My range is consistently 40 miles. My round trip to the airport is exactly 37.0 miles, 26 miles at 70 mph. And I always arrive home with 2+ miles range remaining.

A full charge on the 120V outlet in my garage never takes more than 9 hours from zero on range meter. If you only have 3 hours to charge, you will have around 13 miles of range – more than the Prius plug in!

You can accelerate to 80 mph + with the Volt and the gas engine never kicks on until the range meter is at zero.

I always drive in “Sport” mode and have not seen any difference in range. Acceleration in “Sport” is brisk: Fast enough to be fun and definitely faster than the Prius or the Leaf.

I sold a BMW 328 before buying the Volt and I can tell you that the handling of the Volt is much, much closer to the BMW than the Prius (std) or the Leaf. The Volt is fun to drive, very solid and very quiet.

Highway driving after electric yields 40 mpg at 65 mph

Do the math on a 100 mile trip:

Volt – 100 – 40 = 60 miles/40 mpg = 1.5 gal
PIP – 100 – 15 = 85 miles/50 mpg = 1.7 gal

Most of my driving is less than a total of 40 miles per day and even on days when I go across town and drive 45 – 50 miles, total gas burned is 0.1 or 0.2 gal. In fact, in 4,000 miles of driving over the last 6 months, the ONLY gas I have bought was for two out of town trips I made. I have not been back to a gas station since March!

So, if you buy a Volt you will dramatically reduce your gas consumption no matter how far you drive in a day. If you commute to work and charge there, you will have around 80 miles of gas free driving!

If you go for the Prius plug in, you will almost certainly be burning gas every day, unless your daily mileage is under 13 miles.

Good for you! We always like to hear how people are doing in the real world with their Volts (or other fuel-efficient vehicles). Sounds like you’ve found the right way to maximize fuel economy. Please update us again in six months about your experience with the Volt.
Michael