2013 Chevrolet Volt

The five-door hatchback from the side has a high cowl and window line, with fairly narrow window openings made visually taller by a black trim panel that carries the shape of the window onto the upper door. Lighter-colored cars benefit most from that styling trick. Still, the Volt appears still chunky in a way that neither the unusual all-electric Nissan Leaf or the ur-hybrid Toyota Prius is. It's not bad-looking, it's just not that trend-setting.

The fully blanked-out replica of the twin-opening Chevrolet grille definitely keeps it in the Chevy family, and the vertical glass panel in the long, almost-horizontal tailgate--just like a Toyota Prius or Honda Insight hybrid--improves rearward visibility to some extent.

The interior gets much higher marks. The Volt is a compact car with only four seats (the battery pack prevents a center passenger in the rear seat), but the characteristic Chevy twin-cockpit design is well suited to the large center stack with a digital display screen and capacitive touch switches below it.

The colorful, intuitive graphic displays on the vehicle information screen are among the best we've seen, and certainly as good or better than anything else from Chevy. An available glossy white plastic trim color inevitably reminds the driver of Apple products--if, that is, Apple made auto interiors.

For 2013, both the roof panel and the liftgate are body-color rather than the black of 2011 and 2012 models. And a new interior color--known as Pebble Beige--is offered both on the standard cloth upholstery and the optional leather seats with suede inserts.

The Volt's accelerator pedal behavior has been tuned to imitate that of a standard car fitted with automatic transmission, even though the Volt has no gears in the conventional sense. That is, you drive the car with accelerator and brake pedals. If you want to drive the Volt on a "single pedal"--as you do the electric Tesla Roadster--it's necessary to shift into "Low" mode, which increases regenerative braking to the point where the friction brakes are needed far less.

Here, we should recap: The Chevy Volt runs 25 to 45 miles on the energy stored in its lithium-ion battery (the T-Shaped pack is located in the tunnel and under the rear seats). That battery powers a 111-kilowatt (149-hp) electric motor that turns the front wheels. Then, the range-extending 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine switches on, that engine turns a 54-kW generator that produces electricity to run the electric motor. Under very limited circumstances, at high speeds, occasionally a portion of the engine output torque is used to supplement the electric motor's output. But from the driver's seat, that distinction is invisible; the Volt always runs as an electric vehicle.

The powertrain is quiet for the 30 to 50 miles the Volt will run on battery power, and even when the range-extending engine switches on, it is well isolated with very little vibration. There's occasionally some noise from the engine when it operates at maximum output, but you're likely to miss the exact moment it switches itself on--it's that well muffled.

For 2013, Chevy slightly increased the energy capacity of the lithium-ion battery pack, from the original 16 kilowatt-hours to 16.5 kWh, and the usable portion of that energy from 10.3 to 10.8 kWh. That has increased the Volt's EPA-rated electric range from 35 to 38 miles, and it boosts the 2013 Volt's efficiency rating from 94 to 98 MPGe, or "miles per gallon equivalent'--the distance the car can travel electrically on the amount of energy contained in a single gallon of gasoline.

Another update for 2013 is the addition of a "Hold Drive" button that directs the car to conserve battery charge and use the range extender for primary power, letting the driver reserve all-electric range for later usage (in a zero-emission vehicle zone, for instance, should there be one). The existing Mountain Mode is retained as well, which lets the driver tell the car to retain somewhat more energy in the battery and increase the regenerative braking--giving the Volt its best performance on routes with lots of hills.

The Volt, while heavy, has its mass mounted fairly low down in the car. It holds the road well and corners flat. Electric power steering, suspension, and braking all are well integrated.

Inside the car, the seats are mounted low, but they're comfortable. Manually adjustable seats in a $40,000 car may be a shock, but it's all in the name of conserving battery range. The front seats are spacious enough, though the tunnel is high and wide. In the rear, that same tunnel is large enough to preclude any hope of a center seat, making the Volt strictly a four-seat compact--and a slightly tight one at that.

Cloth upholstery is standard, and leather seating is offered as an option. Some daring and unusual accent colors and graphic designs can be ordered, some of them unlike any other Chevy in the showroom. Want abstract patterns and matching seat piping in lime green (it works far better than you might expect)? The Volt is the only car that has 'em. The console can be ordered in glossy white (think Apple product), piano black (now an outdated cliche), or a quieter glossy charcoal.

