What happens at 63mph?

My expectation is that it will automatically kick you out of EV mode at that speed, and go into hybrid mode, which means battery will still be used along with the gasoline engine.

 

It spontaneously combusts. :flame:

Just kidding. Probably the same thing that happens in my Volt at >75mph. The engine seemlessly kicks in, and other than the additional noise under the hood it is not different at all. I think the major difference will be since the PiP is similar to a regular Prius you will get the mechanical coupling of the engine into the drivetrain, and associated slight jerk that is not present in the Volt. I certaintly wish you guys luck, and I cannot wait to hear how everyone likes their PiP's. You guys know yet when you are expected to take delivery? I know they just opened the pre-orders...

 

How do you like the volt compared to let's say a cts?

DROIDX ?

 

I had a Cadillac Eldorado before (1998), and I think the Volt is a far better car than that.. Compared to a CTS though I am unsure. The only CTS I have ever driven was the V model, and of course the Volt does not compare to that car. I imagine compared to the base model it is nicer. Everything in the car except the steering wheel controls, and the radio volume/tune knobs is either touch sensitive or a touch screen. So feels very futuristic. Cadillac is coming out with their own version (the ELR), so I imagine that will blow the doors off the Volt.

 

Guess a better comparison is against our Prius so this thread stays somewhat on track, LOL.. I would like to meet up whenever someone in my area gets a PiP so we can see actual plug in to plug in. As I like our Prius a lot as well. Especially since it is more efficient gas to gas with the Volt (our best average in the Volt is 42mpg, best in our gas Prius is 60mpg). Here you go though, the big pictures. Not sure how many of you that ordered a PiP have a Gen3 or not, but here is the comparison of a regular one with the competition.

 

It turns into a Ferrari!

 

The Volt only kicks the engine on in these situations:

1. Battery is empty (or start getting low and you're mountain mode)
2. If you want heat and it's really cold out.
3. It decides that the gas in the tank is getting stale so should burn some off.

And then once the engine is on, it only uses the engine to directly help propel the car under heavy load and/or high speeds (because of this performance is slightly better once the battery SOC is low and the engine is running).

Otherwise it never uses the engine to assist regardless of how hard you're pushing on the accelerator.

Quite a bit different than the PIP which must run the engine at > 63 mph and if you push too hard on the accelerator though I expect the end result in terms of gas and electricity consumption will not be that different in many driving cycles.

 

4. Open hood with car switched on. Scared the crap out of me the first time I did it when showing someone the car.

I have not personally had the engine come on when requesting heat in cold weather. I wished that it would come on. Maybe it just has not been cold enough yet. I imagine the PiP's heater will be better than the Volt's, or at least I hope so for all you guys sake.

 

The real magic happens at 88 mph.

 

Damn your eyes hyo. I was fighting the urge to say something like

"Depends if you have a flux capacitor or not" or

"8.1 jigawatts!"

Glad to know I am not the only one who imagined the same response.

 

Gotta be quick.

I was just thinking 'How is it possible no one said that yet?'

 

That guess is the correct one. This sequence of photos captured while driving an early model PHV confirms the MPG boost:

In other words, the engine spins at the speeds above the threshold but no where near as much fuel is consumed as normal. On my 16.5 mile commute with about 9 miles at 70 mph, the result was 166 MPG.

Of course, there's a EV/HV button with the production model. Offering a choice of when to boost could provide the opportunity for even higher MPG... when used wisely.
.

 

Was just speculation on my part from having my regular Prius. Really does not detract from my experience to much, but it is something I know notice going from the Volt back to our Prius. Slight, but is there. Granted the Volt vibrates whenever the gas engine is on and that is annoying as can be. Especially the first time it kicked on and you could feel it through the steering wheel & brake pedal. I thought something was wrong with the car... Hopefully the engine couples smoothly in the PiP. Never even seen one so to be honest I have no idea.

 

Production version would not blend on the highway? The ride in your loaner prototype did blend and depleted the charge boosting the MPG.

 

This is mostly correct but there is a common misunderstanding on when the Volt mechanically connects the gas engine to the planetary gears (and therefore the wheels) when the battery is at the minimum State of Charge and the car has switched into Charge Sustaining or "hybrid" mode.

Intuitively, many think that this mechanical linkage occurs under heavy load (torque demand) to help the electric motor move the car. Actually, the opposite is true. Under 75 mph or so, the gas engine is mechanically connected only when torque demand is low such as fairly constant speed driving between 40-75 mph. Under heavy torque demand like sudden strong acceleration, the Volt disconnects the gas engine from the planetary gears and uses the large electric 149 HP motor alone with power supplied from the battery and from the gas engine connected only to the smaller motor/generator.

It is essentially impossible to tell when the Volt mechanically links in the gas engine without having diagnostic equipment plugged into the OBD-II port. It is, however, possible to notice a momentary delay when requesting sudden acceleration when the gas engine is already mechanically connected. The delay of disconnecting the gas engine feels similar to an automatic transmission kicking down to a lower gear under similar circumstances.

As long as there is battery charge remaining above the minimum level, the Volt never uses the gas engine while driving except for 1-2 minutes occasionally at temperatures under 26F to assist heating, when it determines that the average age of the gasoline in the tank is over one year, or for 1-2 minutes every 6 weeks if the engine is never otherwise run.

In other words, the gas engine is effectively only used when the battery runs low or when temperatures are under 26F.

Here is a good concise description of the Volt powertrain at a GM technical training blog site:

http://www.sandyblogs.com/techlink/2010/12/voltec-electric-drive-unit-and-high-voltage-battery.html