2011 Chevrolet Volt 1st Drive

A key component in General Motors attempt to survive and regain technological relevance is the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. Most likely the only vehicle in GM's lineup that didn't draw lengthy sighs and eye rolls from a mistrustful U.S. Congress throughout recent hearings, the Volt is basically an electric auto that has the potential to outgreen existing hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight. But unlike the full electrics of the past, the Volt carries a gas-burning engine that automatically kicks in to offer juice as soon as the onboard battery pack's charge is depleted.

T-Shaped Battery Is the Heart of the Volt

We recently had the opportunity to drive the Volt-or a minimum of an engineering mule of the Volt powertrain cloaked within the skin of a Chevrolet Cruze, the brand's upcoming replacement for the compact Cobalt. This June, the Cruze mules will probably be retired, and for the first time, the Volt's powertrain will be mated to the Volt body.

According to Tony Posawatz, the vehicle line director for the Volt, the Cruze-based mules represent 80-percent-correct versions of how the Volt powertrain will feel when it arrives in showrooms in November 2010. But GM wasn't ready for us to fully expertise the Volt; our drive was restricted to an electric-only expertise, which is how the organization imagines most consumers will use the Volt.

"The beauty of the Volt is the size of the battery," affirms Posawatz. Weighing in at 400 pounds, the lithium-ion pack allows the Volt to travel as far as 40 miles on electric power. The battery, created of about 400 waferlike cells, sits beneath the center tunnel of the car. It's six feet lengthy and branches out under the rear seats, forming a T shape. (Having a center tunnel in a front-drive vehicle gives the Volt mule's cabin the feel of 1 from a rear-wheel-drive vehicle.) Like most standard electric cars, the Volt will recharge via a wall plug; the engine is just to obtain you to your destination when the charge is depleted. A full charge via a 110-volt outlet is expected to take six to seven hours, and GM anticipates a two-to-three-hour charge time with the optional, Chevy-supplied 240-volt charging program.

Though the maximum total power output of the Chevrolet Volt battery pack is 16 kWh, the Volt only uses about 50 percent of the battery's total power. By not charging the battery over 80 percent or discharging below 30 percent, GM hopes the pack will last 10 years or 150,000 miles within the automobile. Following its life within the Volt, the battery will still be able to store about 12 kWh, and GM envisions that it could possibly be used as an energy-storage device in a residence once removed from the vehicle.

First Impressions Are Promising

In the Volt, the battery feeds a 149-hp electric motor that drives the front wheels. The response and also the immediate power are what we've come to anticipate from electric cars. The Volt is by no means a sports sedan, however it will briefly chirp its tires when pulling away from a quit. Acceleration is acceptable; with four occupants on board, the Volt felt like it could almost certainly run from 0 to 60 mph in about 10 seconds. GM's 0-to-60 target for the production Volt can be a bit more aggressive, at 8.five seconds. The single-gear transmission supplies seamless and CVT-like acceleration from a stop. Unlike a gasoline engine mated to a CVT, the practically silent electric motor doesn't scream as it propels the automobile forward under difficult acceleration. There's a bit of a whirring sound from the motor, however it is far from the spaceshiplike hum emitted by the electric motor inside the Tesla roadster.

What isn't yet clear is how the Volt will behave when the battery is depleted as well as the gasoline engine kicks in to supply more juice. In this so-called range-extending mode, the electric motor will be limited to the power supplied by the 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine under the hood. The gas engine is in no way utilized to charge the battery; the engine turns a generator that directly feeds power to the electric motor. If the engine is revving at 2000 rpm and creating 25 hp, the electric motor will probably be able to create only 25 hp. If a lot more power is required, the gasoline engine could conceivably run at its power peak at a really high rpm. Taking the point further, if the gas engine is rated for only 100 hp (our estimate of its power output), the 149-hp electric motor will likely be able to make only 100 hp. The upshot: The Volt will likely be quicker running on battery power than it'll be when the gas engine is providing the electricity.

Unable to attempt the gas-fired answer for ourselves, we asked Posawatz how the encounter will alter when the battery is discharged as well as the gas engine comes on. "The work becoming done by the development guys as we speak would be to produce a gentle feathering of engine rpm," he said. "So you don't even notice that the engine kicks in. And to attempt to operate at the correct points and to transition the rpm points depending on the load you're getting-to behave like someone would want it to behave. You might get into a position under an extreme grade or hill climb where the engine rpm will likely be fairly loud-running pretty difficult. At a specific point in time that rpm will likely be comparatively unpleasant. This is the challenge of different road loads: How can we keep the NVH reasonable for a customer?"

Judging by our drive, the Volt will work really well as an electric auto. But with out finding the chance to drive it with the gas engine switched on, we wonder how the encounter will change when the battery's charge is depleted. GM imagines most Volt buyers will rarely operate within the range-extending mode and will instead primarily run the vehicle on battery power by plugging it in as typically as probable and driving fewer than 40 miles at a time. To those folks we can say that the future will feel surprisingly conventional, if eerily quiet.