![]() ![]() With the Prius, Toyota goes so far as to offer adaptive cruise control. Despite their small size and modest price (compared to a Maserati, at least), owners want some of the accoutrements of higher-end vehicles. Remote Link also does many of the usual tricks of telematics services: locate your car, remotely unlock the doors, check diagnostics issues. The most useful tool is late at night, checking to ensure the car is plugged in and charging, or scheduled to charge. You can also do the same thing from any web browser. Remote Link runs on iPhone, Android, and Blackberry phones (some, not all). If you subscribe to the OnStar telematics service, you get access to an enhanced version of the Remote Link service that lets you monitor battery recharging remotely, or even defer charging until later in the evening when rates may be cheaper. Remote Link: Smartphone app that’s useful When the battery runs out of juice, the Volt is good another 300-plus miles on gasoline, and another 300 after that when you pump in a few minutes of gasoline. Unlike the Tesla-New York Times flap over range of the electric Tesla Model S, it just doesn’t matter here. Based on the 29 miles I drove using 11 kWh and a battery capacity of 16 kWh, 38 seems reasonable. From the comparative energy usage, you can see that energy costs under gasoline power are four to five times higher per mile driven, comparing typical gasoline and electricity costs: 0.3 gallons at $3.75 a gallon to go five miles including some idling in heavy traffic 11 kWh at 12 cents a kilowatt hour to go 29 miles.Ĭhevy says the Volt goes 38 miles on battery power in 2013, up from 35. At the completion of a trip from suburban New Jersey into Manhattan, I covered 29 miles on battery power, using about $1.35 in electricity, drove another five miles on gasoline (it dropped below freezing) that cost about $1.10 and - this is why New York living is so bad - another $13 in tolls. In a week of urban-suburban driving, our Volt ran almost exclusively on battery power, once firing up the engine midway though a 60-mile trip, and several other times when temperatures fell below freezing. That night, you plug the car into 120 volts and it recharges overnight (or in four hours on 240 volts). When the battery runs low, a four-cylinder gas engine kicks in to drive you another 300 or so miles off the 11-gallon gas tank. GM engineers reworked the Volt chemistry to net about 3% more power. Hybrids such as the Toyota Prius are good for a mile or two on battery. The Volt is a plug-in hybrid, meaning it runs for about an hour (38 miles, per GM’s calculations) on on the 5.5-foot (1.6M), 435-pound (198kg) lithium-ion battery that runs fore-and-aft through the center of the car. Yet, as a commuter car or for driving around town, it’s genuinely thrifty on a cost-per-mile basis. Two big hassles remain: What competes on size and performance with a half-dozen capable $20,000 compacts runs on the high side of $30,000 even after government rebates, and when you get home, you need to spend a minute or two every night to plug in to the electric outlet. ![]() For people who do mostly urban and commuter driving, you may only stop for gasoline once a month in a Volt - and in several states, the Volt qualifies for HOV status with only the driver aboard. It’s also not the only plug-in on the block any more. This despite a constant stream of improvements, some cool smartphone apps, and a bit more range for the 2013 model. The Chevrolet Volt that stopped people in their tracks in late 2010 now elicits fewer sideways glances.
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