Plug-in Hybrids, Range Extenders – whatever you want to call them depending on quite how they are wired up – are fascinating things to learn about and even more fascinating to drive. The most fascinating part of driving them, however, is how utterly normal the good ones are to drive. And that will be the […]
Tag: Electric
We have now finished our time with the Holden Volt, so it is time for a wrap up of our final thoughts on it. The first thing you notice when you hop back into an “ordinary” car after just driving a Volt for almost a month is how smooth the Volt actually is. With no […]
With the wonderfully low centre of gravity courtesy of the large central battery pack and the instant torque courtesy of the electric motor, the Volt is actually quite a thing of fun on a winding back road. While the steering isn’t exactly alive with feel, it is responsive and relatively sharp. The chassis has a […]
As we have mentioned previously the Volt is a supremely good open road distance eater. On electricity it is smooth and quiet (although road and wind noise seem more noticeable due to the lack of engine noise to mask them), although on petrol it does get a bit noisier. The engine noise is often unsettlingly […]
The Volt is not a particularly large car, but it will carry four people in relative comfort. But only four. The Volt is a dedicated four-seater, with the central battery pack running through the middle of the two separate rear seats. You could probably jam a couple of smaller passengers in the boot, but the […]
In heavy traffic the Volt is, rather obviously, a dream to live with. Super smooth, instantaneous throttle response and with no clutch to worry about it is happy to glide smoothly and silently along at whatever speed the traffic is flowing at. It is a monster away from the traffic lights too, with all that […]
Here is an interesting video describing how the Volt’s drive system actually works. If the main video is too technical, then here is a simpler explanation! It is interesting to note that the first official video subtly avoids mentioning the point during “high speed” driving where two of the clutches lock up, essentially creating a […]
So here’s what we think so far…
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 […]
Well, we have just completed a 400km+ round Christmas trip in the Volt and it continues to impress. Although possibly not in the way you might initially expect. Where it can potentially use literally no petrol around town – as long as you do under 60km – it will inevitably use petrol on a long […]
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