My #1 suggestion: instantaneous and/or averaged kW usage

[Cornan]

By now I'm used to having an "avg mpg / current mpg" display in some of the cars I've driven.

I'd really like the same for the Volt (and as this is a software change, I'd like it for my 2012 Volt, thank you!).

As it stands, the fuzzy green and blue ball and other such displays are all frustratingly vague. I'd like something more instantaneous and more specific (just tell me the watts being used for gosh sake!)

To be specific, one one of the displays I'd like to see the current power consumption (averaged over no more than a few seconds) and an averaged power consumption (from a time a user resets the counter or from the last charge, or trip, but more like hours and days than seconds).

I like the idea of tying in the consumption to two trip counters.

What should the unit be? watts / mile? miles per kilowatt? That's not so important to me as long as one of the two numbers updates frequently enough to help me tweak my driving for the maximum range.

[12V]

Agreed. I'd like to see a real efficiency displayed somewhere. The Volt displays "mpg" 4 different places: Trip A, trip B, and two in the energy efficiency display. But none tell me how efficiently I am driving because all 4 combine gas and electric miles and thus only represent the % of time I spend using electric vs gas. Why not display mpg in CS mode and mpkwh in CD mode? The information is right there in the energy efficiency display, why do I have to mentally divide miles traveled by kwh used all the time while a useless "250+ MPG" is blaring at me in giant font?

[Cheezmo]

The Leaf shows Miles/kWh instantaneously and along with the trip computer resets. There is even a separate reset on the center console you can do to track history at whatever intervals you choose.

Very useful and a glaring oversight to me who is used to monitoring that as my primary "mileage" indicator while driving the Leaf.

I hardly plan to use gas on the Volt so putting everything in terms of MPG is nonsense.

[scottf200]

Well the masses who are the genuine target for this car do not know/care about those. I think GM was genius in making this car so "normal". That is the way to get the transition to work IMHO. This is not a car just for the "early adopters" tech geeks.

Still it would be novel to have that information in some lower level areas that could be accessed. They have the kWh used on 2012+ so that is pretty decent even tho you have to do a little math to get per mile numbers. MyVolt.com has the rough kWh for us 2011 drivers.

[zigdog1]

For sure, marketing Miles/kWh is not a great idea but once you DRIVE one and "get it" - it's one of the first things I wanted to start tracking - but other than for "This Drive" - you don't see it anyway. I also drive mostly on Electric so while it's cool to impress my friends with the 250+ MPG - I really want to know how much kWh I'm using. Should be an easy add to the current Energy screen.

[drbruns]

The monthly OnStar diagnostic report contains the kWh/100 (at least the only one I have received so far). I don't understand why MyVolt.com doesn't show this instead of the "--". The charging history contains the kWh used for each charging session and the system knows the total miles driven.

Seems like a simple coding exercise to me.