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Nah, it is just that once I saw that you were the King of Conflation, misrepresenting what fueleconomy.gov and the Volt manual said, I didn't have the desire to continue to parse the text for you. You took one sentence that applied to 3 to 4 mile trips and applied it to the entire article. You also took some suggestions at the end of the article that help with fuel economy in cold weather to mean that the initially stated fuel efficiency drop percentages were “predicated” on not doing those suggestions. When in fact, that very section starts by saying, emphasis mine, “You may not be able to completely mitigate cold weather's effect on your fuel economy, but you can do some simple things to help your gas mileage.”

The website you mention, gm-volt.com, is not run by GM but is actually a fan-run site. They could still be correct, and if so I would be wrong about the battery cooling system coming on when unplugged. Here is what they say in one place:

What happens if the Volt is parked in the hot sun with ignition (power) off and NOT plugged in? This would be the scenario for many Arizona workers that park their cars in full sun on a black asphalt parking lot all day. How hot will the Volt’s battery get?
In order to determine, Volt was parked for a day in full sun. Results of this test are presented in figure 5. We see that the Volt’s battery is extremely well insulated. With cabin temperatures soaring to 115 F and ambient air temperatures going to 99 F the Volts battery only reached a maximum temperature of 90 F. Roughly equal to the upper limit during active thermal management during charging shown in figure 2 . We also note that there is NO ACTION taken by the TMS in this case.

Though elsewhere on the website people say that it will come on when unplugged if you have at least a certain amount of battery charge.

Regardless, that does not mean the manual says that you need to keep it plugged in when it is out in the sun. For the umpteenth time, it suggests it as a way to increase efficiency, not as something that is needed to prevent battery damage. (As the gm-volt.com post I quoted above indicates, even in 115 °F weather, the battery pack did not get over 90 °F.) Since you repeatedly conflate the text to say what you want it to say, and since you are invulnerable to correction, I'm not going to beat this dead horse any further. You can argue with thin air from here on out.

Regarding Willie Green, I had to look him up to see what you were talking about. I'm not too impressed with passenger trains myself. They are one of those things that sound good in theory but oftentimes don't work in the real world.

1. Welcome back (how was it over at DU...I kid...I kid...maybe)

2. We’re going to have to disagree with cold weather driving...but I will ask again: Do you REALLY believe that you get 12% worse mileage in cold weather? In your entire lifetime, have you ever noticed that in your personal experience? I doubt it - so why would you repeat such a silly stat? Because the government said it, it must be true?

3. Ok, lets play along with the charade that the astro turf ‘grass roots’ GM site isn’t affiliated with GM. Lets look at the one day test in 99 degree heat. It got to 90 in the battery compartment...which according to the link is the top end of battery temperature. What on earth do you think would happen, if, I dunno...it was 110 degrees? Gee - do you think the battery would get even hotter than 90 degrees? IOW, a test in 99 degree heat is phenomenally un-informative in a world where temperatures routinely hit 110 degrees. Why even do the test? Look at your link - they did the test in APRIL! More specifically April 28, 2013. Well golly gee, what if I parked my car in Phoenix in one of them there hot months. Just two months later, in Phoenix, it was 119 degrees on June 29th. Do you understand how stupid it is to do a heat test in April?!?!? And then to use the results to prove a point - either dumb or devious.

And what would happen if I left the Volt out in the sun for a week in an airport parking lot. In Phoenix, in June/July 2013 it never got below 90 degrees for 4 straight days. So how about this: Would you be willing to plunk down $45k of your own money...and park your Volt for a week at the airport during the hot summer? Would YOU be willing to risk it? Or am I right?

3. The notion that the Volt will ‘come on’ to cool the battery has a qualifying statement “If it has at least a certain amount of battery charge”. IOW, the person who made that statement knows that the battery would eventually ‘brick’ itself if it did this. Once again, how do you think that works out when you leave the car at the airport? The whole crux of the problem is that you CAN NOT leave this thing out in the sun, without expending energy to cool it (per my original and hotly contested statement). So, if you run out of energy, its over - and you HAVE TO BE PLUGGED IN to prevent the battery from running out of energy. BTW, in your link to the high stress APRIL heat test, it was noted that nothing came on, even when the battery was hot.

4. This is not about efficiency. And quite frankly, although you keep protesting, you know better. You know exactly what will happen if the battery is discharged even once when too hot - permanent reduction in battery range. Why keep pretending otherwise.

I’m not sure why I bother - you’re obviously an electric car fanatic...and don’t really seem to have any other purpose on this board.

I know your type. The other day there was a Volt in front of me (owned by the power company - I’ve never seen a privately owned Volt in my life). The driver turned on his washer fluid/wipers and it all went to crap. Fluid was spraying over the roof of the car and the wiper ended up dangling to the side of the car. He had to pull over. All I could think of is people like you - if you had seen that piece of junk just strip out its wiper gear, you would defend it. You would find some study that says the Volt has the strongest wiper gear ever made, and declare that it would never break...even when it happened right in front of your eyes. BTW, what a heap of junk...I smiled and waved as I drove by.