Making a Case for the Chevy Volt?

I can't believe I'm going to do this, but….I'm actually going to make a case for the Chevrolet Volt!

Hanging out with Barry and our Volt test car.

 I got invited to some test drive event at Reliant Stadium today that was sneakily put on by GM.  Barry came along, and in spite of the ridiculous heat, we enjoyed driving a wide array of vehicles around the test tracks of cones that littered the areas usually full of tailgaters.  Among the cars we took for a spin were the 2012 Corvette GS, the Camaro SS Convertible,  the Chevy Traverse LTZ, the Toyota Sequoia, the GMC Acadia Denali, the Nissan Maxima and Murano, the Ford Explorer, the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, the Chevy Cruze, the Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Diesel, the Buick LaCross, and the Volt.  They had a lot more, but you can only drive so many boring cars when it's 105 degrees.  The most interesting vehicle on the day was easily the Chevy Volt.

Barry trying to decide whether his mid-life crisis is going to be red or yellow.

 Now look, I'm not telling you to go out and buy a Volt - God knows I'm not going to.  My vehicles of choice tend to start out at around 500 horsepower and head north from there.  That said, if you accept that the world is moving in the direction heading away from petroleum-burning propulsion, then the Volt may be the answer.  Well, not the Volt itself, but the technology in it.

To understand the Volt, you really need to understand your options.  Hybrid cars have become mainstream today.  The poster child for the hybrid movement is deservedly the Toyota Prius, having recently passed the millionth-US-sold milestone (sad).  The Prius uses a 1.8-liter gas motor putting out 98-hp to charge, via a planetary gearset, a 56-hp motor/generator that feeds into an 80-hp traction motor.  The "juice" is stored in a 1.31 kW-hr Ni metal hydride battery.  The result is a "conventional" car that gets about 50 combined mpg - conventional meaning that you just fill it up with gas and drive it like any other vehicle. 

 

On the other end of the spectrum you have the Nissan Leaf.  The Leaf is a plug-in car, and it's rather simple at that.  It has a 107-hp traction motor that runs off a 24 kW-hr Li-ion battery.  Nissan claims about a 106-mile range on a charge, but most reviews are putting the actual practical range at about 75 miles. 

While the Leaf may be engineering simplicity, the Volt is extremely complex.  The Volt basically reverses the Prius set-up with a 149-hp traction motor that is supplied by a 16 kW-hr Li-ion battery that puts power to the wheels through a clutch controlled planetary gearset.  If you run out of electricity (and you will in about 40 miles) the car seamlessly transitions to a 1.4-liter 84-hp gas motor and a 72-hp motor/generator.  Basically, you have a plug-in electric car with a gas engine as a backup.  Unlike the Prius, the gas motor in the Volt will not charge the battery.  On its gas motor, the Volt will get between 35 and 40 mpg.  It's less than the Prius primarily because the car weighs about 700 pounds more.  

If you're considering one of these for whatever reason - global warming, dependence on foreign oil, gas costs way too much - you have three distinct choices.  If it were based on looks, the Volt would win hands down.  The Prius is ugly.  The Leaf is (well, what's worse than ugly?) hideous - it has to be one of the most unattractive cars on the road today.  The Volt is actually a decent looking car, as long as you don't get the awful interior decals that our test car had.  I'm not saying it rivals the Maserati Gran Turismo on looks, but for an eco-box it has a handsome stance.  It has sort of a slippery angularity while maintaining its aerodynamic efficiency, and the all-glass cockpit is actually pretty cool.

Driving the Volt, with its starship modern interior.

If you're basing your decision entirely on fuel mileage, the Leaf is the winner.  The only reason you would ever need to visit a gas station is to put air in the tires.  That said, the Volt could be in the same boat if your daily commute is less than 40 miles.  There is a cost to plug these things in each night though.  It would be about $1.50 for a complete charge, depending on how much electricity costs where you live (a little less here in Texas - an advantage to having our own power grid).  When you put a calculator to it, the Leaf is cheaper to operate than the Volt, but just barely, and both are quite a bit cheaper than the Prius.  The Leaf is a little cheaper to buy than the Volt, but you'll have to buy another car for any trip over 75 miles.  The Prius is cheaper than both of them, but the tax credits, especially if you live in CA, more than make up for it.

Here's my take:  You CAN'T buy the Leaf.  It's an ugly piece of junk that will eventually strand you, and will add stress to your life up to that point.  If you're seriously considering buying a Leaf, you should put about 75 miles worth of gas in your current car and a lock on your fuel cap.  Leave the key at home and drive it, every day, for at least a month (obviously filling it back to 75 miles every night).  It will drive you crazy trying to decide if you have enough range to make it to the store and back before going home.  If you forget to plug the Leaf in one night, you're taking the bus the next day.  It can't be an option for most people.

If you have a long commute and aren't worried about ever seeing a girl naked again, you can get a Prius.  It gets good gas mileage and it's a regular car.  It's loud, uncomfortable, slow, dangerous, and generally screams that you have no style and have given up on life, but it will get you where you need to go with no stress and without costing a fortune on gas.

If you want a low-cost-to-operate car that at least shouldn't embarrass you to be seen in, the Volt may be the answer.  I thought it drove surprisingly well today.  The electric motor can produce quite a bit of torque - again, relative to other eco-boxes - so the acceleration feels strong.  It's the fastest and quickest of the three, but that's like saying it's the fastest turtle.  It also has no transmission, so there are no gear shifts, just seamless power delivery.  It's not all good though.  The Volt has only four seats and the visibility is so-so.  The interior is kind of quirky as well, especially the touch sensitive buttons.

The Volt, and the Leaf for that matter, are not a national solution.  While electric cars may be the darlings of California, they don't make sense for places where electricity is expensive or in a city like Houston (where we live) where heading to a baseball game means a 60 mile round trip averaging 80 mph.  Still, while the Volt may not be for everyone, and certainly isn't for me, what it will probably lead to is the interesting part.  Imagine this kind of technology in a Cadillac or Mercedes, with slightly less mileage but greater performance and range.  It's coming, and I could get on board with that. 

Barry taking extreme measures to get out of the sun.