Questions and Things You Would Like to See and Know as I Live With the VOLT

[Lyle]

As many of you have heard, GM selected me to own a Volt for three months as part of a consumer advisory board test fleet, prior to regular production.

I am to take delivery of the car on or around October 24th.

In this thread please leave simple questions and ideas for what you would like me to observe,analyze, and review.

Keep in mind I'm not an engineer so try to keep it short and simple so I can understand it.


I'll use your questions to create informational posts going forward.

[Jason M. Hendler]

Let me know how software upgrades work on the vehicle, whether you wake up one day and see an updated operating system or if you have to approve downloads or if you have to take it to a dealership.

It will be helpful to know how often your car is updated during the time you have it, under any / all those conditions.

[rhellie]

Thanks for the opportunity to pose questions about the Volt. Many of my questions, as with many others, concern the range of the Volt in different modes and situations. So here are a few of those.

1. How far will a fully charged Volt with a full gas tank go before the battery and gasoline fuel are exhausted? Driving conditions will obviously affect this, but this could be described and I could still get some idea of how the driving range matches what GM has been saying.

2. How far will a fully charged Volt go before the ICE kicks in? Again, it would be nice to see how this fits with the 25-50 mile range GM claims with some indication as to how driving conditions affect that range.

3. What is the impact of driving in sport mode on the range, both battery and ICE?

4. Similarly what is the impact of driving in mountain mode on mileage ranges, both battery and ICE?
5. What kind of a charge can be added to a depleted battery by driving in mountain mode?

It seems like there are endless variations of this type of question, but I’ll stop here and see what others post. Thank you again for helping to share this information with us.

[VoltGuy]

rhellei covered my questions but Mountain Mode seems to really mean "Mystery Mode". The ICE engineer that I got to test drive with described the mode somewhat different then I have read here. It really kicks the rpm up in CS mode and should make a pretty pronounced difference in mpg. The algorithm for this mode makes alot of very significant changes to both the ICE and battery operating parameters.

Jerry

[Rusty]

Something you may already know the answer to: Are the "gears" P,R,N,D,L, or are there Ln... L2, L1? I use compression breaking alot around town, and in particular use L1 (of 3) for going down a 17% grade 25 MPH hill (with a stop sign at the bottom).

Do the break lights turn on if you encourage regenative breaking by "down" shifting?

What happens if you reverse gear (shift into reverse while moving forward, or forward while moving backward, like my wife likes to do no matter how much I ... nevermind).

I presume reverse isn't a gear, that the motor just spins the other direction. So theoretically you can go as fast in reverse as forward. What's the reverse speed lmit?

[omnimoeish]

Lyle, I would be interested to see how much energy it actually uses to charge the Volt when including inefficiencies of charging. You might need to get something like this.

http://www.smarthome.com/9034/Kill-A-Watt-P4400/p.aspx

It would also be interesting to see what would happen if you measured the usage from a 240V although a meter for that might be harder to come by.

[Marty]

Could you describe the door lock/unlock operation? Is it like the Prius where you don't have to take the keyfob out of your pocket to unlock the door?

I understand there's a cellphone app to lock/unlock but I'm curious if you can just walk up to the car and grab the handle to unlock if you have the keyfob in your pocket.

[Koz]

-Does the car come standard with two charge cords, one to keep in the car and one for home? How much does an extra cord cost?

-How does Sport Mode actually work? Does it just change throttle mapping, is the full 110kw of motor power only available in this mode, or is the generator motor/ICE power added?

-What is the "spare" battery capacity between customer depletion point and ultimate depletion? How much does Mountain Mode raise the customer depletion point?

-Is there only lift-off regen or is there additional regen with the beak pedal? How easy/difficult is it to glide, i.e. no regen and no motive power?

-Plugged in to 120V, how much is a fully depleted battery charged after the first hour, 2nd hour, and 3rd hour?

-How easy is it to remotely set the car to precondition itself?

-Can you default the charging to start at a particular time and not have to set it for this each time you plug in? Does the car automatically synch it's internally kept time via Onstar?

-Are both motors 3 phase AC Synchronous?

-Is the generator motor fixed to the ICE without gearing, with fixed gearing, or with variable gearing?

-Is the generator motor used in regen?

-Is black the only available roof color? If so, what has GM done to mitigate heat gain through the roof? Are they still using IR coated glass to minimize heat gain through the windows?

-Do the fit, finish, feel, and accessories give the impression of a $30k car or $20k car?

I realize this is a boatload of ?s, feel free to cherry-pick.

[VoltGuy]

I would be curious to know about the application for and installation of the 240 charge adapter. What brand they install? Will you get to keep it since you have a Volt coming, in fact if the timing works out right you might have two Volts in the garage at the same time toward the end of your trial period.

I have already applied for the Smart Meter through my local utility but it looks like you have to go through Chevy to get the charge adapter installed.

Jerry

[dagwood55]

One thing that has been overlooked is how much "vampire power" the Volt will consume. It takes N hours to charge it and we know how many KWH will take it the nominal 40 miles but, when plugged in, GM presumably uses household A/C to "condition" the battery and I would expect this is on a continuous basis.

How much power does the Volt draw when plugged in but fully charged?