[in_the_sticks]

Sure. I suspect the expense of new car batteries and the inconvenience of having them run down twice a day or so might make it a less optimal choice than just buying internet service.

[nradov]

The picture in the article shows a Volt. If it's in your garage then it's plugged in.

[lotharbot]

even a Volt that's not plugged in is going to be able to run its electronics for a long, long time on a single charge.

Wifi routers consume on average about 6 watts. The new Volt has an 18.4 kWh battery, which could run such a wifi router for about 4 months. Or, put another way, running a wifi router all day would use about 0.005% of the Volt's battery capacity.

Obviously a lot of other support systems would be powered on as well, but still, the point is, you're not really going to notice the battery drain from a little wifi transmitter relative to the battery capacity needed to move a 3500 lb automobile 50+ miles.

[drcross]

I think you're wrong. Most electric cars also have a 12 volt regular battery for the in car electronics and the motor battery is isolated from the rest of the car. With that said I don't know how it's charged.

[mikeash]

You could leave the car "on" to avoid that problem.

Teslas will top up the 12V battery from the main battery even when the car is "off," but I don't know how other cars do it.

[in_the_sticks]

That's what's in the picture but that's not the only type of vehicle Chevy makes and their electric offerings are not the only ones that are eligible.

Unless there's an electric Silverado I don't know about?

[csours]

There was, in fact, a hybrid Silverado for a few years[0]. They are not made right now, so this offer would not apply to them.

//Disclaimer: I work for GM, and I worked in the factory where Hybrid Escalades were made.

0. https://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/silverado-1500-hybrid/

[mikeash]

If you were really motivated to make this happen, you could connect a 12V battery tender to your non-Volt to keep it alive indefinitely.