After a week of test-driving a Chevrolet Volt — and with the deadline for this story fast approaching — I knew I would have to be able to answer the question of whether I would be willing to give up my gas-powered car and join the roughly 1 percent of Hawaii motorists who have made the switch to EVs.
Conceptually the answer is yes. I loved the freedom of cruising past gas stations and not having to check whether the price of gas had gone up or down from the day before. It was also satisfying to know that even though most of the electricity used to charge the battery was generated by oil, the EV was using fuel much more efficiently than a typical internal combustion engine.
EV LIVING
Visit HawaiiNewsNow.com for reviews on the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt by Dan Cooke, Steve Uyehara and Tannya Joaquin.
For video reviews on each car, visit the following sites: Dan Cooke’s Mitsubishi i-MiEV: goo.gl/cgNZs; Steve Uyehara’s Nissan Leaf: goo.gl/TqjJW; Tannya Joaquin’s Chevy Volt: goo.gl/sWl8e
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The Volt’s 40- to 45-mile range on a single charge was more than enough for my 28-mile round-trip daily commute. And roughly 90 percent of the electricity I used in the car came from free 240-volt charging stations in town. The rest of the electricity I used was from a 120-volt home charger at an estimated cost of 8 to 9 cents a mile, about half the fuel cost for a standard car getting 25 miles per gallon.
Realistically, however, there are a few hurdles in my particular case that will keep me in my Nissan Versa for the forseeable future. First and foremost, I have no place to plug in the car at my townhouse complex. The one time I used a "home charger" was actually at my father’s house about a mile away.
The other thing holding me back? Financial considerations. Even after the $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs, the Volt would set me back $31,165 — more than the household budget could bear at this point.
Still, the Volt was a blast for the week that I had it. Finding open charging stations around my office in Waterfront Plaza wasn’t a problem, but there were a few times when I was competing with my colleagues Nadine Kam and Gordon Pang, who also were driving EVs as part of this project. I also discovered that the two free Volta Industries chargers at Kahala Mall were fully occupied on several of my commutes to work. For the most part, however, there seems to be a collegiality among EV owners here.
When Nadine saw that my Volt was plugged into one of the two Better Place chargers at the Keola Lai condominium near our office, she called me and asked when I would be able to give the spot to her so she could charge her Mitsubishi i-MiEV. State Rep. K. Mark Takai, who owns a Nissan Leaf, says there is a "courtesy" notepad at the single charging station in the basement of the state Capitol that EV owners use to let others know when the charger will be available.
From a drivability perspective, I give the Volt a definite thumbs up. In the "sport" driving mode, the car is pretty quick off the line. Edmunds.com says it will go from 0 to 60 in about nine seconds. Motor Trend reports the Volt’s quarter-mile time is 16.9 seconds at 84.3 mph. That’s on par with my six-speed manual transmission Versa, but the Volt seems to have more punch at the low end, and the overall acceleration is a lot smoother. I had no trouble merging with freeway traffic entering the eastbound H-1 freeway at the Ward onramp. Of course, stomping on the Volt’s accelerator burns precious electrons and significantly cuts into the battery’s range.
But perhaps the biggest advantage the Volt has over other plug-in EVs is its extended-range feature, which mitigates the "range anxiety" that can affect other EV drivers when they are out of range of a charging station. The Volt is equipped with a small 1.4-liter gas engine that powers a generator to keep electricity flowing when the battery is depleted.
