Combining the two energy sources, the Volt delivers a staggering range of 500 km (in theory). According to its makers, a full charge will take approximately eight hours from a standard North American 120V, 15 A home outlet and less than three hours if one is using a standard 240 VAC outlet.
GM recently invited a few international automotive journos to savour the new Volt and the overall impression was positive. In a surprising departure from most launches, the journalists were requested to drive the Volt as slowly as possible to see how far they could travel on battery power alone. Most of them managed to cover about 75 km in 90 minutes. Even with the most spirited driving, the Volt simply refused to dip lower than 30 kilometres in the all-electric mode. In the engine-only mode, the overall mileage in real world driving conditions, as early tests suggest, is 14 km/l.
GM have also taken pains to ensure that the Volt feels more of a conventional vehicle. Touch-sensitive controls, reminiscent of early iPods, do everything from a-c to audio system control. A conventionally shaped gear shift slides between the common ‘Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, Low’ positions and there are three drive modes: Normal, Sport and Mountain. As with all EVs, flooring the pedal unleashes all the torque at once – 370 Nm in this case – making for whiplash-inducing starts from standstill. Naught-100 is achieved in nine seconds, not much by today’s standards but certainly far better than the Nissan Leaf or Toyota Prius.
Much of the development on the Volt was done by Saab while the propulsion system is based on GM’s new Voltec (formerly known as E-Flex) electric platform, which differs significantly from GM’s earlier BAS Hybrid and Two-Mode Hybrid systems. It goes into production this month in the US as a 2011 model with a price tag of Rs 18.2 lakh (before incentives).
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(Clockwise from top) The Volt could very well be the world’s most advanced electric/plug-in hybrid on sale now; charging time can be as little as three hours via a standard 240V outlet; the Volt’s interior is minimilastic and functional
