Chevy Volt

32 'Chevy Volt' stories October 2013 - August 2015

The Chevy Volt was a popular hybrid car from General Motors. It was killed in late 2018 in favor of an all-electric future.

I love the Volt; I was one of the early buyers of the Volt, and I get a lot of emails from Volt buyers and I get it,” said [GM president Mark] Reuss. “But at the end of the day, if we can get the battery chemistry vertically integrated, correct, and cost-effective, and our control systems are taking everything we’ve learned from Bolt and Volt on how to use the battery to get more range and be cost effective… the customer is going to be much, much happier by doing a pure EV than a stopgap.

Chevy Volt reviews and news

The Volt wasn’t a failure by any means. As we learned in 2016, GM delivered its 100,000th Chevy Volt in the US and the fleet racked up 1.5 billion electric miles on a total of 2.5 billion.

It’s an interesting statistic, which shows that the Volt successfully replaced with electric miles 1.5 billion miles that would have normally been gas-powered, but it also highlights the need for fully electric vehicles since GM’s Volt fleet still used gas for an important 40% of its total mileage. Hopefully, the percentage will go down with the increase in electric range that came with the 2016 Volt, which now has a fully electric EPA rating of 53 miles.

For comparison, Tesla’s global fleet of roughly 150,000 vehicles travelled over 2.6 billion electric miles. While the fleet is slightly bigger, the Volt has been on the road for two more years.

Toward the end of its life, the Chevy Volt was getting better and better on an all-electric range. A 7.2 kW charging system cut recharging times nearly in half, by adding about twice the all-electric driving range per hour of charge (standard on Premier trim and available on LT trim).

The Chevy Volt was already the “most electric” of all plug-in hybrids, but the 2019 model year update made it even more electric than it already was.

Chevy Volt Pricing

Although the car is no longer being made, you can still find used models on various lots. Electrek has done the hard work of finding the best deals. Find the lowest purchase and lease price on our dedicated pricing pages.

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2016 Chevy Volt has 53 mile battery range says EPA, will that make a difference?

Seth Weintraub Aug 4 2015 - 10:19 am PT

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The all-new 2016 Chevrolet Volt electric car with extended range, showcasing a sleeker, sportier design that offers 50 miles of EV range, greater efficiency and stronger acceleration.

The results are in: the new 2016 Chevy Volt will get 53 miles of electric range on a charge of its new 18.4-kWh lithium-ion battery according to EPA numbers. That’s close to 40% more than the previous Volt’s 38 miles and a big psychological jump for buyers.

The typical American commute is around 48 minutes so adding those extra miles gets a lot more people home without using gas. Chevrolet expects many next-generation Volt owners will use power solely from their batteries for more than 90 percent of trips. Today, Volt owners use battery power on 80 percent of their trips.

The biggest turn off for me in the old Volt was the back seat which was split in half by the battery bar. The 2016 lowers the batteries so that a car seat or a passenger can straddle the bar which is worlds better for families.

That, and when you went to gas – like for long trips – you’d only get around 35 miles/gallon with the range extender. The next-generation Volt’s new 1.5L range-extender, designed to use regular unleaded fuel, offers a combined EPA-estimated fuel efficiency of 42 MPG. That’s very respectable but not yet on the same level as a Prius which typically sees 50+ mpg.

I think the new Volt is hitting new spec points that will make sense for a lot more buyers. It doesn’t have any range anxiety problems and it is getting pretty close to the range of the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 (which also has a very small REX engine). Also, the faster acceleration, better back seat and sportier looks will draw new buyers along with the proliferation of EV charging points around the country.

The new EPA sticker is below:
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New Chevy Volt looks nice but how are they still selling the old one?

Seth Weintraub Mar 9 2015 - 7:57 pm PT

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsIxo4lSrsY]
Every time I hear about the 2016 Volt, I can’t help but think how much nicer it is than the current one across a lot of different areas (from the Chicago Motor show above). The problem is that we’re quite a long time from the new one being on sale so Chevy has to sell the “old one” which is going to be a hard slog.

Chevy Volt

Does Chevy risk the Osborne effect by announcing and advertising its new Volt early? [video]

Seth Weintraub Jan 28 2015 - 12:16 pm PT

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKBW90bMbHQ]

The Osborne effect is described as:

The Osborne effect is a term referring to the unintended consequences of a company pre-announcement made either unaware of the risks involved or when the timing is misjudged, which ends up having a negative impact on the sales of the current product. This is often the case when a product is announced too long before its actual availability. This has the immediate effect of customers canceling or deferring orders for the current product, knowing that it will soon be obsolete, and any unexpected delays often means the new product comes to be perceived as vaporware, damaging the company’s credibility and profitability.

The term was coined after the Osborne Computer Corporation, in which the company took more than a year to make its next product available and eventually ran out of cash and went bankrupt in 1985.

I think this is something that as a company with tech roots, Tesla, understands. They were pumping out Model Ses with driver assist hardware before the announcement was even made (and had a few leaks as a result). The same with the P85D. You could buy one as soon as it was announced and they shipped a few weeks after.

Chevy, on the other hand is advertising a far superior Volt 2016 at least 6 months ahead of when you can actually get one – without even a price. Who is going to buy the current Volt (without a very significant discount) when they know a better one is right around the proverbial corner?

Next-Gen Chevy Volt detailed: 20% more battery in lighter package, vague improvements all around

Seth Weintraub Oct 28 2014 - 2:02 pm PT

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[tweet https://twitter.com/chevyvolt/status/527171154143096832]

GM/Chevy detailed its next generation Volt today with some nice surprises though they are pretty vague in their assessment.

