Page 35 of the 2013 Plug-in Owner's Manual Quick Guide says: "After driving for approximately 124 miles (200 km) with the gasoline engine off, the gasoline engine may start for a short amount of time in order to protect the system." Does anyone have a clue what this imaginative statement is about?
I'm guessing that is the ability to not leave gasoline stagnant because that's bad for the car. So if you somehow always charge for 124 miles, it must have a logic catch to turn the engine on.
Drive 10 miles in EV only, recharge and do that 12 more times and your ICE will start - like it or not
The manual also indicates that the car should run through at least a 1/2 a tank and get refilled every 6 months.
just happened to me yesterday. i've been doing a lot of ev lately, but it always takes me by surprise.
Yep! goes thru warm up cycle, takes about 2-3 minutes uses very little gas, then shuts off as you continue on in EV mode! Enjoy Your Plug-in.
Slightly off topic, but had a weird thing happen today. Was sitting in the drive thru at the bank. The AC was set at 78 or 79 but I forgot it was about 74 outside (I'm used to normal summer temps). I turned it up to 80 thinking I was being even more conservation minded but the ICE turned on! I'm pretty sure it was to start heat. fwiw, I also had it in normal instead of eco. (someone else had drove it right before me). I don't think it would have started the ICE that easily in ECO.
I believe the AC drains the battery which would then call the engine if there wasn't enough battery. Heat on the other hand will cause the engine to produce heat right away (instead of draining the battery).
Gasoline goes stale. If stored properly (not exposed to air) it retains most of it's characteristics for months, but given enough time, it actually starts to gum up a bit. The one place you do not want it gumming up is in the car fuel lines. That is usually a non-issue in a conventional car unless it is not being driven at all for many months. In a PHEV, it's actually going to occur for many users skilled in just using EV mode. The only way to avoid this is to force the engine to run based on some amount of mileage or time between refills. This is a feature of the Volt as well, where the gaps between engine run times can be much longer than any other PHEV right now. Useful links Can gas really go bad? - CNN.com Putting Thought into Putting Gas in the Chevy Volt | PluginCars.com
doesn't matter what mode you're in, if you turn the temp up higher than ambient, you're telling the computer you're cold.
