What Lessons Can We Learn From A 300,000 Mile Chevy Volt?

Eric Belmer of Ohio owns a 2012 Chevy Volt that just turned 300,000 miles last week. He bought the car specifically because he commutes 6500 miles a month to work. Eric is a millwright for General  Motors. When his local GM facility closed, he elected to commute to the next nearest factory rather than uproot his family. He needed a car that got great gas mileage and was reliable. With the Volt, he got both.

So what does Eric Belmer’s experience tell us? Let’s start with reliability. If you buy a new Toyota or Honda today, you know when you plunk your money down your are getting a car that will give 200,000 to 300,000 miles of faithful service if you treat it properly. But back in 2012 when the Volt and the Tesla Model S and the Nissan LEAF were still relatively new on the market, no one really knew what to expect when it came to reliability and durability. Now a search on the internet can turn up lots of stories of those cars with 100,000 miles or more on them.

Belmer’s story suggests that the early concerns people had about electric cars being short lived are not realistic. If anything, they appear to be as durable and reliable as any conventional car.

The second thing people worried about 4 years ago was battery life. Who wants a car that needs an expensive battery replacement after the warranty runs out? Fear of battery degradation kept the resale value of electric cars unnaturally low for the first few years. The lesson from Belmer’s Volt is that battery life is not something to be feared. Chevrolet says the failure rate of the individual cells in the Volt battery pack is infinitesimally small — about 2  per million. Green Car Reports there is a 2004 Toyota Prius in Vancouver that racked up nearly a million miles on the original battery while being used as a taxi.

The lesson, then, if you are thinking about buying an EV but have concerns about reliability or durability is this: Don’t worry. Be happy!

The Ford Fairmont Wagon EV Conversion

Electric vehicle conversions have been around for decades, though most of these early, primitive conversions didn’t last long beyond their intended useful life. This Ford Fairmont EVA Conversion is a rare survivor from the early days of electrification, and for just $1,000 it could be your little slice of electric car history. Make sure you bring your tools though.

, The Current Fare, as it was called, was built by EV conversion company EVA, who claimed their electric wagon could go up to 40 miles between charges. Makes today’s “short range” electric cars like the Nissan Leaf seem like endurance competitors in comparison. Power came from 22 six-volt batteries powering a single 29 horsepower electric motor, which made the Current Fare a woefully under-powered vehicle, even by the low standards of the early 80s. BMW put out an even lamer EV with just 19 miles of range, while Mercedes built a plug-in hybrid wagon in a bid to compete with gas-powered cars, but that project was also a dead end.

This particular Fairmont wagon EV was enlisted to serve the Navy, and could be had with either a four-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission. While it could make a fun and interesting restoration project, methinks the lead-acid batteries have long since eaten through the floorboards of the wagon, if they’re still there at all.

EVA also converted the early Ford Escort, calling it the Evcort, as well as the Change The Pace AMC Pacer EV conversion. Alas, clever names couldn’t overcome primitive EV technology, and cars like the Current Fare never stood a chance on America’s roads, limiting them to short-range fleet work for the government or private industry. It’s taken another 30 years to get to the point where electric cars can actually work as commuter cars.

It’d take more than a fresh coat of to bring this particular early EV back from the dead, as its been sitting immobile in Southern California for many many years. That said, there’s plenty of room for a modern lithium-ion battery pack and more powerful motor. Perhaps a second life as an electric drag car is what this EVA conversion really deserves.

Source: Green Car Reports | Craigslist