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Having only previously been a passenger in the fleet of green taxis that shuttle you around London, I was intrigued to see what it was like to be behind the wheel of an electric car.
First impressions of the Chevrolet Volt are that it's a car for someone who cares about appearance as well as green credentials. From the streamlined silhouette, down to the ice blue LED lights and 17" spoked alloy wheels, it definitely looks the part.
Once inside, the Volt is sporty yet substantial, with a dual cockpit layout front and back. Sitting in the driver's seat, the first thing you notice are the two large screens that replace the conventional instruments. It's more like a flight deck and I felt a little like Star Trek's Mr Sulu as I navigated its high tech features via the touch screen.
Starting the day with a fully charged battery, you have a range of 30 to 50 miles, which, I'm told, is enough for about 80% of daily journeys. But the Volt's great innovation comes after the battery has been fully used and an onboard petrol engine kicks in to power an electric generator.
This means that the wheels are only ever powered by electricity, not only making it far more fuel efficient, but also giving you a total range of up to 300 miles. So here we have a car that's green, but isn't going to leave you stranded on the grass verge as soon as you venture out of town.
As you set off, the first thing you notice is the noise - or actually the complete lack of it. I quickly discovered that this makes for a great environment for listening to music: your MP3 player plugs in via a USB port, so you can enjoy your entire music library through a powerful Bose® system.
One of my favourite features is a natty little green spinning 'leaf' ball on the driver's information screen that turns yellow and shoots upwards when the you get a bit too aggressive with your acceleration and plummets downwards when you brake too hard and fast. It's like a spinning ethical conscience and you can't help but play along with the game to try and keep the ball in the green as you go.
There's also a rear view camera, which activates when you are reversing and shows you the angle you should be following when parking. It's a very clever device but I'm way too much of a control freak to surrender my driving to technology to that degree! But maybe trust builds as you and your car get to know each other.
Overall, the drive is very smooth and sleek with good acceleration and braking. In fact it's so sleek it's all very surreal and you feel like you're gliding above the ground rather than making any contact with the tarmac. Driving the Volt was not dissimilar to how I imagined it would feel to fly a spaceship in an episode of the Jetsons and I felt I was navigating solar systems rather than cruising the streets of London.
Follow Jo Whiley on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jowhiley
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Or was it like a pretend experience, like the Le Mans 24 using pedal cars? Like a decaf expresso, no point at all.
So what do you think will happen to all of the factories and jobs if we went over to electric cars ,not to mention all of that vat on parts and sevicing parts at 20% .
Truth is the government cant afford the loss of jobs and loss of revenue that comes with an electric car ,but i expect they will come up with something .
before changing ,some buses were battery / diesel powered , you only have to go on to U tube to see electric vehicles people have made and or converted ,there are hundreds of them and they dont cost anything like the prices being charged by mfg,s,
an electric car does not need oil and service parts ,and it dont need all of the emission equipment ,the loss of vat on parts let alone jobs would be catastroffic ,some hybrids have 2ltr plus engines ,when all thats needed is a 6 hp low revving diesel generator ,but then there would be no money in that,plus the loss in road tax revenue , if we all out tomorrow and bought an electric car the government would go broke ,well even more broke than they are now .as for the cost they are priced higher so people dont buy them !
they were to economical .after the publicity they were taken back and were crushed on the quiet .
In Canada there were 2 electric car mfg,s but despite meeting all requirments and more the government drown them in red tape one went broke ,i dont know what happened to the other one .
I drove an electric car in 1954 !
I was five years old !
It was called a Dodgem !
It took me as far as I wanted to go, for a Penny !
Isn’t that the car with the chequered history? BCC Before the Combustion Component, was added. The vehicle whose users were so pleased, they offered to buy their leases outright. When the makers realized they were too economical (replacement parts wise), withdrew and then scrapped them.
"enough for about 80% of daily journeys"
No regenerative braking then? A technology that has been around for yonks. Where the motor acts as a generator. Converting inertia shed while slowing, into stored energy for accelerating back up to speed subsequently.
"It's like a spinning ethical conscience"
Jiminy Cricket, under glass?
"it's all very surreal"
Too surreal for DC to see the future though it? There are a number of modular car construction systems now available. The government could get into boosting those manufacturing opportunities, and help kick-start a renewable future economy. Rather than create an HS2 museum piece.
With vat at 20% on all spare parts its not rocket science to see that the government would go broke ,then you the road tax structure ,electric cars dont pay road tax the loss there alone would be catastroffic , and then we have the emissions industry making all of those sensors that alone is a multi billion pound industry ,then you have the London congestion charge ,they would go broke .so expect to buy an electric car for anywhere near the price of a petrol/diesel because it would be the end of society as we know it !