The last time I wrote about public charging, I was commenting on one of the very few charging stations and how I was the only one using it.  The mass market EV was still very new and less than a thousand Leafs and Volts had sold at that point across the country.  Today however, with cumulative EV sales in the tens of thousands we are starting to see more and more public charging stations deployed, but just an observation from …

If you’ve recently purchased a 2012 Chevy Volt in California with the low emissions package for California, as a rule of thumb these are Volts that were Built and Sold after March 1, 2012.  Then are you eligible for $1500 in purchase rebates – this is not a tax rebate, but rather a $1500 check that California will write you for buying a Volt.  And you are eligible for a sticker that will allow you to access any of California’s …

update 3/18/2012:  This post has been updated with complete instructions, see the updated post at the California Chevy Volt Rebates and HOV Lane Sticker Page – 2012.

Good news, if you are in the market for a 2012 Chevy Volt, you will soon have access to HOV / Carpool lanes during commute hours without a 2^nd or third passenger!  This is currently this is being rolled out in California, with other states soon to follow.

The catch is …

As we enter the 1 year anniversary of the Volt, I’ve seen many “summertime” Volt buyers wondering if there is something wrong with their Volt when they see their expected ranges drop in the wintertime.  Well to answer your question, there isn’t anything wrong with YOUR Volt in particular, but lower range is a property of electric vehicles today.  The problem is that lithium ion batteries get much less efficient when they are cold. Today’s batteries store energy by means …

If you are a Volt owner today you’ve no doubt heard the news (or non-news) of the Volt battery fires that have been produced in an NHTSA side impact test.  As I am coming up on my first whole year of Chevy Volt ownership, I’d like to offer my opinions that I know many other Volt owners share, but also point out some observations that perhaps get swept aside or easily forgotten.

First let me address the elephant in the …

I was recently invited to the Los Angeles Chevy Volt Homecoming Event put on by General Motors for Volt owners.  As Los Angeles is a little bit more than a day trip for me driving, I hopped on a plane at the Oakland Airport for quick flight down.

Most appropriately, I parked my Volt to pick up a little Juice at the Oakland Airport Charging Stations.  (Which strangely enough are in the “premium” parking section).  While this afforded a nice …

The Chevy Cruze has been likened, tied, compared, and downright matched up head to head with the Chevrolet Volt since the Volt and Cruze were released to the U.S. market in late 2010.  No surprise here really, some relatively common comparative questions and comparisons are listed below.

1.)    Why buy a Chevy Volt when you can buy a Cruze for half the price?

2.)    Is the Chevy Volt a Halo car?  Used to draw attention to the dealership so as …

A Few Days Ago I was on the Google Campus for a conference and was very interested to finally be able to use one of their hundreds of ChargePoint EV Charging Stations around the campus a segment of which you can see below.  The Volts/Leafs are both gFleet cars and Employee Vehicles.

This was great because Google was about 42 Miles from where I live, so if i drove conservatively, I could potentially make the entire 84 miles round trip …

I’ve been a long time sprint customer and Android user, but when I heard that the IPhone 4S was coming to Sprint and it had this feature called “Siri” I had to give it a shot with my Chevrolet Volt.  For those of you that are wondering, Siri is a voice recognition computerized assistant, often compared sarcastically with the 2001 Space Odyssey AI, the HAL 9000.  For more about Siri, read the basics at the Apple Siri Page.

While …

It’s been a few weeks, but I’ve finally had a chance to put together the photos and images from the Chevrolet Volt Homecoming Parade.  The parade consisted of 50 Chevy Volts and their Owners cruising down Woodward Avenue in the Detroit Area, as well as an entourage of Classic Chevy’s, the new Chevrolet Sonic, and A Cadre of Camaros.  There was even an Opel Ampera in attendance!  (They just started rolling off the line at Detroit Hamtramck)

Also as there …