2016 Chevrolet Volt
I like the Volt. It’s a good looking car, maybe one of the best looking
Chevrolets. But let’s get one thing straight right off – no matter what
Chevrolet calls it the Volt is not an “electric” car. It is a hybrid in my
book. Chevrolet calls it an extended range electric car. What this means is
that you can drive 53 miles on the battery before it has to switch over to the
gas engine. Overall the Volt has a 420 mile range. So for the first 50 miles it
is an electric car but after that it is a gas fueled car.
According to a calculation I found that used figures from the EPA the
Volt gets 2.7 miles per kilo watt hour. PG&E charges approximately 0.12
cents per kilo watt hour so the cost to recharge the battery pack after 50
miles would be $2.22. Chevy doesn’t give fuel economy figures for highway with
just the gas engine but says the combined city/highway rating is 42 mpg. As
this is being written gas prices in Tracy hover between $2.10 and $2.30 per
gallon.
Charging the Volt is relatively easy. It comes with a charging cord
that can be plugged into any household 120-V outlet. If the battery is
completely depleted it may take up to 13 hours to recharge. For faster
recharging, around 4.5 hours, you have to get an electrician to install a 240-V
outlet.
None of this should take away from the appeal of the Volt. Whether you
consider it a hybrid or an extended range electric it is still a nice car.
For a compact car (EPA’s rating) the Volt is pretty roomy inside; that
is as long as you don’t consider the Volt a five person vehicle. I have no idea
how Chevrolet figures three people will fit in the rear seat – the center of
the seat doesn’t even look like a seat and there’s a console in the way! So
let’s call the Volt a four person vehicle.
The first thing you have to get used to in an electric vehicle is the
noise, or rather lack of noise. If you’ve never driven an electric vehicle it
is rather eerie. You just glide along. The next surprise is the acceleration –
it is astounding. An electric motor has 100% torque as soon as you hit the
accelerator. Chevrolet says the Volt will hit 60 mph from a standstill in 8.4
seconds. That’s not bad especially considering that the Volt weighs 3,543
pounds. That’s about 500 lbs. more than the similar size Chevrolet Cruze.
Powering the Volt are two electric motors and a 1.5-liter, 4-cylinder, 101-hp
gas engine. Power is transmitted to the front wheels through what Chevrolet
calls the 5ET40 Electrified Transaxle. Seamless is what I’d call it. Even when
I’d depleted the battery it was smooth. To confuse the matter the Volt will
operate on electric power even if the battery is completely depleted. One of
the electric motors provides power for the battery (an electric motor can be a
generator). The technology behind the Volt’s propulsion system is slick; you
have to give Chevrolet that.
Given that I only have a vehicle for a week sometimes I can’t quite
figure out how everything works. I like to listen to my own music; I have about
250 songs on my phone. On the cars that have Blue Tooth it’s been fairly simple
to listen to my music. But for some reason (my own ineptitude?) with the Volt
whenever I tried to sync with my phone the system went straight to my Pandora.
I never did figure it out. Not the end of the world but annoying.
The Volt has many of the sensors so common now – backup camera, blind
spot warning systems, lane departure, etc. The backup camera is handy
especially as there are so many huge SUVs in parking lots. The camera doesn’t
just look to the rear but to the sides some too. That’s a good thing. But
sometimes I thought they were overly sensitive, sounding the alarm because
someone or something was “too” close when they weren’t. In a busy parking lot
the alarm sounds almost non-stop as you try to back out. Makes me think of the autonomous
car that stops at a four-way stop and won’t proceed because the human driven
vehicles never come to complete a stop.
On one occasion an alarm sounded and a red light flashed (only once)
and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why. I was driving on a
residential street, actually driving under the limit, with absolutely no one or
nothing around. Did the car see a bird or a squirrel? I still have no idea.
There are two Volts, a LT and the Premier I drove. According to the
Chevrolet site the LT is $33,995 and the Premier is $38,345. Frankly I think
both are too pricey. (A plug-in Prius is only a little lower.)
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