2016 Chevy Volt - Powertrain detail revealed

[Hugo Drax]

You can buy a Toyota Corolla and you would pay much less money than the volt and it gets good gas mileage.

Your cost per mile in a 4 year period will be lower with the Corolla.

 

[soccerballtux]

You can buy a Toyota Corolla and you would pay much less money than the volt and it gets good gas mileage.

Your cost per mile in a 4 year period will be lower with the Corolla.

is that because chevy's break down after 4 years?

 

[NutBucket]

You can buy a Toyota Corolla and you would pay much less money than the volt and it gets good gas mileage.

Your cost per mile in a 4 year period will be lower with the Corolla.

That's misleading. If my commute is under 40 miles or so that's zero gas on a day to day basis. Plus, in CA you get HOV lane access so that saves some commute time too.

My commute is 60 miles round trip. Even if I can't charge at work I'll still use less than a gallon a day.

 

[reallyscrued]

Sigh. I don't care. Will it look cool?

 

[Tuanies]

That's misleading. If my commute is under 40 miles or so that's zero gas on a day to day basis. Plus, in CA you get HOV lane access so that saves some commute time too.

My commute is 60 miles round trip. Even if I can't charge at work I'll still use less than a gallon a day.

If you can make your commute in 40 miles, you can do it in a EV with 75-90 miles of range. And with an EV there's no gas motor to maintain.

 

[NutBucket]

But what happens when I want to drive to Vegas or San Francisco? Or if I'm sitting in traffic or run some errands after work. Range anxiety sucks.

 

[Tuanies]

Rent a car for Vegas? There's plenty of charging stations in SF or alomgvthe way I thought? Mi had range anxiety but it went away after the first week. When you start figuring out the range and limitations, it becomes less of a problem.

 

[NutBucket]

There may be charging stations but how long is that 400 mile trip going to take?

At any rate, cars like the Volt are pretty much perfect given the limitations of battery technology and our lifestyle. Too bad it isn't more fun to drive.

 

[Tuanies]

It'd probably take an extra 2-3 hours to charge on a Chademo/DCFC. We still have a gas car for longer trips. But since most of my wife's driving is in stop n go in-town traffic, the EV was a great buy for us.

 

[Thump553]

Glad to see they are getting off the premium fuel requirement-to the class of potential purchasers (like me) that was really a turn off.

Range anxiety is still a killer though. This would never do for us as my daily driver, perhaps as my wife's car if the price keeps dropping like it has been.

IMO electric cars will never become mainstream until you get at least an honest 150 mile range.

 

[rootaxs]

I think the Volt is perfect for those who commute and can utilize it's EV side, yet can still use it for long road trips where the Volt defaults to a hybrid-like drivetrain.

I don't know why you guys talk about range anxiety when Chevy put the ICE on the Volt exactly to alleviate such reasons.

For my daily commute, i am able to utilize the EV aspect for probably 90% of the year. But it also allowed me to take multi-state trips at very good mpg's without having to pay to rent another car or such.

 

[NutBucket]

Range anxiety is only in regards to a pure ev.

 

[desura]

I test drove a volt recently. What got me was how cramped it is. This is because so much volume is take up by that battery pack. So reducing volume is a welcome improvement.

it literally has two drive propulsion systems in the car...

 

[Reckoner]

Glad to see they are getting off the premium fuel requirement-to the class of potential purchasers (like me) that was really a turn off.

Range anxiety is still a killer though. This would never do for us as my daily driver, perhaps as my wife's car if the price keeps dropping like it has been.

IMO electric cars will never become mainstream until you get at least an honest 150 mile range.

You do realize it has a gas tank as a backup?

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I've always wondered why they used a gasoline "range extender" instead of a diesel generator. Wouldn't you get better efficiency from a diesel generator than a gas one? Might be slightly heavier, but it is probably insignificant weight increase vs the entire car in the first place.

You can buy a Toyota Corolla and you would pay much less money than the volt and it gets good gas mileage.

Your cost per mile in a 4 year period will be lower with the Corolla.

Hey I've got one of those. I had always owned European cars before this (BMWs and an old Jag) but I cannot believe how reliable and cheap this thing is. Never going back.

 

[LTC8K6]

I still don't see how you can visit a Chevy dealer, compare the Cruze and the Volt, and then buy the Volt.

Unless it's just that you want to be trendy and the Volt is cool.

