Start Getting Amped - Our Chevy Volt Behind-the-Wheel Report is on Its Way

Start Getting Amped - Our Chevy Volt Behind-the-Wheel Report is on Its Way

By John O'Dell November 23, 2009

With just about a year to go before General motors flips the switch that starts things rolling in the Chevrolet Volt  production plant, the automaker is starting to dole out short Volt test drives in early pre-production models of what will be the world's first mass-produced series plug-in hybrid.

So far, the fun's be limited to the East Coast and the New York Times and NBC-TV's Today Show. But GM is bring the Volt out West next week for the Los Angels International Auto Show's press days Dec. 2 and 3, and all of us at Edmunds, Green Car Advisor, Edmunds.com and Inside Line, will be bringing you driving impressions. Stay tuned for where and when.

Meantime, we can report that the first journos to sit behind the wheel and press the accelerator pedal were generally impressed with the car, which- we and they hasten to remind you - is still a long way from being dialed-in.

The biggest issue, as reported in the Times and on CNBC.com in their Chevrolet volt test drives,  seems to be the engine noise when the brain controlling the Volt's power system realizes that the four cylinder, 1.4-liter internal combustion engine-generator has to really crank it up to start replacing electrons that have been drained from the battery.

The Volt, you'll recall, is a series hybrid with rechargeable batteries. The wheels are always driven by the Volt's electric motors, and the lithium-in battery pack provides initial power for up to 40 miles of driving - at low speeds; range diminishes as ground speed grows.

If a trip lasts long enough for the battery charge to be depleted, an on-board internal combustion engine-generator kicks on to continue generating the power the electric motor needs to do its job. The motor-generator also would come on if a driver failed to recharge the batteries between trips and sufficient miles were tallied in a number of short drives to drain the stored juice.

When that happens, the early reviewers said,the initial tip-in as the battery depletes and the generator is called on is smooth, almost undetectable. But then comes an unnerving buzzing and racing into high revs as the ECU demands more power to produce more juice.

There's no transmission to modulate the engine-generator's activity - the Volt's wheels are driven solely via the electric motor - so the sound appears to be somewhat like stomping on the gas in a conventional car when the transmission is in neutral.

GM engineers say the system still needs fine tuning - as does the Volt's entire noise attenuation system, which has to deal with two problems - masking wind and road noise when running in near-silent all-electric drive and masking the noise and vibration that occurs when the internal combustion powerplant kicks in and revs up.

They promise it will be done, though - and so far they've managed to live up to their promises re the Volt, which has become the most publicly visible new car development project in the history of automobile development.

We've never satisfied, of course, and wish GM would provide even more info and let us even deeper inside Voltwerkes central

But compared to the info automakers - the General included - dish out about other programs, well, there is no comparison.

To give you a little taste, here's a short video, released by MSNBC, of the test drive by NBC auto reporter Phil LeBeau.

And don't fret about its brevity: The Edmunds crew will be binging you lots more after we plant our seats in the Volt's.

 
                            

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