Timothy
Active Member
Just a story, no issues or questions.
At the end of March we added a Volt to our Clarity and so buying gas has become very rare. However, this weekend we took the Clarity on a longer trip to the Mountains of NC to hike and visit my wife's parents. I'd almost forgotten what a nice touring car it is. We easily made it out there on the gas in the tank. In the days that we'd taken this trip in solely ICE cars, there was an exit we always aimed for because the gas is cheaper. Now that we buy so little, a few cents a gallon doesn't seem worth the effort of planning where to gas up. But old habits die hard and so I wanted to go to our customary exit on the way home.
The issue was that we had a total range of 97 miles. Home was 117 miles and the gas station I wanted to hit was 90. My wife was dubious. I told her I wanted to try, but not to worry, because I would give up and gas up anywhere available if it became clear that we would not make it. We had 66 HV and 31 EV miles. I started out on HV as one of our goals was to use up as much old fuel as possible in order to have fresher gas in the take.
My wife suggested that I no let the HV miles get below 10 - 15 miles. So of course I settled on 10. While driving from 66 miles of HV down to 10 we lost five miles of range (i.e., the I used 56 miles of range going only 51 miles). Giving up was looking like the best plan. But I told my wife I wanted to give EV a chance before giving up. After all we had 31 miles of EV, so we'd have plenty of options. I knew if the range kept dropping that my dream was over.
Once we had been on EV for a while, it was clear that we were now gaining miles. After about 20 miles on EV we'd gained back almost all we'd lost on HV. It was looking like we might make it to the gas station without even using gas again. The highway did get hillier and so the gas went back on just before the exit. We hit the exit at 9 miles of range left and pulled in front of the pump with 8 remaining. Victory.
I bought 3 gallons.
At the end of March we added a Volt to our Clarity and so buying gas has become very rare. However, this weekend we took the Clarity on a longer trip to the Mountains of NC to hike and visit my wife's parents. I'd almost forgotten what a nice touring car it is. We easily made it out there on the gas in the tank. In the days that we'd taken this trip in solely ICE cars, there was an exit we always aimed for because the gas is cheaper. Now that we buy so little, a few cents a gallon doesn't seem worth the effort of planning where to gas up. But old habits die hard and so I wanted to go to our customary exit on the way home.
The issue was that we had a total range of 97 miles. Home was 117 miles and the gas station I wanted to hit was 90. My wife was dubious. I told her I wanted to try, but not to worry, because I would give up and gas up anywhere available if it became clear that we would not make it. We had 66 HV and 31 EV miles. I started out on HV as one of our goals was to use up as much old fuel as possible in order to have fresher gas in the take.
My wife suggested that I no let the HV miles get below 10 - 15 miles. So of course I settled on 10. While driving from 66 miles of HV down to 10 we lost five miles of range (i.e., the I used 56 miles of range going only 51 miles). Giving up was looking like the best plan. But I told my wife I wanted to give EV a chance before giving up. After all we had 31 miles of EV, so we'd have plenty of options. I knew if the range kept dropping that my dream was over.
Once we had been on EV for a while, it was clear that we were now gaining miles. After about 20 miles on EV we'd gained back almost all we'd lost on HV. It was looking like we might make it to the gas station without even using gas again. The highway did get hillier and so the gas went back on just before the exit. We hit the exit at 9 miles of range left and pulled in front of the pump with 8 remaining. Victory.
I bought 3 gallons.
