cts | Volt a Day | What is Zee Meaning of This? November 03, 2010

Everyone remembers the Camero Z, right? Kick ass muscle car. Sure.

At SEMA (apparently the premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world), Chevy announced that they would have a Z-spec version of the Volt. That's a little meaningless, since there is no more performance to wring out of the car, but they did make a nice set of specialty panels for (I guess) better aerodynamics. According to the designer who talked at the D-Ham portion of our Detroit trip, they had already done everything they could with the Volt's design to make it as streamlined as possible. So I think these might be mostly for show.

It's a nice bit of show, though.

Does it mean anything? Chevy says that the Z package is a concept at this stage, but they are prepared to go into production with it. That feels like more of the company is committed to the

car, and that can only be good. I would rather see a "green" package with things like a solar roof that ran the environmental effects while you were parked. (The new Prius has that, in the summer you come back to a cooler car than you would otherwise, in the winter it isn't a freezer when you climb in.) And if you were going to really slipstream the car you would have smooth hubcaps, right? I think if there are "enthusiasts" that are going to buy the Volt they are not performance car enthusiasts, but hyper-milers.