Why the Volt should be a 4.1 passenger car - 2 years ago we were looking at used hybrids. We considered a Honda Insight and a Toyota Prius. The deciding factor was a "carseat". My wife was pregnant. An Insight would not be able to carry the two of us plus a car seat. So while it got much better gas mileage, we decided on the Prius.

Now I am aware of the fact that the Volt is a 4-seater because of the battery pack. But I had an idea. Carseats do not need leg room. And I thought to myself perhaps the Volt could be designed to take an optional infant carseat.

After seeing the following photo, I believe it could easily be done.
http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/gm-chevy-volt-electric-car21.jpg

Now, I am aware that GM does not make carseats. But that center battery cover with the cup holders could easily be modifed to accept a specially designed car seat.

My thought would be to simply work out a deal with Britax (as they have one of the most regarded names in the industry). To engineer an infant seat that would "lock" onto that center battery cover. Make it akin to the seats in many mini-vans which can be removed.

The result...the Chevy Volt would now be able to carry 4 passengers and 1 infant. Now the practicality of the Volt as a family car just increased greatly.

The result...the Chevy Volt would now be able to carry 4 passengers and 1 infant. Now the practicality of the Volt as a family car just increased greatly.

For about three or four years, anyway. Plus, the rear-seat passengers have to be OK with having the car seat hanging over into their space.

At least the cup-holders could be used for leak containment.

I think the problem would be seatbelt anchors. The child seat would need a seatbelt and not sure how well that would work with the belts coming up and around the car seat. May not be so stable. In addition, it looks like the people occupying the other two seats would have to be children too and not mind sharing part of their seat with a child seat. It's really not an ideal set up for a third child seat. No doubt future Voltec vehicles will be five passenger.

It's not a bad idea. The Gen 1 Volt is probably only going to be produced in extremely limited quantities anyway. They've been working on Gen 3 for 6 months at least and who knows when they started work on Gen 2, so the product cycle for Gen 1 is probably only going to be 2 years, 3 if you count the ~1,000 they're making in 2010. By the end of 2012 they'll probably have Gen 2 out. The batteries are going to be a lot smaller and the vehicle will probably be the size of a Malibu I'm guessing.

Thank you for the picture of the back seat. I spent like 2 hours looking for one the other day and couldn't find anything decent. I sure hope the front seats were all the way back when that picture was taken because that doesn't leave much leg room. I think they need to move the back seats into the hatch area or something, maybe the battery too if they have to.