Our Consulting Producer Chelsea Sexton was recently chosen as one of a small group of EV enthusiasts to field test a Chevy Volt: living with it and driving it on a daily usage basis.  Read about her cautious optimism for GM's new electric car in her recent blog post:

"I first learned of the Chevrolet Volt while standing on a Minneapolis street corner on June 23, 2006. I’d had engineering friends at GM who’d been hinting for a few months before that they were working on something even I “would approve of”- but I was dubious enough that when a journalist called on the last day of our Who Killed the Electric Car? press tour to get my thoughts about the company working on an electric car again, my response probably involved suggesting she lay off the crack.

GM did obviously announce the Volt, and in the time since, I’ve met with various people on the Volt team, driven different iterations of the car, written about it, heard them out and called them out, and have relentlessly encouraged them to learn from our collective past experience – just as I’ve done with most other automakers. But given my specific history with this particular company, I didn’t expect to be standing among fourteen other people this week as GM’s North American President, Mark Reuss, called my bluff with a simple, 'we want you guys to help us build a better car.'

Whether we help anyone build a better anything remains to be seen. But the Volt Customer Advisory Board will serve as the first 'civilians' (non-employees) to be living with the car, using it in our daily lives, and giving feedback–good, bad, and ugly, if needed–to the GM team. While some are better known than others, the group is basically made up of three types of people: current or former EV drivers (EV1, RAV4, Mini E), industry veterans, and newer enthusiasts.

The goal is to collect real-world data and opinions from both virgin users and those who’ve been living and working with them for years, and to use that information to refine the vehicle and/or the program..."

...read the rest of her blog post here.