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Volt premium gas only

Discussion in 'Chevrolet Volt' started by alfon, Oct 21, 2010.

  1. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    If you're a car company who's goal is to sell cars, which market would you target your new hybrid to?

    The BAV (big nice person van) I traded in for my prius "required" premium. I never put one drop of high octane in it the whole time of ownership: 100% regular, no problems.
     
  2. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    BTW, 2010 Prius runs on 87 Octane gas. There was an error in the manual but they fixed it.
     
  3. Skoorbmax

    Skoorbmax Senior Member

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    What engine maint is required beyond regular oil changes?
     
  4. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Yeah but that's why you bought a Volt and not a Leaf, right? It's to cover all the "just in cases" (like getting a 7-pass SUV just in case you have the ferry the in-laws...).

    I think emptying it once a year isn't bad in the grand scheme of things (We empty the Prius' tanks every 500-800 miles, right?). We can only hope that the tank isn't emptied wastefully.
     
  5. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    If the gas engine never runs in 6 weeks, the light will come on to remind the driver to use the gas engine. If the driver fails to do it, the car will automatically run the gas engine. I guess it is done to maintain proper lubrication.
     
  6. Skoorbmax

    Skoorbmax Senior Member

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    I guess if that's hands-off, though, it's not so bad...
     
  7. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    This likely the main reason for it. Gasoline will go bad. One of the things that happens to it is that the octane rating drops. If a potential owner is able to go without using gasoline for a year, the gas in the tank could have dropped 10 points in octane. Even with responsive timing, an engine might have a problem running 77 octane. Starting with premium gives an edge in shelf life there.

    Oil companies also tend to put better detergents in their premium gas. In some areas, the premium may be ethanol free. Which may help with keeping the gas fresh. It will also give better mileage, compared to an ethanol blend.

    Premium gas is not that expensive. We are talking about $2 more a fill up. So you order off the value menu instead of going for your usual big mac. Big whoop. Oh wait, unless you aren't plugging the thing, you'll be burning less total gallons of fuel than any car available now.

    I used 5 gals of regular a week in my Prius on my commute. In a Volt, I'd only be using 4 gals of premium, considering an electric range of 30 miles. The Volt has a knock sensor. For those who would be filling in regularly, like once a month, you can safely use regular in it. Now, if the engine is tuned for premium, better mileage is likely on it. Not exceptionally better. It would probably work out costing the same to go a mile on regular and premium.

    How do you figure that? The current assumption is 36mpg. When a new car, in any segment, gets 40mpg, in any test cycle, is a remarkable achievement. The EPA has yet to rate it, and CARB, unless I'm misremembering here, gave it ULEV.

    Nothing. Because of the reality of gasoline shelf-life, the engine will fire up at intervals to use the gasoline before it gets to old. It is also to circulate the oil and other fluids. Which is probably the main reason for firing up the engine.
     
  8. Skoorbmax

    Skoorbmax Senior Member

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    I thought I'd actually break down the Volt in our use vs a Gen 3 Prius:

    22k/year, 18k commute-type situation, 4k long road trips.
    $3 gas @ 87; $3.20 @ 91
    Assume $1 in electricity for 100 miles of EV

    Volt
    18k broken down to 49 commute-type miles/day
    35 miles EV: $.35 electricity
    14 gas @ 35 mpg: $1.28
    = $1.63 per 49 mile increment = $599 fuel costs for 18k

    add 4k at gas = $366 for the 4k road-trips
    Grand Total
    $965

    Prius
    Assume 47 mpg average over 22k (city + hwy and account for positive-bias
    in trip consumption of ~4-5%) on 87 octane
    Grand Total
    $1404

    Heck, I'll throw in a
    Leaf
    18k miles could be done entirely electric at assumed cost of $1/100 miles.
    $180 fuel costs for 18k

    add 4k at gas = $366 for the 4k road-trips (have to take the Prius, obviously!)

    Grand Total
    $546

    I think my numbers are pretty fair. They assume 35 mile EV for Volt and 35 mpg once it's on gas-only mode.
     
  9. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    Yeah, they are the master of selling "just in case" products. That worked for SUV market but I don't think it will work for the green market.

    It won't be bad if the emission and consumption is on par with Prius or even other hybrids. It is especially bad for an electric car (as how they are marketing it)!

    Some of the Volt's tailpipe emission are 20x more than Prius. That's not including emission from the other tailpipe (electric plant chimney). If you add everything up, the end result is not a green car. However, Volt is much less dependent on petroleum. Energy independence is not equal to green. Green means low carbon foot print. Volt uses other form of fossil fuel (with carbon) in the electricity.

    Prius specializes running on one fuel and it is extremely good at it. It does not need to be plugged in and it never uses electricity from the grid. However, Volt can use multiple sources so just focusing on petroleum use is shortsighted (just making general statement).

    An opposite extreme example would sound like this. Prius is superior to the Volt because it does not run on coal. Focusing on one form of energy is just silly when dealing with multiple sources.

    If Prius runs on gas for the first 40 miles and then use coal for the remaining 300 miles, how would you feel about it? You can not ignore the fact that the range extender is running on coal.

    You can't downplay the Volt's gas engine because it is supposed to be the biggest selling point over pure EV (Leaf). The plus and negative comes together and each can't be cherry picked. If the Volt's owner so rarely use the gas engine, why even have it? The opposite extreme case is where the owner use the gas engine often. Volt does not make sense for both cases.

    Volt make sense to those that drives around 40 miles round trip. Any more or any less would be bad with the Volt. Guess how many percent of all the commute are around 40 miles round trip? 10%. 90% of us drive outside the 32-40 mile round trips.
     
  10. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Yeah I see what you mean.. I was gonna say "well it's only bad when you run it" then I forget about the 300 mile range...
     
  11. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    I know it's a throw in, but with the Leaf you might have up to a mile walk to get home on the commute. Likely during winter.
     
  12. Skoorbmax

    Skoorbmax Senior Member

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    heh. Actually the 49 is total for a day, not one way :)
     
  13. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    I understood that. One statement from Nissan gave a worse case range on around 47 miles for the leaf. I suspect you have your fair share of inclines, and winters worse than me. So you might see more of that extreme range.