How to get 95 mpg

After I read this, I was thinking exactly what ny rob was thinking.

To answer your question on how to achieve 95 mpg, drive 24 miles, stop and recharge, repeat until you get to your destination. Otherwise, live with what you have. You also stated that you did your research so you knew this before swapping the 2010 for a PiP. Just saying.

 

Just drove from Long Beach to San Diego this weekend to visit my brother who was attending a conference. Three of us in the car.. my father isn't thin by any stretch of the imagination..

Drove 65-70 mph the entire way until I got closer to home when my speed inched up to 75-80. I achieved 60 mpg using up the EV at the initial start of the drive. Charged at both ends. Met family at San Diego Zoo. EV spots were there and were not ICEd that day.

That said, you will achieve higher overall MPGs in a PiP than you will in a Volt. The Volt cannot compare in that length of a drive. It will falter behind the PiP after about 50 miles. Forget the exact distance, but the PiP come ahead after 50 or so miles because of the fuel economy of the gas motor on the Volt. Spoke to someone about the Tesla, and he said it can just barely make the 100 mile drive from LA to San Diego, but he had to drive gentle – keeping it around 60-65 mph.

 

Not even close on the distance you guessed when a PiP become better than a Volt.

The cross over distance highway driving for a Volt (38 miles battery + 40 MPG) and Pip (11miles + 49 highway) is about 157 miles where both cars will have used 2.98 gallons.

The ops 100 miles a day, presuming its mostly highway, and allows only one charge would use 1.82 miles in a PiP and 1.55 in a Volt. Of course driving techniques and speed matter, the above is using EPA highway values. If its 100miles of stop/go traffic the volt MPG_CS will drop and the cutoff is sooner.


Multiple times a year I do a 260 mile trip (130 mile each way, so longer than LB to SD) trip in the mountains with my volt. I average about 89 MPG with a charge at each end. Not quite the OPs desired 95, but counting local trips which dominate the driving I'd be unhappy down at 95MPG overall. Even in Dollar equivalent for paying extra wind-produced electricity, my overall is way better at about 145 MPG dollar equivalent.

40 MPG on the Highway is as good or better than as many hybrids, such as the CT200h, Lexus Eh 200, Acura ILX, Honda CR-Z, etc.. Yeah is not as good as a prius, but when you don't use the ICE that often it does not matter nears as much how efficient it is.

A tesla with local super-charger network would be nice, but at more than 2x the cost, it ought to be.

 

I know you were just using EPA numbers but I, along with a lot of other people on here, can do 18+ miles on a charge and 60+ mpg highway.

 

Yes I used EPA as a basis of comparison. I don't doubt you and many others do better. I and many other volt owners do 50+miles on a charge and 50+MPG highway regularly. My best MPG_cs on a meaningful trip is is 61 and I have many trips over 70 miles on a charge. Temp, Technique and Terrain all matter, and both cars do much better in the hands of good drivers. They also do worse than EPA in the hands of very agressive drivers in cold temps.

 

What EV ratio does Volt need to break 100 MPGe?

Matabele has done it with just 61% EV in PiP. Incredible for a midsize plugin with the largest cargo space.

 

Not a meaningful question. It is not just the ratio, MPGe depends on the efficiency in both CS and EV modes as well.
I would expect a volt to require a higher ratio than a PiP to have the same MPGE, since at a fixed rate and equivalent driving the Volt will use a bit more gas which would lower the MPGe faster.

 

Regardless of what the facts are....and I know there are plenty of them...the Volt is a great car. You simply have to understand that a lot of us don't think it's very cool when an outsider comes on to our little niche of the internet and essentially bashes what we paid many thousands of dollars for. I personally don't plan on ever coming over to the Volt forum and saying negative things about the Volt. And even if it isn't your intention or the words you say...that is how it comes off to many of us.

 

Well said.


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FYI if you want to use the supercharger network from tesla, don't plan on spending any less than 80k-90k


iPad ? HD

 

Well its not my intention to bash the Prius or PiP, as both are great cars which for some people's needs are clearly better than the Volt. Nothing I've said here was negative about the PiP or Prius nor should they be construed as such.. My posts here were (and in most threads are) factually correcting mis-statements about the volt.

It might have been tempting to jump into this thread earlier and say how one might get 95MPG in a volt, but I did not. I generally don't even jump in to pimp the volt (except maybe in the Priuschat's Volt subforum). It was not until someone bashed the volt, by grossly underestimating the cross over on fuel efficiency that I commented. Presenting corrected facts about the Volt is not dissing the Prius family.

I mostly PriusChat to learn (and for fun). If you have a general interest in efficient vehicles, especially electrified vehicles, then I'd encourage you to join the volt-forum and the leaf forums and the tesla forum as well as reading insideevs(I read all of them). There is lots of good information on all of them. If you corrected errors about posts about Prii on the volt forum, which I do as well, few would object. There is a huge difference between correcting errors about your vehicle and bashing another. If you see me cross that line, do call me on it (personally or publicly, your choice, and I'll reply in kind) and even feel free to ask the moderators to warn or ban me. But correcting errors about the Volt, so that PC readers are not misinformed, is something I'll keep doing. My posts outside of the Volt subforum are "easy" to stop, just stop or correct posts that post incorrect statements about the volt/gm and you won't see much of me in this subforum.

 

Maybe it's the way you "correct" people then. I am not the first to be turned off by your way of correcting people. The 50 mile mistake made by chesleyn was obvious to people, him likely included. It didn't take a Volt expert to come in our forum to correct us.

 

Correcting "mistakes" is a common green wash technique. Be careful not to fall into that trap. Always ask how it applies to the situation. Watch for generalizations & extremes too. Lack of balance is a dead giveaway something amiss.

 

I appreciate your posts in this forum. It is good to have a discussion of Volt and Prius by people who are interested in the actual performance of the two cars. While I have driven Prius since 2004, you have helped me understand that the Volt is an excellent car. If it cost less and had a little more inside room, I might have bought one in 2012. I also remember at the time being concerned whether GM would stand by the car long term.

 

Odd...he almost single-handedly makes me dislike the Volt, even though I know it's a great car.

 

Overall, drinnovation's posts are informative and accurate, and I'm glad he's here.

The PiP is best for me (wish I could buy one, Toyota are you listening?), but not for everyone.

And being a GM product, I'd have hesitation in buying a Volt even if it fit my needs best, but that is a personal bias.

Some of us are at least as combative on the Volt forums, and I think we should embrace dr's contributions here, while holding his feet to the factual fire as he does ours.

 

I disagree. I think drinnovation replied with facts with what he believed to be in error. In fact, I would've posted a similar reply but he beat me to it. We don't tolerate FUD on the Prius here. I think we need to hold the same standard for other models as well.


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