Maryland Science Center President Impressed by Volt Technology

October 20, 2011 1:30 pm ET

We recently had the opportunity to chat with Van R. Reiner, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Maryland Science Center. Check out his thoughts after his Chevrolet Volt driving experience.

So what were your overall impressions of the Volt?

I am very impressed. It is a good handling car, has a lot of creature comforts, and the acceleration is excellent. I have to merge onto I-95 to come to work and I am not nervous at all about getting up to speed and merging into traffic. I’m getting over 220 milers per gallon on the vehicle and I yet have needed the internal combustion engine to come on. It’s been all electric. I can tell you it’s just a wonderful car to drive.

What did you think of the handling?

It handles very well. It’s responsive and the steering is tight. The ride is good. It’s not a luxury car. It compares well to standard family sedans. I’ve been very impressed. It’s comfortable and I don’t worry about what’s going to happen next. What took some getting use to was the car is so quiet that my first time on the interstate I thought wow, there is a lot or road noise. But it wasn’t anything more than I’m used to except the car I was driving wasn’t making any noise. And that took some getting use to. Now it’s fine.

What do you think of the technology behind the Volt?

I have a couple degrees in chemistry. I’ve worked as a scientist and an engineer for most for my life. And I’m impressed. They’ve done a really good job. The battery technology obviously is the latest. I’m getting at least a minimum of 40 miles per single charge. And for my commute, as I’ve said, I haven’t had to rely on the gasoline engine at all. So I’ve been very impressed.

Please tell us a little about the Maryland Science Center.

At the Maryland Science Center, our mission is to celebrate science everyday. We host in excess of 200,000 students with their teachers and families each year. And what we hope to do is excite the next generation of innovators and let them know a career in science, engineering, technology or mathematics is a worthy career. It’s exciting, it’s fun, it allows you to raise a family, send them to college, pay your mortgage, put food on the table and I honestly believe we have the mission to be leaders in the STEM, science, technology, engineering and math, to help this country stay on top in terms of innovation.

It is a challenge. I mean, science and math are deemed hard and so people tend to shy away from it. That’s because they loose sight of how enjoyable, fun and rewarding it can be. I mean, science put humans on the moon and brought them back safely. It’s put the Hubble space telescope up into space and it has seen just amazing wonders of the universe.

The technology that we carry on our persons, called smartphones, wouldn’t be exist without science, technology and engineering. It’s so ubiquitous in our society that we all take it for granted.

We believe that we have an opportunity to set the spark to get students interested in careers in science math and technology, which is key to maintaining the competitive edge in this country in the world. And we say well somebody else will do it. We need more of those somebody elses. We need people to say I can do that. If we don’t have science we wouldn’t have a vehicle such as this.

Check out his video testimonial below: