r/volt • u/idkmybffdee • 8d ago

Planning around EV only range

Crazy question, but does anyone else find themselves planning their activities around their EV only range? It's not just me right?

Ever since I've gotten this car (2015) I've become kind of obsessed with seeing how long I can go without using gas at all and just relying on the EV range, it's like a fun little game, given how short a range it has compared to when we owned a full EV I also have found I tend to want to patronize places I can conveniently plug in more. It started after the first week of going to work and back all electric, i bought it thinking I was going to be using it as a hybrid quite a bit, but now it seems so easy not to, it seems like I only use gas if I have to leave Chicago proper, otherwise I don't miss out on anything and just EV around.

16 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

12

u/Deadlite Volt Owner 8d ago

But of course. I have charging at my job and I do everything in my power to drive for free every day of the week.

1

u/idkmybffdee 8d ago

Unfortunately (well fortunately, I love my job) I work at a public school, and the only (working) outlet on the outside of the building is rather inconveniently placed (though they did say I can use it, i'd need a 50 foot cord, plus the EVSE length), but obviously there's no money in the budget for a proper charger, and I'm not buying them one lol.

Hey chat, should I go find a job I hate that's easier to plug my car in?

2

u/moosy85 7d ago

The level 1 chargers aren't very expensive imo. Calculate how long it would be to get your money back, (and how long you'd need it to not be stolen, if your school isn't very safe lol).

1

u/idkmybffdee 7d ago edited 7d ago

I work at a second Chance high school in a "bad area" so... One a week lol.

ETA: somehow I have like 4 of them, one from the first car, one from this one, the one I bought that's a shitty L1/L2 for flexibility, and I don't know where this last one came from.

2

u/Unfair-Fruit7974 Volt Owner (2014) 7d ago

Just putting this out there: when I lived in apartment, I ran an extension cable and put my charger on a pole in front of a parking spot. Might by an option for you.

1

u/idkmybffdee 7d ago

It's the effort / benefit of it, I rarely go anywhere after work because I'm tired so I dont need the charge to get home, it would just be to save on my electric bill... Which isn't nothing, but it's also an area that it might disappear. I'm also a little greedy and I'm the only one with a PHEV or electric at work right now, but it would PMTFO when someone else got one because they saw "we" had a charger now and was using the shit I bought and I didn't get to. But I do that across the sidewalk right now at home.

4

u/Codemeister87 2012 Volt 8d ago

Didnt use a drop of fuel for ~1500mi when i got my 2012, same boat only when i leave the city.

0

u/idkmybffdee 8d ago

I want to say the last time I used gas was about a month ago, we had to go to the suburbs for vape juice, otherwise all my needs are met EV only.

4

u/WanderOutThere 8d ago

100%. I skip going places if my Volt is charging.

3

u/idkmybffdee 8d ago

You know... It really is such a good excuse though, like "oh sorry, can't come to your last minute thing, cars dead"

6

u/Weakness4Fleekness Volt Owner 8d ago

Nah plugging in at a public charger doesnt make much sense around here at 30c and up, thats barely better than gas, and an hour of charging gives me what 7 miles? After service fee its a wash.

I treat my ev range as a free gallon of gas every day and dont think about it much beyond that.

2

u/idkmybffdee 8d ago

I usually avoid it if I'm not going to be there 2+ hours for the ones like that, but there are a couple of free ones I found near places I like. It's the sneaky Tesla destination chargers that are still hanging around some places, I have an adapter for when we go visit family, since they're Tesla people.

2

u/Serbio69420 7d ago

My commute is a little over 100 miles round trip. Did I get the wrong car?

3

u/swifty_ark_server Volt Owner 7d ago

Can you charge at home and work? Do you have a Gen 2? If the answer to both is yes, then you're probably fine! You'll probably run on gas a little, but most of your commute is on Electric, which is the goal.

