Does a Chevy Volt makes sense for mostly medium-distance travel?

I may be appliance shopping really soon, and one car that intrigues me is the Volt (not Bolt, that's not going to work for me). I know we have a few ex-Volt owners on here that really liked the car, too.

Anyway, my impression is that the Volt makes a lot of sense if you have a) a reasonably fast charger in your garage and b) mostly take journeys shorter than its battery range.

a) might be an issue, although I know I have 240V in the shop building. Right now I have to assume that initially, I'd only be able to use 120V for charging.

b) is definitely an issue as my usual trip length due to our location is probably 50+ miles, plus I tend to drive to the airport a lot and the charging stations at least at Dulles tend to be fully occupied.

In the circumstances above, does it even make sense to consider a Volt or does that get tossed off the list immediately?

50 miles a day is no deal breaker, and charging a Volt at 110v overnight should suit you fine.  I think the total cost of ownership on a used Volt is pretty low, too, which is another plus. If you do get serious about plug-in hybrids, go drive a Volt back to back with a used i3 REX. The BMW is a super polarizing alternative, but the people who like them love them.

Just to clarify - this is 50 miles per trip on average, and sometimes there is more than one trip a day.

The other, important trips tend to be on the 200 mile round trip scale from here to BWI or Dulles.

I do kinda like the looks of the i3, but one of the big advantages of the Volt over the Prius plugin and the i3 is that they seem to be severely discounted around here. At least the i3 doesn't seem to attract any discounts or lease deals at all.

Edit: This information is wrong. I'm describing a Bolt, not a Volt.

 I have a friend who commutes from San Francisco to Davis - 75 miles each way, sometimes in hot weather (air conditioning drain). The Volt is perfect as it'll easily do the round trip on a charge (220Volt). He loves the car. The Prius is up for sale. 

In reply to Kreb :

Wow, didn't realise it had that kind of electric range - I thought the Volt only had something 30-40 mile range like most plug in hybrids.

Volt can manage regular trips no problem (from what I hear from people I talk to - I want one of these as well). The gas engine will kick on and keep the batteries running. One of the guys I know who owned a first gen, then got a 2nd gen, loved his because he could get to/from work on charge only, but could take long road trips to visit family too without having to stop and charge.

From a quick google search it looks like the Volt has a 50mi pure electric range which can be extended to 420mi with a full tank of gas. 

Shouldn't deter you at all. If you're driving more than the electric range, or forget to charge it up it's still a hybrid that will get 40+mpg. So couple that with the all electric range and 80+mpge is easy. IF you get a 210 charger at some point, that would only benefit you by increasing charge speed, giving you more range for multi-trip days. Basically, the fully electric range is a bonus whenever you can get it. And when you can't, it's still very Prius like.

My Fusion Energi (PHEV) has a shorter electric range than the Volt (20 miles), but it charges fully in less than 8 hours overnight on 110v. The lifetime vehicle fuel economy is about 79mpg and climbing now that the warmer weather is here. I drive about 50 miles/day and typically get about 900 miles/tank if I charge it every night, which works out to filling up about once/month.

If you drive a Volt past its battery range it just becomes a perfectly good hybrid. If you want a hybrid and like the Volt, there is no real downside. The only thing i would say qualifies as a ding against using a Volt as a hybrid all the time is that a Prius of similar year will get ~10 more mpg. But that's picking nits when you're already getting 40mpg and if you use any battery range at all the Volt would still probably have lower fuel cost over ~50 mile trips since some of it would be gas-free. 

Only the newest Volt will run on 87, correct?  The earlier ones require premium, so that chips away significantly at fuel savings when being run as a hybrid.  My commute is 60 miles each way and I've considered the Volt, but the premium fuel part takes some of the intruige out.

On Electric only? I thought the volt only had a 35mile all electric range? 

In reply to BoxheadTim :

Post 2015? Volt  went from 35 max miles to 50.  Then under gas the gas mileage is more than decent  fuel mileage. 

In reply to Jaynen :

1st gen, up to 2015, had 38 miles of electric range, required premium unleaded, and could only seat 4

2nd gen 2016+ got a bump in electric range to 53 miles, run on regular unleaded, and have a full rear bench seat.

With regen braking and the right environment/topography that electric range can probably be extended

We're talking 2nd gen here - there are some dealers in the DC area that have discounted 2018/19 Volts that are essentially the price of a mid-level ND Miata. Whatever I get I'm looking at new with a warranty.

OTOH there's also a dealer that has several Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Packs in the One True Colour[1] at essentially a 25% discount.

[1] As black as Ozzy's soul.

BoxheadTim said:

In reply to Kreb :

Wow, didn't realise it had that kind of electric range - I thought the Volt only had something 30-40 mile range like most plug in hybrids.

