For people without garages, making short trips, it would be nice to be able to charge the batteries by running the gas engine after parking. It would be nice if you could take a 2 mile trip, park, and let the engine run for a few minutes to top off your battery pack.

I'm wondering how long it would take to top off the batteries after say a 2 mile trip.

I know the current concept doesn't consider this, but, I think this charging mode will be desired by many customers.

Energy is lost when you run the ICE to power the generator to charge the battery. It would be more efficient just to use the generator to power the traction motor.

Of course, it would even be more efficient to charge the battery by plugging the Volt into an external power source, since you are parked - that's the whole idea, anyway . . .

(I know, I know . . . "what if you're parked where there's no power" . . . Bad choice of parking spots, then ;)