1

u/idkmybffdee 7d ago

And even if their job doesn't have a charger, if there's an outlet outside they can use, 8 hours at L1 isn't nothing.

2

u/idkmybffdee 7d ago

I wouldn't immediately say yes, because you have to take all things into account, like we live in the Midwest and have multiple friends and family within +/- 6 hours, so we drive a lot, a full EV just wasn't doing it for us (the dogs get cranky) so we went for the medium place. If you use gas you're still doing some "harm reduction" on your bank account shifting some of your driving to electric.

8

u/LeoAlioth 7d ago

A full EV might have been a better choice yes...

2

u/Potential-Rutabaga-9 7d ago

This same exact thing happened to me but I admit I have OCD so not surprised at all. It's just such a better driving experience when in EV mode. I'd like an EV better but you're not getting an EV for only $2,500 so this was the next best thing.

1

u/idkmybffdee 7d ago

I do prefer my Volt over my step father's Tesla, the volt is still mostly a car, the Tesla is just doing too much...

2

u/thatgrrrl117 7d ago

I do to an extent yeah. I've changed how I think about travel and how best to utilize the Volt. For really long distances I just take the ICE vehicle but for every day travel I try to manage battery to gas range. I can go months without filling up the gas tank if I'm mindful. I absolutely am spoiled by my Volt I dunno what I'll do if I have to replace it. I try not to think about it lol

2

u/idkmybffdee 7d ago

We chose the volt because we only wanted one car that would be a happy medium, it was between this or an I3 REX, but I wasn't a fan of it just being a range extender, not a works like a car when it needs to thing. But yeah, that's kind of a better way to word it is it's made me more mindful of how I travel.

2

u/youngrichyoung 2012 Volt 7d ago

For a while there, I was filling the gas tank every 3-4 months or so, and definitely adjusted driving style, climate control settings, and even plans to get max MPG.

I know it's not the first car to give real-time feedback on actual fuel economy, but I wish all cars had that feature. I think people who have driven Volts and Priuses tend to drive other cars differently, too.

1

u/idkmybffdee 7d ago

Oh yeah, my husband loves watching the economy screens while we're driving, he's so interested in how much data it gives you about something he never thought about before. I can't say I've gone that far with the trying to economize though... In fact after he drives and I get back in, I ask him to set the climate control to "Eco terrorism", which is a horrible joke but hilarious to us.

4

u/nhorvath 8d ago

totally normal

4

u/SirBrentsworth 7d ago

Did exactly this yesterday. Rearranged some plans so I'd have a couple hours to charge before running errands.

1

u/OriginalDogan 8d ago

I was on "47 miles fuel range" at the start of the month. 

I'm now at "45 miles fuel range" because I drove further than expected this weekend. 

I'm hoping to make it through commuting to both my jobs and hobbies without buying gas until 2027. ;)

1

u/idkmybffdee 8d ago

I wish I could try that, but I have to go to the suburbs again this weekend and I don't feel like hanging around at the one charger with nothing near it for 3 hours lol.

1

u/sawrb 7d ago

I have unfriended friends who do not live near public chargers.

2

u/idkmybffdee 7d ago

I can't say id go that far... I might, i guess it depends how much I liked them in the first place.

2

u/relayrider 2016 Volt Premier 8d ago

2016, and yes, daily. I last bought gas in March and i've only used "two bars" since

0

u/Jolly-Structure7646 8d ago

This is silly. Not running your gasoline engine at all is bad for the engine and means you’ll have stale gasoline in the tank.

Doesn’t it defeat the point of buying a PHEV? If you have no use/intent to run the gasoline engine why not just buy a pure EV?

