This article should be titled, “I Like to Look.” I live in Los Angeles but like many I still think of myself as a New Yorker - transplanted pedestrian, that is. I’m not a “Car Guy.” But out of necessity I have embraced car culture, kind of, not really, though. I truly miss the days of jumping on the subway and sipping my coffee while being totally engrossed in the first two sections of the paper. My disposition is this - I can’t see investing a crap-load of money into something (car) that ultimately is devalued once I buy it, unlike say, a house which (in theory) will eventually (I hope, I hope) gain value over time. But I can’t drive my house to work, so I have a moderately beat-up Jetta that gets me back and forth to work.

I doubt I would buy this thing only because I don’t see many hybrids on the Chevy line-up currently and my experience with technology in the past twenty years tells me to steer clear of any Chevy Version One EV efforts, wait for Version Two EV at best. I mean really, this is what Chevy has listed under their Hybrid Section on their site. A Tahoe Hybrid. Awesome (sarcasm). According to their numbers it will get a whopping 19 city / 26 highway m.p.g. Holy Crap Batman, that’s frigging amazing! Especially when the average m.p.g. in Europe is 40 m.p.g. or something. The Volt is a nice looking car, but let’s see if it goes into production. This guy seems to sum it up well:

First, batteries are expensive, and a series hybrid needs much more robust batteries than an assist hybrid like the Prius. That is why the assist hybrid is attractive; all the ICE technology is an easy match for actually building something abd the batteries are smaller and lighter, and don’t need to be so robust. That is why the Volt doesn’t even have suitable batteries yet. Kind of hard to build a car without them. Which is why Toyota is building a bunch of non-plug in assist Prius hybrids. They don’t have to wait for battery technology to catch up. GM is still in the maybe-in-the-future mode.” Anonymous Post, treehugger.com

To be honest wih you, this car is definitely a pipe-dream. It is being billed as a perfect solution for those of us who drive under 40 miles a day. Great. A sporty “local” drive. But for those of us with a couple kids and a dog, where are the hybrid minivans? Yeah, I said it. I said the M word.