Happy Anniversary, Zippy!

Today is August 30, 2015, which marks the three month anniversary for my Volt, Zippy, and I.

Rarely has a three month relationship been so incredible, filled with moments of pure euphoria and absolutely no negative drama whatsoever between woman and vehicle. To those of you who have been reading along during this ride, thank you for bearing witness to our love. We are still so very happy together. Not a single day, nor a single blog post, has gone by where I have not been totally enamored of my darling and delightful 2015 Chevy Volt Extended Range Electric Vehicle.

All emotions aside, this has been a very successful three months, and I'm not just saying that out of sentimentality. All Volt owners have access to the http://myvolt.com website. Upon registration and connection with your OnStar account, you can access a variety of vehicle statistics through this website. In addition, OnStar emails the owner monthly reports to communicate data regarding the month's performance.

Logging into the site, I am able to view Efficiency data for the last week, month and year.

Focusing on the graph, it's clear that the days I use my car on electric only (most weekdays except when we were at the beach), the MPG stat is super high. Remember that I made a long trip at the beginning of the month, which forced me to drive 112 miles on gasoline. That is an anomaly that I do not expect to repeat in future months, at least not often. 

Let's look at the Lifetime box stats. 145 gallons of gas saved in three months. That is a pretty big deal. Assuming that on average those 145 gallons would have cost me $2.50 each, that is $362.50 I have not spent on gasoline. "But wait, Lisa!" you say. Yes, I know, I've paid for electricity. Assuming that I charge my car every single day - which I have not - from empty - which I never do - I would have spent 2 dollars per day on each of the 92 days I've had my car.  At most, that would be $184 spent on electricity. It's most certainly less. 

Pretty good deal - wouldn't you say?

So as far as our family economy is concerned, this Volt has worked out very nicely for us. 

Let's move beyond the Macon family savings plan and take a look at the amount of CO2 I have not pumped into the air you are all breathing -> 2,815 pounds. That's a lot of CO2 in 3 months. How much CO2 was generated in the process of grid-charging my Volt? I don't really know. I'll bet it's not 2,815 pounds, given the humongous solar field attached to our grid.

Delving a little deeper into the efficiency stats, we can get to this screen:

95% of my driving has been on electricity. That's awesome, but I'd like it to be closer to 98%. It will get there over time. My lifetime fuel economy is almost 600 MPG. Before my trip to Palm Coast, it was over 700 MPG. I'll be back there again soon.

This is how I know - let's look at one more screen:

When I can avoid using gasoline, just driving the way I normally do, with a little hyper-miling action and moderate use of the air system, I routinely get 1000+ MPG. This is how driving needs to be for all of us. This is the future of automobile technology.

Are there challenges and limitations? Of course there are. Will we, the smartest animals who have walked the earth thus far, overcome them? Of course we will. It is only a matter of time.

As an anniversary gift to me, my Volt has put me back in the top 100 on VoltStats - a position I've been trying to get back to since my trip back from Palm Coast on August 4.

Thank you Zippy! 

A New Record

As I approach the 3 month mark on my Volt ownership, I have to pause and reflect on all that has changed in my life - and the lives of those I love and live with.

Once you purchase a device that is intended to reduce your carbon footprint, you cannot help but start thinking of all the other nooks and crannies of your life where changes can be made... positive changes that will help and benefit you, your family, and your environment. The Volt is such a device. In fact, it's a very large device so the change is significant.

I've been enjoying my Netflix subscription to the maximum and in particular the documentaries that are available for streaming. I wake up in the morning 30-60 minutes before the rest of my family and this is, for me, prime docu-viewing time. One of the films I recently watched is Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a 57 minute 2013 film that took me to a midway Atoll and the horrors of over 50 years of plastic proliferation. Midway is the canary in the coal mine. We can only hope that society makes changes before it's too late but presently, few changes seem to be in sight.

In the days ahead, I am going to initiate a blog addressing our family's plastic reduction journey. And in the near distant future, we may be making a move to solar power for our home. Big changes lay ahead for your favorite Macons.

Back to the world of EVs...

I hit my all-time high yesterday in terms of miles per kWh. My screen showed 18.6 miles on 3.2 kWh, which is a high for me of 5.81 m/kWh. However, the light turned green as I was pulling out my phone to take a photo and I was compelled to move slightly, so this shot shows a lower m/Kwh of 5.67. You will all just have to trust that I would not have pulled out my phone for an average (for me) effficiency of 5.67. I also would only brag about an achievement I reached genuinely. 

