Volt test drive quiet, efficient -- and fun

Who knew a revolution could feel so normal?

That's what struck me after a few minutes behind the wheel of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. It felt perfectly normal.

But the Volt is anything but ordinary. The plug-in electric vehicle with a range extending gasoline engine can fly down the highway, roll through tight corners and silently stalk traffic under electric power.

This compact four-passenger, five-door car is so innovative and original that the Environmental Protection Agency still hasn't figured out how to calculate the Volt's fuel economy performance.

The car's 435-pound lithium ion battery pack delivers between 25 and 50 miles of performance. Then a 1.4-liter gasoline engine kicks on to power the electric drivetrain, allowing the Volt to keep going for as long as the driver wants.

There is no other electric vehicle in the world — in the world — that I could have hopped into at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, as I did on Sunday, and potentially driven to Miami or Los Angeles or Buenos Aires without ever having to plug the car into an outlet.

Sitting behind the wheel, I felt completely at ease. There were no tricks to learn with this car. Push down on the brake and then press the electric start button. The two LCD displays light up but the car doesn't make a sound.

Then reach over to the Mac-inspired center stack and grab the gear shifter, put the car in drive and hit the gas, err, accelerator. The Volt sounds a little like a golf cart, that high pitched whirl gaining intensity with acceleration. It's like being in a science fiction movie but in real life.

Sunday was the first day General Motors Co. let journalists drive the Volt on open highways around Metro Detroit. Chevrolet challenged journalists to test their eco-driving skills from Metro airport to Rochester in a 40 mile loop. The idea was to see if the journalists could make the trip on batteries only.

Careful drivers could easily hit 50 miles; hyper-milers, those people who find physical pleasure in stretching every amp as far as they can, could certainly do even better.

I was told this as I hit 80 mph and tapped the accelerator for a little more juice outside of Ann Arbor. The Volt has a top speed of 100 mph. Maybe I would become the first person in a Volt to get a speeding ticket — this car could be hazardous for lead foots.

Environmentally friendly driving and never using gasoline again is fine for many drivers; the Volt is a viable answer for the vast majority of people who drive less than 40 miles during a typical day.

But the car has an alternate personality to that air slick design and nearly silent ride: The Volt can fly like a bolt of lightning.

The 111-kilowatt electric drive unit pushes out 149 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque. And that torque is available whenever you need it. There's no tachometer on the Volt, as there is never a moment behind the wheel that you need to worry about the engine's power band, that specific rpm when the engine is producing maximum power. The Volt is always producing maximum power.

Passing cars and trucks along Interstate 94 proved how fun electric cars are going to be. The Volt's electric power steering is firm and exact. The suspension, smooth with a little body to roll some on hard cornering, feels well-balanced. All told, the car that has been hyped for more than three years, is a hoot to drive.

After I drove more than 32 miles on electric power only — in a very un-eco-friendly manner — the Volt's little engine began powering the car. This was the moment I had been waiting for: It's one thing to power a car with batteries, but it's revolutionary to have a gas engine supply the power to electric motors.

The succession of power is more seamless than a presidential election. The engine is quiet and keeps humming along. There's never a glitch, a pause or a moment when the engine noticeably kicks on or off. For the most part, once the initial battery charge is drained, the engine produces the electric power to drive the motor.

However, due to regenerative braking, which converts braking energy into electricity and pushes it back to the battery, the car can turn off the motor and use just the batteries to power the car.

This provides all of those "stoplight" moments where you could roll down the window and smugly listen to all of those other cars idling, unnecessarily using up fuel. Then, when the light turns green, you tap the accelerator and quietly whirl down the road.

Most of all, there's nothing to adjust to in the Volt. My 75-mile trip used a total of 0.9 gallons of gasoline. But I would have been happy to drive farther.

-Scott Burgess, DetNews.com October 2010

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