75Miles on a single charge

[tboult]

75miles-Crop.jpg
Of course this is using the "I70 test Cycle", so may only apply in Colorado. Remember, YMMV (Your milage may vary), and with a Volt in the mountains, it may vary a lot!.

Returning from our weekend trip, I set a new personal best: 75miles on a single charge. There was no midday recharging, no mountain mode games and no hyper-milage tricks or slow-poking it. Most of the 75 miles was highway speeds including occasionally passing other cars/trucks. That's part of what I love about the Volt.. I can drive normally and still get outstanding performance. (Well driving the speed limit may not always be normal for me, My last car would often drive above the limit, if it was able. The Volt's digital cruise control lets me keep to it :-)


The trip started at Keystone CO, with 48m estimated range and at about 9000' elevation. We climbed up the Loveland pass to 11,990 ft. Our speed was mostly 45 until we passed A-Basin (5miles), when it gets twisty and we slowed to 35 and dropped to 25 for 2-3 really sharp hairpins). We reached the summit after about 9miles travel with 10m/2bars showing. The uphill climb really eats the juice, 75% charge used in just 9 miles.



We stopped for pics at the top. And yes that is snow in the upper left of the Pic. The temp was 65, but when the Colorado snows get really deep from the Spring storms, drifts can last a long time.

Next came the fun part, down the twisty road on the other side. Using cruise control set at 35, I enjoyed how the Volt limited its own speed producing lots of regen with out a lot of mental/foot games. My wife was pulling out the manual to see if this was allowed behavior, using cruise-control rather than breaks for the whole down hill. After 6 miles of down hill the Volt was showing 17m/4bars when we joined in to I70 (15miles traveled). I put it in cruise control to limit myself to the legal speed and just drove with traffic. The Volt was showing 30m/5bars when we hit Georgetown (27miles traveled). When we reached c470 after 65miles traveled it was still showing 13miles, 3 bars. There were a few bunching with slow downs at Georgetown and idaho springs, where trucks can only do 45mph, but we covered 65 miles in 70min from when we started, including the stop at Loveland for pics, so our average mph was pretty close to the legal limit of 65. We took an hour hike and lunch break at the Dino-lots where 70/c470 meet. When we continued the trip, the Volt showed 15m/3 bars (sitting made it higher??). Then traveled on C470 at 65mph for about 7 miles, exited onto Santa Fe Drive and the last 3-4 miles were at 50mph. Snapped a picture before when we got off the highway (71.4miles) then and wanted my wife to a perfect shot with max range and no gas, but the countdown on miles at the end was very very fast. We went from 1 mile down to 0miles and switched into CS in a few hundred yards. My wife missed the ideal shot waiting for the camera to initialize. We were flowing with traffic I was not going to pull over just for the shot. (My wife already thinks Im a bit crazy about this Volt :-) The remaining 33 miles were on CS mode. For those that care, tires were at 38 when we started (40 after they got hot), lights on, radio on, just fans until we got back on C470 after our break, when we switched to eco @74 as it was 88 outside. Passengers + luggage were about 400lb.

Overall for the weekend we did 303.2 miles and only burned 3.90 gallons of gas, averaging 77.45mpg in mountain travel while traveling in style, at normal highway speeds and even using A/C. Overall we did 175 CD miles and 127CS miles. CS mode milage was much lower going up, where we used the real mountain mode to keep 65+ mph uphill. Overall CS was 32, as the volt had to work for the uphill sections at both ends of the trip. I charged before we left and twice at the condo so the average CD miles per charge, over the three charges, was 58 miles per charge. (Individual EV legs were 55.6, 45.2 and 75.)

Of course this personal best is inflated by the downhill nature of the trip return, but it is still well above my prior personal best of 53 before the trip. (My wife and I did a mixed driver 55.6 CD mode on the way up for the weekend. I'm not as patient or talented a hyper-miler as honoreitiscom who has done 72+ on flatlands http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread....-on-One-Charge. But I figure one should make good use of one's environment and so I did -- I figure it is only cheating if its not natural. With some effort (e.g. not driving at highway speeds), I know I could do better. Might be interesting to see if I could do 100miles with hyper-milage tricks, but as I said I'm not that patient. Maybe next time I'll get luck and there will be traffic jam on I70, then I'll be forced to go slow without doing anything special.

Raw Screen Photos: at http://innovation.uccs.edu/~tboult/t...-71p4miles.jpg and http://innovation.uccs.edu/~tboult/tmp/Volt-75miles.jpg.

Another photo from the top: http://innovation.uccs.edu/~tboult/t...untainview.jpg

Route Data http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=ke...1,2,3&t=h&z=10

[scottf200]

That is a very cool accomplishment even if it was due to downhill driving. Impressive regen. I lived in CO for 5 years so I appreciated the route and scenery picture.

[voltoronto]

Great story. Very cool that the cruise control keeps you from going too fast...another great feature of the Volt.

[voltoronto]

Also liked the pictures...until I get my Volt, i still love seeing photos of the car.

