If you want to buy a Chevrolet Volt extended range electric vehicle (EV) next year, you'll need to be living in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Oshawa, Ottawa-Gatineau, Vancouver or Victoria.
Today, Chevrolet announced those seven as the first markets to get the Volt in Canada when sales start after June of 2011.
"These seven cities represent some of our largest automotive markets in Canada, where customers and major fleet operators are known to be leaders in adopting groundbreaking environmental technologies," said Kevin Williams, president and managing director of GM of Canada in a release.
GM Canada expects to roll out the Volt right across the country by the end of 2012. Why the slow and steady launch? Fear - GM is afraid of something going wrong, of customers not understanding how to drive the Volt to best effect and of dealers who are unable to provide top-drawer service to Volt early adopters.
Naturally, GM thinks its Volt is the best EV alternative out there, thanks to an on-board gas motor that charges the battery pack when it's out of juice.
Chevy says the Volt has a total driving range of about 580 km, though for the first 40-80 km, the Volt drives gas- and tailpipe-emissions-free using electricity stored in its 16-kWh lithium-ion battery.
"When the Volt's battery runs low, a 1.4-litre gas-powered engine/generator seamlessly engages to extend the driving range about 500 km on a full tank," says Chevy.
All well and good. Nonetheless, an interesting analysis of potential Volt problems by Edmunds.com suggests Volt owners may be in for a few grizzly surprises.
Senior analyst Karl Brauer argues that costs associated with the Volt and what it demands of its owner are issues that "put the Volt at a disadvantage when shopped against cars like the Ford Fusion Hybrid, Toyota Prius or Volkswagen Jetta TDI." He argues that "understanding and optimizing the Volt's technology will require a much higher degree of driver commitment."
Volt owners, for instance, must read their owner's manual or they will surely be disappointed with the car's overall performance. Many if not most owners wouldn't know their car's manual if they sat on it.
"Now this same group of buyers is expected to both understand how the Volt works while actively maximizing the car's potential energy efficiency by plugging it in, carefully considering daily driving needs and even engaging specific driving modes for specific circumstances (e.g., 'mountain mode' when scaling a steep pass).
"For technically savvy drivers," Brauer continues, "these activities will be part of the appeal in owning a Volt. Yet for every driver who revels in the car's complexities there will likely be thousands who are simply overwhelmed by them."
Bottom line advice for future Volt adopters: lease the car, don't buy it. You'll want to learn the Volt's ins and outs and be sure you can live with them before locking yourself into a final purchase.
Video: The first hybrid electric vehicle to be mass produced by one of the original big three auto makers has rolled off a GM assembly line