allow reprogramming of Mountain Mode to EV Hold Mode and I'd buy a Volt now

[Bob G]

"Preconditioning isn't practical as it runs down the house battery on cloudy days."

I overlooked this statement earlier....

I can see where because you are 100% off grid, EV Hold could make a bigger difference for you compared to the average Volt owner.....

Even "on grid," Hold Mode is a big deal for some of us. I usually have to charge on 110 V. If I pre-condition the cabin temperature on a cold day, I can either wait until the battery is fully charged again (and the cabin is cold again), or I lose range (and end up having to run the engine on my commute home). With Hold Mode, I could take advantage of what the ICE is best at (making heat) and save the battery for later. Mountain Mode won't let me do this.

[Bob G]

Hold would be a great answer. If you don't get that, it seems like there might be another fairly simple option for you. We've been thinking about rigging ERDTLT to prevent the engine from coming on, but in your case, you might want to rig the opposite way - force the engine to come on, instead - pull the OAT resistance high, spoof a low outside temp, and the engine comes on at the flip of a switch, until the car is warmed up.

Intriguing ... Has anyone tried this? I would be concerned that the car might try to heat up the battery (that it may believe is colder than it actually is) and end up overheating (and damaging) it. But it depends on how the OAT and battery temperature sensors work together in the software.

[Bob G]

I live in Phoenix, so the idea of using EV hold to heat up a freezing car the 1st 10 minutes never occurred to me. I imagine CA, FL, TX and other Southern Volt owners probably don't have to worry about that either.

We have the opposite problem. A hot car in the afternoon. Running the engine does not really allow the car to cool significantly quicker so EV Hold would not help us.

I can see where if you live in a cold climate and park the vehicle outside, it would make a difference to have the option to run the engine during the 1st 10 minutes.

A purist might disagree with the idea of using gasoline to heat the vehicle, but I wouldn't. Comfort is comfort...

Running the heater just kills my battery range - much more so than the air conditioning. Hopefully, future Volts will have a heat pump (instead of a resistive heater), and will scavenge some waste heat from the battery, inverter and traction motor. Another option would be a gasoline heater (like we used on the old VW beetles).

[Bob G]

Yes, and yes - mostly. If it's cold enough out, a remote start on a 220 charger uses just a hair more power than the charger provides. On 110, you lose some range, unless you wait 10-15 minutes for it to recover.

It seems to take more like an hour for mine to recover on 110 V (but I admit that I have never timed it). By the time the battery is fully charged again, the cabin is cold again. :/

Sounds like a 220 V charger and/or Hold Mode are two good solutions.

[tboult]

Hold would be a great answer. If you don't get that, it seems like there might be another fairly simple option for you. We've been thinking about rigging ERDTLT to prevent the engine from coming on, but in your case, you might want to rig the opposite way - force the engine to come on, instead - pull the OAT resistance high, spoof a low outside temp, and the engine comes on at the flip of a switch, until the car is warmed up.

You just guessed one of the two hacks I was going to expore.. (though its much easier to add a resister I was thinking of getting a replacement unit and hacking it.. but my first choice is a software hack.. I'm betting the button just sends a command and so we jsut have to watch the right bus, learn which command it is, and then send it... May not work on my old 2011, but it may. I'm hoping the command has parameters (more like.. set minimum SOC to X, which would be danddy) But this type of stuff is low priorty for now.

[Red Volt]

I'm in FL and I agree that it would be nice to warm up on gas. It's not really a big deal to me, as I am usually plugged in to 240V and can precondition, but it makes a HUGE difference in the winter on how far I can go. It would be nice to have the defrost work quicker too on occasion. Lots of humidity here for that.

I imagine a lot of people don't drive as far as me, so usuing up some electricity on the heat isn't a big deal. But there have been times I would like EV hold.

[Thomas Dravecz]

I usually remote start the volt, then when I'm ready to drive away (or sometimes while I still wait at home), I unplug from the grid, start the vehicle fully, then open the hood, and close it right away.

Since the Volt starts the engine any time the hood is opened, and keeps it running for a few minutes until it warms up, I'm on GAS for the first few miles of my trip.

I haven't tested to see if this actually creates significant heat or extends my driving range on electric, but I assume it does, and have used this several times.

[jfkirk]

This is really an example of GM being obtuse. Just being able to adjust the gen cut-out level for mountain mode would be great. Come on GM try for really happy campers with a little after-sale support/improvement.

[Ladogaboy]

This is really an example of GM being obtuse. Just being able to adjust the gen cut-out level for mountain mode would be great. Come on GM try for really happy campers with a little after-sale support/improvement.

What you are describing is a hybrid feature, which I would prefer more than the current Hold Mode available for the MY 2013. According to what I've read, the Hold Mode doesn't dip into the battery the same way that Mountain Mode does, so for my purposes, I'd rather have an adjustable Mountain Mode. If set to 100% capacity, it would function similarly to Hold Mode; however, you would still have battery capacity available for hill climbs.