2011 Chevrolet Volt Test Drive: Informative, But Far Too Short

2011 Chevrolet Volt Test Drive: Informative, But Far Too Short

By John O'Dell November 29, 2009

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

To wreak havoc with Mr. Dickens, it was the best of drives, it was the worst of drives.

Well, not really the worst, but conditions certainly could have been better and the time allotted a lot longer for out first encounter with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. We got enough to whet our appetite, not enough to satisfy.

Green Car Advisor got 15 minutes behind the wheel of a prototype Volt at a media-only event held at Dodger Stadium, near downtown Los Angeles, this afternoon. We spent another 10 minutes or so in the back seat.

Beyond the obvious - it was a thrill to drive a vehicle loaded with potentially game-changing technology - we came away impressed with what General Motors has accomplished, remembering that there's still a year to go and a lot of tweaking to do before production begins.

The drive was about what we'd expected, a short spin on a roughly circular and fairly flat course marked off with orange safety cones. Not much opportunity to stand on it, and not enough time to really get a feel for things.

Andrew Farah, Volt's chief engineer, rode shotgun the entire time - as he did with all drivers - and answered our questions about the world's (soon to be) first mass produced extended-range, plug-in, series hybrid as frankly as he could, given there are some things GM just isn't ready to talk about yet.

As for the drive:

The Volt felt solid as a rock, well-grounded and nimble with its low-slung, 400-pound lithium-ion battery pack really gluing it to the road.

It is a competitive EV when driving in all-electric mode - as quiet and smooth as any we've driven - and it seems a competent vehicle when the engine-generator kicks in.

The change-over from battery charge to generator power seemed to be seamless and the noise levels when the engine came on were quite acceptable in the circumstances (a little about that below), and we imagine GM's got noise attenuation and engine-generator controls pretty well dialed-in.

Engine noise was an issue for two early reviewers who said the sound of the gas engine racing when the battery needed boosting was disconcerting - and we'd agree that it was a bit off-putting the several times we experienced it.

It was about the same as putting a conventional car into neutral and then racing the motor just a bit, the engine RPM exceeding the power needed to do what you're doing at that moment.

Farah said GM is working on software modifications for the engine control unit that will pretty much eliminate the situation, although the entire powertrain is set up so that, at times, the engine has to work harder than demanded by the pace of the car in order to bring the battery up to the minimum 30 percent state of charge after a particularly demanding bit of acceleration has drained it below that level.

We predict lots more comment on this "engine racing" as others do their reviews and as GM works out the kinks, but we'd expect it to be a non-issue by the time the cars start hitting select dealerships at the end of 2010.

Steering was tight and responsive, braking was nice and linear with the electronic brains  seamlessly blending mechanical and regenerative brake force so there was no alarming slow-down as we've experienced with the Mini E.

Seating up front offered good support and lots of leg and head room for my 6'-2" frame.

Acceleration was adequate - better than, say, our Honda Civic GX but not as quick as that Mini E.

But GM isn't advertising the Volt as a racer, so we've no room to complain. Farah says the official 0-60 time right now is "under nine seconds," which we take to means somewhere between 8.90 and 8.9999 seconds.

There's a "sport" switch on the arctic white center stack (production models will also offer it in Argent Silver) that resets accelerator input and adds around 20 kilowatts - 26 horsepower - to the  electric motor's output.  It helps but still won't make you the envy of the boy racers on the block.

The IP has an informative array (click on photo to enlarge) that shows you battery state of charge and estimated range, then switched to fuel level and estimated range on gas or E85 when you've run down the battery charge and pop into engine-generator mode.

There's also a nice little ball - sort of like the bubble in a water level - that helps you stay in the most fuel-efficient driving range. It's big and green when you are conserving fuel or battery energy - smaller and angry orange-yellow when you floor it, or when you brake too hard and aren't getting the maximum recharge from the regenerative braking system.

From the back seat the ride remained comfortable, but the sharply sloping rear window makes it pretty uncomfortable for anyone over 6-feet tall.

All that window glass directly above the rear passengers' heads also makes for pretty warm pates on sunny days - something for which,Farah says, the Volt team is working up a fix; likely an anti-UV coasting or tinting of some sort.

Leg room for me, with a 6-footer in the driver's seat, was okay but not great. There was plenty of shoulder room, and a nice cup holder-tray combo dividing the two rear seats (a padded armrest to cover it would be a nice addition).

Noise levels in the car (more about that in just a moment) were fine - you could hear the road and the wind outside, especially if a window as cranked open, but conversation in normal tones was possible at all times we were in the car.

All-in-all, a nice introduction to a nice car that will be introducing a technology that that could help us reduce our use of oil and clean up our air a bit while freeing those who have it from the range anxiety that can accompany a purely battery-powered electric car.

Now, about the noise situation:

Our seat-of-pants review is built around the feeling that we did not get the most neutral site in which to test the car.

GM held the drive section of the Dodger Stadium parking lot with really old and broken-up asphalt - ensuring that there would be lots of road noise. (To drown out little car noises they didn't want us to hear?)

We don't know if they could have rented a smoother piece of real estate, but there were lots of empty lots at the stadium and several had better asphalt.

And just as the power and energy display on the instrument panel was telling us we were about to run out of battery and switch into engine-generator operation, or charge-sustaining mode, Farah insisted on rolling down the windows because, he offered, that would provide the best chance to hear the engine.

It also was a good chance to hear the engine with lots of background noise from the pavement and rush of air.

Even with those defects, though, we came away feeling the GM gave us a pretty good first look at the Volt, and and instructive although all too brief driving experience (and that's partly because there were three drivers from the Edmunds team - a solo driver could have circled the course for most of the hour and built up a few more impressions.)

Verdict:  A solid car with loads of promise from a technology that undoubtedly will help bring  clean electric driving into the mainstream.

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.