New Cars

A few thoughts on the Volt as a shopping trolley

January 1, 2014

I went to get some groceries in the Volt the other day. So how did it perform as a shopping trolley? Again, pretty much like an ordinary car…

But you could be forgiven for not initially expecting this.

The Volt’s boot is an oddity. With the long, sloping hatch being almost entirely glass, along with a section down the bottom of the hatch as well (think Prius, Insight, or any of the other uber-aerodynamic hybrids and hatches) the “boot” is very much on show. In fact, it is more of an open space behind the rear seats than anything else.

A small, stretchy fabric cover is provided to hide most of the contents of the boot, but anything small you put in the back is still likely to tumbling forward between the two rear seats, as there is nothing to separate things there.

Still, the space on offer is surprisingly large and usable. You could fit many a bag of groceries in the boot, although they will slide around a fair bit (here are anchor points, but no luggage net to secure things with) and it is entirely within the realms of possibility that an errant jar of Vegemite may just come rattling through the gap between the rear seats under heavy emergency braking… as I found out.

In short, the boot space is generous, but you have to accept the fact that it is not an entirely separate compartment. Then you will get on with it just fine.