I have seen the Future, and it’s now.
” Beam me up Scotty! ” Those were the first thoughts and words that came to mind when I slid behind the wheel of a brand new Chevy Volt, the first electric car from GM. It’s because just settling into the driver’s seat even before the car is started triggers a sound and dash board light show that signals you are about to ” boldly go where no electric car has gone before”. The computerized dash board dance magically bumps up a notch when the ignition button is pushed displaying an array of metrics that resemble the touch screen of an ipad, accompanied by a sonic whoosh of sound. I was expecting to hear the voice of Steve Jobs magically ooze out of the sound system delivering one of his famous audio tutorials about what all of the icons on the dash could do.
GM wanted me to experience their first electric car so they offered it to me for a week to drive around town and up to our cottage for the weekend.
In a nutshell, even though the Volt is powered ( up to 50 kilometers at a time with full charge) by battery alone, it rides like regular luxury car, but quieter. It’s so quiet you can’t tell that the engine is on while idling and is quiet enough while driving that you hear the tire rubber meeting the road. I’m not a techno geek so I wouldn’t understand or have the patience to learn about the physics of torque/lb -ft ratio that some people need to know to get the picture. What I can tell you is that when you step on the gas peddle it accelerates and responds in the same way you expect from a regular gas powered engine. I thought before driving it that it might feel like a battery powered golf cart with a bit of a lag compared to combustion engines and with a lower speed or cruising limit, but that is not the case. The specs claim it goes from 0- 60 in under 9 seconds and that is pretty much what it feels like. I cruised on the highway at between 115 – 130 km/h. The specs claim a top speed of 160 km/h, and Yes, it does have enough torque on the highway at the speed I was travelling to pass.
What is really game changing about the Volt, is that it has overcome the range restrictions of an electric car. With full charge on the battery it will go about 50 kilometers without using any gas. When the battery runs out of charge, the propulsion system flips automatically to a gas powered on board generator that creates enough electricity to take you up to another 500 km before filling up with gas – or charging up the battery by plugging into a standard 120 – volt household outlet. It takes about 8-10 hours to fully re-charge the battery. One end of the power chord goes into a standard 120 volt outlet and the other into the car’s power receptacle. GM tells me it costs about a dollar to charge for 8 hours.
In my case, I plugged it in every night and drove to and from work everyday ( 20 km ) without using any gas at all, and then took off to the cottage on Friday. The car flipped over to the gas powered generator on the 400 hwy just south of hwy 7 and I didn’t feel or hear a thing. I just found myself looking at the icon of a gas pump instead of a battery on the dashboard. I plugged it in again Friday night at the cottage and drove around to do some shopping throughout the weekend without using any gas at all.
The Volt is a head-turner as well. It drew a lot of attention in the local LCBO parking lot from folks who had heard about the electric car but were really curious about how it worked. Up to a dozen guys went on a walk around to check out the silver and black chassis while asking how the car performed in comparison to a gas engine. They all wanted to know how long it took to charge the battery ( 8 hrs.), at what cost ( $1.00 ) and how far it would go before running out of juice ( 50 km). They were all trying to do a quick mental calculation of how much gas they would save given their own driving habits. You can do your own calculations based on yours.
Now, the car is not cheap, nor does the battery last forever. The battery is warrantied for 8 yrs. or 160,000 km. The Volt I tested for a week was loaded with all imaginable options including Satellite radio and OnStar. The retail price is $41,500 but the Ontario Government rebates about $8,000 as a clean energy incentive so you could probably pick one up for about $33,000.
At age 59, I’m not sure I will see the day when the electric car is the norm, but I can certainly see after driving it for a week that it is a giant step towards breaking our addiction to oil and gas – and makes a ton of Urban sense.