Height Challenged in a Volt

The Volt is about 1 of 5 cars on the short list for our next car (wife's, actually). There are a lot of pluses with this car including best PHEV EV range, good price after fed + CA tax credits/rebates, decent ICE mpg, etc. - and it's available now. She has a ~25 mile round trip commute to work and unfortunately, though access to a 120 V wall plug there, works in a neighborhood where EVSE stuff is likely to disappear or be damaged if left alone to charge.

My wife prefers a hatchback and is a bit nervous about the small potential to run out of juice and get stranded in a BEV. I told her if this happens, it is probably not of the cars doing.

We went out to the Chevy dealership today to check out the new Volt, and noticed a big, or shall one say tall problem. At 6'2, I can't sit in the back seat without uncomfortably crouching my head down. I would be ok sitting up front in the passenger seat, but grandpa sometimes tags along and is 6'3 and our boys would push the rear seat limits in a few years.

We plan on checking out the Prime, Bolt, and Leaf later this year. Thinking maybe could convince the wife to lease the Volt if it turns out to be a better fit otherwise then move on to the Tesla when it is readily available in the base trim level in a few years.

Any other height challenged Volt families out there? What is your work-around? We would still have my Plug-in Prius as a backup for a while where grandpa and I still barely clear the headroom in the back.

 

That was the starting decision point for us as well - enough EV range for a gas free commute. We will go look at the Sonata (which can do this) and and the Fusion (which won't make it), but she is pretty insistent on a hatch at this point. Maybe more headroom in the rear and 3 usable back seats here will be convincing. Thanks, going to checkout the C-max as well, but it's not gonna make it all EV either on her roundtrip commute without charging at work. Still, graduation from ICE alone is worth something here if this proves to be the best option.

If the Prime's rear head room is the same as the Gen 4 lift back, we will be barely okay there. Its cramped, but I can just barely sit up straight with head contact on the ceiling. She's more concerned with the missing 5th seat and the horizontal bar that divides the hatch window/visibility in the back, so Prime may be out there.

We will try these later this year. Hopefully can talk her out of the no ICE back-up anxiety.

Definitely losing cargo space with the current affordable plug-in options. The PiP cargo room does get one spoiled. The Chrysler minivan will open up PHEVs for many more, but we're trying to maintain a marginal cool factor here, and our cars are primarily for commuting and we only have two kids, so holding off on the minivan option for now.

 

The Leaf would work with some planning as a local/regional vehicle. Whereas I make largely short (<10 mile) and occasionally long trips (>200 mile) in my PiP, more frequently her work requires some medium range (50-100 mile) trips. The Leaf could be done with careful planning, though she prefers the "just get in and go" approach.

If we got the Bolt, we would be able to forego my PiP on several long trips. We drive 1-2x a year the 400 mile drive down to Los Angeles and there are enough CHAdeMO stations along highway 99 to make this doable with a little planning. CHAdeMO isn't available in the Sierra where level-2 charging is sparse and inconvenient, so places like Yosemite and Sequoia would be risky.

Headroom would be great, but yes - a bit pricey for the given EV range.

 

Looks like you are right.

I did a quick look at PlugShare to see available DC charging stations by type. That would be a problem for long range trips as these seem less plentiful and one may run out of juice trying to go over the grapevine into the LA basin. For regional stuff, the 7.2 kW onboard L2 charger would be more than adequate for overnight charging.

Not sure if a lot of folks will be able to use the Bolt exclusively for road transportation. Looks like the DC charging option will be extra too.