Loving the Volt!

Yes and yes.

There is less driver control of stealth mode than in the Prius and fewer dashboard feedback displays but you can stealthily manipulate engine start and stop while driving to some degree at city speeds.

 

Great, thanks for the info.

 

I'm glad to hear the cars working out for you. I don't see too many on the road ( here in buffalo) love that EV range !! Maybe the new plug-in prius can get somewhere near that

 

Yes, it runs in a 'stealth mode' for much longer amounts of time than the Prius, but then the engine starts and runs at a fair amount of power for short amounts of time. You can see this on the power flow display.
This is the 'Series Hybrid' mode.
But when you are on the highway it settles down and goes into 'Parallel Hybrid' mode, just like a Prius and uses only the amount of power required to roll the car down the highway.
You always have full power available.

You should go take a test drive. GM does not know how to market this car and the dealers don't seem to care either.
It's common to ask for a test drive and find that the demo car has not been plugged in for a long time.

Although,,, there is another whole question for both these cars:
What is the Top Speed, with, and without battery.

A Prius is rated for (?) 105 mph Top Speed, but that is with the HV battery assisting.
What is it after the HV battery has depleted?
Same question for the Volt. Top Speed is (?) 100 mph.
Only the Volt keeps much more HV battery in reserve, but it can be depleted doing this testing.

I suspect the Prius will be much faster as a gas only powered car compared to a gas only Volt.

Of course both these Rated Top Speeds are SW limited, not power limited.
We need some testers !!

 

I think you got it right that the Volt's top speed is 100 or 101 mph and the 3rd gen Prius is 105 mph. Both cars maintain their top speeds in hybrid mode with their gas engines without needing any battery assist. The Volt also has the same top speed in EV mode (obviously without needing any assist from the gas engine).

No. According to track testing, the Prius and Volt are about the same acceleration up to about 40 mph with the Prius using the gas engine and the Volt in either EV or hybrid mode using its gas engine. After 40 mph or so the Volt is slightly quicker in EV mode and noticeably quicker in hybrid mode.

In hybrid mode the Volt is generally quicker than the Prius even though it has a smaller gas engine and is a heavier car. This is because the Volt will still draw about 80 kW from it's nominally empty battery (which is actually about 20% full) to assist the gas engine during acceleration. The Volt's gas engine can put out enough power to maintain the maximum 100-101 mph speed.

Here are some track numbers derived from a couple of different MotorTrend articles:

Volt acceleration

2011 Volt Leaf Prius (non-plug)
ACCELERATION TO MPH
0-30 3.2 3.1 3.0
0-40 4.7 4.7 4.8
0-50 6.5 6.9 7.0
0-60 9.0 9.7 9.7
0-70 11.8 13.2 13
0-80 15.2 17.8 17.2
0-90 20.0 23.9 22.4

PASSING, 45-65 MPH
4.8 5.6 5.5

2011 Volt CD v. CS Mode
ACCELERATION TO MPH
0-30 3.0; 3.2
0-40 4.5; 4.6
0-50 6.4; 6.4
0-60 8.8; 8.7
0-70 11.9; 11.3
0-80 16.0; 14.5
0-90 21.3; 18.3
0-100 29.8; 23.0

PASSING, 45-65 MPH
4.9; 4.5

The Volt actually is close to power limited at 101 mph because of it's smaller gas engine. The Prius engine is a bit bigger. I don't know what it's actual inherent speed limitations are.

 

We have a 2010 Prius and a 2014 Volt with over 8,000 miles on it. Overall MPG are at 162 mpg. The current electric range with warmer weather is 44 miles, in winter 35 miles. With a round trip to work at 32 miles you can go a long time without the gas engine ever kicking in. We have a level 2 charger, 240 Volt. A full charge from empty to full takes 3 hours 50 minutes or about 10 miles per hour of charge.

The gas engine is not as fuel efficient as our Prius, but the Volt weighs nearly 3,800 lbs, the Prius over 600 lbs less.
On gasoline only 40 mpg is the norm. The highest on an extended trip was 43.6, and the gauge if anything under estimates the MPG's, not like the Prius which over estimates the MPG by 2.5 to 3.5 mpg.

