Chevrolet Volt 2011 Review - International

Chevrolet Volt

The Chevrolet Volt is still two years from Australian showrooms, but a drive of a production model on the streets of Detroit has given us an insight into what to expect.

About this time last year General Motors let a handful of journalists from around the world drive a pair of hand-built prototype cars around the company's Tech Centre in Detroit. This year the carmaker let more than 200 international media behind the wheel of a fleet of showroom-ready Volts – and set them free on the streets of motor city.

It also happened to be 15 years to the day since the teardrop shaped, fully electric EV1 went on sale. But a decade-and-a-half later (and after 1117 EV1s) General Motors has turned a new leaf and come up with an entirely different concept.

First impressions of our second drive? Well, for obvious reasons, the production car tested this week (one that was made on the production line and ready for sale) was put together a lot better than the cobbled up mobile test lab we drove last year. The quality of materials was not only better than the scratchy surfaces of the prototype parts, but better than I was expecting. It has a more premium feel compared to, say, the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius hybrids.

But there is a catch. The Chevrolet Volt will be more expensive than the $30,000 Honda and the $40,000 Prius when it goes on sale in Australia in the second half of 2012.  Holden is yet to announce pricing, but in the past executives have hinted that it could cost close to or in excess of $60,000.

In the US, the Volt's recommended retail price is $41,000 – which given the current exchange rate seems promising. (In some states in North America the Volt can cost as little as $33,500 once the US Federal Government's $7500 electric car rebate is taken into account).

Even if you include shipping costs, the Volt could in theory be in Australian showrooms for about $45,000. But Holden says the US price doesn't translate because that is for a base model – and Volts sold in Australia as Holdens will come with most of the available luxury features, which will push up the price.

Holden could, of course, sell the Volt in its most basic guise. But carmakers rarely get the chance to charge full freight for a new, in-demand vehicle, so they're going to cash-in on it while they can and force us to pay top dollar by only bringing in well equipped models. This is nothing new in the car industry; European brands do it to us all the time.

There is no doubt given its level of technology and innovation the Volt should be priced at a premium, it's just a shame that it means the motoring masses, initially, will miss out.

A quick backgrounder in case you've missed it until now: the Volt is already being dubbed the car of this decade by some sections of the industry. And while there is still another nine years remaining before we can unofficially award such a crown, the GM hybrid is certainly an early favourite.

The Volt is like no other car since the invention of the motor vehicle – and that's not just because it has smartphone applications that enable you to monitor and adjust the recharging process from your office or home – or wherever you and your mobile phone are in the world for that matter. At a time when the best brains in the business are trying to find new ways to propel the cars of the future, the Volt turns the concept of electric vehicles and hybrids on their head.

While hybrids such as those made by Honda and Toyota typically are powered by petrol engines that are assisted by an electric motor – the Volt is powered by an electric motor that is recharged by a petrol engine.

The result is a vehicle that has between 40km and 80km of petrol-free driving range – but can travel a total of up to 600km because a small 1.4 litre petrol engine kicks in to recharged the EV side of the equation once the battery power has been depleted.

It's a car with two 'petrol' tanks, it's just that one of them is a power socket. In North America the recharge time from empty is 10 hours because the electricity grid runs at 120 volts. But in Australia the Volt can be recharged in four hours from empty because of our 240-volt network. A 15 amp socket will need to be installed at home, which electricians can fit for around $300.

Transport research data in the US and Australia shows that most drivers travel less than 80km in their daily commutes, which means some customers may never actually get to use the Volt's petrol engine. Thus GM came up with a way to make sure the petrol engine remains in good working order, so it's ready when you need it.

If the petrol engine has not been used for six weeks, the Volt will ask the driver if now is good time to switch it on for a few minutes, to keep the internals and ancillaries well lubricated. (GM predicts the oil and filter won't need changing for at least 18 months, the platinum-tipped spark plugs are designed to last almost 200,000km.)

If after 12 months you've not used the engine enough to consume a tank of fuel, the car will ask you to run the engine for a little longer because petrol can go stale after that length of time. In fact, fuel can lose some of its calorific value (energy) in as little as a month if the tank is not properly sealed. Thus the Volt also has a special sealed tank – even more secure than regular passenger cars – that all but eliminates minute evaporation or contamination.