I think I can beat this, however. I have heard tales of people topping 6.0 miles/kWh and I'm so close I can taste it. I'm not sure what else I can do in the dead of summer. I get my best efficiency in the mornings before the air temp tops 90 degrees. As you can see in the photo above, it was already 88 degrees outside and it was not yet 9am. Even thought I drive with the windows open (often minimally clothed - and more than one person has born witness to the sight of me struggling into a pair of leggings under my dress, because even though my Volt may be 88 degrees inside, my office is probably 65 degrees inside. So the dichotomy is severe, but I have adapted to the best of my abilities by dressing in layers and performing fits of an acrobatic nature in the front seat of a compact electric sedan.

I honestly don't think I look overly sweaty whilst driving in extreme temps. Here I am, yesterday, driving home from work in true 100 degree heat (not in the sun, not a heat index, and note that I'm wearing a short sleeve chunky-neck sweater).

Okay, my sleeves were rolled up as high as I could get them. But still.

Our faculty reported back to work yesterday, and already the charging stations are packed.

It's going to be a fun year! 

The Safest Ride on the Road

On the Volt Owners Group in Facebook, it is very common to see posts about car wrecks ranging from the fender bender to the totaling of a brand new Volt. Sometimes it seems as if every other day, someone's Volt is being painfully crushed, crunched, dented or otherwise defaced by a conflict with another vehicle, often a truck.

One of the most recent, and most compelling, of these stories shared on the owners groups was also featured at Inside EV's, an online magazine devoted to electric vehicles. Here is the article. Long story short, a Volt t-boned by a 14-wheeled truck driven by a distracted driver (5 bucks says he was texting) sees the driver walking away with minor injuries while the truck ended up on its side.

But this is not an isolated incident. Yesterday, there was this post.

The theme that runs through the reports is that the drivers walk away. The Volt may be totaled, but the human toll is relatively low. So I wonder... does this mean the Volt is safer than other cars?

Another theme worth mentioning is On-Star's five-star response to these incidents. On-Star is of course an expensive, optional service that new Volt owners get free for 3 years following purchase. I'll bet that after experiencing an accident where On-Star responds to the crash by contacting the driver in-cabin before the car has even come to a halt and the driver knows what happened, this becomes quite the required service in the eyes of the driver.

A look at Chevrolet's Volt product page gives this information about 75% of the way down a very long page.

Top Safety Rating

When it comes to safety, there’s no mistaking that Volt has raised the bar. The 2014 Volt received a 5-Star Overall Score for Safety from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.† This accolade speaks volumes.

Throughout the Volt interior, eight air bags† are hidden. StabiliTrak® Electronic Stability Control System with Traction Control also comes standard and is there to help keep your steering on course in case of adverse conditions.

Eight air bags and a five star safety rating... and this is not on the top 8 list of things Chevrolet wants you to know about the Volt. Is that because it's not important? No - it's because the other things they want you to know are just that much cooler.

US News ranks the 2015 Volt on its list of Best Cars.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety ranks the 2015 Volt as the top safety pick for compact cars.  We can only expect that the 2016, with all of it's sparkling new improvements for the second generation, will equal or top these results.

I don't usually choose a car based on safety as a top priority. I feel kind of icky saying that, like I've been making a serious mistake for over 25 years. I am a mother of three. How can I not be prioritizing safety for my babies when choosing a vehicle? But the truth is, features are more important to me because those are things I use and experience on a daily basis, whereas safety only becomes an issue when something bad happens. However, this time it looks like I've made a great safety choice coincidentally. Which is very nice indeed.

NDEW Orlando is Heating Up!

I've been quiet on the blog lately, chiefly because I was on vacation but also because I've been working heads-down on getting National Drive Electric Week - Orlando off the ground.

Today saw a great deal of progress. Here are some of the highlights.

• I now have volunteers! Three folks have signed up to help and they are working on different aspects of the event including getting food trucks there and marketing.
• I have a commitment from Nissan and hopefully one from GM, and I've reached out to four other automakers for participation.
• We have a commitment from Seminole State College to bring their electric conversion vehicle and help out at the event.
• I have several meetings scheduled with different folks who are helping to make this happen.
• Other "green" businesses are contacting us and committing to participate in the event such as Green Bank and Clean Cities Coalition.
• Attendance is soaring. We already have 30 people registered, and I haven't even really begun to advertise yet.

