PHOTO BY CHEVROLET
ON SALE: Now
ON SALE: Now
BASE PRICE: $38,345
AS TESTED PRICE: $39,750
DRIVETRAIN: 1.5-liter DOHC I4, FWD continuously variable transmission
OUTPUT: 101 hp @ 5,600 rpm, 111kw (electric), 103 lb-ft @ 4,300 rpm, 249 lb-ft (electric)
CURB WEIGHT: 3,543 lb
OPTIONS: Driver confidence package including blind side zone alert with lane departure alert and rear cross traffic alert ($495); Chevrolet MyLink radio with navigation ($495); siren red tintcoat ($395); front license plate bracket ($20)
PROS: Get mostly electric driving without range anxiety
CONS: Pricier than regular hybrids; small
PHOTO BY CHEVROLET
When you think of green cars -- EV or plug in -- what are the first names coming to mind? Toyota Prius certainly, Tesla probably, maybe the Nissan Leaf. How ‘bout the Chevrolet Volt? Not so much you say? Us either.
That’s a shame, really: Many of us at Autoweek HQ think the Volt’s powertrain – an electric motor and 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine acting as a generator – is the smartest EV solution on the market. Why’s that? Because it eliminates the range anxiety that -- right or wrong -- people say they have with a straight EV.
In this, the second-gen Volt, the all-electric range is now 53 miles (compared to the old car’s 38) and with a full charge and full tank of gas the car can go about 420 miles in total. Electric mileage suffers some in the cold temperatures – when I first got in the car it was fully charged and the in-dash indicator said the generator would kick in after 37 miles.
The 1.5-liter four is new, smaller and lighter than the outgoing car’s four cylinder, with total power unit weight down 100 pounds.
That’s important: The car does indeed benefit from the weight reduction. It accelerates briskly and there’s an overall light-on-its-feet feeling. No, it’s not a hot hatch -- no one around here expected it to be -- but it feels fairly lively, more fun to drive than we all thought it would be, and more fun than the new Prius we had in the fleet at the same time (gotta take that with a grain of salt though: The Chevy is something like $15K more expensive than the Toyota). Sixty mph arrives in 8.4 seconds, if you care.
The Chevy is also quiet in terms of wind and road noise and we think it looks much better than the outgoing one -- inside and out. “I love the updates,” one staffer said. “The Volt no longer feels like a prettified science experiment but a real car meant to do real car stuff. The styling is a big improvement, but mostly I like how Chevrolet updated the interior and moved away from the Star Wars design ethic.”
People are asking us about this new EV and are going to ask you, too. We tell them the Volt’s lack of range anxiety and general overall pleasantness makes it one of our top picks for people looking for an EV or hybrid.
PHOTO BY CHEVROLET
I drove a Volt for a week in LA, where it’s neither cold nor snowing. For a while, it looked like I was going to get through the whole week without using any gas at all, since I have a Level II electric charger at my house. Then a couple trips came up that exceeded the Volt’s 53-mile range on battery power alone. On the first one, I went 39 miles down the Long Beach freeway before the gasoline engine took over (a switchover so smooth I wouldn’t have noticed it at all if I hadn’t been watching the “Miles to Empty” readout). The next one, I tried to be a little more conservative with the battery power and made it 45 miles on mostly freeway driving before the gas engine kicked in again, very smoothly. With the gas engine going the Volt is still very quiet. If you went 55 or 60 mph in the slow lane or if you were in EV-friendly stop-and-go traffic you could get higher battery range. But you wouldn’t want to be going 55 mph in the car pool lane, blocking traffic just to extend your electric miles.
PHOTO BY CHEVROLET
I like the new Volt a lot better when you look at it as just a car. The new interior is far more livable. That first Volt dash was just too plasticky and attracted finger smudges. The new setup is far more pleasing to look at and useable and far less like an art installation. Likewise, the back seat now has room for three across, which the first Volt didn’t. I used that a lot during the week I had the car. And I like the exterior, too. It doesn’t look a whole lot different from the first one, but what changes there are are subtly pleasing to the eyeballs.
People say they wouldn’t buy a pure electric car because it wouldn’t work for occasional longer trips. This might be the perfect solution for single-car families. With 18.4 kWh of battery in the new Volt, you can do most of your trips on electricity, which is a lot cheaper than gas. Or it was before the price of oil plummeted this week. Is there really a gas station in Michigan selling the stuff for 48 or 78 cents a gallon or some ridiculous price? Our world is crazy. And it will go crazy in the other direction again, so a Volt is a good investment for an only car.
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