8 days in. 650 miles. 450 are electric. Would have been more, but 80 were the drive home from the dealership, and not having a level 2 charger installed in the house yet has also cost me some miles. Overall MPG is 118 MPG. I am expecting to average over 150 MPG.

The electric drive and one speed transmission is amazing.

1/15/2012 5:24:57 PM

3 weeks in. 1400 miles on the car with 1200 being electric. I will be averaging over 200 mpg come this time next week. Received my first power bill that included the first 2 weeks of charging. Bill was a lot less than last year this time due to temp. I looked at Feb last year which had almost exact temperatures, and my bill was within $4 of it.

So no major disaster in the electricity bill.

Only problem so far is the car threw a check engine light after I plugged up to a bad charger at Whole Foods. I pressed the onstar button and they connected me to a Volt advisor, read the codes, and told me not to worry unless the engine light didnt clear in a few days. It did.

Progress Energy is installing a free level 2 charger in my house in 2 weeks. Currently communicating with various shopping centers to get chargers installed there as well (they didnt know that progress energy is installing free stations in qualifying businesses, so I am getting some traction).

So far, nothing but positives.

1/26/2012 3:44:55 PM

Today I rolled up next to somebody in a volt, they had their "fuel" door open. I motioned them to roll down their window and told them that their ga.. um, "flap" was open. She said "yeah the, um thingie is open", and thanked me for telling her.

1/26/2012 9:26:27 PM

Was it the plug in door ahead of the driver's door? That is the plug in door. The fuel door is on the rear right.

The latch isnt particularly good. If I dont press on it when I unplug, it will reopen. Seems to be the worst part on the car so far.

1/27/2012 9:11:56 AM

this thread has me thinking.. particularly of the cadillac version

1/27/2012 11:00:47 AM

nevermind

[Edited on January 27, 2012 at 3:17 PM. Reason : may not be accurate]

1/27/2012 3:16:25 PM

About to pass 300 MPG.



[Edited on February 22, 2012 at 2:27 PM. Reason : per request]

2/21/2012 3:01:42 PM

Interesting. That works through ONstar I imagine.

2/21/2012 5:57:22 PM

MPG is irrelevant. Post your utility bills in comparison to this time last year.

[Edited on February 21, 2012 at 6:09 PM. Reason : Be sure to include the money you leach from the company if you charge at work.]

2/21/2012 6:09:17 PM

How much money does the taxpayer chip in?

2/22/2012 8:38:58 AM

13.3 Kwh/ Gallon would be the rough conversion rate.

I don't know what personal rate is but most businesses pay between .06 and .09 $ per kwh... so i would say it's cheaper.

2/22/2012 8:44:11 AM

Chain email I got this morning
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/chevyvolt.asp

2/22/2012 12:18:15 PM

Can you just put a kill-a-watt monitor on the charger itself to track it's individual kw/H usage?

2/22/2012 6:52:18 PM

Yes.. Its easy to do but higher voltages cost more.

2/22/2012 6:57:16 PM

I spent about 25 bucks to go over 2000 miles. If I paid for all the electricity (part was work) make that $50. So electricity is nearly free. In fact, my electricity bill was within $5 of last years bill. I know it takes about 13 kwh to charge completely depleted.

If you don't believe me, take .06x13x31. That is a full charge every day.
I pay about 6 cents per kilowatt hour.

I have put 3 gallons in the car in about 2 months.

That chain email and the fox report it is based on is a joke. What's funny is that making a solid argument against the car when you use actual facts is quite hard. It isn't a car for everyone, but it is quite affordable when you look at the total cost of ownership. Like anything, you can really maximize your savings with a slight amount of work. Fox is such a joke. I can't watch them anymore after their ridiculous vendetta over this car. It's not going to matter. If price of gas keeps going it, it's going to make sense to more and more people.

[Edited on February 22, 2012 at 11:53 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on February 22, 2012 at 11:56 PM. Reason : M]

2/22/2012 11:44:02 PM

except the government can't subsidize this car for everyone. and I'm not referring to the $7500 tax credit either.

2/23/2012 9:28:08 AM

.

[Edited on February 23, 2012 at 9:56 AM. Reason : .]

