Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?

[Iceman]

Looks like bmw motorcycles have jumped on the hybrid bandwagon.
http://www.advpulse.com/adv-bikes/bmw-r1200gs-xdrive-hybrid/

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[PrivatePilot]

it's at a General Motors Dealership.......

Hey PP don't forget the car qualifies for.....

Yeah, that's about 3-4 years worth for many peoples Volts. Probably at least 2 years for us given as how we will still be relying on the range extender on a fairly regular basis, but I won't complain.

Still loving this thread. makes me wanna trade my car in for a used Volt. I'd save quite a lot of $$ if I did.....but I'll miss the POWAH

Test drive one. Put it in sport mode. You WILL be surprised - I certainly was. The torque of an electric drivetrain is very impressive. As I've mentioned, my Magnum is pushing 380-ish HP so I know what power is...and the Volt still surprised me in sport mode.

I have a feeling that @PrivatePilot is staying mum until that Volt is on his driveway. ☺
Hope everything works out buddy.

Keen observation.

The deal is firm now. Not sure when we will take delivery quite yet, but it's officially ours.

 

[48Connor]

Yeah, that's about 3-4 years worth for many peoples Volts. Probably at least 2 years for us given as how we will still be relying on the range extender on a fairly regular basis, but I won't complain.



Test drive one. Put it in sport mode. You WILL be surprised - I certainly was. The torque of an electric drivetrain is very impressive. As I've mentioned, my Magnum is pushing 380-ish HP so I know what power is...and the Volt still surprised me in sport mode.



Keen observation.

The deal is firm now. Not sure when we will take delivery quite yet, but it's officially ours.

What did you do to the Magnum to have it make 380? Didn't the factory 5.7 only make like 340?.

 

[PrivatePilot]

What did you do to the Magnum to have it make 380? Didn't the factory 5.7 only make like 340?.

In stock form, yes. Mine is not stock.

Honestly, as much as I enjoy it, I do not enjoy it's fuel consumption. All winter long I've been averaging around 16.5L/100K which is around what my 1-Ton Dually pickup truck used to burn, albeit in diesel, and that's with pretty modest driving 95% of the time, and the cylinder deactivation is still enabled.

Last summer I was averaging 14-15L/100K even in the warm weather.

It did get down to around 10L/100K on one tank on a long trip we did over Christmas, but that was an exception - averaged about 11.5 over the entire trip, which all things considered, is actually kinda-sorta impressive...but it's no fuel miser.

Looking down the road....in 2-3 years we may look for a Bolt for my wife, and I'll take the Volt. Might miss the HP (and the car, I really do love the Magnum), but won't miss the gas bills.

 

[mimico_polak]

Ended up going for a drive in a Volt today as buddy just bought a brand new 2017 Volt....$200/month on a lease after all discounts and trade. Very nice. I would consider one for sure.

 

[slowbird]

Test drive one. Put it in sport mode. You WILL be surprised - I certainly was. The torque of an electric drivetrain is very impressive. As I've mentioned, my Magnum is pushing 380-ish HP so I know what power is...and the Volt still surprised me in sport mode.

Maybe I will

The deal is firm now. Not sure when we will take delivery quite yet, but it's officially ours.

NICE! Congrats.

What year? How many k's on it?

Post pics when you get it

 

[PrivatePilot]

2012 with 120,000K or something like that. GM Voltec (Battery and entire electric drivetrain) still under warranty to 160K/2 more years, and the dealer has a short term all-in warranty included as part of the sale. Not too worried about longevity in the grand scheme of things given the earlier links I posted about 500,000K Volts still running strong.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Forgot to mention, my wife got confirmation that she will indeed be able to charge at work, and probably at Level 2 - that will give her full electric range for the trip home.

Accordingly, my wife should be able to get back and forth to work (140K return) for about 3L or less of gas total. That's around 2.1L/100K.

That'll probably go up to around 5-6L/day in the winter with reduced battery range and increased heat usage. Around 4.2L/100K

Both options are dramatically better than the current 16-17L she's burning now (@ around 11L/100K), and yes...still better than the 7.2-7.5L/day a Prius would be burning at 4.4L/100K.

Of course, again, as I've mentioned a few times (for those joining the conversation late) the Volt still wins handily running on 100% electric for around town jaunts, weekend shopping etc etc. On electric alone (for trips inside the battery range) there's nothing that can touch the cost of pure EV miles.

I will post the actual stats as things progress. I suspect for the first week or two the charger at work won't be setup yet so she'll be commuting home on gas vs electric, but once that's setup and running I will continue to post the new stats.

 

[slowbird]

2012 with 120,000K or something like that. GM Voltec (Battery and entire electric drivetrain) still under warranty to 160K/2 more years, and the dealer has a short term all-in warranty included as part of the sale. Not too worried about longevity in the grand scheme of things given the earlier links I posted about 500,000K Volts still running strong.

