Rear seating

[JustJosh]

Hello, my name is Mike. I'm seriously thinking about purchasing a Volt. We are a family of five. 3 small children. I know that there is a middle console in the rear seating area to accomodate some of the batteries. Will that middle console ever be removed for future models as this makes my purchase a deal breaker for now? I'm not looking to carry my kids in it everyday but it would be nice to know that that thing in the middle is not there anymore or can be removed. Please advise. Thanks again and once again I apologize if this was talked about in a previous thread. Mike

[saghost]

Hello, my name is Mike. I'm seriously thinking about purchasing a Volt. We are a family of five. 3 small children. I know that there is a middle console in the rear seating area to accomodate some of the batteries. Will that middle console ever be removed for future models as this makes my purchase a deal breaker for now? I'm not looking to carry my kids in it everyday but it would be nice to know that that thing in the middle is not there anymore or can be removed. Please advise. Thanks again and once again I apologize if this was talked about in a previous thread. Mike

It's not likely. Installing a rear bench would require a totally different battery pack concept/installation, requiring more development time and more production cost (through lost commonality.) Even aside from that, there's the problem of where to put it. So far, the answers have been GM's T, in the trunk (fills a lot of the trunk space,) or under the floor (Leaf, Tesla S/X - leads to tall cars with less interior height than you'd expect - and in the Leaf's case, was part of the tradeoff the led to no TMS (there's a quote out there online from a Nissan exec that said they could have had a TMS, but then they'd only have had four seats.)

I wouldn't be at all surprised if next year or the following one GM comes out with a CUV sized vehicle with a rear bench and totally different battery (allegedly there won't be any other Voltec cars until sometime after the ELR arrives, which is mid-next year as a 2014.) I have no doubt GM knows that the small crossover market is the next one they need (Equinox/Escape sorts of CUVs, most likely)

[fotomoto]

"Easy": reverse the entire propulsion system making the car a rear wheel drive.

Josh, I'd suggest you look at the Prius PIP or the new Ford Energi coming this fall. Due to smaller batteries, they have seating for five but shorter electric driving range.

[DonC]

The Volt really doesn't seat five. The area between the two bucket seats is just twelve inches or so. I don't think it would be safe much less comfortable.

[saghost]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if next year or the following one GM comes out with a CUV sized vehicle with a rear bench and totally different battery (allegedly there won't be any other Voltec cars until sometime after the ELR arrives, which is mid-next year as a 2014.) I have no doubt GM knows that the small crossover market is the next one they need (Equinox/Escape sorts of CUVs, most likely)

I just realized that if it can take the high discharge rate requirements, the Spark EV pack is pretty much perfect for such a project - rectangular and designed to fit under/behind the rear seat, with more capacity to offset the higher weight and worse aerodynamics of the CUV. Gotta love synergy...