2/23/2012 9:56:18 AM

Nor are there enough rare earth metals in the world to put a Volt in every garage. We're exchanging dependence on Arabs for dependence on the Chinese.

2/23/2012 9:57:59 AM

You are making an argument basically stating that since electric vehicles can't be 'the' solution, they are not part of a solution. That is not good logic. Energy Independence will come through a mixture of electric cars, CNG, higher efficiency ICE.

There are plenty of countries that produce lithium, btw, other than China.

There is no single solution. Stop thinking there is.

Quote :

"except the government can't subsidize this car for everyone. and I'm not referring to the $7500 tax credit either."

Would you mind stating what you are referring to so I can actually have a chance to discuss it? If you really want to get chippy, I could probably say there is not greater subsidized item in the world than oil. You are just so use to it, you don't even recognize it.

[Edited on February 23, 2012 at 10:20 AM. Reason : .]

2/23/2012 10:15:44 AM

its been shown that oil subsidies are quite low compared to other gov't funded energy subsidies.

2/23/2012 2:01:23 PM

Not true directly or indirectly. How much money do you think we spent on military to protect the oil that is seen as the life blood of the country? TRILLIONS of dollars have been spent to protect oil interests. If you deny this, they you are ignoring an abundance of history.

If the price you pay for gas correlated to the money that is spent for armed services to provide this support, I suspect the real price of gas would be over $10 a gallon.

This is coming from someone that thinks wars over resources are currently NECESSARY for our country to function. But I am not going to deny how much money we spend so you and everyone else can drive around in a gas car.

http://www.eli.org/pressdetail.cfm?ID=205

http://www.eli.org/pdf/Energy_Subsidies_Black_Not_Green.pdf


[Edited on February 23, 2012 at 3:16 PM. Reason : can't seem to be happy with my post]

2/23/2012 2:49:38 PM

Quote :

"Not true directly or indirectly. How much money do you think we spent on military to protect the oil that is seen as the life blood of the country? TRILLIONS of dollars have been spent to protect oil interests. If you deny this, they you are ignoring an abundance of history."

I won't argue that. But that goes far far beyond just transportation needs.

2/23/2012 3:37:52 PM

I'm not going to disagree with that as well. I am not so cynical that I believe we only go to war with countries for oil.

BUT IT IS A MAJOR FACTOR, and a significant percentage of the costs should be associated with that factor. Which means protecting oil gets hundreds of billions at the least in incentives through military action, which means your gas is subsidized quite a lot.

Look, I appreciate this debate. Part of the reason I have it is because you are civil. I am only trying to help people see the full picture. I dont think it is accurately displayed in the media, or realized by the general public. I am forced to understand all of it since I am on so many working groups/committees on PEV issues and I am dealing with these arguments every day.

That doesnt meant I am right or you are right. We both have a perspective. Ultimately all I want is educated perspective, and for the people in charge to make good decisions about where we head with all of this. What I am seeing now is too much misinformation from the non PEV likers which tells me their perspective isnt as solid as I think it needs to be.

A good example is just about with smc. "Well, why dont ya look at your utility bill and get back with me?" Obviously having no clue what these cars cost to charge, because then he wouldnt have much of an argument, but his lack of educated perspective is propogated when you see ignorant questions. I call it an ignorant question because he didnt ask it as if he were looking to get a real answer. He thought he already knew the answer. Meaning he has already formed an opinion, a strong one, based on bad information.


[Edited on February 23, 2012 at 3:54 PM. Reason : .]

2/23/2012 3:40:26 PM

well put, sir.

2/23/2012 4:54:50 PM

Owner installs gun rack:
http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/chevrolet-volt-owner-shows-newt-gingrich-put-gun-215713371.html

2/23/2012 5:40:36 PM

When there are more of these things out there all the freebies(government and otherwise) will disappear, the power companies will jack up their rates and we'll be pining for the days of $4 gas. The only thing preventing this is that the power companies are socialized and the game is fixed. But when they start whining about installing new infrastructure the government will give in and let the rates skyrocket.

2/23/2012 5:46:52 PM

I cannot deny power rates would go up as a result of mass adoption of ev. However, as I have stated over and over again, this is why there needs to be diversification. So that no one provider of energy for the transportation grid has a grip over the entire market. Competition is good. If electric rates get too high, you buy a natural gas car. If natural gas is too high, you buy electric. If both become too high, you buy a transitional gas car. It allows for substitution. We have no substitution available today except for the small amount of ev's that are available.

