Volt4me

Thank-you all, it's been a pleasure visiting, I've learned a lot about the Fords in the last two days and even a little about the Volt. Whatever your choice, once you drive electric I'm certain you'll never buy an ice only car again.

"If the car didn't have a windshield, I would have bugs on my teeth from smiling so much." That's good. I'm going to have to use that one! Energized, I stand corrected, thank-you. I read long ago the stale gas point and never gave it a 2nd thought. Yes, the Volt has its downsides. Every bodies driving needs are different. As more choices become available, you can pick n choose what fits best for you. I have about a 20 mile round trip commute. If i'm not traveling much afterwork, I only charge at work. I am a squash enthusiast and often go to neighboring towns to play. When I go to the out of town gyms, I knew my commute would be about 40 miles return. When I heard the 2013 had an extra 3 miles range, it bumped it from almost perfect to perfect for me. As a small business owner, I still have to pay for the electricity to charge technically out of my pocket, but another advantage (again for me) is that about 60% of my volts (electricity) fuel is paid for with before tax dollars.

"At the 720 mile mark, my gas gauge is showing a little more than half full (just a tick over). Based on that I am going to guess that I will get around 1,400 miles on one tank of gas, or 14 gallons of gas, if I run the tank dry. That comes out to 100 mpge, which is right on the mark for what the EPA rated the car for. My window sticker shows 100 mpge combined city/highway (gallons per 100 miles & kWh's per 100miles, with 43 mpg combined city/highway gasoline only)." Thanks Pluggedin. Most people don't get "mpge", so I don't bring it up. I am at 78mpge lifetime after about 8000 miles. I only started using Voltstats.net since January, so my month by month only goes from that point. Since January, I see I'm averaging about 90mpge per month. I'm sure you are enjoying the quiet smooth ride only an electric can provide. How often do you find yourself smiling when you drive past a gas station?

Thank-you for listening politely to my Volt experience. Just an fyi, it's an adult crowd over at the gm-volt.com forum as well if you have more technical questions. Yes it was the 4wd escape. Someone brought up the "premium" fuel for the Volt. They did this because a significant percentage of Volts would be driving on the same tank of gas for a year or close to it. Regular gas will go stale sooner than premium. I also have to use synthetic oil for the ice, so my oil change will cost more too. Again Synthetic lasts longer. I have to go for an oil change every 2 years, not because the oil is dirty, but because that's the shelf life of the oil. Another note on fuel economy. My lifetime mpg on the ice is 35.5mpg so far. almost all of my experience has been through fall winter and a bit of spring. These numbers all but have to get better as summer approaches. 30 - 40 miles on electric then. Now I see 45 and I'm sure I'll soon join the 50miles on a charge club. I don't know how some people get 60 miles on a charge, I don't think I'll ever drive that slow for that long to achieve it. When I was your age, I only had 2 choices, the Volt or the Leaf and I had to wait over 3 months after putting my deposit down. You guys that are still on the fence have much more to choose from, although I think you still have to wait.

nice report capt. fuel economy & storage space were my main 2 concerns and we almost never use the rear seats. I was hoping to learn some actual real world mpg figures for the Fords. I have heard that in perfect conditions it is hard to achieve the epa numbers. with the same perfect conditions, you can add 20% to the volts epa numbers, which to me seems to negate any perceived fuel economy savings with the ford. I don't mean on just a single trip, but what is an average over a month or lifetime to date. I find the only way to really know what these new cars actually do is to talk to people that have them. Of note, I traded my ford escape hybrid for the volt. I loved the escape, but 29mpg is all I could average over 6 years with it.. and I tried.

Agreed Agreed Agreed! I just wish there were more choices. The right car for me would be the rav4 electric & the wife the Volt., but I can't buy it here. I have heard the Ford is more comfortable, and I'm not going to win in the looks department with the Volt, not that it looks bad. There are times (often) that I need to pack a lot of stuff into the back of my poor little Volt for work. Delivering 12 paper boxes full of books to a client is surprisingly easy with the seats folded down. And yes, you just don't get tired of saying "I have not bought any gas this year".

once the ice comes on, it works like a hybrid and the epa sticker says 37mpg (i think). So yes, when the ice kicks in, you can expect 37mpg from that point on. I let "voltstats.net"(cloverdale volt) start tracking my mileage in early January. In February I had a 90ish mile drive where the ice actually had time to warm up and run a while. For the month, the car averaged 39 mpg. On days when I use the ice for the last 1 -3 miles of my drive, the mpg is in the mid 20's as the engine is not very efficient when cold, but that's the same with all cars. My lifetime mpg is only around 300 mpg thanks to a 800 mile round trip to Oregon. I did not track my mileage for that trip, but I was able to charge at the hotels I stayed and used almost no gas for the week we were there. A guess would be 75 - 85 mpg. average for that trip. I filled up & topped up a few times on that trip in December. $71.00 of gas bought. It's the only time i've bought gas in the 7 months of owning the car. Arrived back home in Vancouver with 1/4 tank. I have not bought gas this year, but I need to soon.

When it was initially stated (about 2 or so years ago) that the Volt ice could drive the wheels directly, Chevy took a lot of heat from the purists that wanted a pure electric drive, as this is what Chevrolet originally promised. Tests showed that in some circumstances, it was more efficient to power the wheels directly. Chevy decided to go with efficiency over a pure electric drive. Keep in mind, this is only when the ice is running, and only in certain conditions. For me, if the ice is running, I want the best fuel economy possible, so i'm ok with it. If you dig into the gm-volt.com blog site, I'm sure it can be found somewhere, or just ask, there are some very tech savvy members regarding all things Volt over there. I may be jumping to conclusions about powering the wheels in an emergency, I just know the ice can directly drive the wheels.

One more point if it were just numbers 75 mile trip Volt 38 electric - 37 gas =1 gallon used (if you don't need heat or ac and not freeway 40 - 45 electric) vs. 20 electric - 55 on gas . Only a guess 1.5 gal used. I'm guessing the Volt will take an extra 50 to 75 cents more in electricity to recharge it.

I don't mean to hijack this forum, I am the Volt driving brother in-law. Ones decision for switching to an electric or electric with extended range will vary wildly depending on your everyday usage. I thought I'd clarify a couple of points I noticed above. The Volt also acts a a hybrid once the battery is depleted, I also don't worry when I drive past battery range. When gas is being used, the Volts computer will blend battery propulsion and propulsion straight from the gasoline engine to the wheels when there is a fuel economy advantage. This is not often, and would usually happen at higher speeds & up a hill. So the Volt can actually push the car without using the electric motor in an emergency. I often have to carry paper boxes for work, I can easily fit 6 50lb boxes in the back, more if I fold the seats down. My after work commutes sometimes take me 45 miles round trip to go play squash, If I stay off the freeway, I don't use any gas. If I want/need to pass someone doing 75mph on the freeway, I can zip by them quite quickly while only using electric (up 100mph). I drive between 1000 - 1200 miles most months and usually get 1000+ mpg (5$ gas +$40 electric) in a common month. I understand that my being able to charge at work skews the electric driving in my favour and not everyone can / will see these numbers. If an erev suv or maybe the rav4 electric suv were available to buy, I would not be driving a Volt. As a beggar of electric vehicles, I at this point don't have the luxury of being choosy. We are a two car family, so an all electric is not out of the question for us.