There is still so much to do, including:

• Work on getting Orlando to proclaim Sept. 12-20 "National Drive Electric Week Orlando". This is free, but I am working on contacting the right person. If you have any ideas, let me know.
• Media and press releases! I have a meeting about this tomorrow so hopefully this will be checked off my list soon.
• Signage - still not sure what to do about this.
• T-shirts - I need a sponsor. Want to buy about 20 staff members some shirts? Also, do you want to design it?

All in all, I think it's going to be well and even if we had to roll with just what we have today, this is going to be a better event than the non-event that was taking place before I signed up as City Captain. This work is quite invigorating and I've really enjoyed getting to know some folks in the local EV community. Very inspiring!

You can learn more about our event on our Facebook Event Page.

You can sign up to attend on the National Drive Electric Week event page for Orlando.

Hope to see you there!

Life's a Beach

And so my summer vacation comes to an end. My husband, two younger kids, and I just spent three nights in Pompano Beach. I did not see a single EV or charging station here but I was only looking half-heartedly. One of the reasons we vacation often in south Florida is because my aunt lives down this way in Delray Beach and my mom, recently widowed after over 45 years of marriage to my dad, enjoys spending a few days with her. Because we have to make the trip with five people and a lot of beach pariphenalia, we take Brian's Dodge Journey which is barely big enough to hold us/it all. 

I hadn't reallly realized until we pulled out of town just how accustomed my dear husband is to driving my Volt. Even though he takes his car to his work every day, that trip is only a few miles in each direction. When we go out as a family now, we take the Volt. It's an absolute thrill for both of us, as math people, to calculate how much money we did NOT spend on gas every time we go out in the Volt. While it's nice to have a seven seater vehicle for the occasions that warrant such a thing, the truth is, there are not all that many occasions that do so.

So it should not have been so funny to me, but it was, that Brian drives the Journey a little like he would be driving the Volt - slower than normal, with slow speed-ups and gradual slow-downs. It was pretty comical for the first 40 miles or so and then I think he got used to the gas guzzler again with all it's glory, and before long we were speeding at 85 degrees, cranking air conditioning and screeching to a halt when necessary.

Even though I have been on a pair two-night trips very recentlyl, one a weekend getaway with our family-of-four, one for work, the Volt was the trip vehicle both those times. In other words, this trip that we are currently heading home from now - have iPad with Blogger app, will blog and travel - is the first I've taken where the Volt has been left behind. I left Zippy with 55 miles of estimated EV range and decided after some deliberation to unplug him, as the changes of a lightning storm event are always high in Orlando. I'm glad I did, as it rained and stormed almost the whole time we were gone, at least according to my Facebook news posted by friends. Even though by all reports my EVSE and my Volt should both protect themselves from a lightning strike, I've read a big enough handful of posts on the Chevy Volt Owners Facebook group that would have one believe otherwise. 

I assume that Zippy needs to run the internal combustion engine occasionally to cool the battery. I noted that I had 3.0 gallons of gas left in my 9.3 gallon tank. Just  now, I viewed my Vehicle Status through my OnStar RemoteLink App. Here is what I see.

So certainly the engine has run as expected and a tenth of a gallon of gas has been burned on the quest to keeping my engine cool while Zippy is not plugged in. I am calling this experiment a success.  

Of course when we get home in a few hours after having lunch with my mom and aunt, I will plug Zippy back in for his long awaited electron snack. And all will be well in the universe again. Luckily my kids have karate tonight we the feel of electric propulsion will not be missed for much longer. 

My EV Spies are Everywhere

When things like this happen, it really warms my heart.

My friend Richard Leest, who I've known so long that I'm not sure if we met in first, second, or third grade, still lives on Long Island with his gorgeous wife Jessica and their adorable little boy Ethan. We keep in touch through Facebook, because we are part of a tight-knit group of friends from "back home" and because Ethan has a seizure disorder that we all want to help support research for and raise awareness of as much as possible.

The Leests are on a vacation at the Montauk Manor. When I googled it, this is what I read:

Once a regal Tudor revival hotel built in 1926, this upscale condo hotel is 6 minutes' walk from Montauk train station. It's 1.5 miles from Highway 27 and Ocean Beach and 6.6 miles from the Montauk Point Lighthouse.

