Charging the Chevy Volt, Free (No Fooling)

Credit card in hand, I pulled up to a double charging station in Rochester Hills one day last week. Usually I have to run my credit card through a card reader, choose how many hours or kilowatts the car needs, and plug in my Chevy Volt.

Lo and behold, this station, sponsored by Detroit Edison, is free. When I returned to get my car, another Volt was beside mine, also charging, at the free station.

I picked up 29 miles of range, just from three hours of charge. In a way, that's like getting almost a gallon of gas free.

Now there are not a lot of plug in electric vehicles (PEVs) on the road yet. And the cost of such a car is high for those of us who are "early adopters." So, it is a pleasant surprise to have a free charge when I stop at this particular parking lot (corner of Adams and Walton Boulevard, west side of Villages at Rochester Hills).

Thanks, Detroit Edison, for providing the charging platform for electric vehicles. I know it's only one place, but it is good to see times changing in the automotive world. No fooling.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Chevy Volt: Less Knitting, More Driving

Tuesday morning, April 24, 2012 --  33 miles EV range from overnight charge
7041 total miles on WJ's Chevy Volt

I hit the 7000 mile mark this week in my Viridian Joule 2012 Chevy Volt and I can say that this is truly a fun car to drive.

We took the Volt on several long trips recently, driving from home in Huron County, Michigan (100 miles north of Detroit) to Dayton Ohio, and then another trip to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. I drove a great share of the miles on both trips. Between the sport mode (I love it) and the navigation system (I'm still getting used to the multitude of features) and OnStar guidance (I appreciate the helpful service and pleasant staff), the Volt makes for compelling hour after hour, day after day driving.

Now, here's how I know this to be true. On long trips I usually ride shotgun because I can get a lot of knitting done in a day's drive time. Well, thanks to the Volt, I'm driving more and knitting less.

Lifetime MPG is 52.7

My lifetime miles per gallon figure is at 52.7. That's low for most Volt drivers. I charge my vehicle whenever I can, but I drive it whether it is charged up or not. No range anxiety here. This baby is my car, not some high tech toy. Would I buy another Volt? Yep. Or I would lease one. Either way, I would continue to drive The Volt.

One more story. I pulled into the gas station at the corner of M-142 and M-19, east of Bad Axe, one cold day in March. The Volt needed some gas. A guy with a pickup (I didn't say large) was kind of hunkered down, trying to stay warm while pumping fuel into his truck. I pulled up. Did the credit card song and dance, started fueling, finished fueling, pulled the receipt, and updated my trip meters and log book. When I pulled away, he was still pumping gas into that pickup truck.

That used to be me with my Big Buick Rainier -- doing the I'm-cold-and wish-this-pump-would-hurry-up-dance as gallons flowed into my SUV. Enough said.


Previous Chevy Volt posts

Michigan Runs Deep
Chevy Volt: First 60 Mile EV Day
When I'm Sixty Four
Volt Update: 41 Miles on a Cold Night
Second Tank
Charging the Volts
Enough Said
My Volt (And More) on YouTube
Volt Goes Christmas Shopping
Volt Day Two
New Era in Huron County
Album: Cruisin' With the Chevy Volt
50 Volts















Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Michigan Runs Deep

A queue at the Mackinac Bridge Toll Plaza is a small but sure sign of the recovering economy in Michigan.  There have been times in the last few years when we've driven over the bridge with nary a wait in line to pay the toll.

The Republicans will credit present Governor Rick Snyder with the jobs rebound. Democrats will want a share of the prize since energy policies put in place during former Governor Jennifer Granholm's years are bearing fruit.

I can say that driving a made-in-Michigan, dreamed-up-in-Michigan and backed-by-Michigan Chevy Volt plug-in electric vehicle over the Big Mac Bridge yesterday was a satisfying and thrilling experience. As a little kid growing up in Wisconsin, I heard my grandmother, Rose Luedtke, talk about a big bridge that they were going to build in Michigan. She considered it a wonder of the modern world and wanted to go see that bridge in the worst way. One of the charms on my childhood silver bracelet is the shield of Michigan, brought home for me on Grandma's trip to the bridge.

Grandma Rose would be proud of her granddaughter and the plug-in Chevy, motoring over to the farm in Wisconsin to see her son-in-law, Stan, for his 91st birthday.

Family runs deep. So does the economy in Michigan. And Chevy.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Chevy Volt: First 60 Mile EV Day

Just had the first sixty mile day on battery only in my Chevy Volt. It happened yesterday which was very warm and balmy for the first day of spring in Huron County, Michigan. First I drove most of the way across the county -- from south of Harbor Beach to Pigeon. The driver information screen (above) showed 41.4 EV (Electric Vehicle) miles and just one tenth of a mile on gas.

I was pretty excited about hitting the 40 mile mark. I cruised into McCormick Motors and rounded up my sales rep, Marion Shetler, just to let him know that the Volt made the 40 mile mark on battery power. At 1:12 pm, I arrived at my office and plugged the Volt in to a 120 outlet for the afternoon.

My daughter, also a Volt owner, let me know late that afternoon that her Volt had hit 60 EV miles for the day. She plugged her car into a charging station when she arrived at her day's destination and picked up extra charge.

"Wow," I thought. "Now I have a new goal. A 60 mile day!"

I unplugged the Volt around 6 pm and saw another 14 or so miles accumulated via the 120 charge during the afternoon. I did the quick math (14 plus 41.4 plus some regen miles = 60!) and planned to take the Volt to Bad Axe (our county seat) for a quick supper.





Back from supper and plugging in, the screen above showed the day's travel via the plug-in Chevy Volt. I drove a total of 79.1 miles. 60.5 were EV miles; 18.6 were gas miles and, yes, the day's miles per gallon registered 155 mpg. With gas ranging in price from $3.89 to $3.99 a gallon in the county, that's pretty impressive.

More importantly, a whole lot of carbon emission is NOT going into the air when I drive the Volt on electric. And, might I add, part of my travel yesterday was driving through the Harvest Wind Farm near Elkton where 32 wind turbines are producing electric power for the grid here in Michigan.

It's pretty cool to be a part of green energy here in Michigan.

More Volt posts:
Volt video by Clark Ramsey
Driving in Cold Weather
Second Tank


Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

When I'm Sixty Four

Hey, Willow Blog readers, thought I would look back at you today. Thanks so much for looking in on me and my world via the blog. So, here's me, looking at you, on my birthday.

I'm thinking, gee, how lucky and blessed can one person get to be?

Children, so dear to me, and such great people. How could I have raised adults like that!?

Grandkids whom I miss daily. How can they wheedle their way into one's heart so completely?

My family who love me. Sisters and sisters-in-law, the ladies of the clan. Brother (just Tim) and brothers-in-law, the great guys.

The nieces, the nephews. Their kids. What a gang we all are together on both sides of the family.

And the uncles and aunts! They are my Facebook buddies and email correspondents.

A husband who is my treasured friend and companion and whom I love dearly.

My Dad who will soon turn 91 and looks forward to these posts every day (and reads them on a tablet, nonetheless! Take that technology buffs.)

My Mom-in-law who is always so glad to see me, even for a short visit.

All the friends, new, old and inbetween, who encourage and cheer and sometimes, admonish me.

Oh, I could go on and on in my sentimental, birthday listing mood. Good food, an incredible country to live in, soft yarn, colorful fabrics, our gardens, my roses, my Chevy Volt (I know I shouldn't love a car, but I sure like this one), my golf game, the lake, the farm, the desert, sunrises, sunsets, books, my Kindles (yep, plural Kindles), writing to do, this blog.

Yep, life is good at sixty four.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Volt Update: 41 Miles on a Cold Night

On a cold night last Saturday, Ed and I drove down the shoreline to Port Sanilac to have supper at the Van Camp House. It was the Chevy Volt's first trip to Chef Andy Fabian's delightful dining spot.

The optimum temperature for the Volt's battery to operate at is 70 degrees. Looking at the display above tells you that we were driving far below that level (it was fifteen above when we got back from dinner), yet the Volt performed spectacularly. We started out with 28 miles on the battery and actually used .3 of a mile more than that, thanks to the regenerative braking that adds power when the car slows or the brakes are applied.

When first starting out in the cold, the gas generator can override the battery power in order to keep the battery fluids warm enough. That happened several times on our trip down to Port Sanilac. The Volt would run on gas for a half mile or so, and then switch back to battery power.

Considering that I have to keep my camera in a warm pocket so that the battery stays active, the Volt's big 400 pound lithium ion battery really performs well in the winter cold. Come summer, I can look forward to overnight charging that will approach 35-40 miles per charge. Now, in the cold winter, the Volt is doing very well, thank you!


Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Second Tank

OnStar RemoteLink as seen on Droid smartphone

I put a second tank of gas in my Chevy Volt yesterday afternoon. Started out from Cedar Bluff and drove over to Ruth to the Cooperative Elevator's fuel terminal. They don't have premium gas at the Ruth location (they sell E-85, though) so I couldn't fill up there.

I continued on to the Citgo station in Harbor Beach and put 6.9 gallons in the tank. My Buick Rainier used to take 16-18 gallons for a fill up, so it is really different to run my credit card, push the buttons, insert the nozzle and be done in a jiffy.

The funny part about the drive (about a 25 mile round trip) was that I was on electric power most of the way. So I drove away from the pumps at the gas station on EV power. Quietly drove away, I might add.

Alec McCormick who is on the sales staff at McCormick Motors in Pigeon asked me this week if I had driven my Volt in sport mode yet. Volts have three driving modes -- normal, sport, mountain. Each mode draws on a different configuration for powering the car. Alec is really impressed with the snap of the sport mode.

So, I tried sport out as I drove home from getting gas. Wow! I might want to drive this car more in this energetic, quick pick up and get going mode.


Total miles on the Volt so far: 1046

EV (electric vehicle) miles: 507



Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Charging The Volts

 

Here's a sight you won't see very often! Liesl's red 2011 Volt is plugged in right next to my viridian green 2012 Volt that's already charged. Lee has 7,000 plus miles on her car which she has been driving since March.

And here are the Volt mamas -- like daughter, like mother (Liesl bought her Volt first).

Enough Said

I pumped gas into my Chevy Volt at the Village Qwik Stop in Pigeon for the first time last night. Ed handled the camera and documented the occasion. Premium gas cost $3.559 per gallon. Yes, the Volt takes premium. The first tank cost $23.33 and measured 6.5 gallons. The odometer read 509 miles.

The last tank of gas that I put in my Buick Rainier was on November 28, also at the Qwik Stop. Regular gas cost $3.359. I put in 17.25 gallons for a total cost of $57.96. The Ranier had travelled 333 miles on one tank.

Enough said.

Photo by Ed Eichler

My Volt (And More) On YouTube

RKE (Remote Keyless Entry) and 2012 Volt Owner's Manual

My Volt is on You Tube! Clark Ramsey of WLEW radio in Bad Axe, Michigan did a video story about my Volt being the first one sold in Huron County. Posted on the WLEW YouTube site, the story features Dave McCormick of McCormick Motors as well as Marion Shetler and Alec McCormick, sales representatives at the dealership.

Marion is McCormick's Volt trained sales rep and he has been as enthused about this car as I have. Alec maintains the McCormick social media page (on Facebook) so he's been in on lots of conversations about the Volt and about the forums that I've been reading in preparation for driving a Volt.

Clark's story is one of the first video stories posted through WLEW's Thumbnet.net website. I keep up with WLEW's news through Twitter since Clark tweets most of the major area news both morning and night.

Now, if all of this seems like it is something new, that's because it is. WLEW has entered the digital age through both a website and Twitter. McCormick's sold the first PEV (plug in electric vehicle) in Huron County and all of this is news on social media, including YouTube and Facebook.

Pretty good for our very rural home, Huron County, population 34,000. Thanks, Clark. Thanks, Dave and Alec. Thanks, Marion. It's good to be a part of something new.

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler



Volt Goes Christmas Shopping

Ed and I headed down to the city to do some Christmas shopping on Sunday afternoon. Here's a glimpse of me in the driver's seat of my new Chevy Volt. The circular opening under the Volt logo just forward of the front door is where the charging cord is plugged in.

Here's what the driver's display looked like before I pulled out of the driveway. The battery had 16 miles of charge (about half) left. The gas tank range shows as 222 miles. The total range (electricity and gas) is 238 miles. My Volt had been driven 193 miles at this point.

The ball in the chute on the right guides the driver's acceleration and deceleration. Pull away from a stop sign too quickly and the ball decenters. Not a good thing as power is wasted. I'm learning to keep that magic ball centered. My Buick Ranier had an instantaneous mpg reading that served a similar function.

The "E" in the circle says that the car was facing east, so that is the compass function. The circles on the bottom "carousel" around and give more details on mileage, mpg, trip metering, tire pressures, etc. The Volt is in park; both seatbelts are fastened.

