So far there has been a lot of hype and not much done. Will chat positive when see positive.

My Prius is one of the quietest vehicles on the road, and on electric drive, you can barely hear the thing, save for the slight whine of the motors. I do this, and regularly cruise around my neighborhood at about 20 MPH.

This video was done in january of 2007. I didn’t think the batteries were ready for the Volt back then… (or even now).

This video alone has me thinking that not once have I seen a demonstration from GM showing the big must-haves for any kind of vehicle : neighborhood cruising at 25 to 40 mph, acceleration to highway speeds, highway cruising.

I agree with you. They need to stop the hype, and give us something tangible soon. People blame Toyota for hyping up the Prius, but the fact is, the Prius is a real vehicle you can buy today, with more than 1 million sold so far. There’s very little left to hype, and very much real technology today.

Thanks for stopping by.

Well, yes, I can understand that Volt looks cool to some people. Granted, we have to agree that what you saw was a movie prop, but if manufactured as spec’ed, it will sure turn some heads.

Its luxury-sports-car coolness though makes me wonder if GM not wasting time and is working on a simpler, cheaper and more down-to-earth version. I don’t think they can pull themselves out of the hole they’re in by manufacturing a single model of a sports car, no matter how revolutionary the design is.

With all Volt’s coolness, there absolutely has to be a plug-in hybrid car that looks and sells like, dare I say … a Camry or a Corolla, for this to be a viable model line.

that it sounds loud is no doubt because the camera gains the audio level up to a certain level which makes it hard to say how loud it actually was. it’s curiously unproffesional audio (home video echo of the door etc.) the car also sounds like loose plastic panels which it no doubt is being a mock up.
I spoke to the somewhat obtuse Chris Preuss from GM communicatins (obtuse because they still deny the murder of the EV1) and he said this type of drive was normal for a display model irrespective of gas or not. it’s actually conceivable that they just pulled out a styling concept car and called it chevy volt as quick damage control after the documentary ‘who killed the electric car’. the total lack of serious electric drive components speaks volumes about the absense of any EV directed work prior to publication. Chris Preuss denied that the Volt was a direct response to the movie. I believe he was lying

Well, on the matter of the weird sounds it makes: I understand that it’s not a professional video footage and people trying to push Volt through GM are probably out of budget for anything (the famous laundry detergent bucket under the hood as an enclosure for some parts?). Yet I would argue that the pitch is way too high for the speed to be anything real. It sounds like 10,000 RPM at 10MPH. I don’t believe a high power DC motor would even survive long at this RPM. The DC motor of my Prius hums at 10 times lower frequency making me believe its bearings won’t go THAT fast.

Looks like the poor GM insider Volt proponents added the sound to make it more believable but made it just ridiculous instead. I see no harm in this, just another reason to make fun of them.