My Electrifying Experience with the Chevy Volt

by Lori Cunningham (@WellConnectdMom)

I was offered the opportunity to try out the 2012 Chevy Volt, as a result of my social media ranking at Klout.com.  On Friday, a black Chevy Volt was dropped off at my house for my four-day city driving adventure.  We’ve all seen electric cars, they’re nice but nothing to really look out.  This was the opinion I held in anticipating the arrival of the Chevy Volt.  Honestly, I didn’t look up ahead of time what the car would look like, I figured I’d already knew.  Surely it would be a small car with an abrupt back-end and very conservative.

To my surprise, a man drove to my driveway in a sporty black Chevy Volt.  What?  This car didn’t meet my expectations of an electric car, it way surpassed them.  Can electric cars truly be energy-efficient and cool looking?  I truly had a mind-shifting experience as I needed to reclassify in my mind the category electric cars can be in.  The Chevy Volt was sporty, had a hatchback, and was very low to the ground.  Wow, I haven’t had a low to the ground car since before kids.  Memories of driving fast around tight corners came flooding back to me.

My kids were the first ones in the car, fiddling with things and listening intently as the gentleman told me how to use the car and plug it in.  He said it would take approximately 11 hours to charge the battery fully.

This is the charger that plugged into our electrical outlet with the other side plugging into the car.  The battery charge should last about 30-40 miles.  After the electricity has been depleted, the car runs on gas.

My daughter loved “charging” the car.  Putting in the charger is even easier than putting in the handle for a tank of gas.  Once the charge had begun, a green light on top of the dashboard turns on to indicate charging.

As you can see the car is pretty roomy.  The back seats fold down to provide extra storage.  However, my kids did report that there is not much leg room when the front seat is pushed all the way back.

The main console screen shows a lot of information.  Here it says that I have the capability of utilizing 250 mpg but on average since the car was first used, it is getting 60.5 mpg, since it’s being driven using gas quite a bit.  According to the Chevy Volt’s website, people who charge their Volt frequently and avoid using gas are getting up to 900 mpg!

This diagram shows you the batteries that are lined up, going through the center of the car.  In this instance, I have used 30% of my battery.

They Chevy Volt gives you an indicator to let the driver know that they are driving the most efficiently as possible.  The little green ball on the right of the screen is supposed to stay in the center.  If it goes above or below the center, you are driving as energy as efficient as possible.  It’s kind of like you’re playing a video game while you drive, ensuring you keep the green sphere in the center.

You can see from this picture that I did not brake very well,  as I was breaking too abruptly.  Oops!  You can also see on the right my battery indicator showing I have approximately 19 miles left before my battery drains…depending upon my energy efficiency in driving.

I have to say, four days with the Chevy Volt were not enough.  It’s really a fun car to drive.  At one point, I left the kids at home with Dad, hopped into the car, and drove a local road with some sharp corners to “test out the car’s maneuvering skills.”  It was fun hugging those corners.  Driving around in this low to the ground car, I felt like I was in my 20’s again.  Now I understand why people going through their mid-life crisis like to get sporty cars, it reminds them of their youth!  Thank you to Klout.com and Chevy Volt for letting me borrow the keys to the car for this fun weekend!

*  I was lent a Chevy Volt as a part of the Klout Perk program from Klout.com.  I was not required to post an article but decided to anyways to show how electric cars are fun as well as energy-efficient.