You have no worries at all about getting a Volt with that high mileage? I don't mean the battery degradation that people seem to worry about...I mean more like other wear and tear items like interior electronics, wheel bearings and those other things.

What's the standard battery warranty on these things?

Also, I've been reading the 2013 is slightly better than the 2012. Did you have any specific year you were looking for?

Was the crappy heating issue resolved in 2012?

 

[PrivatePilot]

120,000K isn't high milage for a car. Yes, as I've touched on several times here in this thread (although I know it's getting long), I'm not worried about the drivetrain either.

The rest of the car is no different than any other car. It has had one wheel bearing replaced already (I was given the full service history), but those sorts of things are not a massive deal - like any other car, sometimes things wear out, there's nothing particularly special about the Volt in that regard.

Warranty details were in my last response just above.

2013+ has a 5-6K further range on electric but has an annoying feature where, for 110v charging, you must manually select 12 amps (vs the 8 amp it defaults to) every single time you plan to charge. On the 2012 and older the charge rate is set on the charger itself (not in the car via the touch screens) and it's also sticky...so when the charger is set to 12a, it stays on 12a. For simplicity, this is a bonus, as my wife would get very aggravated very quickly having to reselect the 12a setting every single time she arrives home. This is a massive gripe amongst 2013+ owners, but is probably the result of a bunch of lawyers discussing liability after someone threatened to sue GM because charging at 12a overheated their crappy home wiring.

The 'crappy heating' thing was also discussed earlier in the thread. There IS no crappy heating - the car will cook you out if you set it to comfort mode and crank it up, but of course since the heater draws 6KW at it's peak, it does come with a not insignificant corresponding electric range hit. There is no free ride when it comes to energy. Running the heat on the eco setting is much more efficient, and once the car was heated up (hence the importance of preheating to maximize electric range) it kept the cabin quite comfortable.

 

[slowbird]

Thanks for the response PP.

i know you mention the heating thing before, I've just been doing a lot of research and some videos where people in cold climates have the heat cranked and weren't seeing over 5c in the cabin as well as some threads about "tepid heat".

Hopefully not an issue as this thread, and my calculations on how much I'd save by getting a Volt every year ($700 in insurance/year + $2,800 less in gas etc etc) is making me seriously consider one. Though a lot of them on the market seem to be the base model.

Also the 2013+ came with bluetooth streaming music. That's a fun feature.

Does the 2012 have the automatic Charge door opener? I read those were a problem too.

 

[PrivatePilot]

I think a lot of the stories of "tepid heat" were from people who either were willing to sacrifice comfort in the name of absolutely maximizing their electric range, or people who simply didn't really understand the HVAC system. It does seem evident that even GM prioritized range over comfort so if left in the Eco setting, or even Automatic mode, it does lean heavily on conservation vs comfort.

There was a specific model year (I forget which one, things are starting to get blurred) where there was a problem with the software that caused the electric grid heater to not come on as well, so maybe the videos you found where related to that. It was fixed with a software update.

But, like I said, when I did all the test drives I was quick to put the HVAC system into "Comfort" mode to test this very issue and within 30 seconds there was hot air coming out of the vents. But yes, when on electric mode, it does kick the range in the ***. Again, no free ride (the energy has to come from somewhere)..but once the ICE starts of course there's lots of waste heat at that point so cabin heat is not at the expense of electric range anymore.

Anyhow, we finalized things yesterday and pick it up Tuesday evening after work.

 

[Iceman]

Congratulations Private Pilot. I should really thank you and several others who contributed to this thread. I've actually learned quite a bit following along and alot of myths I believed have been dispelled.

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[Joe Bass]

Ah man, you got white?
Obviously you didn't read about the recall on the white ones! ?
So....about that 300....did you trade it in?

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[PrivatePilot]

Does the 2012 have the automatic Charge door opener? I read those were a problem too.

Forgot to address this. They all have an electrically actuated charger door - there's a button just inside on the drivers side that actuates it, and there's a button on the keyfob that pops it open as well.

And yes, the one on the car we bought is indeed sticky - on a few occasions it failed to open when we pushed the button despite clearly hearing the actuator cycling.

That said, the stickiness relates back to nothing particularly complicated - the little rubber gasket/seal that covers the J1772 charge port basically, well...sticks to the port itself. Reportedly some silicone spray quickly resolves it, although I looked at the gasket on the door of ours, and it appears that it might have been kinked at one point in it's past...which probably is helping contribute to the stickiness.

The dealer is going to probably replace the little rubber boot during the PDI as it was an issue I brought up and they noted.

Everyone please take note that despite the initial frustration last week with the dealership (in regards to actually getting the car fully charged for a test drive), everything has been super smooth since and the sales guy has actually gone out of his way on a few occasions (staying late, etc) to help us out...and they were certainly patient through the delays related to the paperwork fiasco.

