Winter - Chevy Volt is Built with Winter in Mind

When most people think Chevy, it's not the company's electric vehicle that immediately comes to mind.  Particularly if you happen to live in an area with heavy winter weather and icy roads, you may have never considered that an electric vehicle such as the Chevy Volt could stand up to wintry conditions.  It's almost ironic, though, that the Volt was released to retail buyers at the end of 2010, just before the dead center of a New Jersey snowstorm in early 2011.

When the Volts hit the roads in Jersey that January, I think customers were more than a little relieved.  Without a standard engine releasing heat to help warm up the inside of the car, most people expected to be huddling up with blankets and gloves while driving along.  The first wave of relief came when they realized that the Volt battery can be started remotely while it's still plugged it, warming up the car without using up all the power.  The remote feature can be utilized either on the Volt website or with an OnStar feature.  After it's heated up initially, all you have to do is maintain the warmth, which is much easier than heating it initially. In addition to the remote feature, the electric engines actually warm interior spaces more efficiently than gasoline powered ones.

Another great winter feature of the Volt is the heated seats.  If you concentrate on heating your immediate space, rather than overheating the entire interior air, your body temperature will be more regulated and you'll be saving power at the same time.

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If you ever venture into temperatures that are sub-zero, the Volt's engine has a nice little trick for creating electric warmth as you buzz along.  Once the temps get that low, the engine will cycle itself on and off, heating up the coolant fluids as it does so.  This actually gives the car a reserve of thermal energy that passengers can use to keep them toasty warm inside.

The Volts were purposefully tested and tried in the coldest regions of North America, including parts of Ontario, Canada and Fairbanks, Alaska.  Chevrolet foresaw the reluctance of drivers to tackle extreme winter weather in an electric buggy and they met the challenge head on.