Is the Green Revolution Here?
The road to revolution is often unexpected. In the case of what we may one day call the “plug-in revolution,” the journey of the Chevrolet Volt from concept car to first mass-market plug-in hybrid can best be described with a single word - ugly. No, we’re not saying the Volt itself is an ugly car - quite to the contrary, it’s a pretty remarkable piece of technology that looks a lot more slick than previous game-changers like the hybrid Toyota Prius or Honda Insight did at their debuts. But the years since the Volt concept was first unveiled have been the roughest in the history of General Motors and the American auto industry, and they haven’t been too hot for the world economy or the average car owner, either.
The Volt concept was first seen in a much brighter world, at the 2007 Detroit auto show. From there, the hype machine spent over a year in almost constant motion until GM finally unveiled its production model in September of 2008. In case you don’t remember, that was the same week that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the global economy finally slid off a cliff, quickly pulling gas prices and the entire American auto industry with it. Within months, not only the Volt but all of General Motors was facing extinction.
Today, thanks to a taxpayer-funded bailout, GM is still with us and remarkably, the Volt is still on schedule for a late 2010 release. But there isn’t quite the same gusto coming from Renaissance Center about how this car that comes with a built-in plug (but doesn’t come with built-in range anxiety) will change the way we drive. Instead, GM is betting more heavily on the lowest common denominator, placing emphasis on affordable and efficient conventional models, namely the Chevrolet Cruze, which will cost about a third the price of a Volt and still get 40 miles per gallon.
It’s a strategy that makes sense with unemployment in the double digits and loans harder to come by these days. But to us, the Volt remains one of the most exciting new technologies to hit the North American market in at least a decade. Although it is called a plug-in hybrid, the Volt is actually more similar to an all-electric car like the Nissan Leaf than it is to a conventional gas-electric hybrid like the Honda Insight or Toyota Prius.
The Volt has an electric drivetrain with a gas engine that kicks on to generate more electricity when the battery is spent. (For more on how Plug-in hybrids work, check out our Overview.) GM likes to claim that a fully-charged Volt will travel 40 to 50 miles before the gas engine kicks in, which it notes is about how much most average commuters travel in a day. On a full tank and charge, Chevrolet claims the Volt has a total range of at least 340 miles.
Inside/Outside and Under the Hood
Looking at the exterior of the Volt, only a few subtle hints reveal this car could be the key to our automotive futures. Sure, there’s the tell-tale plug and a lower, more aerodynamic design, but otherwise it just looks like a slick new mid-size five-door sedan. Another hint comes with a close look at the grille, which isn’t really a grille at all, but more of a closed panel. The Volt gets the small amount of air it needs from a smaller opening below the grille.
“The cooling requirements for an electric vehicle are different,” explains Bob Boniface, the Volt’s design director. “So we were able to seal up the grille... not send air into the engine compartment where it creates drag but rather push it down the side of the vehicle where it’s smooth... all this is to increase efficiency and lower drag.”
Unlike most other green game-changers of the past, however, the Volt was designed with more than just maximum efficiency in mind. Its stance is wide, nose low to the ground and the tail is up in the air just enough to give it some sporty stature.
While Nissan claims that its chief competition for the Volt, the all-electric Leaf, will comfortably seat five adults, Chevrolet opted not to even try to cram three normal-sized people in the back and hope for the best. The Volt is a four-seater, with the interior designed largely around the T-shaped battery pack and the ‘tunnel’ that houses it. The battery tunnel runs through the center of the cabin, and Chevrolet has worked to cover it up with a large center stack in front and by dividing the rear seats in half and adding an armrest in the middle.
Even without the center division, the Volt doesn’t seem like it would be wide enough to fit three adults anyhow. Chevrolet claims a 6’ 2” passenger will be able to ride comfortably in the front or back. I was able to fit all 6’3” inches of myself into one of the Volt’s rear seats without feeling any more claustrophobic than in any other comparable mid-size sedan and certainly felt more comfortable than I would in many fuel-efficient compact cars now on the road.
The Volt has received plenty of early kudos for the quality of its interior materials and features, including available leather, a 7-inch LCD touch screen and digital instrument cluster that have drawn plenty of comparisons to an oversized iPod, lending a futuristic splash.
Strictly speaking, the Volt is a series plug-in hybrid. Its 396-pound, 6-foot-long T-shaped lithium ion battery is connected to a 111-kilowatt electric motor that drives the wheels with up to 149 horsepower, 273 pound-feet of torque and a top speed of 100 miles per hour. That’s a little more muscle than the Nissan Leaf’s 80 kW, 107 hp motor that tops out at 90 mph. Of course, the primary addition to the Volt setup is a small gas tank connected to an inline 1.4 liter, 4-cylinder engine that doesn’t drive the wheels like in a regular car, but rather kicks on to generate more electricity for the primary motor after the battery is 70 percent depleted. Even with the small gas tank, Chevrolet claims it adds 300 miles of range.