Volt Storage and what to do with battery?

[DonC]

Hope you have a great trip!

I don't think you need to do anything. Just don't leave the traction battery with a full state of charge. The easiest way to do this is to just run it around in Mountain Mode the day before you leave. The bigger issue, though hardly major, is the 12v battery. If you're concerned about that just get a battery charger -- they're not expensive -- and leave that plugged in.

I would not plug the Volt in if I were leaving for 45 days. There isn't an upside and the downside is that the car will fully charge, which you don't want. Again however, not a huge deal.

My understanding from some rather extensive reading on the dead 12V battery issue is that the 12V battery is only "charged by its big brother" when the car is on and fully functional and is not at all charged during 110V/220V charging regardless of the status of the main battery.

Chris, I think you're right about the main battery not charging the 12v battery unless the car is on, but the 12v is charged by a separate charger when the car is plugged in and the traction battery is charging. It has to work this way because the 12v battery is needed during charging.

[crodgers79]

Chris, I think you're right about the main battery not charging the 12v battery unless the car is on, but the 12v is charged by a separate charger when the car is plugged in and the traction battery is charging. It has to work this way because the 12v battery is needed during charging.

Don,

One of the persons responding to my (same) comments on the subject in a different thread says this: "..the charger only carries the 12V while actively charging - plugged in but fully charged or waiting to charge it does not provide 12V power."

I think that's an _extremely_ important point; in other words, I have a 220V charger which takes all of only 3 hours to fully charge the car. Now if my 12V battery is running low that means it only gets what I assume would be a trickle charge for three hours; thus, if the 12V battery were in a run-down state when starting charging, I could see after only 3 hours how it could then not have sufficient charge the next day to power-up the vehicle's computer systems.

Don't mind me, I'm just trying to dumb-this-down to a point where it makes sense to me!

Thanks!

Chris R.

[Sam56n]

If anyone cared for an update

I returned last night from my 46 day trip; I ended up running the EV battery down to 1 mile and just parked the car without attaching the charging cord

When I came back, everything was exactly the same (1 mile EV left) but the car said that it needed to be turned on (engine running) for about 10 minutes to do some engine maintenance; it started right up and did its thing;

I guess I was worried for nothing

[AZvolt]

Thanks for the update. Things like this are good to know.

[Cord]

I have this image in my head of a nameless Super Moderator Grinning like a Cheshire cat.

[Red Volt]

Good to hear. Thanks for the update.

[Rampage_Rick]

So I was in my dealership today checking on the status of my Volt. (and complaining about the ABS light on my Sierra that was supposed to be fixed last week)

They've got a couple 2012s; a loaded Cyber Gray in the lot (which I test drove a day after the PDI in May) and a basic Summit White that's been sitting in the showroom for at least a month. After oogling the white one for a few minutes, I wanted to check out the trunk, since it's about the only part of the car I've never really inspected. Oops, dead AGM...

I've got an appointment on Wednesday for the ABS issue, so I'll report back on the Volt. Doesn't help to sell them in that condition.

I know they won't want to put miles on it, but I'm guessing they could run down the traction battery with the HVAC system, then do the 15 minute charge-window trick (plus having the cord attached in the showroom is a great icebreaker for potential customers...)