I've owned my 2012 Volt for just over 2 years with about 76K now on the clock. In the summer I was getting a 40 mile predicted range which I could exceed with careful driving. In the winter I was getting 30 which again I could exceed. However, this winter it's dropped to 26 and no matter how carefully I drive, I only get two-thirds of that. Is this a sign that my batteries are dying?
Chevi Volt Battery Range
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No its perfectly normal, my 100'000 mile Volt does exactly the same every year...
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Short journeys due to lockdown, cold, wet and now snow, the use of power to heat the battery, all damage range,
Battery heating and cabin heat with the current few short journeys are killing the range on my ampera (a volt with a different nose) down to 25 or less
Roll on spring.
Preconditioning on the mains can help the range, warms the battery
Battery heating and cabin heat with the current few short journeys are killing the range on my ampera (a volt with a different nose) down to 25 or less
Roll on spring.Preconditioning on the mains can help the range, warms the battery
If you are still getting around 10Kwh full to empty your battery is fine.
Driving in winter requires more energy for all cars: tyres have to remove water from the road surface, lights and fans are on more, colder air is more dense to move out of the way and the wind tends to blow more often and more strongly. You can use the energy in the battery only once. Heating the cabin (which you can control of course) can take 2 - 3Kw I think and keeping the battery at the right temperature (which you cannot control) uses a separate 1.8Kw heater. The battery has to run between 20 and 30 degrees C to avoid degradation. So running for an hour on a cold day you can easily lose 40% of the available capacity. Add into that running the air conditioner to keep the windows clear, rear window heater and seat heaters means a lot less proportionally for moving the car. If you do a number of shorter journeys, the effect will be magnified. I recently saw only 21 miles after 3 short cold journeys. Back in the summer I was getting 45-50.
The other thing to remember is that GM were more concerned about the health of the battery than the health of the driver. So working above all this is a power management algorithm that prioritises battery power to optimising the battery temperature above all else. It's a very clever car.
Modern EVs with larger batteries still suffer from this, but proportionally it is not so severe. 4Kwh out of a 38Kwh battery has a much smaller effect than out of a 10Kwh battery.
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It cannot be stressed enough that the amperage/volt range is very affected by temperature range will start to drop off as the temperature drops below 9 degrees , as you move below 4-5 degrees it’s drops off a cliff below around. 2 degrees this is then also heavily affected by the number of stops you make. During the part of the winter where it hovers around zero you will be stuck getting mid to high 20s in terms of range , as the battery is thermally controlled (and it appears engine) a lot of power will be used to heat the battery , and the if you use it heated seats and then if you use it heated cabin , heated rear window.
if you are getting 3 miles a kWh you are doing well ,it’s no unheard of to loose .5kwh just turning the car on and pulling away Without preheat.
the recommended trick on this forum is if you are going to go beyond battery range epically in the winter always start on petrol to heat the car as heat is a free byproduct of the ice , the car will carry on using the residual heat of the ice when you switch back to battery to complete the journey on electric and will give you maximum electric range however range will still be depleted as the battery heating is never replenished using power from the battery.
if you are getting 3 miles a kWh you are doing well ,it’s no unheard of to loose .5kwh just turning the car on and pulling away Without preheat.
the recommended trick on this forum is if you are going to go beyond battery range epically in the winter always start on petrol to heat the car as heat is a free byproduct of the ice , the car will carry on using the residual heat of the ice when you switch back to battery to complete the journey on electric and will give you maximum electric range however range will still be depleted as the battery heating is never replenished using power from the battery.
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Preheating makes the biggest difference for me. 32mile round trip, almost entirely flat so doesn't make much difference to which direction you're travelling. Pre-condition in the morning and I go the 16 miles there using about ~4.5kWh in weather around 2-3C. On the way back the car has been sat outside in the cold for 7+ hours so I need to A) heat the battery and B) heat the cabin entirely from the battery. The return journey usually uses about 6kWh and thats being a bit skimpy on the heat as well, if I get the cabin as warm as I have it in the morning I'd be running on petrol before I got home.
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I have also found that stop/start journeys hammer the battery range in cold weather - since I have retired I often make short journeys for shopping and have noticed that after several of these (where the car has been standing in a car park for an hour or so) the range displays as 25 miles. Despite this on a recent trip to Hampshire, with two pre-heat sessions before we set off, we managed almost 40 miles before the ICE started.
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