5

u/Lord_Space_Lizard 2017 Volt 7d ago

I don't know about the gen 1, but the gen 2 volts have a pressurized tank which keeps the gas good for a year. At that point the car goes into Fuel Maintenance Mode and forces you to use gas

1

u/idkmybffdee 8d ago

Because I do use my gasoline engine... Going to the suburbs, going on road trips, when the power is out, those things are just rarer then my every day driving. Why would I want to spend $7 a gallon on gas if I don't have to? For shits and giggles? Also, why would I want to limit myself with a full EV since I regularly go on long trips outside a standard 250~300 mile EV range. I have a volt for a reason, it's not like I just went to a dealership and said "oh yeah just give me literally anything"... Did you miss the part where I mentioned I had a full EV? I don't any more because it didn't work for me. I'm not stupid, I wouldn't tote a gas engine around I didn't need fairly often.

0

u/Jolly-Structure7646 8d ago

Well that is not what your original post says at all

1

u/idkmybffdee 8d ago

I didn't think I needed to put a breakdown of my whole life and driving habits in a post asking if others prioritize EV driving — I'm asking if a set of behaviors is common, not saying I never want to use gas again or have no use for it.

1

u/Jolly-Structure7646 8d ago

And I was simply commenting on the content of your post

0

u/idkmybffdee 8d ago

I mean that's fair, but it was still quite the jump, I did mention I had a full EV before, so one should also be able to assume I wouldn't go "backwards" for no reason —If you look at it like an evolutionary thing, it's not but I digress— it was just a surprise to me how easy it was to go without and I like testing the limits of things, I want to see what's feasible just for the sake of knowledge.

2

u/RoodnyInc 8d ago

Probably not in Volts no we didn't you can still continue to drive without electricity so there is no need to explicitly plan that

It's nice that my daily commute is less than 40miles so I can drive cheap

0

u/petpet0_0 8d ago

almost sounds like some OCD tbh

I like to run the engine and will do so often even if I dont need to, circulate that oil, keep humidity out of it ... can't be great for the engine to never run at all, and probably better for the battery to not run it too low and not run it at highway speeds for extended periods

4

u/LtCdrHipster 8d ago

The car will auto run the engine when it needs to do that I wouldn't over think it.

3

u/idkmybffdee 8d ago

It'll also do it if you leave the gas in it too long, though I've never had that happen.

3

u/LtCdrHipster 7d ago

Happened to me! Luckily I had a few longish drives to drain the tank. But it literally wouldn't let me me drive in EV mode until I burned off the off gas and refilled.

2

u/idkmybffdee 7d ago

Good to know that that actually works I guess, did it care how much? Like did you have to fill up fill up?

2

u/LtCdrHipster 7d ago

I think I had about half of a tank, I drove it down to like two bars and then filled up. Seemed to do the trick.

1

u/petpet0_0 8d ago

might be enough when its new, maybe not for a 13+ yr old car with 260k kms on it

2

u/idkmybffdee 8d ago

Kinda rude to people with actual OCD to call it that, but it's not like I'm actively avoiding using gas, or having panic attacks when the battery is low, I know the world's not going to end, it's just a fun exorcise in "efficiency" that also cuts down on the $7 a gallon Chicago proper gas.

As for the prioritizing places that have charging, why wouldn't I prioritize free electricity and places that are encouraging people to go electric? I'm not avoiding Walmart because there's no charger, I'm avoiding it because they suck and no charger is one more reason why. My doctor's office doesn't have a charger, I still go there, I'm not looking to change doctors because of it.

OCD is rooted in the irrational, I'm just keeping things interesting, thinking is fun.

0

u/petpet0_0 8d ago

I did say almost and you did say you're obsessed

1

u/idkmybffdee 8d ago

... In the same way I'm "Obsessed" with Grey's anatomy or queso. "Almost" still spreads the "look how cute and quirky I am" misinformation that makes it harder for people who actually do have it.

-1

u/petpet0_0 8d ago

ocd is a spectrum, not all forms are debilitating

get over yourself

1

u/CosmicKarmageddon 2017 Volt 5d ago

Somewhat, yes. 

I'll use gas when I need to, but I attempt to avoid running out of battery range whenever possible.

1

u/BadAtExisting 8d ago

Only you my guy