The chiming electronic music that plays when you slide behind the wheel, and the animations on the multi-screen display, are in direct contrast with the machine muscle of this car. But then, so is the label, “electric car.”
Chevrolet’s entry into the “green” car market, the new Volt on display at Chaplins Chevrolet in North Bend, is not at all what you might expect to find in an electric car. It’s black, solidly built and sized like a car, with four doors, and seating for four adults. It looked nothing like the eco-friendly go-carts that many (or maybe it’s just me) mentally associate with the label “electric car.”
Best of all, it drives like a car.
“A lot of the first ones that came out with the electric motor, there wasn’t a lot of get up and go to them,” said Chaplins’ finance and insurance manager Michelle Protzman. “This one, you step on it, and it takes off.”
It really does. Acceleration is quick and steady, hills are no problem, the freeway is smooth (and quiet) sailing.
“We’re on the crummiest part of the freeway right now and the road noise still isn’t burning your ears out,” Protzman points out during a test drive.
The car is so quiet, it’s hard to tell whether it’s running or not. To save power, it actually stops running at stoplights, but starts right up again when you step on the gas.
The Volt can travel 35 to 50 miles on a fully-charged battery. Once the electric power is gone, a traditional gas engine, averaging about 35 miles per gallon, powers the car. An owner can charge the car with a traditional 110 household outlet in about 10 hours, or on a 220 outlet in about four hours. The car tells you what time it will be ready, and how far you can go on an existing charge.
Inside, “it’s beautiful,” says Protzman. Many of the controls are touch-activated, and everything is within easy reach. The design is very intuitive, Protzman says. As an example, she described one of her employee’s reactions to the car. “He got in it Monday night when it got here, and then he got out and said, ‘Oh, my gosh, did I just get into a Mac?’”
But, the coolest thing about this car is that it’s right here in the Valley at least a full year before Washington dealerships are scheduled to officially start getting the car.
Chaplins, Protzman said, is committed to having a Volt on the lot for people to check out from now on, even if they have to buy them from out-of-state dealers for more than the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.
They’ve already done it twice. The first Volt, a fully-loaded white version, was on the lot four hours before it sold to a couple in Sammamish. The car is in demand, not just because it’s the next cool thing.
“I think people are beginning to take notice as to what we’ve done to our air, and all that other stuff. They’re being more responsible with their choices,” said Protzman.
It took Chaplins about a week to get Volt number two, which arrived mid-March.
Why go to such trouble? “Because it’s such a special car, and we were just as curious as everyone else and we wanted one up here,” Protzman said. Also, she wanted to demonstrate her staff’s ingenuity in serving customers.
“There’s a perception that because we’re a small dealership that we don’t get the cool things,” Protzman said.
Not any more.