2/23/2012 6:26:06 PM

2/23/2012 7:15:42 PM

Quote :

"Nor are there enough rare earth metals in the world to put a Volt in every garage. We're exchanging dependence on Arabs for dependence on the Chinese."

There are already two Japanese manufacturers now moving into production with batteries that don't rely on rare earth metals. All the others are working on alternate materials.

Basically, everyone in manufacturing has already seen this coming for years, and manufacturing is already changing to avoid China's stranglehold on rare earth metals.

2/24/2012 12:57:21 AM

china's goal " sell cheap dirty shit while we can! "

2/24/2012 7:55:23 AM

http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/29/envias-gm-backed-battery-delivers-huge-energy-density-lower-co/ GM is stepping it up with the battery tech. Probably coming to the volt in a couple of generations.

2/29/2012 4:32:46 AM

Perhaps, but I'd gather to say that the new batteries with a liquid electrolyte "sludge" that you pump into the car to charge (and remove from car when fully discharged) could prove to be a more promising technology.

2/29/2012 8:24:23 AM

... but your electrodes will erode into the sludge... then it will be pumped out and gone forever.

2/29/2012 8:33:10 AM

^^^ I've been saying that will happen forever without knowing the details. The demand for large format batteries is really driving a new level of innovation. Thats why I am not worried about myn pack. I think that when I need to put a new pack in the car, there will be options to buy the same pack at a significantly lower cost than it was initially, or possibly upgrade the pack and get a lot more range for more money or about the same.

I don't care either way. Its the price you pay to be an early adopter. But the amount of attention I am getting as being an early adopter is astounding. I am on multiple committees, some funded by the department of energy, to form PEV policy. I was just interviewed to be on a panel in NYC on PEVs via Skype. Its awesome to be in at the ground level, and actually being able to influence decisions on a local/state/national level.

[Edited on February 29, 2012 at 1:43 PM. Reason : ,]

2/29/2012 1:43:37 PM

Sweet! Will the electric company generally install a charger in the apartment parking lot upon request, without passing the cost of installation to the apartment complex?

2/29/2012 4:46:38 PM

Electric companies aren't really installing them at all. It is private companies that are installing them, and the cost of the install is billed to the customer. The best thing you could do is get permission to run a cord from an outside power receptacle, or lobby your complex to have a station or two installed. Unfortunately, 240v charging stations aren't the cheapest things in the world. I was fortunate and got mine for free through a program with progress energy.

2/29/2012 8:10:01 PM

How much is it approximately for the installation of the charger? I live on the 7th floor so dropping a cord is not really an option.

2/29/2012 10:26:00 PM

$4,000-6,000 for a Level II charger seems to be going rate in the NW

3/1/2012 3:22:59 AM

$6000 will buy 1612 gallons of gasoline. That's enough to power a 2012 Ford Focus driven 15,000miles/year for 4.3 years.

3/1/2012 3:06:56 PM

^^ I don't know where you are getting that figure, but that simply isnt the case for residential chargers.

If you are referring to a COMMERCIAL level 2 charger, the kinds located at businesses, they average 5-10k per unit installed.

A PERSONAL level 2 station is about $500-$1000 for the equipment plus $500-$1000 for the install.

In my case, it was free, but had I paid for it out of pocket, it would have been about $800 total with the charger I selected and the electrician.

Apartments are quite a complex issue. You dont want to install a Level 2 charger, and then move. Your best bet would be to use a Level 1 charger, which comes with the car for free, and get permission to plug into an outside power outlet. If you are serious, let me know, and I will tell you how to make this work and get something setup between you and your apartment that would be agreeable for reimbursement of power.

Do you own or rent your apartment? Do you have covered parking in a garage, or is it outside? Is the parking assigned?

I have started a blog. The second post is a quick total cost comparison against a Volt that costs 40k, and a generic 25k car that gets 30 MPG.
http://voltowner.blogspot.com/


[Edited on March 1, 2012 at 4:33 PM. Reason : .]

