(car engine revving)
(indistinct chatter)
- [Linus] What are our expectations?
When we defy them?
Are we breaking the mold?
What if they expected me to do that?
Who are they?
Why aren't they pointing a camera at me?
And why did it take me two years to make this video?
Maybe none of that matters.
Maybe what really matters is the here and the now,
and the who, like who is my sponsor?
(bright music)
(upbeat music)
When I bought my Chevy Volt,
Modell 3s weren't shipping yet.
And Modell Ss,
even secondhand ones
were going for as much as 100, 000 Canadian Rubles.
That's more than every other vehicle
I've owned in my life put together.
So the hunt began for some other option.
Any other option for someone who loves technology,
as much as he hates paying for gas,
but who doesn't need ludicrous speed or whatever.
I mean, at the end of the day, how much fun can it be?
It's still gonna have four wheels, isn't?
(motorcycle engine roaring)
Sort of, Tesla strongly disagrees with that sentiment.
And they're actually working on providing a review unit
of the Model 3 for me to check out as we speak.
But before we make that video,
I owe you guys finally an explanation
for why I made the choice I did.
Why did Linus Tech Tips Sebastian,
settle for a Chevrolet Volt?
Performance on the track
wasn't the first consideration for me.
And it isn't for a lot of people,
but that doesn't mean that the Volt is a slouch
because in here we've got not one, not two
but three engines.
The 1.5 liter gas engine right here on the left,
it'll output some measly 101 horsepower.
The fun part.
That's the dual electric motors
doing exactly what electric motors are famous for, torque.
Out of standstill,
we've got access to nearly 300 foot pounds of this stuff.
So how does that feel you might ask?
Off the line,
It's surprisingly exhilarating
doing zero to 50 in just 2.6 seconds.
Then at about 70 clicks,
it peters out finishing the zero to 100 in 8.4,
which coincidentally is identical to my old 2003 Honda Civic
just without the extra fun of a manual transmission.
The advantage compared to my Civic however,
is that I'm doing all of that
without using any gas whatsoever
and compared to other plugin hybrids,
it's a lot happier.
I get anywhere from 60 to a 100 kilometers of range,
depending on the weather.
That's enough for me to do well over 80% of my driving
on battery,
meaning that the average tank of gas
lasts me a month or two,
or even more sometimes.
As an added bonus,
we installed EV chargers at the office.
And currently there's a taxation loophole
that allows me to refuel using those,
without counting it as a taxable benefit,
reducing my total cost of ownership.
We already have a Honda Odyssey
for family road trips and hauling soccer things.
So anything bigger than a Sedan or a Hatchback
would have only served to take up extra space
in our cramped two car suburban garage.
And a lot of the benefits of an EV
like being able to use the HOV lane by myself,
less frequent servicing
and okay, yeah, being quicker off the line but a late change
were very appealing to me
with the Volt sharing all of them.
Even more appealing,
look at all that space.
Chevy went with the design that's become quite popular,
probably so that they can sell the same body,
both to Sedan lovers here in North America
and to hatchback enthusiasts across the pond.
I've actually really missed my wife's VW Rabbit.
Ever since we got rid of it.
And if I traded in my Volt,
I would definitely miss it too.
It is shocking how much stuff you can fit in this thing,
when you've got the seats folded down.
Like check this out.
I had all that tack loaded in it,
to give away at my house last Halloween.
Flipping crazy, right?
By the way, don't show up at my house this year.
I'm not doing that again.
As a taller user, it might not be as comfortable,
but for me, the front seat design is basically perfect.
And the only change that I would make
to the instrument console
is to add a clock option
right in front of the driver.
There is one built into the center display,
but the problem is that when I'm an Android Auto,
some apps don't have a clock overlay,
so I'm left without one altogether,
which is a minor inconvenience,
kind of like the rear seats.
Now shockingly, I can get all three of my kids back there,
even with car seats,
but I would recommend spending some time on the websites
that specialize in car seat compatibility
to find a configuration that's likely to actually work.
And I would also recommend
not trying to put three adults back there.
The two outside seats are pretty comfy,
as long as the occupant is under six feet,
but the middle seat is basically a non-seat.
Media controls are all handled with buttons
on the optional leather wrapped steering wheel,
Which okay, that might not seem like a huge deal to you,
But coming from my old car,
that was an absolute game changer.
And regenerative braking is handled in one of three ways.
When you're on battery, you can either drive around in low
and as soon as you take your foot off the accelerator,
you'll get a mild regenerative effect
or you can press this paddle to the left
of the steering wheel
and you'll get a much stronger effect.
Finally, if you don't like the on and off
controls of the paddle,
you can simply press the brake pedal lightly
and it will start with region,
then if you exceed the threshold,
it will apply more conventional brakes.