[Kup]

Sweet! Very nice EV mileage. It was also especially nice because I spent a winter working at Keystone after I graduated from college and would frequent Keystone, A-Basin and Breckenridge quite regularly. Ah memories!

It's doubtful my Volt will ever see that terrain but I enjoyed the vicarious thrill of seeing your's there.

[Raymondjram]

"When we continued the trip, the Volt showed 15m/3 bars (sitting made it higher??)."

Yes it can!

This is one of the benefits of EVs. Since the energy output depends on the chemical reactions inside the battery and the amount of free electrons, sometimes a discharged battery gets a "second breath" by resting while the reactions catch up and generate a charge. I remember reading about someone driving a homebuilt EV that was "empty" during a long travel. The driver knew about the battery recovery rest, so he parked, took out a book, and read several pages while waiting. Then he tried again later and reached his destination with the new accumulated charge. You can NEVER do this with a fuel-powered vehicle!

The common lead-acid battery have this feature, so maybe the lithium-ion can do it, too. More experimentation will give a clearer answer, and now we all know that letting the Volt rest between short drives will extend its range better than a continuous long drive.

[Bob_Livonia]

Of course this is using the "I70 test Cycle", so may only apply in Colorado. Remember, YMMV (Your milage may vary), and with a Volt in the mountains, it may vary a lot!.

Yes, it certainly does. The trick is to find a place to work where you can drive downhill going there, then downhill coming back home again (grin!)

My average MPG for a 1510 mile trip to Arkansas and back this past weekend was 38.4, and this included about 100 miles of EV operation. 100 degree temperatures going there and strong headwinds from the northeast all the way back (ranging from 10 to 25 MPH per the weather from the INFO button), along with keeping up with other traffic going in the 70's took their toll. But others at the rest stops were complaining about their fuel economy. I was thankful for the good aerodynamics (including my front air dam) and lack of wind noise. I had a great trip in my Volt, and I had everything I needed to make the long trip comfortable and enjoyable.

[gieso]

tboult, you are killing me. I have made that trip so many times and want to do in my Volt! It sounds like a great ride.

I have some questions for you about the trip up. How far up the hill did you make it before you hit CS? Did you do mountain mode on C470? Did you get a lot of regen down the big hill before Hidden Valley? Did you slow down up some of the hills or were you able to stay at the limit?

Sorry about all the questions, but it is so exciting to hear about a Volt running on familiar roads.

[Chevrolet Customer Svc]

Wow tboult, that is one of best I've seen so far. That is awesome, keep it up!

[tboult]

tboult, you are killing me. I have made that trip so many times and want to do in my Volt! It sounds like a great ride.

I have some questions for you about the trip up. How far up the hill did you make it before you hit CS?

Trip started from work down in the springs and I wrung out 55miles of CD but that only got us to C470. We stop at Sports authority/sinagrab off of Quebue.

Did you do mountain mode on C470?

When we got back on c470 i put it in MM. When we hit stop/go traffic near santa fe, I put it back in normal (to shut off the engine noise as we creeped along a few miles) and then put MM back on when we got back up to 65 just past SantaFe. So we only had about 10min of MM before we hit the foothills. Will we were sailing up I70 at the 65 most of the time. There was one point, going up Idaho Spring hill, where the engine noise was much louder than before, and my wife was worried something was wrong. I figured we might have enough juice stored, and there was no point getting to the condo with excess charge. I thought maybe the extra steep + MM demand made the engine run harder/rough so I turned off MM and it quited down a bit. I do wish the VOLT would show SOC in MM, so I could better plan when I need to charge and when I can turn it off. I should have turn MM back on after the really steep part as we used up the stored added power before the eisenhower tunnel and I had to turn MM back on just past bakersfield when it got steep again. Would probably have been quieter if I did MM in the flat sections.

Did you get a lot of regen down the big hill before Hidden Valley?

Since I cannot see regen/SOC in CS mode I cannot say how much I got going up the hill. Coming down I was still in CD so might have been able to see how much on that hill. But by then I was no longer watching the charge, just enjoying the drive. But yes there was lots of regen going on, and it was cool to see bars being added, not just estimated miles. Would be cool if the powerflow actually showed how much charge was being added! I recall a post on the plug-in prius where the write said the charge showed adding 1/3 of a mile when she stopped at a light but the volt did not show any regen. (I posted a correction that it does regen well.) But since its only miles of estimated range its a bit corse so not as easy to see. Note to GM-- maybe add a decimal point & digit to the display so people can see how much regen is happening!

Did you slow down up some of the hills or were you able to stay at the limit?
Sorry about all the questions, but it is so exciting to hear about a Volt running on familiar roads.

Stayed at the limit when traffic allowed (i.e. almost always). My wife was driving and did slow down the first time the steep + MM made it so we could hear the engine. She was worried it was going to hurt the volt. I turned off MM and she resumed 65. (Next time I'll remember to turn it back on after we get off the really steep hills.

You'll have to report when you get your volt and do the trip will more finesse and break my I70 Test Cycle single charge record. Maybe we'll have to get together up there, though I doubt I'll be taking it up for the core ski season (my wife is paranoid about driving in snow), might still be doing it for October skiing at the basin.