3/1/2012 4:27:46 PM

Volt is selling so poorly that GM will shut down the factory for at least a month. They're giving up already. It's the EV1 all over again.

3/2/2012 8:08:35 PM

Nope. But no point in arguing it. When they are still making it 2 years from now, we'll revisit this. The facility is only geared for the Volt. They obviously expected more volume than they are receiving, but I suspect as the year goes on, they'll sell over 20k. Reasonable for a car like this. The corvette is produced in similar numbers, and that car isn't a failure. I blame management for setting ridiculous targets, when just selling 20k would be impressive to me considering how monumental this is.

3/2/2012 9:38:11 PM

They set those production targets because that's what helped secure pricing with suppliers. I doubt they had much of a choice. They couldn't bring the volume targets lower because that would raise the price, which is already 10k too high.

I'm acquainted with one of the GM battery engineers, although I don't know specifics on his exact projects. I wonder if this will affect him.

3/3/2012 12:00:32 AM

Since the government has spent ~$50 billion on GM for just 7000 vehicles, the Volt might just be the most expensive car in history, at $7 million dollars each.

GM had promised to build 60,000 vehicles per year, but they know that since they lose money on each one, not even mass production can make the Volt profitable. It's outright fraud. The Volt has always been a publicity stunt to divert criticism and avoid legislation that would force them to improve the rest of their vehicles.

[Edited on March 3, 2012 at 10:43 AM. Reason : .]

3/3/2012 10:38:56 AM

Yes, because the only car GMC makes is the Volt, so it makes complete sense to use the retarded math you've just used. The vast majority of people buying the Volt are people that did not own a GMC car. It is not leaching for their other car sales.

3/3/2012 2:30:21 PM

^ if you going to insult others for simplifying math, then perhaps your blog should account for the fact that a dollar spent up front (i.e. paying up for a volt now, savings later) is in now way the equivalent of a dollar spent later (i.e. buying a less expensive car which is just as nice but runs on gas, higher gas costs later). So while his simplification made his point look better, your simplification made your point look better.

Anyways, Im done trolling. The Volt is 'neat' and I like venturing into new technologies, but I dont see how you can call this car a success. You can call it monumental, or compare it to a corvette (lol), but the fact of the matter is that it was marketed as an efficient 4-door sedan that had brand new tech on a level that had not really been implemented on this scale before. People didnt buy in, period. Theyre not selling all that well but that doesnt mean its not an impressive car in certain rights. The Honda Insight was impressive but Id sure as hell never want one (either). Ill personally buy a car for less money now (which I like a lot more) and financially even up later down the road through gas. Or just buy a tdi golf.

However, I still approve of your purchase as the world would be insanely boring if people all drove the same thing and buyers all wanted the same thing. So, to each their own.

3/3/2012 2:45:46 PM

Quote :

"^ if you going to insult others for simplifying math, then perhaps your blog should account for the fact that a dollar spent up front (i.e. paying up for a volt now, savings later) is in now way the equivalent of a dollar spent later (i.e. buying a less expensive car which is just as nice but runs on gas, higher gas costs later). So while his simplification made his point look better, your simplification made your point look better."

If you are financing, technically you haven't spent anything up front. So the only sensible way to look at it total cost to own and operate now. I am spending less on my Volt than I was on a Mini Cooper.

I wasn't making fun of his math simplification. It was more like math fraud.

3/3/2012 2:55:39 PM

^^, ^^^^, Some nearsighted motherfuckers up in here. This car may not be a commercial success for the 2012 model year, but it is nothing less than monumental when you look at the big picture.

I bet that when the original iPod came out, you were thinking it was an overpriced mp3 player that won't ever sell.

[Edited on March 3, 2012 at 3:07 PM. Reason : .]

3/3/2012 3:05:07 PM

Better argument here is the Prius. And it came out when gas was cheap. I promise you that those who are about 30-35 on here, that followed that car, stated it would fail. So did the media. The car was produced in low numbers the first few years and at a loss to Toyota. I'm not too concerned. High gas prices are going to solidify electric cars in general.

[Edited on March 3, 2012 at 3:10 PM. Reason : M]

3/3/2012 3:08:28 PM

The Prius was only a few grand more than a civic when it released.

3/3/2012 3:27:14 PM