And this easy access to region breaking
has already been saving me money in little ways,
like less wear on my brake pads,
just like a full EV
or at least for now.
A big potential downside
of this plugin hybrid approach is reliability.
Two complimentary drivetrains
does introduce the potential for more costly repairs,
but, knock on wood.
So far I've done really well.
Now one of my personal preferences
when it comes to cars
is to give myself a better chance
when it comes to recalls and lemons,
by avoiding all the new model years whenever possible.
Letting someone else find the overlooked flaws
in a brand new platform or design.
I'm still dealing with the worst of both worlds though.
Ice engines tend to be more prone to breaking down than EVs
and electric has its own ticking time bomb too,
the batteries.
Now given that a phone
that used to last a whole day when new
might barely get you through lunch two years later,
I understand people's concerns about the longevity
of battery packs in cars.
But fortunately Chevy thought of this.
From the factory, Chevy intentionally
doesn't expose the whole battery to the user,
which reduces unnecessary wear on the batteries
from overcharging
and also adds a battery buffer, so to speak.
So over time,
they slowly give you this buffer back
to make sure that the range of the Volt
is as good on your five as it was the day you left the lot.
I mean of course the buffer will eventually run out,
but if nothing else,
this approach forces the consumer
to care for their battery properly.
And it's an approach that I really like.
We saw what the race for more talk time did to phones.
And it would be a shame to see EV makers
fall into that same trap
of eliminating this buffer
for the sake of advertising bigger and bigger ranges
at the cost of their batteries
ending up in landfills sooner.
So I guess that's another win for the Volt.
When it does become junk,
at least a lot less battery is getting tossed
compared to a full EV like a Tesla.
So if I love this thing and I think it's great,
why do you not see them all over the road?
Well, one big reason is the price.
Brand new these things ran about 35,000 US dollars.
And frankly,
I wouldn't have paid that much for one either.
But second hand, now we're talking.
I ended up paying just about 23,000 US dollars
for a one-year-old lease return
with 29,000 kilometers on it.
One of the biggest letdowns though,
and something that I'm expecting
to be very enticing about the Tesla, is the technology.
I mean, you can roll down the windows on a hot day
with the fob.
The backup camera is way better than my van
and honestly, all that I could ever need.
The Bose sound system is pretty good. You know,
I'm glad the previous owner selected it
and having Android Auto and CarPlay is well, Hey,
it's a lot better than not having them.
But other than that,
unless you consider traction control and power windows
to be tech features, there ain't a whole lot going on here.
Even the basic driving assist that the car does have
are implemented in ways that just aren't that great
cruise control without the adaptive component
is just not as useful to me
and one of the areas I really like using cruise control,
in school and playground zones I can't.
Not allowing cruise control
at speeds under 40 kilometers an hour
is just asinine to me because if I could use it,
then I could be covering my brake rather than my gas
or excuse me, accelerator.
And I can be watching the road for children
rather than watching my speedometer
to make sure that I'm not gonna get a ticket
in these high risk areas.
And there are handful of other sucky slash weird things.
The AC particularly in eco-mode is super weak.
It makes me irrationally angry.
Like I shouldn't even mention it,
but it drives me nuts that you can press
the windows to go all the way down,
but then everyone but in the driver's seat,
you have to hold it to bring it all the way back up.
And whenever I throw my backpack in the passenger seat,
the car is like yelling at me
to have my passenger put their seatbelt on,
even though my bag only weighs like 10 pounds.
But with all that said,
I got an absolute ton of car for my money.
And in spite of my recent Jaguar, I pace test drive.
I just haven't been tempted to upgrade for now.
So that's it.
That's why I bought a Chevy Volt.
Tesla, now it's time to change my mind.
Thanks again to DJI for sponsoring this video.
All the sexy in air drone footage
was shot by our very own Colin Worobetz
on the Mavic Air 2 drone,
and we had a ton of fun doing it.
It's got a 10 kilometer transmission range,
up to 34 minutes of flight time.
Like what?
You can capture up to 4K 60 FPS
or 1080 at up to 240 FPS.
It's got a pass 3.0 obstacle avoidance.
You can edit the videos afterward easily
with their DJI Fly App on your smartphone.
And it's got tons of other great features.
It's just a lot of drone for the price.
So check it out today at the link in the video description.
If you guys enjoyed this video,
you might enjoy our other videos about cars,
which I don't think we really have any yet,
but make sure you're subscribed
'cause we're hoping that this is just the first of many.
- [Alex] I did the Carbon Rivera
- Oh, that's true actually,
Alex did a video on the Carbon Rivera.