My preference is performance cars.
You have mentioned this a couple of times. now. I'm getting the impression a Volt is not going to make you at all happy and perhaps what you are really looking for is someone to talk you out of buying one.
I decided not to purchase the Volt. (remember, I need an additional car, the tax break, and really anything will do)
What drove me to avoid the Volt was the FACT that it actually costs more (in my area) to fuel it with electricity than it does to power it with gasoline!
Local elec power is 20-22 cents per KWH, 13.5+ taxes, fees, fuel charges, line charges, hurricane charges etc. Plus the rate increases when more is used. All the way up to 17c/kwh + fees....
A Volt will go 53 city miles, about 45 mixed or 37 highway on a full charge, consuming 16.5 KWH from the car's battery. (unless ya go stupidly slow, which some EV drivers do, in which case, 70 miles is possible)
Charge efficiency is 83.8%, meaning the power meter will run up a full 20KWH to charge the Volt. Or $4 to $4.40.
Quite simply, 10 cents per mile on EV power.
The Volt gets almost 40MPG with a dead battery, using gasoline alone. Local gas is $2 to $2.20 per gal.
Or, 5 cents per mile.
Sure, local prices affect the outcome. But one thing is clear, running an EV along with AC (or heat) reduces range significantly.
So in the end, it was tempting to get what seems to be quite a good car, but it simply makes no sense to pay more per mile for the pleasure.