Post by ChrisM on Mar 6, 2022 15:12:55 GMT
I had to go to see mum yesterday to unblock her toilet (long story) and one route there takes me past the "local" Volvo dealer; as I received an email invitation last week to test-drive an electric Volvo it seemed rude to refuse, so.....
An accompanied test drive over a route of just a few miles with no dual carriageways, mainly 30 and 40mph limits (those limits have been reduced over the years, back in the 1870's and 80's most were NSL) and one dead short stretch of NSL past Brookwood cemetery. Not ideal circumstances to get to know how a car handles and behaves on the road. However, as seems to be usual with Volvos it seems easy to get a comfortable driving position, and the front seats are great. Rear legroom seems pretty decent too, as does boot space given the size of car.
No handbrake as such, just a push-button by the gear selector which has just 3 positions, R, N and D. It's one of those "stupid" gear levers with no proper positions, just a sprung loaded pull or push to move from R to N to D and back again. It's the first full electric car I have driven and it seems weird that there is no indication that it is "running", you just trust to luck, push on the accelerator and hope for motion.... which you get, but there seems to be little forward motion at first, quite a push is needed before anything meaningful happens, and then there's a rush, a bit like bad turbo lag on old petrol engines, and the car just goes..... to the extent that I asked if there was any regenerative braking. The answer was yes, but only one level.... and that was of "emergency stop" proportions, where lifting off resulted in severe slowing to the extent that the first time it happened I was glad nobody was close behind as they could have rear-ended us!
Ride and handling seemed OK, bearing in mind the short nature of the test drive, but the two modes of operation, no regen or "max" regen were at opposite ends of the spectrum with neither being sensible IMHO. I have to say that driving an electric car was a totally different experience to driving petrol or diesel, manual or auto, and not one that I would care to contemplate.
The final bizarre thing was back in the showroom afterwards when there was talk of ordering one....... 9 months delay ! Why promote test drives on something with such a huge wait? Totally unacceptable; I could be dead before it arrived on that basis. Order now for possible Christmas delivery? No way (even if I'd had the money and felt an overpowering need to buy)
An accompanied test drive over a route of just a few miles with no dual carriageways, mainly 30 and 40mph limits (those limits have been reduced over the years, back in the 1870's and 80's most were NSL) and one dead short stretch of NSL past Brookwood cemetery. Not ideal circumstances to get to know how a car handles and behaves on the road. However, as seems to be usual with Volvos it seems easy to get a comfortable driving position, and the front seats are great. Rear legroom seems pretty decent too, as does boot space given the size of car.
No handbrake as such, just a push-button by the gear selector which has just 3 positions, R, N and D. It's one of those "stupid" gear levers with no proper positions, just a sprung loaded pull or push to move from R to N to D and back again. It's the first full electric car I have driven and it seems weird that there is no indication that it is "running", you just trust to luck, push on the accelerator and hope for motion.... which you get, but there seems to be little forward motion at first, quite a push is needed before anything meaningful happens, and then there's a rush, a bit like bad turbo lag on old petrol engines, and the car just goes..... to the extent that I asked if there was any regenerative braking. The answer was yes, but only one level.... and that was of "emergency stop" proportions, where lifting off resulted in severe slowing to the extent that the first time it happened I was glad nobody was close behind as they could have rear-ended us!
Ride and handling seemed OK, bearing in mind the short nature of the test drive, but the two modes of operation, no regen or "max" regen were at opposite ends of the spectrum with neither being sensible IMHO. I have to say that driving an electric car was a totally different experience to driving petrol or diesel, manual or auto, and not one that I would care to contemplate.
The final bizarre thing was back in the showroom afterwards when there was talk of ordering one....... 9 months delay ! Why promote test drives on something with such a huge wait? Totally unacceptable; I could be dead before it arrived on that basis. Order now for possible Christmas delivery? No way (even if I'd had the money and felt an overpowering need to buy)