Low volume and massive press attention mean that the Volt is very much in the public eye, and Chevy has worked hard to keep quality high. None of our test cars has had any rattles or squeaks, and indeed the only thing owners have reported are a handful of software glitches and frozen graphic displays. Just as other makers do, Chevrolet has offered minor software updates to fix reported problems.

The Volt is easy enough to drive that your mother might never know she was driving an electric car from the behind the wheel. Well, there's also that futuristic humming tone as the car boots up and does its system checks.

But without the sounds of engine and transmission, wind noise and tire roar become much more apparent. Chevy's done a good job at minimizing these, but the low-rolling-resistance tires can put out a low, steady roar without other noises to mask them.

Still, there are no startlingly loud sounds at speed or under full-throttle acceleration. With the battery pack used to buffer the highest power demands, the engine-generator only rarely rises to a howl as it revs to the top of its range to provide sustained high power under the heaviest loads.

A media brouhaha in the last half of 2011, over a fire in a Volt sitting in a wrecking yard--three weeks after it was destroyed by the NHTSA in a crash test--brought GM everything from right-wing sneers to a Congressional hearing into the car's safety. After conducting its own study, the NHTSA concluded that the circumstances surrounding the fire were extremely rare, and that the Volt was as safe as any other vehicle. GM nonetheless offers an optional set of modifications to the battery for cars built before February 2012, to prevent just those kinds of issues.

In regard to vehicle fires, however, it's worth noting that roughly 250,000 vehicle fires occur in the U.S. every year--most of those during an accident, not three weeks afterward.

The Volt has a full complement of eight airbags: front, dashboard and side airbags are joined by knee bolsters, and side air curtains stretch the full length of the passenger compartment. It also includes the now-standard suite of electronic safety systems--including anti-lock brakes, stability and traction control, and other systems. All Volts come standard with the OnStar telecommunications system from General Motors, which comes with three years of free service for Volt owners.

For now, Volts are not fitted with automatic noise generators that alert pedestrians if the car is approaching quietly on electric power only. Instead, it includes "chirping" noise that the driver can trigger by pulling the indicator lever.

An energy-efficient Bose audio system costs extra ($495), though, as does the navigation/DVD system (at a whopping $1,995). The standard radio has only AM, FM, and CD capabilities, while the Bose adds satellite radio, MP3 playback, Bluetooth connectivity, and the ability to show DVDs--plus 30 GB of music storage space on a 60-GB hard drive.

Buyers can also tick boxes for a handful of other extra-cost options, including various special paint colors--including White Diamond Tintcoat and a very handsome Crystal Red Metallic Tintcoat--and polished alloy wheels.

A frequently asked question is about battery life. GM warrants the Volt's battery for eight years or 100,000 miles, though buyers concerned about the battery life of a car that's only been on the market for three years may be reassured by the option of leasing their first Volt rather than buying it outright. The entire car is covered bumper-to-bumper for three years/36,000 miles, plus a limited warranty on the engine of five years/100,000 miles. Chevrolet throws in roadside assistance for five years or 100,000 miles as well.

While we would rank battery electric cars higher than any car with a gasoline engine (including the Volt), it still gets our top rating of 10 because under certain circumstances, it can be driven almost indefinitely with no tailpipe emissions at all. It depends on how often you're likely to travel beyond its electric range. For certain high-mileage individuals, a 50-mpg Prius may burn less gasoline overall than a Volt running on a mix of grid power and then at 37 mpg from its range-extending engine.

Running on electricity is virtually always cheaper as an energy source than gasoline, though prices for electricity can vary by a factor of 10 across the country. In part, their efficiency is due to the fact that gasoline engines are notably inefficient at converting the energy content of their fuel into forward motion. Many studies have looked at the environmental impact of running on electricity produced from dirty coal, with most concluding that if you compare to a 50-mpg Prius, there are a few states in which that Prius is marginally cleaner on a wells-to-wheels basis. But if you compare to the average 25-mpg car, then electric running in a Volt--or any other plug-in car--is always cleaner.

It takes 7 to 10 hours to recharge a full-discharged Volt battery pack using 120-Volt household current and the standard charging cord stowed in the Volt's load bay. At a 240-Volt Level 2 charging station, whether a public unit or one installed in your private garage, that's more than cut in half. Still, if you can charge a Volt overnight reliably, that Level 2 station isn't an absolute requirement for the Volt--unlike for battery electric cars.