Category: Electric Vehicles

Well it is time to say goodbye to an awesome car, my Chevrolet Volt that I am now putting up for sale.  For the business I need to trial different cars and will be looking at the Leaf, Soul and maybe the new BMW i3, but I don’t think any of them will match the Volt.  In just over 23 months now I have put on 22,400 miles and averaged 65.4 MPG.   This was with a lot of driving well past the electric range, in fact most of the first 15,000 were on gas, with electric kicking in for the first 40-45 miles of each trip; many of them to Quebec, Canada through the beautiful mountains of New Hampshire.  The stats for me are as follows:

• Pure gas generator mileage was 35 MPG.
• Overall Average was 65.4 MPG for these 22,4000.
• In the last four months when I was in a commuter mode I went to the gas station only 2 times (>200 MPGe).
• It never cost me more than $30 to fill the 8 gallon tank, and the driving range was still over 300 miles total.
• Basically first gallon of gas cost $.80 instead of $3.50 average over the past 2 years.  I saw no change in my PSNH bill, which I have been able to track for each month.
• I purchased a 240Volt charger through Home Depot for $899 and recommend it;  takes just over 2 hours to charge fully; regular charger which I used for the first 4 months took about 14 hours.
• Full charge in winter got 38-42 miles;  summer was typically 45 to 48.   Mileage does vary, but not by much that most wouldn’t even notice it.  No deterioration in battery life or charge at all.
• For performance it couldn’t be beat–let me apologize to all those people I left in the dust at every light–I just couldn’t help myself.
• A surprise was the ability it had to go through snow as I was very worried about the low friction tires being slippery.  The weight distribution in this car is amazing for cornering and for snow, which I encountered many times up in the notches of New Hampshire.
• The three modes of driving, normal, performance and mountain, all entertained me more than anything–as they could be manipulated and applied so easily.
• I used performance most of the time, but when I wanted to build up a little bit of additional electric charge I used Mountain mode–when you started it up again it had up to the first ten miles on electric.
• Highway driving was typically 75-80;  did exceed 90 one time in Northern NH just to see what it could do;  wasn’t close to topping out, but I was–I am a rule follower despite my actions at each light. (see above)
• You can feel the difference when going from normal to performance–it jumps right out at the same speed and you can switch anytime.  If I didn’t do it at the beginning I sure did it when I got to any light (see above).
• Plenty of room in the car and carrying any weight never effected performance–I even brought my in house generator home in the back of it last year.
• I made no adjustments to save electric;  something I fear won’t be the same in a pure electric, but battery anxiety has to be part of my business learning curve.
• Chevy dealer was awesome and I had all of two maintenance items over the two years (oil change and tire rotations)–last one just this past month (oil change reminder never got to 40% of life).
• Tire inflation is just one of the continual readouts and only varied from 38 to 42 on all tires on a long drive on a hot day.
• Every month I got a readout on line from OnStar as to mileage and all systems, including mileage on gas and electric.

Offered to a good home at $27,499;  a bargain since I paid $41,344 just 22 months ago to find out the $7,500 rebate was totally dependent on income level–I am still waiting for the balance.   While not worth the money when paying full retail like I did, at this price you will end up saving after 5 years of ownership.