor to how many EV miles you can extract from a charge. Yesterday for example I managed my best day yet, 47.5 miles on a full charge. I used some AC and defroster and higher fan speeds in the moring due the humidity, but later in the day the HVAC was OFF and the windows were down. Since I didn't start off to save juice or conduct a max EV run, I do believe 50 EV miles was with my grasp.

On a side note the "air hammer" with the windows down can be so bad as to cause physical pain and distraction from my enjoyment of the car. I have to fool around with various window configurations to allow me to run with no HVAC. GM I wish you could fix that.