free2enjoy
Well-known member
One thing I really like about my Chevy Volt is that I have two ways to power it, the batteries or the engine.
For example, when Hurricane Irma was on the way, never once did i wait in a long gas line. I drove entirely off batteries that i charged from the grid. Around town, my car will go about 70-80 miles solely on batteries.
But at the same time, the car carries 9.1 gallons of gas which easily will take it another 360 miles or more!
I have had the car for about 13,000 miles and only have used the engine for maybe 800 miles. My commute to work and back is 48 miles which i easily do on batteries.
The Volt and the van aren’t really what is normally considered a “hybrid”. That’s why they call the engine a range extender. These two vehicles are pure electric vehicles with an onboard generator. There are no transmissions. My car has the ability to directly connect the engine to the front axle but it’s through a planetary reduction gear used by the electric motor. This is done to maximize efficiency.
Another thing they do is anytime the engine is running, the computer will put a load on the engine in order to hit the engine’s sweet spot for fuel efficiency. So if the engine is being used and if it’s not at the sweet spot, the computer will make the engine generate some electricity for the batteries, but it’s not enough to ever see on the battery gauge.
The Volt does NOT have the ability to DC Fast Charge and I’m guessing the van won’t either because both carry around the engine to make electricity. My car has a 3.3kw charger and it takes about 3.5 hours to charge the battery using a 240v charging station. The Fiat 500e has a 6.6kw charger but it’s battery is twice the usable size as the Volt so it takes about the same time to fully charge. That’s a 32amp 240v system to max out the 6.6kw charger.
With the Volt, i can have a topped off battery and not use it at all. I can tell the car to “hold” that level of charge and that makes it use the engine. If the van is the same way, then you could go into town, find a Level 2 charging station, leave the van there until charged (likely take up to four hours if the charger is 6.6kw, then drive back to camp using the engine only.
The really cool thing is the regenerative braking. That is always functional whether the engine is being used or not. On my car my brakes are always cold or very slightly warm regardless of what i do, except if I’m doing hard braking, like a panic stop. Then the friction brakes kick in.
But again, it’s an expensive way to make a vehicle however the depreciation on these cars is amazing. My Volt brand new was $41,000 but I bought it one year used with 15,000 miles fully loaded for $22,5000. My girlfriend’s Fiat was $35,000 new but we bought it two years used also with 15,000 miles for $7500. And between the two cars we are saving about $300+/month in gas and a lot of future repairs. The Volt has an incredible factory warranty too at 8 years/100,000 miles on the entire electric drivetrain not just the batteries. The Fiat’s is strong at 4 years/50,000 miles bumper to bumper and 8 years/100,000miles on the battery.
I would really love to see more vans get this “hybrid” config. It’s truly a good configuration given the state of battery technology now but unfortunately these vehicles are expensive new.
For example, when Hurricane Irma was on the way, never once did i wait in a long gas line. I drove entirely off batteries that i charged from the grid. Around town, my car will go about 70-80 miles solely on batteries.
But at the same time, the car carries 9.1 gallons of gas which easily will take it another 360 miles or more!
I have had the car for about 13,000 miles and only have used the engine for maybe 800 miles. My commute to work and back is 48 miles which i easily do on batteries.
The Volt and the van aren’t really what is normally considered a “hybrid”. That’s why they call the engine a range extender. These two vehicles are pure electric vehicles with an onboard generator. There are no transmissions. My car has the ability to directly connect the engine to the front axle but it’s through a planetary reduction gear used by the electric motor. This is done to maximize efficiency.
Another thing they do is anytime the engine is running, the computer will put a load on the engine in order to hit the engine’s sweet spot for fuel efficiency. So if the engine is being used and if it’s not at the sweet spot, the computer will make the engine generate some electricity for the batteries, but it’s not enough to ever see on the battery gauge.
The Volt does NOT have the ability to DC Fast Charge and I’m guessing the van won’t either because both carry around the engine to make electricity. My car has a 3.3kw charger and it takes about 3.5 hours to charge the battery using a 240v charging station. The Fiat 500e has a 6.6kw charger but it’s battery is twice the usable size as the Volt so it takes about the same time to fully charge. That’s a 32amp 240v system to max out the 6.6kw charger.
With the Volt, i can have a topped off battery and not use it at all. I can tell the car to “hold” that level of charge and that makes it use the engine. If the van is the same way, then you could go into town, find a Level 2 charging station, leave the van there until charged (likely take up to four hours if the charger is 6.6kw, then drive back to camp using the engine only.
The really cool thing is the regenerative braking. That is always functional whether the engine is being used or not. On my car my brakes are always cold or very slightly warm regardless of what i do, except if I’m doing hard braking, like a panic stop. Then the friction brakes kick in.
But again, it’s an expensive way to make a vehicle however the depreciation on these cars is amazing. My Volt brand new was $41,000 but I bought it one year used with 15,000 miles fully loaded for $22,5000. My girlfriend’s Fiat was $35,000 new but we bought it two years used also with 15,000 miles for $7500. And between the two cars we are saving about $300+/month in gas and a lot of future repairs. The Volt has an incredible factory warranty too at 8 years/100,000 miles on the entire electric drivetrain not just the batteries. The Fiat’s is strong at 4 years/50,000 miles bumper to bumper and 8 years/100,000miles on the battery.
I would really love to see more vans get this “hybrid” config. It’s truly a good configuration given the state of battery technology now but unfortunately these vehicles are expensive new.