Some factoids:

80% off all Volt customer trips are EV only.
New battery capacity will increase by 20% on a volume basis when compared to the original cell, while the number of cells decreases from 288 to 192. The cells are positioned lower in the pack for improved (lower) center of gravity and the overall mass of the pack has decreased by almost 30 pounds (13 kg).
20 million battery cells have been produced for the more than 69,000 Chevrolet Volts on the road today with industry-leading quality levels of less than two problems per million cells produced
Many owners are exceeding the EPA-rated label of 35 miles of EV range per full charge, with about 15 percent surpassing 40 miles of range.
Current generation Volt owners have accumulated more than 600 million EV miles
2 motors replace 1 motor and 1 regen. The two-motor drive unit operates approximately 5 to 12 percent more efficiently and weighs 100 pounds (45 kg) less than the current system.
1.5L range extender motor will be more efficient as well
GM will manufacture the Volt battery pack at its battery assembly plant in Brownstown, Mich.
Range estimates will be given at NA auto show in Detroit on January

So not too many specifics but one would think all of these updates would make the Volt an even more appealing package. More room in the back would have also come in handy. If we take the 20% more power in the battery pack combined with the weight reduction and more efficient motors at face value, the Volt may approach 50 miles on electricity.

The question now is who is going to buy the current version (Osborne effect)?

Press Release follows:

Next-Generation Chevrolet Volt Features All-New Voltec Propulsion System for More Efficiency

Debuting in 2015, new model will have increased EV range

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Chevy Volt vs. Caddy ELR [video]

Seth Weintraub Apr 18 2014 - 10:01 am PT

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn_L05WLc94]

Elon Musk says mass market Tesla car (Model 3) will have a ~48kWh battery, be 80% the size of the Model S

Seth Weintraub Mar 2 2014 - 12:28 pm PT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5N9xIfTU5g]

There is a lot of interesting info from a talk that Elon Musk gave at the CPUC last week. Of particular note, Musk gave some spec estimates for the mass market “Model E” vehicle expected to be released in 2017 with batteries coming from the Gigafactory. In the video above he says the car will have a 200 mile range and be 20% smaller than the Model S. Therefore the battery will need to have about 80% of the energy of the current Model S (Musk’s words). To be clear, since Tesla uses the constant sized 18650 cells (and looks to continue to do so) physical size and Watt-hours are fairly constant.

So given that a 60kWh Model S has a range of around 200 miles (EPA 208), that means that the Model E would need to have a battery around 80% the size of the Model S or 48kWh.

That’s still about double what leading ‘mass market’ electric cars have today. The Chevy Spark EV, with a range of 82 miles has a 21.3 kWh battery. The Nissan LEAF which has a 75 mile EPA range rating has a 24 kWh battery. The Chevy Volt has a 16kWh battery while the BMW i3 is 18.8.

Tesla cancelled its $49,000 40kWh battery Model S before it got an EPA estimate but most guesses were that it would get around 150 miles. Add another 8kWh to the battery and take off 20% of the overall car size and 200 mile range seems doable.

Musk also mentions that besides the 20% drop in price, he expects economies of scale and other innovations to drop the price another 30% on the battery alone helping to get the Model E to around 50% the cost of the Model S at $35,000.

[tweet https://twitter.com/fatihguvenen/status/440248060958896128]

Below is a snippit of Musk talking about the upcoming battery swap:
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2014 Cadillac ELR is a $75K Volt in a nice suit

Seth Weintraub Oct 11 2013 - 10:20 pm PT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEqNniw7Qbs]

Just when you think the big automakers might be catching on to the electric car scene, GM goes and does something absurd like the 2014 Cadillac ELR. Remember the Cadillac Cimarron, the dressed up Chevy Cavalier? This is worse.

Introduced with pricing today and shipments in January, the $75,000 ($68K after Fed Tax Cred) car will have almost identical specs as the Chevy Volt in 35 miles in EV mode and 300miles on gas. That’s actually worse than the Volt’s upgraded 40 EV miles – probably due to the slightly higher performing engine on the Caddy. It even appears to have the same T-shaped battery going through the middle of the car as the Volt which makes it barely capable of seating of 4 people. Trunk space is listed at a comical 10.5 cubic feet which is about a third of the Tesla Model S before you consider the “Frunk”.

The ELR is a two door which probably lends itself better to the 2+2 seating that the 4-door Volt has currently.

As for performance gains, there is no listed horsepower but the 295 lb-ft compares favorably to the 273 lb-ft. torque listed or the Volt. But, as a sad comparison, the sub-$20,000 Chevy Spark 100% electric vehicle produces 400lb-ft of torque so that $75K Caddy is likely going to get smoked by a $20K hatchback with over twice the amount of EV battery made by the same company.

I’m in full agreement with Ed Kim, vice president of industry analysis at AutoPacific Inc., who on Friday tweeted: “A Volt with a Cadillac body and badge for Tesla Model S money? Is GM on crack?”

A Volt with a Cadillac body and badge for Tesla Model S money? Is GM on crack? http://t.co/jBGKLjN1mj

— Ed Kim (@ekimap) October 11, 2013

The Volt is a great car but GM isn’t going to have any kind of success taking it into the Tesla price category without significantly upgrading the batteries and motor and bringing some more innovation to the table. This is embarrassing.

The ELR specs below:
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