The recent unveiling of the production version of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt re-introduced a saying that gets thrown around often these days – The future is here. Is this car, a battery-powered mass production model from the world’s biggest automaker, really the future?
By Grayson Hale
Imagine a car that you plug into your home at night only to wake up the next morning to find you forgot to “plug in the charger”. Imagine a car that runs out of power halfway back from work on a cold and rainy Monday evening. There are a variety of well-documented reasons why the majority of people who currently drive electric-powered vehicles are golfers or well-heeled environmental activists. So if the world’s biggest motor manufacturer can produce a model that is viable for mass consumption, would an ordinary motorist own one of those? Why should a man wearing a Rolex and a suit be seen in a car that runs on electricity? The answer is quite simple really.
You see, the Volt is not just a car. It’s a ride! It drives just like a petrol-powered car (sans the exhaust note of an internal combustion engine, of course), and has the kind of appearance that is expected of modern passenger vehicles. Sure, the top speed of 160km/h is hardly the fastest around. In fact, it’s slow, but with all the hidden speed cameras around, who actually drives at 200km/h anyway? If a poor top speed is the only good reason you can think of not to buy this car, shame on you! It’s faster than most electric-powered vehicles and charging the Volt about once a day will consume less electricity in a year than the average home’s refrigerator unit, Chevrolet claims.
The Volt is the first of a new class of vehicles called E-REVs (Extended Range Electric Vehicles). The wheels are driven by an electric drive unit at speeds, and the car can run on electricity alone for up to 65 kilometres. And when the battery’s is depleted, a petrol-powered generator provides power the Volt’s electric drive unit.
This mode of operation extends the range of the Volt for several hundred additional miles, until the vehicle’s battery can be charged. Unlike a conventional battery-electric vehicle, the Volt eliminates “range anxiety,” giving the confidence and peace of mind that the driver will not be stranded by a depleted battery. The Chevrolet Volt can be plugged either into a standard household 120V outlet or use 240V for charging. The car’s battery will be charged in less than three hours on a 240V outlet or about eight hours on a 120V outlet. Charge times are reduced if the battery has not been fully depleted.
The Chevy Volt is actually so convenient it’s scary. Perhaps charging it at home is more convenient than stopping to put in petrol. Perhaps not being able to go over 160 km/h is more convenient than going 220 km/h and getting a large speeding fine. Perhaps driving without petrol makes you feel that much more comfortable inside, knowing that the air around you is safe without your car releasing harmful fumes into the atmosphere all the time.
If you’ve ever felt guilty because your car was polluting the air you breathe, then consider that the Volt is the first of a generation of vehicles that could eventually supersede the current wave of petrol-electric hybrids. The initial inconvenience of plugging it in and charging it could soon become a habit (remember when you first used your cell phone?), and the fears of your vehicle running out of power will be no different to fears of being stranded with an empty petrol tank.
Using peak electric rates, GM estimates that an electrically driven mile in a Chevy Volt will be about one-sixth of the cost of a conventional petrol-powered vehicle (that’s by US standards, I’d imagine). And although it does not completely eradicate motorists’ reliance on fossil fuel, it only needs to burn fuel when travelling over longer distances… Therefore, as the range (read: battery capacity) and powertrain efficiency of cars such as the Volt improves, motorists might eventually not need to fuel up at all.
