How much does it cost to charge your electric car? Do you know?
That might initially sound like a simple enough question to answer, but in some homes–especially ones signed up to time of use electricity metering–it’s often far from straightforward to find an answer.
Now a new smartphone app being tested by General Motors aims to take the guess work out of charging costs for its Chevrolet Volt.
Developed as part of GM’s OnStar System, the EcoHub app combines the OnStar charging data associated with each individual Volt with the data from its owner’s domestic smart meter or utility company.
It then compares the total household energy consumption with the amount of energy used to charge the Volt, providing owners with a simple and clear explanation of how much it is costing them to run their Volt.
In addition, the EcoHub app includes a screen that shows national values for the total number of miles driven by Volt owners in the U.S, along with the total number of all-electric miles driven, and the gallons of gasoline saved by driving the plug-in hybrid.
“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.”
Chevrolet Volt OnStar EcoHub App
At the moment, the EcoHub app is only available to Volt owners who live in Pecan Street, Austin, Texas, a new green build development study being undertaken by the University of Texas at Austin.
In the near future, GM says, the app will be made available to Volt owners across the U.S.
How do you keep track of charging costs for your electric car?
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