Switching to Gas
So after nearly two weeks of driving around town (200 miles and barely a drop of gasoline), I finally hit the limit on the battery range and had the car switch over to the internal combustion engine. Unlike other hybrids, the Chevy Volt's engine powers the electric motor and doesn't drive the wheels - giving it some flexibility as to when and how to use gas. It also never lets the battery drain completely, so even when the car reports its out of juice it still has about a 30% charge remaining.
And that's when things got interesting. I expected the engine to run continously, but the car was much more judicious in its engine use. While coasting down a long hill on my way home, the engine shut down and the regenerative braking system poured some additional electricity in the battery. When I reached the bottom of the hill and turned onto the next street, the internal combustion engine was still silent - apparently enough energy was captured on the way down the hill to go another quarter of a mile without having to use gasoline. It wasn't until I went up the next hill that the engine turned itself back on.
It's impressive how much thought and engineering went in to making that scenario possible.
I have some requests for a video tour of the car that I'll post up this weekend.
