This makes it incredibly easy to find the charging station nearest you. There’s an app for iPhone and Android called “PlugShare”, on which EV owners and operators list charging stations on a map setup. We took this particular Volt on a little road trip from Toronto to Niagara Falls and back, and unlike any of the others, the car was actually able to make the round trip without thinking twice. The biggest one is the elimination of range anxiety. There are a few advantages to the Volt over the likes of full electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf or the Ford Focus BEV. Keeping the ball in the center of the gauge means you’re operating the Volt in the greenest way possible, and the car also tells you during your drive what “percentage” you’ve achieved. There’s a little ball that shoots upward when you accelerate hard, and shoots down when you brake hard. In the digital instrument cluster (more about that later) there’s a gauge that shows you how to keep it green. The throttle is sharp, a bit jumpy at parking lot speeds, and it’s not difficult to start driving the Volt in the efficient way it encourages you to. Pushing down on the accelerator of this fun little Chev will result in a surge of torque, and the car takes off effortlessly. The 10.5:1 compression ratio of the engine means if you choose to do a ton of highway driving, you will inevitably dip into the gasoline side of the car, and it requires premium fuel. The 1.4L gasoline engine used as a generator is from the same series as seen in other GM offerings such as the Cruze (minus the turbocharger), and offers 83 lb-ft of torque. Being an electric vehicle, the torque is available instantly, and makes the car feel considerably peppier than it is and an absolute blast when darting around the city. Power from the Volt is 149 horsepower and 273 lb-ft of torque. Based on this, the typical urban buyer should be able to use the Volt without ever having to dip into the range extender system. Statistics say that the average Canadian drives 40km round trip for work on a daily basis. On a full charge, I was able to muster 63km out of the Volt, which isn’t bad at all. The gasoline engine under the hood serves as a generator to extend range should you have to drive it longer than the electric range will allow. Let’s straighten this out before getting further into this review this Chevrolet is a “series hybrid”, which means the car is driven solely by the electric motor. Others are disappointed that it’s not “fully electric” because it has an actual gas tank. A ton of people have written it off by calling it a hybrid, which it really isn’t. The Volt has a little bit of controversy around it. I was given the keys to a 2015 Chevrolet Volt for a weeklong test, and I was happy to finally play with one myself. In the past, we’ve driven a couple examples of Chevrolet’s electric offering, but it’s been in the warm months. What we’ve noticed in the past is that hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles work optimally with regards to overall range and driving dynamics in warmer weather, and that winter temperatures take a serious toll on these factors. We’ve had some high-end sports cars, affordable hot coupes, and of course, the usual plethora of green vehicles in our garage for review purposes. This winter has been a particularly interesting one.
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