My ride for the next week

Hi!  We are wrapping things up for a week of shutdown and I had the amazing luck to get a student rental vehicle over the break (Rental #2 of 5 I'll have by the time the internship is done).  Student rentals are for one week whereas most of the regular employee rentals are for the work week, or the weekend, not both.  With the holday, I'm actually getting it for 10 days!  What car did I get this time you ask?  What I managed to get was...a VOLT.

The area in the middle above the Chevy logo is actually more window so you have better visibility

When I picked it up yesterday the battery was not charged, but it still was super quiet.  The brakes and acceleration were both quite responsive (you can even pick sport as opposed to economy driving mode) and the body design is kind of a mix between a sedan and a hatchback.  The back seats fold down and the trunk is open to the interior of the car, but the roof slopes down more than I think a normal hatchback would.  You can still definitely fit a lot of stuff in it which is always useful for vacations.

Today and yesterday have been another pair of 95+ degree days so something extra special came with driving the Volt into work today.  The only charging stations currently (haha, currently, ok, I'll stop), installed at my office happen to be in the "executive garage."  Having a Volt is your "in" to the garage whether you are an exec or not though, so not only will I finally get to drive the car in full-electric mode, but it won't be quite so scorching hot inside compared to if it had been sitting in the sun in the regular parking lot all day.

Volt Charging Station #2!

 There are eight charging stations in the executive garage, and all are 220V units.  At 220V, the Volt charges in approximately four hours and via a normal home outlet it takes approximately ten hours.  The Volt's electric charging port is on the front left of the car and the gas cap is on the back right.  One thing I did not know before receiving the vehicle is that when it uses gas, the Volt takes only premium fuel.

Plugged into the grid :-)  The charging stations at Warren, MI are solar powered, which is extra cool.

I'll try and add more info about it as the week goes along.  Should be fun.  I can't wait to try in it electric only mode.