The Chevy Volt is not a “Toy”. A “Real” Vehicle for Typical American Drivers
The Chevy Volt is hitting the road with awards and anticipation. Although electric vehicles have been around for 10 years now, the Volt is somehow different.
Reviewers describe it with words like real, practical and solid. You get the impression that they think it is cool to be in an electric car that is not in the least “toy like”.
The Volt is a hybrid running on both electricity and gasoline. This gives it a huge advantage over electric-only vehicles that must be charged and rely on overnight, at-home charge ups, or the exceedingly limited public charging stations. When the Volt runs out of juice it switches over to its gas powered generator.
The Chevy Volt sales release is coincident with GM’s IPO which is going better than many people expected. It looks like it will bring in more than any other IPO in Wall Street’s history.
Although the Volt is far from being alone in the electric car market, it has momentum, good media attention, and features that won’t be found in the competition for some time to come. The Ford Focus Electric is a year out. The Nissan Leaf will show up in January but is all-electric, lacking the distance feature of the Volt. Other electric and hybrid vehicle launches are even farther out. So for now the choice is the Volt but don’t bet on the Volt in 2013.
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