Odometer should display %EV only miles

[Joshua Bretz]

When I buy my used Volt, I want to know what percentage of the driving was done using the ICE & what percentage was EV only. This information should be multiplexed with the odometer display. Maybe you push the little button and get the trip odometer, and then you press again and you get the EV-only miles. The two modes stress different parts of the car - EV mode cycles the battery, whereas ICE mode does not cycle the battery. If you think that the battery will last forever (A123), then you would want a car with a lot of EV miles. If you think that the ICE is more reliable, you would opt for more ICE miles. I believe that there will be a thriving market for used Volts & the %EV data would be very relevant.

[Joshua Bretz]

Keeping track of the EV-only miles would also be fun for the owner, who would surely get some tangible sense of satisfaction from seeing that 8,500 of their first 10,000 miles were driven without using gasoline.

[Sentinel]

Hhhmmm... I think by law the odometer mileage on the car must be the mileage on the entire car not just when the ICE runs or not. Plus it makes keeping track of things like x-# miles warranty items and preventive maintenance things hard to keep track of.

But the computer could also keep track of miles driven under EV only vs. Gas I would imagine pretty easy too.

How about an hour’s meter on the ICE??? Then you could change your oil ever X # hours or every 6 months.... what ever comes first.

[Joshua Bretz]

But the computer could also keep track of miles driven under EV only vs. Gas I would imagine pretty easy too.

That's the whole of what I was suggesting.

[frankyB]

It is a good idea, and just for regular motor check up you would actually need to know how many miles you did on ICE vs 100% electric.

[DaV8or]

The way to handle this is to do what many big trucks do now. They have two meters (could be just one with a button to toggle between them) one is and odometer and the other is an hour meter for the engine. They do this because many trucks spend a lot of time idling. All generator sets sold today have hour meters to keep track of maintenance intervals and engine condition. The Volt should be no different. Miles on the car and hours on the generator set.

[soccerdad]

I agree that electric only miles should be recorded on a separate odometer. Some day, the government is going to want road use taxes, and if miles traveled under electric only is not available, it'll be a fixed rate. (note, road use tax is paid at the pump per gallon for gasoline). With the battery-only miles available, at least there is a chance there could be a fair solution, ie those taxes could be paid yearly based on the electric only miles traveled.

Also note, the poster's original premise MAY be incorrect. The volt is a 100% electric vehicle. All locomotion is electric from 1) batteries or 2) a fossil fuel motor/generator. My assumption is that the fossil fuel motor/generator will be charging the batteries and the batteries will be providing power to the electric motors. The physics of how that happens may mean that even though the fossil fuel motor/generator is running (especially under high demand) the batteries may still be in use (as apposed to just being charged).

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[FrayAdjacent]

As someone stated, the actual odometer would be required to record all mileage, regardless of source.

There could be all kinds of information we could get from the vehicle. Miles on electric would be useful, as well as charge cycles - both of which could be used for calculating longevity of the battery system.

For the generator, we'd need to realize that while it is a four cylinder engine similar to regular cars, but it is a generator. It's hours of operation should be logged. Distance traveled and total power generated could be useful.

I would bet a lot of this data is already designed to be logged by the system. Whether or not we will have access to it through the vehicle's interface remains to be seen.

[rhodomel]

hours run by the ICE generator would be good enough for me. including separate odometers for pure EV and ICE-EV operation would be excellent.

[omnimoeish]

Considering how long the ICE runs in a normal car, I would think although it would be cool to know how many miles you've drive with the ICE running of course, and how many hours its been running, it wouldn't be much of a resale criteria *in my book*, kelly blue book might disagree however. I'm sure there will be a seperate field for entering in ICE hours when you want to find blue book value of your vehicle. I would guess my car with 130,000 miles on it has run at least 3,500 hours so far (and still has 180 PSI) in its life including idling time at lights etc. (just by doing some rough math). I doubt you would ever get to even 2,000 in a Volt's lifetime. Most people probably wouldn't even get to 1,000 actually, and even that is not really comparing apples to apples with a normal car because a normal car is constantly changing RPM which is obviously more stressful for the engine than just to stay at its sweet spot RPM. If people were using the Volt as a taxi, and driving 100 miles a day or so on extended range gas, then it might be a bit of an issue, but other than some commercial situation, the ICE should pretty much last forever for all intents and purposes without maintenance other than oil changes and maybe one serpentine belt every 15 years.

I would imagine the electric motor will be brushless. Can anyone verify? If so I think the electric motor should be fairly bulletproof as well.