OnStar is testing an app capable of telling Chevrolet Volt owners how much it costs to charge their battery
It’s easy to see how much a gas fill-up at the pump costs, but how can a Volt owner see how much their charges cost? With roughly two thirds of the more than 65 million miles Volt owners have driven since the car’s launch being powered by electricity, OnStar is helping owners find this info with a new mobile app.
Residents in a smart grid living community, the Pecan Street demonstration project in Austin, will be trying out the OnStar’s new EcoHub app which allows Chevrolet Volt owners to see how much it costs to charge their battery – and compare the Volt’s energy use to the total energy used in their home.
“We’ve found that Volt owners love to keep track of and compare their personal driving stats, like electric miles driven for example,” said Cristi Landy, Chevrolet Volt marketing director. “The EcoHub app is another great example of using the vehicle’s embedded technology to provide Volt owners with useful information.”
The app will pull information from an owner’s energy provider and charging information from Volt to be broken down to the percentage of the owner’s total household usage that is charging the Volt on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. Then the percentage is broken down based on electricity rates to show the cost of total energy and cost of energy that went to charging the Volt.
Not only will the app be able to tell the cost of the electricity used to power the Volt, EcoHub also features a “Ticker” screen that will show the national totals for miles driven, EV miles driven and gallons of fuel saved. On a full charge the Volt can drive gas free for the first 38 miles before a gas-powered engine/generator seamlessly operates to extend the driving range equaling lots of saved gallons.
OnStar EcoHub Application
Although the app is only being tested in Austin, OnStar hopes that the app will be in the hands of Volt owners everywhere in the near future – giving Volt owners more information about their vehicles and enhancing their ownership experience.
Only $0.75/day on average in electricity cost to drive a Chevy Volt. Hard to argue with that!
sounds like a good idea when will the app be ready over in the UK. I still have seen one on the road but its the best looking electric car i’ve seen yet. Better than the Toyota Prius
I really love this.Beacause of it’s low end torque performance, stylish good looks, and all the high-tech amenities .
My first thought was, that the price of filling your car depends on the rate you get for electricity. My second thought was, that it would not matter when you look at the portion of the total energy used. But it would matter to know what the whole setting was. We are presumably looking at a resident for one family with two children?
What so ever, I like the idea to get the facts and be able to compare them with others. This gives us consumers a much better data for decision making: “Son, if you want me to take the car to get milk from the store while you could take your bike instead, you should cover the electricity it needs.”
Georg