Can the Chevy Volt Convert This Honda Girl?

At BlogHer, I had the opportunity to check out the Chevy Volt.

The Chevy Volt is the electric car that is being released at the end of this year.  The Volt will travel for 40 miles on battery and then it switches over to a gas tank that gets another 300-400 miles at approximately 50 mpg.  (Hmm, that’s similar to what I get with my Insight on my hybrid motor, but my first 40 aren’t straight electric.)

I visited the car with Robin and since I’m pushy, even though Robin was engaged in conversation with one of the engineers, as soon as I saw someone get out of the car, I jumped in the driver’s seat.  I liked the set up.

Then, it was my lucky day.  Another engineer got into the car and was ready to deal with me.  And, dammit, she dealt with me WELL.

As you know, I drive a Honda Insight.  What you may not know is that I don’t trust American cars AT ALL.  I am a firm believer in Japanese cars.  So, getting me to like the Volt is an uphill battle because it is a Chevy.

The poor engineer.  I was all over her with questions.  From the movie Who Killed the Electric Car to why should I ever consider driving an American car again because THEY SUCK.

She told me that this isn’t going to be a Who Killed the Electric Car situation.  I sighed a heavy Danielle sigh and said, yeah, well, how do we know.  She said that post-bankruptcy, there is still support for the full launch of the vehicle from the top management of the company.  It’s not just a team of enthusiastic engineers (i.e., her).

Well, why should I trust American cars?  They suck.  She said that they stopped sucking but everyone still has some biases.  She gave me a lot of facts that made me scowl.  (I stopped my scowls because I don’t want wrinkles and I listened.)

The engineer was damn candid with me.  She said that they need snobby-ass whining yuppies like me to get off their high horse and learn to love American cars again.  (I am paraphrasing.)  And I was all, but I have trust issues.  And she said, but we are awesome and deserve a chance to regain your trust.  Fine.  I’ll consider it.

But then she told me that I couldn’t drive it.  BOO.  (Chevy – that’s how you convert this Honda Girl.  You let me drive your badass electric car and get me all hot and bothered because right now, I’m impressed, but we still have trust issues to work out.)

The engineer was one of my favorite people that I met at BlogHer.  I am a pain in the ass and I know it.  I ask 700 questions and I am direct.  But she was patient.  More importantly, she had passion.  She has worked on this project.  She knows this car.  She loves this car.  She wants the world to know the level of awesomeness that is this car.

So, let’s shift from my disbelieving ass to the car.  Since I don’t really speak car, I took pictures of the specs that they had on display.

The engineer and I talked about charging.  It is about $.80 per charge.  My daily commute is 24 miles round trip.  Imagine if it only cost me $.80 to charge my car and then I would only need gas for long trips.

Here’s the thing that you plug into your house to charge your car.  It’s seriously like a big extension cord.

One of the features I loved the most was the Chevy Volt app.  Yeah, there’s an app for that.  It is available for Droid, iPhone and BlackBerry.  You can be your car’s overlord from afar with the app.  You can plug it in and then tell it when to charge with the app.  The app dazzled me.

As you can see in this photo, it tells you how much charge you have left, etc.  I love the app.  Honda has not given me a way to control my car from other places.  Point to Chevy for that.

I’m not sure if the Volt will convert me or not.  However, I liked it.  Is there a way to rebuild that trust for American cars?  Is this the car to do it?

(This is Robin, me and the Volt.  And my ill-placed camera bag.)

Related posts:

1. Insights from an Owner of a 2010 Honda Insight
2. Conversation with a Little Girl
3. Money Haiku: To That Southern Girl