Condos come as studios or as 1- to 3-bedroom units, and have kitchens and free WiFi. Several units have ocean views or outdoor decks/balconies.There's an Italian restaurant with a terrace. Other amenities include indoor and outdoor pools, as well as a hot tub, sauna and exercise room. A day spa, tennis courts and golf driving range are also available. A 2- or 3-night minimum stay might be required in summer.

So why am I writing about this in my Volt blog? Because Rich, who I really don't speak to that often, posted these pics on my Facebook with the comment "Charging spots at the Montauk Manor !!! Lol. You always have me thinking."

I thought that was awesome, because the Leests don't (yet) have an EV but they are noticing charging stations. All of the EV stuff I post is making a difference and getting some folks to notice things they would not have otherwise. And that's what it's all about. There have been other conversations generated from this blog, in my Facebook links to the posts. For example, my friend Jimmy (also from "back home" although we are both now in Florida) and I have discussed home solar installations, and many other folks have jumped in. I think we've all learned a lot from each other and I'm confident we will be seeing a lot of changes to come in the way we interact with power in the lives of our families.

Exciting times, indeed.

Damage Done

My trip back from Palm Coast yesterday went very smoothly, other than some bad rain leaving the coast that cleared up as I headed inland.

I'm actually quite pleased with my mileage. This is what I ended up with after driving straight to campus. Note that I held 6 battery miles on the highway to use when I exited near my office to attend Professor Andy Ray's bon voyage party before his sabbatical and then expertly running out of battery as I pulled into the parking lot at work with, gassing a couple of hundred feet to the charging station before one of our wonderful faculty members, Mahendra, drive us over to the party a few miles away.

Obviously the 14.5 kWh used is due to my having charged for almost 3 hours, as my battery only depleted 11.1 kWh at a time before showing empty. 

4.4 miles traveled per kWh is by far not my best - that being closer to 5.5 miles per kWh. But, given that around 35 of those miles were on the highway, I can't really complain. I also had to run the air through most of the highway route due to the rain, and that never helps.

I also got over 38 mpg using gasoline, and that was pure highway driving. Not bad when you consider that the generator does not perform its best on the highway as it is simply charging the battery and the electric engine performs best in stop-and-go traffic. On city streets, I would have gotten well over 40mpg - probably closer to 42.

The combined mpg of 88.4 for a trip that was a little more than half made on battery power is enticing to any driver, I should hope.

All of this is well and good, but traveling on gasoline is never going to help one's ranking on VoltStats.

Remember that the day I left town I was at #78 on the leaderboard with an average mpg of 758-ish. Now I've dropped almost 80 places with an mpg well under 500. I'm going to utilize this as a challenge to drive NOTHING but battery miles until I can return to my former glory, such as it was, and surpass the top-75 mark to boot.

Next road trip is next week - and we are taking the hubby's gas-guzzler. Not because I'm crazy when it comes to my Volt (although I'm not arguing that point) - but because we need to haul 5 people and beach supplies down the southeastern coastline of Florida, and the Volt is only a four seater.

Oh How The Mighty Have Fallen

All things considered, I am quite pleased with my Volt's performance on the journey yesterday from Orlando to Palm Coast. The 99 mile trip took one hour and fifty minutes, largely due to a terrible accident on I-95 that slowed me down at least 10 to 15 minutes, and of course I was much happier to be stuck in the traffic rather than in the accident itself.

I used up my battery miles rather quickly. I started out with 52 miles on the guess-o-meter and blew through 44 of them on the first 33 miles on the road. This was because I was traveling on SR-417, otherwise known as "The Greenway", where the speed limit is 70MPH and although I was lucky enough to catch the draft of a large red semi in the right lane traveling at around 62-65 miles per hour, that kind of speed is going to eat electrons the way Pac Man devours those little while dots.

With 8 miles left on the guess-o-meter, I switched into Hold mode and traveled the next 45 miles on gasoline. When my screen switched over, my guess-o-meter for the gasoline in my tank showed 188 miles of fuel left. I drove on gas the way I drive on battery power - slow and steady, using the same hypermiling techniques of employing regenereative braking when possible, not running my air, and coasting as much as possilble. Because the gas engine serves as a battery regenerator and not an actual powertrain engine, this seemed to work very well. I pulled off the highway showing 153 miles on the gas-o-meter and switched back to battery, calculating that I could travel the remaining 10 miles with the 8 miles of battery power I had left. 

