It was with some trepidation that every Motor Trend editor strapped into and glided silently away in Chevrolet's new Volt. This, after all, supposedly represents the future of personal mobility—not a flying Jetsonsmobile, not GM's winged turbine Firebirds, nor Ford's two-wheeled Gyron, but a 3729-pound, four-wheeled, four-seat electric hatchback with a tiny gas helper engine. Do we car people have any reason to look forward to the 60-mpg CAFE future, or should we jump in our '66 T-Birds now and roar off a butte?

Hang onto that T-Bird just in case, but the Volt shows a lot of promise. You might already know that electricity always turns the Volt's wheels, and we can confirm that its 149-horse electric motor accelerates fairly smartly right up to its 101-mph top speed—with or without the 84-horsepower gasoline engine switched on. The surprising news is that, after you deplete the 16-kW-hr battery

and the engine switches on, a clutch connects the engine and

generator to the planetary transmission so the engine can help

turn the wheels directly above 70 mph. This improves performance

and boosts high-speed efficiency by 10-15 percent.

The 60-mph dash happens in 8.8 seconds on full electric power, 8.7 with the engine on. After 10 seconds of full-power acceleration (about 64 mph), the controller decreases the power output slightly to preserve the battery. When the engine's running, the power it generates covers this power sag, widening the performance gap between engine on and off modes to 0.6 second at 70 mph (11.3 versus 11.9) and to 6.8 seconds by 100 mph.

The Volt is no sports car, but it blows Toyota's plug-in Prius

away (9.8 seconds to 60 mph), and runs neck and neck with a 2.4-liter Malibu in acceleration and handling

tests. Figure-eight performance is virtually

identical at 28.4 seconds and 0.59g, and

the Volt's 119-foot stops from 60 mph are

just 3 feet longer—impressive, given its

226-pound weight disadvantage and lowrolling-

resistance tires. (The Prius weighs

376 pounds less than the Volt, yet it just

matches its 0.78g lateral grip, trails both

Chevys by 0.4 second on the figure eight,

and needs 131 feet to stop from 60 mph.)

See all 31 photos

So the Volt generates real-car numbers.

Is it a real car? Well, arranging four people

around that big T-shaped battery pack

makes the rear seats tight, but sub-6-footers

fit fine, and the hatch makes the most of the

10.6-cubic-foot cargo bay. A mom, dad, and

two kids could easily take a weeklong trip

to Grandma's, no matter how far away she

lives. Without any plugging in, such a trip

should return fuel economy in the high

30s to low 40s.

But what if Granny's a skier living

at Loveland Pass? How can that little

84-horsepower engine keep the 149-horse

electric motor spinning all the way up? It

can't. Eventually a "Propulsion Power is

Reduced" warning will flash, and cruising

speed will drop to 40 mph by the crest

of Loveland Pass (matching the semis'

speeds). But real cars go 70 at the top, and

so can the Volt if you engage Mountain

Mode via a switch on the console 10 or

15 minutes before you hit the grade. This bolsters the battery buffer from about 20

to 40 percent of the 16 kW-hrs—enough to

allow the Volt to climb any grade in the U.S.

at a steady 70 mph.

Senior editor Jonny Lieberman and I

managed to provoke that Power-Reduced

warning while storming Big Tujunga Canyon

and the Angeles Forest highway in Sport

mode (quicker throttle response). It wasn't

the grade, but our aggressive driving that

did it—braking hard to set up for corners

(which were carved with minimal body roll but

under loud protest from the tires) and exiting

under full power. Even maxed at 4800 rpm,

the engine couldn't maintain the 20-percent

buffer, so our max speed gradually fell.

Lieberman concluded, "Dynamically speaking, the Volt

doesn't have much to offer the enthusiast.

Still, I wonder what a set of stickier, softer tires

would feel like." Bob Lutz once proposed such

a sport-tuned version, but adding grip would

cost EV range and mpg for sure.

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The comfortable, quiet cockpit presents

the driver with two high-def screens' worth

of info on range, driving style, energy usage,

etc. The screens had Luddites complaining

of too much information and geeks pining

for more. The Mac-white center stack (also

available in dark gray) drew criticism for

flat, touch-sensitive audio and climate

switchgear that demanded too much

attention to operate. Climate options include

fan only, eco, and comfort modes. One

display indicates climate energy efficiency.

While commuting, Motor Trend boss

Angus MacKenzie noted, "This is where

the Volt shines. Quick and nippy in traffic,

it proceeds with a silent, oozing surge

of acceleration, like a downsized Rolls-

Royce Phantom." Executive editor Ed

Loh concurred, adding, "Volt engineers

have done an excellent job matching the

'efficiency threshold' to L.A. traffic. On the

commute in this morning, I had no problem

keeping the leafy green ball in the optimized

zone. It's harder keeping our Fusion Hybrid

running optimally."