There has been much debate about whether or not the Volt is an electric car, a hybrid, or a plug-in hybrid – especially given that it has a tailpipe out the back and a petrol engine under the bonnet. GM claims it's none of the above. The term it has come up with is 'range-extended electric car' because, as the name implies, it's an electric car that won't leave you stranded.

The problem is that the word hybrid has been used to describe various takes on petrol-electric technology by various carmakers over the past 10 or more years.

Honda's hybrid system is vastly different from Toyota's hybrid system, for example. And then there are other systems recently adopted by General Motors and Ford for their SUV vehicles. All have their strengths and weaknesses – but no two are the same. Indeed, not so long ago, Smart cheekily tried to refer to its city car with a stop-start system as a "mild hybrid", but was asked by advertising regulators in some countries to drop the description. It eventually complied – and changed the name to MHD.

In North America there has been much debate about the technicalities of the Volt system. So, here's the layman's version.

The electric motor drives the wheels for the first 40-80km (depending on driving style and road conditions) until the battery power is depleted. The only exception to this is when outside temperatures are too hot or too cold, at which point the petrol engine will come on briefly to provide cooling or heat for the battery pack.

In normal driving, when battery power is eventually depleted, the electric motor still drives the Volt – even though the petrol engine may be running to recharge the onboard battery pack (which powers the electric motor).

There are some circumstances, such as when using full throttle when battery capacity is low, when the petrol engine will drive the front wheels, thanks to a complex and clever gearbox that can switch between the two power sources.

During development, GM engineers discovered it was actually more fuel efficient to use the petrol engine's power to drive the wheels some of the time rather than run at high revs for extended periods to recharge the battery as fast as possible.

In either mode, acceleration is strong. It certainly feels quicker than the 1.4 turbo petrol-powered Cruze I drove the week earlier – but that's not exactly fast. The Volt surges with a seamless, turbo-like rush. The sensation nevers wears off. At least, it hasn't on me.

It steers ok, and is more than adequate for a daily drive car, although it won't win any performance handling contests. The suspension is comfortable. And the controls are surprisingly intuitive despite their hi-tech design and functionality.

All the audio and air-conditioning controls below the touch screen are also activated by a soft fingertip touch – they're not 'buttons'.

The Volt is impressive but, as with all cars, it's not perfect. Despite being based on the same architecture as the Cruze small sedan, the Volt's four-seat interior is more cramped than the Cruze, the Toyota Prius, and most other cars of this size. The back seat is really for kids or very small adults.

It's a bit tight in there because there is a 200kg T-shaped lithium-ion battery pack under the floor (along the car between the front seats, and across the car behind the back seats). The warranty for the battery pack is eight years and 160,000km (although it is expected to last 10 years and 240,000km).

Back seat passengers will find themselves sitting under the tinted section of the rear hatch glass because of the sloping roofline, which was styled that shape to help the Volt slip through the air at freeway speeds. The co-efficient of drag (Cd figure) is 0.28. That makes the Volt the second most aerodynamic car General Motors has ever made – after the full electric EV1, which is still the world's best at 0.19 – but not as slippery as the Prius (0.25) or Mercedes-Benz E Class coupe (0.24).

As with most hybrid and electric cars the brake pedal feels inconsistent. For its size and weight the Volt has relatively small disc brakes – because it can also use the electric motor to help it slow down.

The problem is that it takes a moment for the car to ascertain you are trying to make an emergency stop, as opposed to a regular stop. There were 326 Volts made in the first production batch in December and I nearly rear-ended one of them. There is a momentarily lapse in deceleration – and an unusual pedal feel – before full brake force is applied.

The other interesting thing is that, on electric power, it is so quiet, I could hear the hum of the tyres, the subtle buzzing from the electric power steering – and a rather annoying creak from the rear hatch.

GM engineers present at the test drive said that although these cars were sale-able vehicles to the public, some were pre-production models that were yet to have all the updates installed.

Overall, however, I came away impressed by the Volt and boldly predict it is set to clean up numerous awards in the coming years. It drives like a good, normal car. It has a greater petrol-free driving range than any hybrid before it – and almost as good petrol-free driving range as the early electric-only city cars.

The Volt will also no doubt earn much flattery – in the forms of imitation. I reckon the first dozen or so Volts off the production line will be secretly bought by rival carmakers. And the world's biggest – Toyota – will be at the head of the queue.

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