The Chevrolet Volt (Photo by Ryan ZumMallen)
11:01am | As a driving fanatic, I’ve long lamented the absence of Long Beach streets that are fun to drive. It’s not easy to — safely — open up the throttle when every upshift is met with a red light. Or worse, a cavernous pothole. But after a few days with the Chevrolet Volt as my daily driver, it’s become clear to me that my biggest driving peeve is the very thing that makes our city the perfect environment for the electric car.
Almost.
I was generously handed the keys to the Volt, practically new with under 2,000 miles logged, by my friend, Kelsey. After a short gadget walkthrough — very necessary, seriously — she pointed to the digital screen noting the car’s lifetime gas mileage thus far was around 61.5 mpg. A pretty impressive reading for most of us, but not Kelsey.
“It should be a lot higher,” she said. “I’ve been driving pretty sucky lately.”
And with all due respect to my wonderful friend, she was right. The Volt differs from eco-giants like the Toyota Prius because it can be driven completely on electricity at a range of around 40 miles before a recharge, meaning that city driving and regular plug-ins can keep you off fossil fuels for as long as you like. For longer commutes, a traditional gasoline engine kicks in, which Kelsey had used extensively on a recent road trip. This is what makes it different from the all-electric Nissan Leaf, which runs solely on battery power and has been plagued by recent reports that the batteries cut out earlier than they should. Nothing worse than needing a diesel tow truck to bring your electric car home.
So even with my daily 70-mile commute, I figured I could stay off gasoline for most of my two-day test. Taking the freeway drained the battery pretty quickly and necessitated a switch to the gas engine, but if I stayed on PCH all the way to Dana Point, the batteries would recharge with every use of the brakes. I would make the trip, charge the car on a regular 120-volt outlet in my office and head home again on a full charge, emitting nary a particle.
But you didn’t need me to tell you that an electric car is better suited for the city than the freeway. I didn’t need two days to figure that out, either. What most interested me was whether or not Long Beach is a good place to own and use a car like this. The 562 is home to residents that are very quick and eager to adopt new technologies, with a progressive and experimental mindset (with all of the driving I do, the first two Volts and three Leafs I ever saw on the streets were in Long Beach).
But is the city as ready as its residents are?
Check lbpost.com on any given day and you’re likely to read some new tidbit about the environmental efforts going on in Long Beach. From lauding its public parks or promoting itself as an official “Tree City” to pushing the Clean Trucks Program and advocating for breakwater reconfiguration, recent years have seen Long Beach’s thumb grow greener and greener. In fact, a quick Google search for “Long Beach EV stations” turns up an encouraging number of locations that provide public charging for electric cars.
Perfect, I thought. And off I went.
The location nearest my home is actually the Costco in Signal Hill. I putted around the parking lot in search of my green parking space. It’s in the back corner, in front of the mechanic garage. The best way I can describe pulling into the spot is like the scene in Jurassic Park III when our explorers come upon a long-deserted scientist lab that was once on the cutting edge but is now only home to spiders and velociraptors.
The Costco spot boasted two charging stations, both badly outdated and covered in cobwebs. One plug was equipped for the General Motors EV1, famously snatched off public streets in 1999 and converted into a war cry with the movie Who Killed The Electric Car? A nearby mechanic said that in two years, he’s only seen one driver use the stations when he plugs in his electric Ford Ranger for days at a time. It didn’t bode well for my search.
At the Aquarium of the Pacific, there used to be designated EV parking and charging in the parking structure, but it was removed years ago. The same goes for the Shell station on Palo Verde and Atherton, which has been without a station for years. The garage at the downtown World Trade Center is gated, so I wasn’t able to explore. I would have tried the Long Beach Airport, but when I called to check, they said they weren’t sure whether their EV station was still in place.
So it wasn’t the most glowing electric car experience, but it also must be taken with a grain of salt. I didn’t particularly need a public charge. For the most part, it wouldn’t have been enough time for a significant charge, anyway, and my constant Long Beach braking constantly generated new battery power. After the commute from Dana Point, I made it all around the city and back to Kelsey’s using the gasoline engine for less than two miles. It just would have been convenient to charge the car while I was running errands.
My empty search took some of the shine off the excitement that comes with driving a car that may be a glimpse into the future. But it didn’t take too much away, because it turns out the Volt can actually be pretty fun to drive. Slap the Sport button for tightened suspension and instant low-end torque, or just cruise in the cushy leather and use the digital display to keep your energy usage as clean as possible. I’m proud to say I brought Kelsey’s car back having increased the lifetime mileage to 63.8 mpg.
It’s not a thrilling car – even with Sport mode, 65-85 mph acceleration was maddening – but with all the Camrys on the road, few of us drive thrilling cars, anyway. The Volt is a car that could eventually change our idea of what a car should be. Long Beach could be the perfect place to harbor that growth.