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GM‘s engineers have wrought since the first Volt concept, the most controversial has to be the design of the transmission, which GM kept a secret until last week. GM has been saying all along that the Volt was driven purely electrically, but as it turns out, this is not exactly the case.

The Chevy Volt has finally, successfully, made the leap from science fiction to fact. Quite a bit has changed in the nearly four-year journey from the 2007 Detroit Auto Show to last week, when General Motors let us drive a production-spec car. The Volt may not be the stuff of Blade Runner, but it’s a technologically advanced showpiece for GM, and the first widely practical electric vehicle, ready and waiting for mainstream acceptance.

GM is describing the Chevrolet as looking and feeling like a mid-size sport sedan, but the truth is that it’s a bit smaller than the compact Cruze. The Volt measures 177.1 inches long, compared to 181 inches for its platform-mate. While that’s BMW 3 Series sized, it is still a good 10 inches shy of a true mid-size car.

The Volt won’t impress with the quality of its interior materials either, which are merely adequate if you judge against other compacts, and downright cheap looking if you put them up against what you’ll find in other $40,000 cars. The backseat gets the worst of it, as the center console running between the two rear buckets is an edifice of monotone hard plastic, as are the rear door panels. That rear console isn’t there just for cupholders, as it’s hiding the T-shaped battery pack that’s positioned exactly where the driveshaft tunnel in a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive car would be.

In most vehicles, the engine features prominently. Yet with the Volt, GM really wishes we’d forget about the 84-horsepower, 1.4-liter, iron block four-cylinder that’s fitted under the hood. The General likes to call this premium fuel-burning unit lifted from the company’s European parts bin a “generator,” but the truth is that the gas engine is actually clutched to a 55-kw electric generator in the Volt’s transaxle.

If you want to turn up the dial another notch beyond just putting the car into Sport, you can shift it into what we’ve dubbed “Tesla mode.” Selecting “L” with the gearshift lever forces the car to use its maximum regenerative braking ability. While the normal regenerative braking is perfectly calibrated to feel like the engine braking of a vehicle with an internal combustion engine, and gives the brakes a great, solid feeling, the max-regen mode slows the car dramatically, immediately upon lifting your foot from the throttle. While the 3,781-pound Volt is never going to feel like a sports car, with the drive mode in Sport and the shifter in “L,” there is some fun to be had.

Handling is better than expected, thanks in part to the Volt’s low center of gravity. While this is a heavy car by any metric, the batteries are mounted low enough in the chassis that when the Volt leans in the corners it never feels unplanted and the weight shift is easy enough to control. Most of the feedback you’ll get during such maneuvers will come through your seat, however, as the Volt’s steering is numb at speed, which we suppose is better than the over-assisted feeling it has in parking lots. To keep the Volt feeling securely planted even when it’s being pushed, GM has equipped the vehicle with 215/55R17 Goodyears. While these are low-rolling-resistance tires, what’s notable here is that they’re fairly wide. Not too long ago, sports sedans were routinely shod with similar sized tires.

While our drive wasn’t long enough to gather any empirical data beyond the 36 mpg displayed on the Volt’s trip computer when we finished, we can do some math. GM gave us official numbers that we can use to make two reasonable estimates. The Volt has a 9.3-gallon gas tank, and GM states that the range in extended-range mode is approximately 310 miles. That means the Volt should return around 33 miles per gallon, after its EV range of roughly 40 miles is exhausted. And if you get in your fully-charged Volt and drive it until the tank runs dry, you’ll see about 38 miles per gallon overall. Given that GM had been bandying about a 50 mpg number – not-coincidentally matching the Prius – this is nothing short of disappointing.

The Volt, however, uses electric drive power nearly all of the time, so it’s really designed to be driven for shorter distances and recharged, like a full battery-electric. GM says the Volt can be completely recharged in about four hours if you get an optional 240-volt charger installed, or 10-12 hours plugged into a standard wall jack. Charging the Volt is a simple process that’s not all that different from plugging in a cell phone; the Volt even has a light on the dashboard that glows yellow when its charging and turns green when finished.

Yet the big question remains: Can the Volt go mainstream? GM has said it intends to build 45,000 Volts per year starting in 2012. That’s not a small number of cars, not when they’re priced at $40,280. Even if you deduct potential tax credits of at least $7,500 from the Federal government, or opt for the $350/month lease “deal,” this is a costlier-than-average car. While former GM CEO Rick Wagoner liked to compare the Volt’s development to NASA’s Apollo program, there’s a huge difference between developing an amazing piece of technology and commercializing it – and it’s not like you can drive a Volt to the moon.

GM’s pitch to consumers is that the Volt is “More Car Than Electric,” the tagline of its forthcoming ad campaign. Its marketing will be focused on the fact that the Volt is a do-everything car that has none of the limitations of pure battery-electrics, thanks to its gas engine. But the fact remains that anyone buying a Volt is going to have to do the same self-analysis of their driving patterns and habits that they would if they were considering a Nissan Leaf electric or a plug-in Toyota Prius or even a regular hybrid.

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