I actually did quite a bit better than that, and when I parked my car in front of the power outlet on the lower level of the Hammock Beach parking garage, I still had 3 miles of battery power left. I'm still kicking myself about that a little bit because of course I'd rather have coasted into my parking spot as my battery depleted, but no alas - I will survive.

I did take quite a hit on Voltstats. Considering I had been at #78 on the leaderboard the morning I left Orlando, I have taken quite a dip as of this morning, and all my stats have skewed due to the 45 miles driven on gasoline.

There I am at #121. Considering my trip home will be very similar, I expect to dip even further and see my EV% get precariously close to only 90%. Fortunately, I have no road trip plans in my immediate future, so I should be able to mitigate this damage in just a month or two.

This graph doesn't look too bad - only a slight surge in the unsightly blue region indicating gasoline usage.

Again, as I continue to drive the majority of miles on battery, that blue should shrink even further.

Now, as far as charging goes, I had a very interesting experience here at Hammock Beach. On a positive note, when I pulled up at the valet and explained my situation - I have a Volt, it needs to charge, yada yada, I was met with great enthusiasm on the part of the valet to be helpful, and he directed me to the lower level of the garage where I could plug my EVSE into a wall outlet and charge as long as needed. This I did, setting up my EVSE inside my car, passing the charge adaptor as well as a long extension cord through the window, and plugging the extension cord into the outlet and the adaptor into the charge port of my Volt. 

I took this photo before I straightened out my extension cord and removed the kinks from the line, but this I assure you, I did.

Now, here's the weird part - my car charged very slowly. By this, I mean it took 23 hours to go from 3 miles to 48 on the guess-o-meter. I'm sure this was due to several factors, but the two I think I can point to most readily are:

1. The long extension cord. I think it's 50 feet. For sure it took much longer than usual for the charge to start and this would be due to the path of the current from the wall.

2. There were several other plugs, as you can see, in the outlet, charging various battery packs for the workers at the resort.

The good news is, even though something was limiting the charging speed, my EVSE was able to negotiate a charge rate with the electric power from the wall that was safe for both the outlet and the Volt. It's not like I'm going anywhere until tomorrow. And this was one of the few free charging opportunities I've had, so that was a bonus as well.

Tomorrow I'll be heading home and then - back to my regularly scheduled Volt Life.

99 Miles

I'm going to gaze at these stats for a while today, since they are all about to change for the worse.

Tomorrow I will be driving 99 miles to get to Palm Coast for a team retreat for my job. I'm very excited about the retreat. I know we will all be working hard on planning for the upcoming academic year, but I love to work hard - especially without distractions - and the work needs to get done.

In order to get there, I'll need to use about 50 miles worth of gas. In other words, a little more than a gallon. Actually given that I'm probably going to take the highway (riding in the right lane doing 55, but the highway nonetheless as it is by far the most direct route), I might not get a full 50 miles out of my charge. My plan is to run on electric until I have about 8 miles left and then run on gasoline by putting my Volt in Hold mode. This will allow me to switch back on battery once I exit I-95 close to my destination so that I can maximize the battery on the few miles of country road I'll be taking to reach my final destination.

I'll probably need to use 1-2 gallons of gasoline to get there. I know this does not sound like much to those of you who drive gasoline powered cars. But I have not used any gasoline for over 897 miles of driving, so it's mildly upsetting. I'm sure I'll recover.

I have spoken to the concierge at Hammock Beach Resort where I will be staying. She assures me that I'll be able to plug my Volt in using my own EVSE and promised that if I call in the morning when I leave, she will block off a spot for me.  This is great news, especially given a recent negative experience we had at Cabana Bay Resort at Universal Orlando.

While staying there with Brian for his Alumni Board retreat, not only was Cabana Bay ill-prepared for guests with electric cars - they were unwilling to block off a parking spot for us, even though we called ahead. The concierge there was happy to inform me that if I were to valet park at the theme park, for $15 dollars since I'm a Preferred Annual Passholder, I could charge there.

No thanks. Part of the thrill for the kids of staying at Cabana Bay is to take the BUS to the theme park.

I'll be at Hammock Beach for two nights, and then I'll be making the same trip again, in reverse.  So I'll have used 2-4 gallons of gasoline by the time I return home. On the plus side, that will just about empty my tank of the swill that I left the dealership with in my tank. Next stop - a gas station that serves up ethanol-free top-tier 91 octane gasoline. If you're a Volt - that's yummy stuff.