Achieving Volt's 0.281 drag coefficient

required a super-low, flexible chin spoiler that

drags on driveways a Ferrari chin clears, and

aggressive door sealing makes it difficult to

shut the doors without slamming. The payoff

is low wind noise at freeway speeds. The

gas engine is so silent that it's hard to tell

when it switches on if the radio is playing.

It usually shuts down when coasting to a

stop and restarts only after you're moving

again when operating in range-extended

mode. It's programmed to allow rpm to

track acceleration in town to meet customer

expectations, though this likely sacrifices

some efficiency. It becomes quite audible

at 4800 rpm trying to meet the demands of

a steep grade or max acceleration.

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The brake pedal never telegraphs the

transition from regenerative to hydraulic

braking. Most editors agreed with

Webmeister Michael Floyd: "I like these

brakes a lot better than the Prius'. The Volt's

pedal feels much more natural and less

intrusive." He also appreciated the increased

regen provided in the shifter's L position,

"Energy regen and less pedal work in traffic?

I love it." The steering was described by some as rheostatic or numb, but always linear

and accurate. Perhaps the biggest difference

in driving feel between the Volt and "normal"

cars is that—particularly in range-depleted

mode—acceleration response relative to

pedal input can vary considerably.

That leaves us with the elephant in the

room: price. The $41,000 tab is probably

$10K more than the car merits, and doesn't

include installation of the 240-volt charger

needed to reduce the recharge time from

11 to 4 hours. Uncle Sam forks over $7500

of that, and several states will bridge the

rest of the gap. Lease rates have been

announced at $2500 down and $350/month

for 36 months (which bakes in the federal

rebate).

As of this writing, the EPA has not

decided how it will rank the Volt, and anyway,

your fuel economy will vary wildly based on

usage, but operating costs should generally

be lower. EV mode drops per-mile costs

from 12¢ to 2¢, and the electric drivetrain

is nearly maintenance-free, so predominantly

electric commuters may change their

oil only every two years. (Engine and fuel

maintenance programs force the engine to

run at least once every two months for long

enough to warm everything up and empty

a tank of fuel after a year.)

Bottom line: If the gas/electric and plug-in

sport sedans (Fisker, Tesla) and supercars

(Jag, Lotus, Porsche, Ferrari) are as wellengineered

as this subcompact, enthusiasts

need not fear the 60-mpg future.

See all 31 photos

We recorded vehicle speed (blue), engine speed (red), barometric pressure and intake-manifold pressure information off the Volt's OBDII port. As you can see, the electric generator manages to place sufficient load on the engine at all times (except during transitions) to run the engine at wide-open throttle (no manifold vacuum -- the green trace is at zero). Note also how the engine revs usually attempt to match acceleration in a way that people are accustomed to, though it need not do so.

We've computed the horsepower expended to produce the acceleration measured on the Volt in gas/electric and electric-only modes versus the Prius (which is operating in gas/elect mode for this full-power run). Even assuming minimal driveline loss, the combined output of the engine and electric motor likely tops Chevy's claimed 149-hp at 100 mph.

VOLT VERSUS PLUG-IN PRIUS: THE BOAST: WHAT IT MEANS: The Volt's main electric

motor is more powerful:

149-hp/273-lb-ft vs. 92 hp/153-lb-ft Between its big motor

and better gearing, the Volt

can provide the full range of

performance, grade climbing, and

top speed in electric mode. The

Prius must fire its engine to try to

keep up with the Volt, and will still

be left behind. The Prius' gasoline engine

is more powerful: 1.8L/98-hp/105-

lb-ft vs. 1.4L/84-hp/92-lb-ft (est) Because of the way

the Prius's planetary transmission

works, the engine has to turn

above 62 mph anyway, so Toyota

depends on its gas engine to do

more of the work. The Volt's battery pack is

way bigger: 16kW-hr/435 pounds

vs. 3 kW-hr/330 pounds Volt provides 25-50 miles of real-world electric operation no matter how hard you flog it. If driven extremely gently below 62 mph, Prius can eek out up to 13 electric miles. Prius burns regular fuel;

Volt requires pricier premium or

E85 ethanol Volt's 1.4-liter achieves

a 5-percent efficiency gain by

optimizing its combustion for highoctane

fuel, because it most often

operates at wide-open-throttle. (Its

carbon footprint really shrinks on

renewable ethanol!)