GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Famous comedian and car enthusiast Jay Leno had the chance to check out and test drive an advanced Chevy Volt prototype earlier this month in California. He was given a tour and test drive of the car by its chief engineer Andrew Farah.

The video has been posted over at Jay Leno’s Garage and can be viewed at the bottom of the post.

Jay seemed pleased and impressed with the car. He is a particular fan of electric cars, and owns a 1908 Baker electric that he gave Farah a ride in, and showed off a 1916 Owens Magnetic that is actually a gas-powered electric car. Leno also liked his EV-1 which he pointed out Farah was an engineer of.

Farah went through with Leno the basic premise of the Volt’s 40 mile electric range and unlimited gas driving ability after those electric miles were depleted. He explained how the car has both a D and L mode, with the latter producing more intense regenerative drag for one-pedalled driving, and a normal and sports mode with the latter giving an extra 30 horsepower.

Th effect of cold weather and accessory load was discussed. Farah agreed these would reduce range, and stated “everyone will get a different amount of range,” based on these variables.

Jay got into the car and looked over the interior, and noted the car was actually pretty big. Once driving he said “all you hear is the wind and maybe the tires.”

He said it was “eerily quiet yet strangely familiar”

When directly confronted by Leno, Farah admitted the Volt weighs 3900 pounds.

In the end Leno told Farah, “you’ve done a wonderful job on this car.”

“I really think this is the breakthrough car,” said Leno. “And its American technology and it was developed right here in Detroit.”

“Take one for a test drive,” he advised his audience. “I think you will like it…pretty cool.”

The Volt represent a rational intelligent first step away from petroleum for the country in that it will operate without any gasoline for most people’s daily driving needs.

We realize another of the car’s tremendous values is its gas range extender which ensures that the car’s utility isn’t limited either as it is in pure EVs.

The car also breaks another important paradigm, performance.

Today’s hybrid cars still use gas, and frankly do not perform very well.

The Prius has improved through its three generations, but the car still takes about 10 seconds to get from 0 to 60 and doesn’t have a “sporty” feel by any stretch of the imagination. And for the new Honda Insight, lets not even go there.

But the Chevy Volt clears those hurdles with gusto.

Powered to give a 0 to 60 feel in the mid 8 second range, its instantaneous torque makes it seem like a typical 6 cylinder 250 horsepower sedan. Top speed is an electronically limited 100 MPH.

In this GM-produced video you can observe Volt chief engineer Andrew Farah taking a “hot-lap” around a course set up in LA at the Dodgers Stadium parking lot. Its the same course I test drove the car (only not so fast).  As GM spokesperson Phill Colley likes to say the Volt, ” burns some rubber without burning fuel.”

I witnessed this drive in person and came away impressed.

Yup, this video is cooler than the Chevy Volt dancers, but sadly won’t get as many views (Volt Dance is around 300,000 now).

How important is performance to you in an electric car? Is it all about not burning gas or do you want more?

As many here are aware I had the chance to test drive an advanced Chevy Volt integration vehicle last week.  Read the full report here.

I took the car for a 50 minute spin around a parking lot course with a top speed of around 50 MPH. Though the testing environment was somewhat limited, and the car not fully refined, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and came away extremely pleased and impressed with the vehicle.

I can hardly wait until I have one to call my own, which I hope won’t be too long in the future.

Below is the edited video of my test drive. Hopefully it might let you feel a little like being a passenger in the back seat. You will hear some interesting banter among myself and the two other GM occupants, Chief Engineer Andrew Farah in the front seat and Vehicle Line Director Tony Posawatz in the rear. The filming was done by a fourth occupant, a GM social media staffer who I am grateful to for his help.

There are quiet periods which allow you to hear the generator.

Many other journalists and other people of influence got the chance to drive the car that day and others and all the reports have come back uniformly glowing.

I recently participated in a segment for the NBC Nightly News in the New York tri-state area. The piece is also being nationally syndicated.

The main thrust of the story was to illustrate how electric cars have already arrived on the streets and that in fact now is just the tip of the iceberg.

The reporter and I tooled around in my MINI E electric car and we discussed why it is important to me to drive on electricity.

I also took the opportunity to explain the concept of range anxiety and the value of the Chevy Volt.  According to BMW’s Rich Steinberg only two out of 450 MINI-E drivers have actually run out of charge to the point of needing to be towed, but also points out the car has a limp-home low power feature when for when battery level becomes critically low..

You can watch the video segment in the viewer below:

There is also an accompanied written story by the reporter Brian Thompson here.

It is fitting that on the day the Nissan LEAF began its US viewing tour I happened to forget to plug in my MINI E electric car the night before, and only had a few miles of range left on it. Luckily, I have a third backup gas car for just these reasons.

The Nissan LEAF offers up to 100 miles of electric range and will go on sale in selected US markets late next year.  According to Nissan executives the car will priced so that monthly cost of operation is equivalent to that of a fully-loaded Civic (including fuel). Nissan still hasn’t decided whether to lease the battery separately or sell it with the car.

The LEAF began a four day display in Los Angeles marking its first stop on a national viewing tour that ends in New York City next February.  It is a non-functioning car.  A Nissan Versa outfitted with the LEAF powertrain will be around for VIP and media test drives, public drives will not be permitted.

On the same day the LEAF tour began GM decided to put out a viral video.

This short and simple cartoon attempts to illustrate why EVs are cool, EREV’s are cooler and can be seen below.

If you forget to plug in your EV and it’s the only car you got, not cool.  If you have a Volt it won’t matter.

Of course, forgetting to plug one’s car in may not happen very often but needing to drive continuously beyond its electric range will.

May the best car win.

A question that remains unanswered by GM is what the Volt’s MPG will be in charge sustaining mode or while the generator is running.

When the Volt concept was first unveiled math models put it at 50 MPG, however since development began in earnest GM has kept silent about what it is actually turning out to be.  The only thing everyone has heard by now is that city drivers could expect an average of 230 miles driven for every gallon of gas used over time, assuming a daily full charge.

However, when going on road trips for distances significantly greater than 40 miles it is still important to know how much gas the Volt will use in that setting.

The last time I asked Volt engineer Andrew Farah this question he said the MPG will “not significantly” differ from 50 MPG.

When we ran a poll on the topic here in August, 58% of 1549 voters predicted it would be less than 50 MPG, with the majority choosing 40 to 50 MPG range.

The question was recently asked of Tony Posawatz, Volt vehicle line director, by a Fox news reporter who actually had a good understanding of the car’s engineering.  The video of this interview at the bottom of the post is well worth viewing.

When asked what the Volt’s MPG will be in charge sustaining mode Posawatz responded:

“We’re still testing that in all honesty, but we can make the following statement. It will be better than any conventional car in the class and we’re trying to figure out how close or if it will be actually better than other hybrids.”

According to fueleconomy.gov, the car with the best fuel economy in the small car class is the Toyota Yaris which gets 29 MPG city and 36 MPG highway for a combined fuel economy of 32 MPG.

Though Fox as a result of the interview reports“Chevy Volt to Get 32 MPG?” Posawatz seems to clearly state it will be more than that.