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volt owner checking in

7K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  PeterMC 
#1 ·
just found this website so thought I would check in, have owned my silver volt for 2 years and have filled up about 4 tanks so loving that!!!!. reside in Melbourne and find it quite difficult only service centre is Brighton, upon service they told me I have a $185 lifetime cap on the servicing which I was quite happy with.
also having problem with the accident camera alarm- (ie when you get close to car it beeps) where mine is not working - apparently they are trying to find where to order the part from. has anyone else had this problem, and if so has it been sorted?.

I have only seem a handful of volts around- does anyone know how many are actually around in Australia??
I actually get excited when I see another one on the road.

I am also very curious to know if anyone has had to replace the battery and if so what is the cost? I have googled and googled but cant find anything (I guess I just want to know what one will cost me in the future to make sure it will be worth keeping)

I am also getting average 50-65km from the battery but have seen some on this forum saying they get much more, I have noticed tyres pumped up correctly and using heated seats instead of heater get longer range.

interested to know any other pointers in relation to getting more km out, any suggestions.
 
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#2 ·
Welcome to the forum. Wish I had more details for you regarding the b/u camera alarm. But I can give you some details on what I've learned with regards to battery replacement cost. Just don't worry about it. :) That said, the 12V battery under the trunk floor is the more troublesome of the two, and those are pretty reasonable. As for the traction battery, GM did design it very well, and aside from it's 8yr/100K mile warranty (which should apply for you as well, but check your owners manual). It also has a modular design comprising of 4 battery units as well as various electronics interconnecting each unit. Worst case scenario might require an entire pack replacement, but I'm not aware of anything like that due to degradation and I believe I've only read of a couple needing an actual replacement which were covered by warranty. As for increasing your battery range, the key is to accelerate and brake gently. I keep my drivers screen set to the power usage screen which shows engine/battery/regen levels. Try to avoid drawing more than about 30kw when accelerating, less if you don't have any impatient people waiting behind you. As for decelerating, if I'm driving around town, I try to shift into L to take advantage of the more aggressive regen mode. I've been able to increase my battery reading from 37 miles to 40 (60-64kms) since I got it 3 weeks ago. Keep in mind that running the heater/ac will impact your range as well with the heater being more power hungry than the ac.
 
#5 ·
I have only seem a handful of volts around- does anyone know how many are actually around in Australia??
I actually get excited when I see another one on the road.
Not many. According to Wikipedia:

Wikipedia said:
In April 2015, General Motors confirmed that it will not build the second generation Volt in right-hand-drive configuration. Due to low sales, only 246 units had been sold in Australia by mid-April 2015, the Holden Volt will be discontinued once the remaining stock is sold out.
Wikipedia cites this article as a reference for the 246 figure. Of course, that figure is from over a year ago, so there may have been a few more sales since then.
 
#6 ·
Hi Lisa,

I'm just north of Brisbane and we've had our volt for 3 years this Christmas, but I've never seen another one, so you're doing better than me! I haven't heard of any issues with the collision detection or lane departure gear, but I do notice that it does tend to require you to fairly rapidly close on the car or object in front. I've had ours kick off the cruise control when we've gone around a sharp bend and the car pointed towards the barrier, but other times it didn't seem to sound the collision alarm. Is it measuring the distance to the car ahead still? i.e. when you bring it up on the dash display. Just curious.

In relation to mileage on the battery, our best has been 82km's, but that was with some down hill runs. Normally if we are driving around doing 80kph or less we'll get in the mid 70's, and that's with the a/c on eco and set to 22-23c, 4 of us in the car and a full boot. I'm sure some others might have tips as well, but we found you can extend the range a fair bit by effectively using the regenerative braking, coasting towards lights to try and avoid coming to a complete stop, trying to keep to around 23kw during acceleration and running the engine occasionally instead of doing hill climbs on the battery i.e. I can travel about 100kms west of my place and still have 15-20k's range left, and only use about 1/3 a litre as I can coast down a lot of hills and use the engine on the hill climbs. The cold weather, even up here, knocks the range a bit, but once you get into the 25 degree or more temps you'll find it improves a lot, until you hit a point where you need to crank the a/c. I've had some of my best ranges on cooler spring days where I've just run the fan instead of the a/c, but I must say its generally not worth quibbling over spending another 50c on fuel.

Overall its the best car we've ever owned. Since the start of November last year we've only spent $450 on electricity for it, and $270 in fuel. Comparatively we were spending $500 a month in fuel for our old accord, so its worked out nicely. The year before we had a couple of $100 fuel cards from Holden which made it even cheaper to run. Besides its fun to drive.

Regards,

Craby
 
#7 ·
Hi Lisa, congratulations on owning your Volt for two years. As you posted in Seppember, it was still cold in Melbourne, so your electric range will vary according to the temperature.
Best I ever got was coming from the Snowy Mountains to Sydney in summer, a lot of downhill, and I got 112 kilometres range, but driving around Jindabyne I was getting around the same as you.
On the central Coast (North of Sydney) , I am getting around 75 -80 at present, on mostly flat roads.
Yes keep the tyre pressure a bit higher - it made a difference to my range, for sure.
Another thing to keep in mind, is that forum members have written about this , and it is to allow your car to go right to empty battery once in a while. It seems to help the range. I do that once every two months or so. I am sure they will have replaced the part for you for the car alarm when close to another car or object - sounds like a sensor ..
Have fun embracing the technology - I am loving mine - bought it sight unseen from Sunco up in Maroochydore, and had it trucked down to me. 3.5 years later, just loving it.
I also get a smile on when I see another Volt.. I have seen them in Adelaide, Sydney, and there is another one at Terrigal , not far from me on the Central Coast.
ps. Welcome to the forum.
 
G
#8 ·
Hi,
I am a new Holden Volt owner but I have been driving electric since 2009, so smooth constant torque feels normal to me. I bought the Volt used in Sydney a few weeks ago and it now lives in Canberra, where our local government now has all the power purchase agreements in place for our electricity to 100% renewable by 2020. We did not sell the renewable energy certificates from our PV system so its output is addition to the Renewable Energy Target and, by happy coincidence, produces about the same as we actually use for all our local driving.
The Volt replaces a VW Golf petrol car and a car I converted to electric in 2009. The latter had about the same range as the Volt's battery range. We have also have another urban range EV, a Mitsubishi iMiEV, which we are keeping. So, now our two drivers can still do all our local driving electric while owning one less car and bits of longer trips can be electric too.
 
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