Gasoline consumption statistics of my PHEV Chevy Volt 2015
2022-08-01. Over a five-year period, my Chevy Volt 2015 plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) had an average gasoline consumption rate of 2.4 L/100 km, an electric driving share of 63%, and a gasoline driving share of 37%.
Introduction
I am a climate scientist, not a car specialist. In February 2015, after giving a seminar on the physics of global warming at a local college, I asked myself what little step I could take to reduce my personal carbon footprint. This started a month-long process of diligently doing my electric car shopping homework by …
- thinking about my needs with respect to the daily commute to work and occasional longer trips for family visits or vacation.
- considering the reduction in electric-driving range due to the cold winters of eastern Québec, Canada.
- looking at all the battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids that were available for sale in Québec in early 2015 and that I could afford.
On March 27, 2015, I purchased a Chevy Volt (first generation, model year 2015), with these specifications:
- Battery energy storage: 17.1 kWh
- Electric driving range: 61 km
- Extended range (gasoline driving): 600 km
- Combined city/highway gas consumption: 6.4 L/100 km (7% to 35% higher in winter depending on weather conditions)
Gasoline consumption statistics
From day one, I decided that at each gas filling, I would enter both the number of litres of gasoline purchased and the car’s odometer reading in an Excel spreadsheet. Below is a graphical summary of my 2015 Chevy Volt’s gas consumption statistics over exactly five years.
Interpretation of above graphics
- The horizontal red bars represent the seasonal median (50th percentile) gas consumption rates.
- The lower horizontal bars represent the 25th percentiles
- The upper horizontal bars represent the 75th percentiles
- The small red symbols represent individual gas fill-ups that were either below the 25th percentile or above the 75th percentile.
The lowest gas consumption rate occurred in summer (1.1 L/100 km), whereas the highest gas consumption rate occurred in winter (4.0 L/100 km). Intermediate values of gas consumption rates were observed during spring (2.6 L/100 km) and fall (3.0 L/100 km).
Interpretation of results
To gain insight as to why gasoline consumption rates were much higher in winter than in summer, it is useful to look at the details of my daily commute from home to work (Maurice-Lamontagne Institute). A one-way trip was 38.5 km, so a two-way trip from home to work and then back home was 77 km. Unfortunately, there was no charging station at my workplace over the 2015 to 2020 period. Therefore, I could only charge my car at home.
During the summer, I usually achieved the 61 km electric range advertised in the Chevrolet specifications. In fact, I often got more than 65 km of electric range (green line) and even achieved 77 km of zero emission car driving a few times! In the chart above, the dashed blue line indicates that gasoline may or may not have been needed for the last twenty kilometers of my summer ride back home.
In winter, the lithium-ion batteries were not as efficient. Roughly speaking, the reduction in electric range was about 20% around 0°C. But this range reduction could be as large as 50% when ambient air temperature dropped below -20°C, or when the road was covered with lots of snow that caused additional friction. Depending on outside temperatures, wind, and snow conditions, my 2015 Chevy Volt’s winter electric range (green line) thus varied between about 30 km and 50 km. Consequently, gasoline was required over the last 25 to 40 km of my daily winter commute (blue line).
Concluding remarks
A June 2022 study of the International Council on Clean Transportation based on a sample of 9000 European PHEVs showed that their average real-world electric driving share was about 45%–49% for private cars and about 11%–15% for company cars. This translates to an average real-world fuel consumption for PHEVs of 4.0–4.4 L/100 km for private vehicles and 7.6–8.4 L/100 km for company cars.
Given there were no charging stations available at my workplace from 2015 to 2020, I am proud of the final statistics of 2.4 L/100 km gas consumption rate and hence 63% electric driving share for my Chevy Volt 2015!
If you purchase a PHEV, bear in mind that your gas consumption statistics will depend on these key parameters:
- distance from home to work
- your diligence regularly plugging your car at home
- availability (or not) of a charging station at work
- climatic conditions where you live and travel to
- electric driving range of your PHEV
Epilogue: I sold my Chevrolet Volt 2015 in November 2020 and replaced it with an all-electric Chevrolet Bolt.