Been anticipating this one for a long while, and even bought the Cruze because I couldn't wait any longer for a good utilitarian, efficient car (and I do love it). But now the Volt is finally getting to where I live. In this case, Pinkerton Chevy in Salem VA got a couple, and knowing that I want one, I got to put the first miles on the one they have for sale. I instantly fell in love with it. Predisposition, some, but nope, it's truly nice. In my opinion, GM is the first to get the whole hybrid thing right. There are a heck of a lot of tradeoffs involved as anyone in alt energy knows, and it seems they hit them all pretty close to optimal. The Volt is an electric-only drivetrain, running off a rather huge battery pack (perfectly located for low CG and great handling), with an onboard generator - which isn't really a batter charger - those tradeoffs, which I'll get into below. First, some pics!
That's a new red Cruze in the background. The Volt's a little shorter and a little taller. Note the "picture of a grille" on the front - it doesn't really need much in the way of cooling air, and this is a little more aerodynamic. And here it is through the open back hatch with one of the rear seats (buckets!) folded down.
Lots of very accessible room in there, it's also a 4 door, but this is the door you'd use for single large items. Pretty comfortable and nicely appointed in there. Here's a side view of the big door. That's my gold Cruze in front left.
Now most car guys look under the hood first (we've already shown that this has 4 wheel disc brakes - but they run off an electric hydraulic system, not engine vacuum). So here's that view.
On the left is a somewhat shrunken version of the Cruze engine (no turbo and so on). On the right is the top of the electric one, you could consider all those fat orange wires as its "intake manifold" - they are. That's 360v from the LiIon battery. There are a couple liquid cooling systems - one is for the *batteries*. All the normal accessories are electrically powered - brakes, A/C, and so on. There is also a 12v battery for the low current stuff, charged by a switcher off the big boy.
Auto interiors are hard to take pictures of - glare, depth of focus issues. I apologize in advance, but the inside of this thing is pretty nice. Too bad my camera can't really give a good view from the driver's seat - to get reasonable I had to get in the back seat for some of these.
I note the dash is color, high rez, and quite visible even in very full sun. And it's not the only color screen of decent size in there.
This one is the radio, a DVD movie player, navigation, and ...the output of cameras that help you park in tight places...
I'm the guy who put those miles on the odometer (all but the usual 5-6) and you can see how much battery is still left. The engine in this has yet to run outside of test mode(!).
Too keep the bandwidth down just a little, I'm omitting some of my attempts to show things like that middle display showing cameras, my failed attempt to get good pix from under the car, suspension details and so on. (For now, next time I go over they'll put it on a lift for me so I can get those).
So, I put those miles on there myself, with the salesman (Mike Sowers), and my wife in tow - nice full load (they are normal sized and weight people unlike me). Was it fun? Hell yes! First we drove it all over the city, then back to the cool places to really abuse the thing. It did great in the city. The first thing you notice is the instant torque, of which there's plenty to make a dodgy turn across trafiic and squeal the tires, and right after that just how silent this thing is. And I'm not just talking about the lack of engine noise, which is kind of to be expected (this has zero whine btw), but lack of all noise - wind, tire and so on. It's just silent in there. You can run the stereo (which kicks too) quite softly and still hear how good it is, and not have to raise your voice over it or road noise (or both) to communicate inside the car. Even after having owned some full sized luxo-barge luxury cars -- this is something special. On examination, a decent part of the weight budget (those tradeoffs) was put into making it this quiet -- no undamped surfaces whatever. It drove in city traffic just about like the Cruze does, which means "it's real good". Able to make a U turn in a two lane road without backing and filling, quick off the line, easy to accidentally break the speed laws...perfect. Stops like you were having the wreck - bam, you're stopped and I mean right now, very short distances and times there. No, it's not a hot rod, but it has most of the same feel and capability. Handling is awesome due to the usual suspects -- good suspension, brakes, tires. But the center of gravity is so low on this thing, I can't recall anything that seemed like it had a lower roll center. Very tight, no sway on quick "transient response" tests - you can't move the wheel faster than this can respond. Steering is full electric power steering, just like the Cruze and I'd not have known if I hadn't looked in either case, you get some road feel through it, but it's very easy when stopped.
Pinkerton was nice enough to let me abuse this a bit, so we went back to the lot for that - they have a large back 40 just for things like that. I haven't yet fully exercised all the modes, but it does the opposite lock boogie just fine thanks, and at the end of a slide, there's little to no rock-back...Better than the Camaro on that one. It has various computer modes for the drivetrain and traction/slide controls, which I've not yet exercised. But GM has finally learned that us old school guys don't like a computer that has just one setting and always knows best. There are three settings for the engine performance from econo to "make tire smoke", and similar ability to decide if you want to let it slide, or perhaps save you from spinning out in bad traction. Very nice - and gheez, why did it take so long? Like I've said about the Camaro -- "back in the day" in this case, the '70's, we racers used to bench-race about "what would be the very ideal street rod" and now there's that Camaro. Took awhile, but they got it, down to the details of head ports and cam timing, suspension, transmission, tires. And now this...another winner. I guess fear of bankruptcy let them put the real engineers in charge or something like that.
Oh by the way, it rides better than the Cruze, the Camaro (well, it would) and even my luxo truck. All that weight in the floor and a good sprung/unsprung weight ratio.
I'll discuss some of the tradeoffs, and why the ones they made are the right ones next post. One way or another, one of these is heading for my driveway very soon.