![]() ![]() Heavy braking was also banished, thanks to the Regen paddle behind the steering wheel's left spoke. On city streets with 25mph (40km/h) speed limits, a short burst of acceleration goes a surprisingly long way. This allows the car to coast, which it did with remarkable gusto. With clearer roads ahead, D was my preferred choice. With the transmission selector in L, the MGU begins to harvest kinetic energy from the front wheels as soon as the accelerator pedal is lifted, perfect for inching through stop-and-go traffic. The normally green ring around the central driver's display turns yellow if you accelerate or brake too hard, giving an easy visual cue to help retrain one's driving brain. In stark contrast to February, even with the AC on blast the car was happy to run in fully electric mode (although I quickly switched from "Max" to "Eco" once that all-black cockpit was close to tolerable). And with pavement hot enough to fry eggs, there was no intrusion from the internal combustion engine to disturb that peace. When you're not racing to every red light, driving becomes a much more serene activity, particularly under electric power with nothing but a little wind noise and NPR for a soundtrack. (To do the latter in February would have ended in certain frostbite, the same in July a nice case of heat exhaustion.) The car was left in Normal mode after all there's no point selecting Sport if you're trying to stretch a charge. I modified my driving style with plenty of lifting and coasting, although without certain hypermiling tricks like over-inflating the tires or driving everywhere with the climate control turned off. Further Reading Test-driving the new Chevrolet Volt at CESAs with February's test, I made an effort. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |