Bob Lutz’s Latest Volt Test Drive - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

To be sure, the conditions were not ideal for driving a plug-in hybrid: it was a brisk 30 degrees on a windy day with snow flurries falling.

And, the battery had only a 60 percent charge. But Mr. Lutz reported that the car drove for 19 miles before the engine kicked in. “And when it did, it was so quiet and non-jarring that they had to tell me it had come on, because I wasn’t looking at the tach,” Mr. Lutz wrote, referring to the tachometer.

“Granted, many years in airplane cockpits have taken their toll on my hearing, but still, I can say with impunity that the engine was quiet and not at all intrusive in terms of noise,” he wrote.

G.M. is promising that a fully charged Volt will be able to drive 40 miles before requiring engine use. So, the battery system is geting close to the way G.M. says it will perform, albeit a few miles shy. And, G.M. still has two years of development work to do.

As I wrote on Saturday, there is plenty of discussion over the Volt, which will cost around $40,000 once it reaches showrooms [maybe in late 2010].