Having too much fun—two years with the Volt

True confession time—just as I feared, electric cars are too much fun to drive.  As a result, we drove even more in 2012 with our Volt than in 2011.  Here are our numbers:

               2011                                2012

Miles Driven	12,711	16,768
Gallons of gas	129	188
Miles per gallon	98	89
Miles on electricity	7,900 (62%)	9,827 (59%)

Most of the 4,000 extra miles were on a road trip to Arizona as well as several trips to San Diego.

The car, now with 29,479 miles, continues to perform wonderfully.  We did have to replace a tire that picked up a nail, and we took the car in for an upgrade from GM.  The dealer also replaced the charge door (the one that opens to allow the charger to plug in), since the original design was kind of flimsy; the new charge door has a much more solid design.  I remember the days when I used to change the oil on my car as well as replace fuel pumps, radiators, alternators, adjust valves, etc.  I don't miss any of that!

One regret

I wish I could fill up on carbon neutral biofuel out on the highway.  Then, since our electricity mostly comes from our solar panels, the car would be truly sustainable.  We're not there yet.

Stay tuned next week when I will report on two years with our solar panels. 

PS--also just for the record: GM sold 23,461 Volts in 2012 compared with just 7,671 in 2011.