With the price of gasoline now well under $3 a gallon, it makes the economic justification much harder than it already was, imo.

 

[tweakmonkey]

But what happens when I want to drive to Vegas or San Francisco? Or if I'm sitting in traffic or run some errands after work. Range anxiety sucks.

Sitting in traffic doesn't use much range with an EV.

I linked to a deal for the Fiat 500e a few weeks ago that was $999 down and $70/month to lease. And Fiat was giving you 12 free rentals (per year I think!) as part of the lease.

 

[herm0016]

I still don't see how you can visit a Chevy dealer, compare the Cruze and the Volt, and then buy the Volt.

Unless it's just that you want to be trendy and the Volt is cool.

With the price of gasoline now well under $3 a gallon, it makes the economic justification much harder than it already was, imo.

how so? even if we use the msrp of about 35...

35k purchase
- 7.5 tax credit ( assuming you make enough to get it)
=26.5k

if you use 40miles of range per day with a gas price of 3 dollars a gallon in a car that gets 30 mpg you will save 117 per month. i'll take off the 17 for electricity.

a corolla is about 20k new. ( with less features than a volt)

so that's around 5 years payback.

plus the cool factor, and the fact you don't have to take the time to get gas nearly as often.
We bought one because it will save me driving my truck to work at 15 mpg. We use the truck a lot for projects, ski trips in the mountains, camping, off road travel and such. our payback for my 50 mile commute is very short, saving something like 300 a month in fuel. after the cash down on it, we are saving nearly what we pay per month, making it a very cheap car to own in our particular situation.

we avg around 40 on the highway going 80 mph in the volt.

cost justifications on new cars are stupid anyway, a used car will always win, sometimes you just want something new and fun.

 

[GasX]

I was hot and heavy on the volt until I saw the back seat. Does not work with my 3 kid family. Looking to get a fusion when they start coming off lease in numbers next spring. It's a nicer vehicle but the pure EV range is far inferior to the volt.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

A couple teaser shots clearly showing the facia.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/11/20/2016-chevy-volt-teaser-gps-charging/

http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2016-chevrolet-volt-teaser-images/

 

[PricklyPete]

Too much chrome...it's blinding!

 

[darkswordsman17]

Too much silver plastic...it looks cheap!

Fixed that for you.

 

[herm0016]

Fixed that for you.

the first thing we did was plasti-dig the silver grill on ours. looks much better.

 

[LTC8K6]

how so? even if we use the msrp of about 35...

35k purchase
- 7.5 tax credit ( assuming you make enough to get it)
=26.5k

if you use 40miles of range per day with a gas price of 3 dollars a gallon in a car that gets 30 mpg you will save 117 per month. i'll take off the 17 for electricity.

a corolla is about 20k new. ( with less features than a volt)

so that's around 5 years payback.

plus the cool factor, and the fact you don't have to take the time to get gas nearly as often.
We bought one because it will save me driving my truck to work at 15 mpg. We use the truck a lot for projects, ski trips in the mountains, camping, off road travel and such. our payback for my 50 mile commute is very short, saving something like 300 a month in fuel. after the cash down on it, we are saving nearly what we pay per month, making it a very cheap car to own in our particular situation.

we avg around 40 on the highway going 80 mph in the volt.

cost justifications on new cars are stupid anyway, a used car will always win, sometimes you just want something new and fun.

Well, regular gas is now 2.70 a gallon.

The current model Volt requires premium fuel, which is a lot more per gallon.

You will not always get 40 miles on electricity in a Volt, and sometimes substantially less.

A regular Corolla is rated 32 combined / 38 highway

You are unlikely to get the full tax credit for the Volt.

So, buy a used Volt. :biggrin:

ICE powered cars are getting stingier and stingier with the fuel.

 

[darkswordsman17]

the first thing we did was plasti-dig the silver grill on ours. looks much better.

Yeah. It really doesn't bug me too much on the current Volt (I'd probably change my mind seeing it up close), but with how they did it on the new one looks awful. I think it's both that it's bigger plus the way it's like they just sorta covered like 3/4ths of the grilles with it looks messed up. I'm not a big fan of these huge gaping maws that are mostly black plastic "mesh" (which often mostly isn't it just has patterns to make it look like it is) as it is, and that silver plastic just looks so bad for a car. I also am not a fan of the oblong plastic snoz of the Model S either.