Off to the city we went with the new Chevy Volt doing an electric and eclectic variation of "over the river and through the woods."

Copyright 2011
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Volt Day Two

Late in the day I had driven enough miles that the battery was depleted. In the last half mile before turning in the driveway at Graywood Farm the battery indicator changed into the gasoline indicator and my Chevy Volt drove on gas for the first time with me driving it.

So here's the Volt with its "tank" being topped, sitting in the driveway in the sparkling Michigan sunset, looking for all the world like the first class car that it is. My quilting friends, in seeing the car yesterday, said, "Wow, it's really sporty." And that comment come from women my age -- I'm sixty plus -- and older.

I charged it outside in 25 degree weather. This weekend I'll pull it into the garage to charge.

Today's agenda includes more work on my long arm quilting machine and a media interview with a radio station. Very cool intersection of the old and the new.

Copyright 2011
Wanda Hayes Eichler

New Era In Huron County

I took delivery of a new 2012 Chevrolet Volt yesterday afternoon at McCormick Motors in Pigeon. I drove it around the mile with Ed once so he could ride with me. Then down to the office, to Shaggy J's for supper, and to the farm. Back up town with Ed to retrieve some paperwork. Not a speck of gas used. Just 8.4 kilowatt hours of electricity!

Marion Shetler, sales rep at McCormick's, tells me this is the first Volt sold in Huron County. Pictured above is the 2007 Buck Rainier that I traded in. The Rainier took me almost 130,000 miles on lots of driving around Michigan, and on multiple trips to Wisconsin and Houston. It's been a good car. My Grandpa Carl Hayes, a Wisconsin farmer who was born in 1890, drove Buicks. Grandpa should be smiling down on a granddaughter's good fortune of almost five years of driving the now traded-in Buick.

The black Volt on the right is a dealer demo car that Dave McCormick's dealership purchased so that people can test drive the Volt. This car might have had two tanks of gas put in it in several months. Basically, it charges and runs on electricity.

The center car is my Volt. It's a soft gray green color (Viridian Joule) with almost every bell and whistle I could get and with the promise of driving adventures. I've been accustomed to the view from the driver's seat of a SUV so the cockpit type driving experience that the Volt offers will be a learning curve.

General Motors has been dealing with a Volt safety issue involving fire and the lithium ion battery. Just saying "fire" and "electric vehicle" has the media and internet naysayers up and running. Any fire situations have been induced through safety testing and GM is working to correct the present deficiency. It is safe to drive and buy a Volt.

I'm not the first in our family to drive a Volt since my daughter Liesl Eichler Clark has been cruising around in hers since March. It's great when your kids lead the way.

Other posts on this blog related to the Chevy Volt: 

http://fromunderthewillow.blogspot.com/2011/08/album-cruisin-with-chevy-volt.html

http://fromunderthewillow.blogspot.com/2011/08/50-volts.html

http://fromunderthewillow.blogspot.com/2011/08/volt-cruise.html

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler

Album: Cruisin' With The Chevy Volt



Wanda Eichler and Liesl Clark post with Jolt the Volt before the Cruise

Vanity plate on a Michigan Volt

Cruisin' Green in a Chevy Volt

Standard on Woodward -- 12 Volt rear view mirror

Liesl Eichler Clark gives a thumbs up to her Chevy Volt

Race car drivers Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon charge up the Cruise crowd

General Motors media crew interview Liesl Clark from 5 Lakes Energy



50 Volts

Liesl and I drive her Chevy Volt in the Woodward Dream Cruise yesterday. Chevrolet sponsored a homecoming for Volt owners as a part of Chevy's 100th anniversary so we got to drive Jolt The Volt (Liesl's car has a name) up and down Woodward as a part of a 100 car parade that kicked off this year's Dream Cruise.

Here are the 50 Volts lined up in the parking lot of the Kingsley Radisson before the Cruise. This photo was taken by a Volt team member. Thank you, Mr. Dean, for climbing up and getting this photo! Actually, at one point in the day's festivities there were 63 Volts that joined the gathering. Considering that GM sold around 4000 of these cars in the first model year (2011) that's quite a representation.

We met Volt owners from all around Michigan as well as from Arizona, New Jersey, and Texas. The Volt people who make parts for the car, assemble it, test it, market the Volt, and support the Volt were on hand to meet and greet. It was a way cool event.

Tomorrow's blog post will be an album of photos from the Dream Cruise featuring the Chevy Volt.