spoiler: I liked it

Running hot and cold with the 2017 Chevrolet Volt

The weeks we spent testing the Volt were the hottest and coldest of the year.

Jonathan M. Gitlin – Aug 9, 2016 7:00 am | 165

Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

If all had gone to plan, you would have read this article five months ago. After a short ride in Chevrolet’s new Volt at CES, I was curious to see how the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle fared on the day-to-day grind. There’s only so much you can learn on a few laps of a test track in Las Vegas, after all. Matching—or even bettering—the published economy figures during carefully managed events is one thing, but would the car live up to the promise of a triple-digit MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) in practice, away from the PR people?

The second generation Volt has benefited greatly from Chevy’s experience with the first car. Plenty of weight was taken out of the car, including the battery pack and motor/generator unit (MGU). It’s quieter and the interior quality is a step up. It’s even more parsimonious energy-wise; the official EPA numbers are 106MPGe (and 42MPG on gasoline) compared to 98MPGe (and 37MPG) for the first-gen Volt.

Post-CES, an e-mail was duly sent to Chevrolet asking for some time with the Volt, which arrived during the second week in February. The Volt wasn’t the only thing to arrive that week, however. The polar vortex delivered the East Coast some epically cold weather soon after. In fact, it only rose above freezing here in Washington, DC on the day we gave the car back (February 14 in particular was bitterly cold, with temperatures ranging from -3 degrees Celsius to -10 degrees Celsius [26 degrees Fahrenheit-13 degrees Fahrenheit]).

Despite the inhospitable weather, the car got as much use as possible for several days. And as winter transportation, the Volt did itself proud. The handling on snowy roads was predictable, and the fact that heated seats (front and rear) and a heated steering wheel were standard equipment was most welcome information.

But there was just one hitch. When the mercury drops that low, forget all thoughts of gas-free commuting. It didn’t matter that we plugged the car in at every opportunity, keeping the lithium-ion battery bursting at the seams with 18.4kWh-worth of electrons. No, when it’s that cold, the car’s 1.5L range-extender internal combustion engine becomes your constant companion.

Sadly, all thoughts of matching 106MPGe went out of the window. After five days, I was able to slightly better the gasoline-only economy—43.8MPG vs EPA’s 42MPG—but some trips fared worse, and numbers as low as 21.2MPGe showed up on the Volt’s central touchscreen display.

Several days later, some nice people came to collect the car. Saddened by my poor showing, the article ended up in an ever-growing “Need to write” pile. Finally, a growing sense of shame at having left the idea to rot got the better of me, and it was time for a rematch. Another Volt showed up at my door at the end of July. This time it was a 2017 model painted the same shade of Iridescent Pearl as before; only the all-black interior gave away the fact that it was in fact a different car.

As before, the plan was to use the hybrid throughout the course of the week. No long road trips, but a simulated commute, grocery runs, a trip to the recycling station, and so on. Yet again, the weather had something to say. Yes, you guessed it: this time our loan of the car coincided with one of the hottest weeks of the year to date. (Unfortunately for me you can’t get either cooled seats or a cooled steering wheel as an option.)

As with February’s test, I made an effort. I modified my driving style with plenty of lifting and coasting, although without certain hypermiling tricks like over-inflating the tires or driving everywhere with the climate control turned off. (To do the latter in February would have ended in certain frostbite, the same in July a nice case of heat exhaustion.) The car was left in Normal mode; after all there’s no point selecting Sport if you’re trying to stretch a charge.

When you’re not racing to every red light, driving becomes a much more serene activity, particularly under electric power with nothing but a little wind noise and NPR for a soundtrack. And with pavement hot enough to fry eggs, there was no intrusion from the internal combustion engine to disturb that peace. In stark contrast to February, even with the AC on blast the car was happy to run in fully electric mode (although I quickly switched from “Max” to “Eco” once that all-black cockpit was close to tolerable).

The car helps out. The normally green ring around the central driver’s display turns yellow if you accelerate or brake too hard, giving an easy visual cue to help retrain one’s driving brain. With the transmission selector in L, the MGU begins to harvest kinetic energy from the front wheels as soon as the accelerator pedal is lifted, perfect for inching through stop-and-go traffic. With clearer roads ahead, D was my preferred choice. This allows the car to coast, which it did with remarkable gusto. On city streets with 25mph (40km/h) speed limits, a short burst of acceleration goes a surprisingly long way.

Heavy braking was also banished, thanks to the Regen paddle behind the steering wheel’s left spoke. Using the paddle to slow the car quickly becomes second nature, and again the car helps out, giving feedback of how many kW are being recovered.

And yet, try as I might, the best I could accomplish in almost 100 miles (160km) was a paltry 90.3MPGe. This took two full battery charges (about six hours) connected to a level 2 (240v) charger, but not once in July did I have to hear the engine rumble into life. That meant I was also not able to quite match Chevrolet’s claimed 53-mile (85km) electric range—although Tiffany Kelly did just that during our first drive of the car in 2015.

Even though I was never able to quite match the official economy figures, my combined time with the Volt has left me a fan. I’d go as far as to say that if I still had a commute and somewhere to plug it in at night, I’d seriously consider one as my next vehicle. The interior design is the funkiest we’ve seen from GM in quite some time, and it’s a genuine five seater, although the trunk space could do with being a bit bigger. The 8-inch touchscreen is one of the better ones out there, and there are plenty of USB ports. (There’s even wireless charging for phones that support the feature.)

All of that is not to say it’s perfect. Although Chevrolet redesigned the front air dam based on customer feedback, it still grounds easily on speed bumps and the like. And the lack of a spare tire (an optional extra) came to bite me after I misjudged the entry into a parking lot. The car’s lane keep assist feels dated in comparison to its implementation in something like a Tesla Model S or Audi A4. And while the Volt has cruise control, it’s not adaptive. [Update: it is available as an option.] My biggest complaint is the lack of any fast charging option, although Volt engineers have told me that most of their customers are happy charging at night or at the workplace. Once again, the electric car proves more suitable for suburbia than life in the inner city.

Still, 90MPGe isn’t that bad.

Jonathan M. Gitlin Automotive Editor

Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica's automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC.

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