The Volt requires Premium gasoline. However on a full tank of regular 87 octane I got the same MPG's, perhaps even a little more on regular gas, as using premium. Also no difference in power when climbing the Coast Range from sea level to over 1640 feet.

 

Me too on the Reg vs. Premium fuel deal. I buy the 87 oct also.
I read somewhere they were concerned about the geeks that drive around with almost 1 year old fuel.
Octane rating degrades with time is the theory, even with the pressurize evap emission system this car has.

Still, when you come up with these numbers like 162 MPG, who cares? It's not an accurate representation of anything useful. You paid for the electricity that let you skip having the stinker fire up.

It's those EV miles that are SO NICE !!

 

So how much has your electric bill globe up charging this car al the time? Nobody ever talks about that... All I hear Is EV Mode=free miles, and that's not the case. My big gripe with Chevy is the loss of value. They depreciate way faster than Toyota, Honda, ect.

 

I find it amusing when people say the volt, or any Chevy product is made in the US.

only 40% of the volt Is made here...

Source- GM employee

 

Actually, most plugin drivers track that closely.
While not a Volt owner anymore, our electric bill has gone up about $60 per 3000 miles.
With our former Prius that would have cost us about $210 (summer) or $250 (winter).

Of course, my EV is less efficient than the Volt or most other EVs. However, my charger is more efficient, so it may be a close comparison. This also varies depending upon your gas prices and electric prices.

Over the life of my car I expect to save about $7500 vs a Prius or $16000 vs another car of similar size and capabilities.

 

WYN,

I ran all my home charging through a "Killawatt" for the first 4 months. I know exactly what my electrons cost.
It was from $39 to $43 per month over that time. I now have a $285 kit L2 charger and will soon have a Kwh meter on it too.
That was in place of visits to the gas station. I can look at my fuelly and tell what those costs were on my previous Prius.
Plus, zero engine maintenance/wear, etc.
I too point out to fellow PHEV owners that their "MPG" numbers are Bo O Gus. Electricity is not freel.
Another thing, when you give your money to Big Oil, where does some of that money end up.

As for domestic content, you don't have to take word of mouth:
Part 583 American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA) Reports | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

When you look at the Volt specs, the transaxle comes from Japan, from the same supplier that Toyota uses.
Do you think the Next Gen PiP will use the same transaxle as the Volt?

 

It might be up to 45%, but regardless, how many imported cars have a US percentage higher?

So the construction of a Volt supports less US jobs than a Sonic, it still supports more jobs here than any Prius.

 

Who cares.. I care about resale value and quality. I let the idiots buy American, overpay, lose resale value and ultimately buy a new car.. All while I'm driving my toyota.

 

In the worst of winter about $36. Looks like it will be around $25 with the warm weather.

This is at about 900 miles/month.

 

"I let the idiots buy American" Spoken like a true patriot!

 

I suspect you are thinking of Aisin?

From what I can tell, your assertion is completely wrong.

Aisin built the transaxle for the 1st gen Prius and to Ford for the hybrid Escape. Toyota started building it's own Prius transaxle starting with the 2nd gen car and continuing with the present 3rd gen Prius. Ford also now builds its own hybrid transaxles.

I'm not aware that Aisin supplies any parts for the Chevrolet Volt transaxle. The 2 motors, motor controller and inverter circuitry for the Volt transaxle are built by Hitachi. The final transaxle assembly and presumably most of it's other internal parts are done by GM in Ramos, Mexico. Mexico is listed as the transaxle assembly point both by the official Volt service manual and by:

General Motors México | Sitio Corporativo | GM autos y camionetas Chevrolet, Buick, GMC y Cadillac | Página de inicio.

 

Jeff,
I read it somewhere. I'll stop repeating it until I find the source.
But this claims the Volt transaxle as sourced from Japan:
Part 583 American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA) Reports | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)