Drivers could get a charge out of Chevrolet Volt
WARREN, Mich. -- Originally published May 1
Based on the thin evidence available, folks who buy or lease the Chevrolet Volt electric car — scheduled to go on sale in November 2010 — should be surprised and pleased.
If the so-called Volt mules that General Motors provided for a few miles of driving around the GM Tech Center campus here Tuesday were representative, Volt owners will be treated to remarkably punchy performance from the electric drivetrain and a level of quiet refinement that appears to lead the industry.
What's a mule? A chassis and powertrain from the target vehicle clothed with the body and interior of some other car about the same size.
GM won't begin making Volt bodies until late May, so it is using the body and some of the interior of the similar-size Chevy Cruze compact sedan atop the platform that GM says is close to what showroom-ready Volts will have. Two such mules were yanked from GM engineers' test fleet long enough for journalists to roll up a few miles. Once back in the big garage, the cars were abruptly snatched back to the engineering test fleet.
Why the urgency? Volt is as close as the modern auto industry has come to "making it up as we go along." The car's lithium-ion battery packs remain under intense development and testing. GM is betting it will know everything it needs to by the time the showroom-ready chassis, body and drivetrain come together next year.
There's sense to using a Cruze body in the interim because Volt will be, very loosely speaking, based on Cruze, GM says.
Based on a few miles in one of the mules, Volt should be:
•Powerful. Electric motors give instant torque, and the Volt motor has some serious guts. If the production version — which GM says will have even more power — is like the tester, you'll be able to embarrass muscle-car drivers when the light turns green.
•Quiet. None of the whine typical of electrics when they accelerate exists; nor the distant whine and howl on deceleration when the motor becomes a generator to recharge the battery pack in what's known as regenerative braking.
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