It's not so much a "plug in hybrid" as much as it is an EV with a gasoline-powered range extender.

The trainer who runs the AC/DC "Up Your Voltage" classes did a three day seminar here in Cleveland and he drove his Volt here, from Massachusetts, in a very cold time of the winter.

Knurled. said:

BoxheadTim said:

In reply to Kreb :

Wow, didn't realise it had that kind of electric range - I thought the Volt only had something 30-40 mile range like most plug in hybrids.

It's not so much a "plug in hybrid" as much as it is an EV with a gasoline-powered range extender.

 

Yeah, "plug-in hybrid" is a common misconception on these. At no point is the engine ever directly turning the wheels.

I will say, GM really did their homework when they built the Volt. I always say the when GM builds a good car, they build a good car but when they build a bad car, they build a bad car. In the years since the Volt came out, most of the time they come into the shop its usually just for maintenance or infotainment bugs. Very rarely does it have anything to do with the drivetrain.

NickD said:

Yeah, "plug-in hybrid" is a common misconception on these. At no point is the engine ever directly turning the wheels.

That seems to be the case for most of my cars.

Sorry, just couldn't help it.

...Sort of.  In the Gen 1 Volt, "the engine is used to partially drive the wheels when the car calculates that it will be a more efficient use of the engine's power." That disclosure lead to some public outcry before the car's release because people questioned whether it deserved to receive the EV tax credits that other hybrids didn't receive.

As part of your consideration, also consider, based on my experience with the i3, that your electric range will drop by about 20% at cold temperatures-- though you're cold temperatures may not be quite the same as I deal with in Iowa.

I can say that the i3 ran through indicated temperatures of -37F this winter though!

In reply to nderwater :

That is how I remembered it as well. That is really is a plug in hybrid, but marketed as an EV with a range extender ICE that can recharge the batteries while you drive, and then sometimes also powers the wheels.

The link you posted is funny. I guess since my Miata has a clutch and a transmission, I could say that the engineer at no point directly drives the wheels and be just as correct as the Volt engineer when he said the engine never directly powers the wheels because it goes through gears first. The part I didn't realize when this was news years ago that it all boiled down to the fact that EVs get tax credits that hybrids don't.

We have a 2012 Volt (1st gen) that we regularly use for all lengths of trips. On long trips, running mostly on dead dinosaurs, we still get decent mileage - not as good as a Prius perhaps, but better than my 2011 Fit did on the same trips. One thing to bear in mind with any kind of hybrid is that driving using the regen as brakes will significantly extent your range. For the kind of use you're proposing, why not look at a used Volt? They depreciate quite strongly, but there's no real evidence of battery degradation until long after the rest of the car is wearing out anyway. A guy in Michigan has put >400,000 miles on his, with the battery still going strong. High Mileage Volt

Our experience after 3 years is that there's no cheaper way to run a car.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I'm an idiot who can't tell the difference between Volt and Bolt.

Vigo said:

If you drive a Volt past its battery range it just becomes a perfectly good hybrid. If you want a hybrid and like the Volt, there is no real downside. The only thing i would say qualifies as a ding against using a Volt as a hybrid all the time is that a Prius of similar year will get ~10 more mpg. But that's picking nits when you're already getting 40mph and if you use any battery range at all the Volt would still probably have lower fuel cost over ~50 mile trips since some of it would be gas-free. 

To put some real numbers here, assuming that the Volt is 40MPG and the Prius is 50MPG, and that both use the same gas at $3.29 per gallon, going from 40 to 50MPG is only $329 over 20,000 miles. As you said, picking nits. If you can get even half the way on a charge, and you consider that to be "free" (I know it isn't, but pretend it is), then it reverses to a savings of $494 going with the Volt vs the Prius, again over 20k miles

In reply to mtn :

Meanwhile, some of us want the skunk stripes on their Camaro even though it is a $500 option and does nothing at all.

Sounds like the difference is so minor that it comes down to which one you prefer to drive.

To put some real numbers here, assuming that the Volt is 40MPG and the Prius is 50MPG, and that both use the same gas at $3.29 per gallon, going from 40 to 50MPG is only $329 over 20,000 miles. As you said, picking nits. If you can get even half the way on a charge, and you consider that to be "free" (I know it isn't, but pretend it is), then it reverses to a savings of $494 going with the Volt vs the Prius, again over 20k miles

I'm with you. I dont think the Prius wins that battle until you drive a lot further than 50 miles.

why not look at a used Volt? They depreciate quite strongly,

That's not exactly true. They were $15k in 2013 when the first leases ended and they're $15k now.  It may be true that they depreciate rapidly from new sales price, but the  bottom of the market has not moved much in the past 6 years, to my slight chagrin. So, i guess it depends on how used you're talking.