Richard Yarrow’s opinion for www.startrescue.co.uk, providing low cost Car Breakdown cover.
Every year in May the car industry and motoring media come together for a single ‘test day’ at Millbrook proving ground in Bedfordshire. The manufacturers turn up with their latest products and we hacks get to have a go away from public roads and other traffic. This year’s was yesterday, and I made straight for the Chevrolet stand to have a drive in the Volt.
This is a car you may not have heard too much about, but trust me, when it goes on sale next spring, you will be hearing plenty. It’s the world’s first mass-produced electric vehicle (EV) with what’s become known as ‘range-extender’ technology. It’s driven by a battery, but doesn’t fill it with juice by plugging into the mains and using that to run motors to turn the wheels. Instead, it has a small engine, in this case a 1.4-litre petrol unit, which charges up the battery. It’s a crucial point; the engine doesn’t drive the wheels, it just charges the battery. It can go for up to 50 miles without the engine even running – so-called ‘silent mode’ – and has a total range of 350 miles. That’s considerably more impressive than the 100 miles that most regular plug-in EVs can offer.
As with the Nissan Leaf, you forget you’re driving an EV in the first 30 seconds. So I was looking round the cabin for something else to write about and focused on the switches. Put bluntly, it has very few. Look at the picture above and you will see what I mean. You don’t push buttons in the old-fashioned way, you simply touch areas of the dashboard to perform a function and it makes a clicking noise like you’re typing a text message into an iPhone. You want access to the nav menu, you just touch the word ‘nav’ on the ice-white trim. I love it!!
Got an opinion other www.startrescue.co.uk Breakdown Cover
Breakdown Cover from 
