It looks like there’s a new automotive phrase to add to the popular lexicon: range anxiety. This occurs when people with electric automobiles are reluctant to venture out of their comfort zone for fear that the car’s batteries will run out and they’ll be stranded.

For General Motors of Canada’s technology planning manager, Tom Odell, this phenomenon has particular significance, as it was one of the things the company dealt with when it introduced the ill-fated EV1 electric car back in the late 1990s. “We found that even though we added more charging stations with the EV1, people just didn’t use the ones that were further away,” he explains. “They took comfort in knowing they were there, yes, but usage increased by only 20 percent.”

Odell, who was heavily involved in the EV1 program and concedes that his company “blew it” with that one, is stickhandling GM’s Chevrolet Volt these days. He was in Vancouver during the Olympics to take part in Chevrolet’s preview program for the new gas-electric hybrid car.

The Volt is a completely different animal from conventional hybrid and electric vehicles. Where the EV1 was 100 percent electric, the Volt has a 1.4-litre gasoline engine to supplement the car’s lithium-ion battery pack. Located under the car’s firewall and along the centre console, the T-shaped battery pack feeds an A/C electric motor. Together, they give the Volt a range of up to 60 kilometres on pure battery power.

Unlike other hybrid cars—the Toyota Prius, for example—the Volt runs on battery power alone for 60 kilometres before the auxiliary gas engine cuts in. In other words, when you get in and drive, those first 60 klicks will be emission-free, regardless of the conditions. City or highway driving, it makes no difference, although the harder you drive the car, the sooner the batteries discharge. When that happens, the gas engine comes into play and continuously recharges the battery pack while giving the car a total driving range of some 640 kilometres. GM doesn’t even describe the gas engine as such, instead referring to it as an “on-board gasoline-powered generator”. Its main purpose is to keep the batteries charged, as opposed to providing motivation.

The Volt is also distinguished by the fact that its batteries can be recharged by plugging it into a 110- or 240-volt outlet. The socket is located on the left front fender, and it takes about eight hours to charge with the former power source and three with the latter. When you plug in, the car’s computer “shakes hands” with the electrical supply and performs a kind of mini diagnostic. Any flaws or anomalies in the electrical supply—such as a short circuit or low voltage—are displayed. You can also “communicate” with the car to check on the battery’s state of charge. “If you’re upstairs in your condo, for example, and you need to go out suddenly, you can call the car downstairs and it’ll tell you how things are, and you can also reprogram it to charge itself during off-peak hours,” Odell explains.

Featuring “underpinnings” and various bits and pieces from the new Chevy Cruze compact, the Volt seats four and, when running on battery power, offers the driver a special “mountain” setting, which increases the rate of charge back to the battery pack. It slows the car down perceptibly but at the same time can extend its electrical range. Like virtually all hybrids, the Volt has regenerative braking, and when it decelerates, energy is captured and fed back into the batteries. There’s also a “sport” setting that gives the car an extra shot of performance when climbing hills or overtaking, for example.

“Once you figure things out,” explains senior project engineer Tim Perzanowski, “you can sort of fiddle around with the system and get both maximum performance and driving range out of it.”

During a quick couple of loops around Stanley Park, the Volt displayed reasonable power and acceleration, but this is definitely not a performance car in any way, shape, or form. Interestingly, it’s one of the most streamlined cars GM has ever put forward, with better aerodynamics than the Corvette.

Production of the Volt is set for the end of 2010, and it’s scheduled to hit show rooms in early 2011. GM has eight (out of some 80) cars out making the rounds with media and various interest groups right now, and the ones we drove were “65-percenters”, which essentially means they’re preproduction models; the final version may be slightly different. Crash-test results are pending, according to Odell, but he predicts that the car will get a five-star rating.

Prices haven’t officially been released yet, but the Volt is expected to start in the neighbourhood of $30,000, going up to $40,000 with all the goodies.

Who will buy it? “We hope and expect environmentalists to like it,” Odell says, “and if we pass muster with them, it’ll definitely go mainstream.”