[ad#post_ad]I hope you enjoyed your July 4th celebrations, I know I did. Along with several GM-Volt readers we joined the Volt and members of it's marketing team for a BBQ and scenic view of the NYC Macy's fireworks show over the Hudson River. Thank you GM!

As the picture above attests to, the Volt made it there, all the way from Austin Texas, 1776 miles. Seeing the Volt on the rooftop of Pier 92 with the fireworks going off behind it was an awesome display indeed.

The Volt set off from Austin Texas on July 1st around 3PM Eastern time and arrived in New York City at Noon on July 4th, a little under 3 days. The car was driven almost exclusively by a Volt controls engineer named Will Handzel, who said the car performed flawlessly, as expected. He called the trip something like "a party on wheels" with numerous stops along the way for staged photo ops and meet and greets, and some test drives, like the one in Gaithersburg MD.

Will was amazed at how many people recognized the car, and described a few times along late night drives in places like Arkansas, when cars would follow along for miles and with occupants waving in support.

I rode along with Will for the last 45 minutes from NJ to NY, I'll have more on that drive shortly.

While we where driving GM has posted the car's handsfree mobile number on Facebook, and every minute or so fans from around the country, though mostly California, checked in to say hi. Just about everyone asked for the car's fuel economy, but Will declined to say. He still claimed figures are being finalized with the EPA, so can't be released, and wouldn't commit to the 9 gallon gas tank number. It was clear from the dash display, however, that a full tank would produce about 340 miles of range. GM has publicly stated that fuel economy in charge-sustaining mode would offer the best fuel economy of any vehicle in its size class, which for 2010 compact cars is about 26 city / 35 highway for a Toyota Corolla, for example.

Also, the team did charge the car two of three nights spent at hotels. In one case they couldn't find a plug in the parking garage, in the other two cases they ran an extension cord out of their motel room window to the parking lot.

GM staged this Freedom Drive to illustrate how the Volt, although an electric car, is not tethered to a specific electric range as pure battery EVs are. This offers drivers freedom to do what they want when they need to, while at the same time for core daily commuting, using no gas just as a pure electric would.

GMs Volt marketing director Tony DiSalle has said "the best advertising for the Volt is the Volt itself," illustrating GM's advertising tactic, that this Freedom Drive embodied; grassroots test drives and word-of-mouth. This approach GM feels is a better fit for the Volt, getting people to see touch and talk about the car, rather than creating fancy media advertisements.

In contrast, here for example, is Nissan's first ad for the LEAF:




Certainly the Volt will have its own traditional ad campaign, as will the LEAF go on a cross country meet, greet, and drive tour. Only the LEAF would have a much harder time doing the freedom drive, and could never have done it in three days.

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