I really think it's just a lack of full understanding of EV's on behalf of the salespeople that led to some of the initial issues, that's all.

Congratulations Private Pilot. I should really thank you and several others who contributed to this thread. I've actually learned quite a bit following along and alot of myths I believed have been dispelled.

Thank you - the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of learning for me as well, but I'm one of those types that when interested in something...dives deep and eats and breathes the topic until I've absorbed everything I can.

And I will certainly continue the story here as we actually get some real world experience with it.

Ah man, you got white?
Obviously you didn't read about the recall on the white ones! 

I actually Googled that before realizing it was probably a joke. You're a day late, my friend.

 

[slowbird]

Yeah, thanks PP and everyone that contributed to this. I've always been interested in the Volt but I never actually sat down and did the Math.

Oh! The other 2012/2013 difference was the HOLD driving mode. No qualms about missing out on that feature? Seems like it's quite a handy feature.

What other features does your Volt have? I see alot without heated seats and apparently in winter they come quite handy with the volt as they suck less juice.

I also read that a backup camera is fairly necessary as the view out the back isn't great.

 

[LBV]

Welcome to the club PP ... after a couple of years I ended up buying the Mustang GT for the thrills I enjoy with that. Maybe you'll do something similar - afterall, you can't take it with you my friend so enjoy while you can. YOLO

 

[PrivatePilot]

Oh! The other 2012/2013 difference was the HOLD driving mode. No qualms about missing out on that feature? Seems like it's quite a handy feature.

What other features does your Volt have? I see alot without heated seats and apparently in winter they come quite handy with the volt as they suck less juice.

I also read that a backup camera is fairly necessary as the view out the back isn't great.

I would liked to have had the hold mode, yes, but that wasn't an option until 2013. That said, there was some chatter on a gm-volt.com recently about someone who's created an Android app that enables it on non equipped models - seems like it's still a work in progress but I'll be watching that. It's really not a thing my wife would use anyways (the thing I like about the Volt is that it can be a thinking mans car if you want it to be, or it can be dead simple "put it in drive and go" when you don't want to be bothered with anything like my wife, but I could use the option during road trips.

Heated seats, yeah...a must for us, we have gotten accustomed to them on our existing cars. The one we bought has them - a few others I looked at didn't have them and that was a show stopper for us.

Backup camera? Not equipped. Would have been nice, but not really necessary - the rear hatch has a window right at the bottom (below the spoiler) that basically gives you a bird's eye view of the rear bumper itself. My wife loved that.

Welcome to the club PP ... after a couple of years I ended up buying the Mustang GT for the thrills I enjoy with that. Maybe you'll do something similar - afterall, you can't take it with you my friend so enjoy while you can. YOLO

I'll still have the Magnum for the foreseeable future - I get my horsepower kicks out of that.

 

[PrivatePilot]

It's home. Charging now in the driveway.

I'm interested to see the day 1 stats starting tomorrow.

Charging capabilties are not yet in place at her work so she will be driving home on gas mode for the time being.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Day 1 of ownership complete.

Before we go ANY further, keep in mind that the charger is not yet setup at work for my wife, so she drove home completely on gas. That said, we still achieved Prius-like MPG.

I think I botched the preheat settings (IE, "remote start" in a normal car) a little this morning and it used quite a bit of power off the top of the battery before my wife even left, and the level 1 charger cannot recoup that charge (or fully supply the car) as well as the level 2 charger will once I get it installed. Coupled with the requirement for defrost this morning due to the high humidity, she exhausted the battery at 36K. Her driving style needs work too which is something we are going to have to work on.

Total drive was 152K (she did a little excursion to the grocery store on the way home, so about 10 extra K vs her usual commute) and combined she averaged 5.1L/100K, or 46MPG.

So, when compared to what she was driving @12L/100K, she would have burned 18.24L today.

So, today we saved $13.92, based on the current $1.06/L. Ok, - $1.10 in electricity, so $12.82 to be perfectly accurate.

Things I noted: Electric range was about 20K short of what I anticipated today but the temperature, the requirement for heat/defrost, and driving style contributed to that. The temperature was the biggest issue. Also important to notice is that the battery only showed 9.4KW consumed from what should have been the 10.4KW capacity, so as mentioned earlier, the preheat was at fault for this I believe - I need to get the 220v charger setup. I think she would have reached the 50K goal had that extra kilowatt actually been in the battery.

So, had my wife had access to the charger at work (as she soon will) and left with a full battery, assuming the ride home was a mirror of the ride up, it's a safe calculation to assume only 50% of the gas consumed (3.94L), she would have achieved 2.5L/100K, or 94MPG.

Once the weather warms up, heating demand reduces, battery efficiency increases, and she actually leaves with a full 10.4KW in it...those numbers will just get better and better.

So far so good.