Handy Chevrolet

We all know the reality of the situation, whether your 15 years old without a license and vehicle or a retired person on a tight budget as well as all other areas along the spectrum:  gasoline is getting pricier by the day and the global supply is dwindling.  It's as black and white as that, and there's no denying either side of it.

Aside from these issues, there's also the notion of preserving our Earth and atmosphere, something that needs to be done in order to ensure our children and our children's children have a pleasant life in which to live.  With our ozone layer depleting on a daily basis, polar ice caps threatening to become nothing more than a drop in the bucket that is their home, and smog and pollutants in the air that cause a variety of health problems in the modern days where 85-year life spans are the norm, the reasons are anything but few and far between.

Finally, Chevrolet and General Motors are strictly following President Obama's newly signed Bill which dictates that by 2025 all vehicle manufacturers must reach a fleet-wide fuel economy rating of over 52 miles per gallon.  Seeing as today vehicles are lauded for a 25 to 35 mpg rating, this is quite an enormous undertaking, but one that GM and Chevy are taking on with a ferocious smile.  To read more about other, non-Volt related eco-friendly initiatives, click here.

It's with these ideas in mind that Chevrolet began working on the Volt, an electric vehicle that is unique in its use of a combustion engine to power the vehicle after the battery is depleted.


Unlike competitors vehicles, the Chevrolet Volt was engineered and built with an ingenious theory in mind:  humanity needs electric vehicles, and we need them now... but do we actually have the real world skill to get them out the door now?  And though General Motors, Chevrolet, and indeed most car manufacturers these days are nothing short of brilliant in their many endeavors, the fact remains that we cannot drive ONLY 72 miles and be done for the day - our world is just built too heavily around the interstate/road concept, and 3/4 of a 100 miles just simply will not do.

So Chevrolet took ideas from column A - column A being the combustion engine that has been around since the early 1900s in some way, shape or form - and a little from column B, the latter being the new EV (electric vehicle) technology.  By combining well known gasoline engine technology with the newer electric motors, Chevrolet was able to invent what Popular Mechanics Magazine dubbed 2011's Invention of the Year:  the range-extending or range-anxiety-free EV.  The 2011 Chevrolet Volt's biggest selling point was born.


Car dealers have a stigma attached that says we'll lie through our teeth to get you to believe something.  While this may be true of places still (though we hope not), Handy Chevrolet isn't like that.  So we'll be honest about the Nissan Leaf and tell you flat out that it's a darn good vehicle.  Being able to go 72 miles on a seven hour charge is mighty impressive, and just because we wear the Chevy bow tie on our breast does not mean we can't tip our hats to the folks who design the Leaf.

However as we said above the fact remains:  what if you want to go from  St. Albans to Burlington?  That trip alone is 76 miles... so you can't get to Walmart for a pack of socks or the University Mall for a Ben & Jerry's ice cream cone?  One could suppose that if a household had two cars they could use the older gasoline version to get there, but doesn't that defeat the purpose of buying a new vehicle if you can't use it for certain (or many) things?  Once again, this is where the Volt's genius comes into play.

The 2011 Chevy Volt can travel* up to 35 miles on a single charge.  As in the example above, that's of course only enough to get to Burlington and, depending on your driving habits, start making your way back, right?  Luckily the GM and Chevy engineers used a fuel efficient 1.4-liter gasoline engine to extend that range from "just" 35 miles to a whopping 400 extra, meaning the total available mileage is somewhere in the ballpark of 435 on a single charge and tank of gas.

Best of all, the Volt can recharge using a standard 120 volt house charger in about 8 to 10 hours, or for an additional fee you can charge your Volt in as little as four hours using the 240 volt charger.  Best of all, some people will be given the opportunity to get tax rebates for the eco-friendly purchase, a tax rebate as large as $7,500 in some areas.  To further supplement your smart Volt-purchase, some buyers can even get a tax rebate on a home charging station!  If you don't qualify for either of these, you'll be happy to know that Middlebury, Vermont just opened the first electric car charging station in VT!

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(1) Electricity consumption as shown is based on nationwide estimates and may vary by area.
(2) Upgradable 240-volt charging cord costs extra.
(3) Whichever comes first.