The Volt feels different than it has in the past. Factor in the lighter battery pack, and the whole car is 200 pounds lighter than the one it replaces. The combination of the gas engine and a redesigned, two-motor electric drive system has eliminated nearly 100 pounds from the powertrain alone. The result is that the Volt is now certified to go 53 miles on electricity alone (up from 38 miles for the 2015 model) before the new, larger 1.5-liter gasoline engine kicks in to keep it going up to 420 miles total. The company redesigned the lithium-ion battery pack to eliminate more than 30 percent of the battery cells, but increased the pack’s capacity overall. First among them was range - and Chevy delivered. Unlike the “Gen 1” Volt, for which Chevrolet had to guess what customers wanted in a range-extended electric car, the “Gen 2” model has 80,000 vocal owners who provided tons of feedback to the company about what needed to change (full disclosure: I personally lease a Gen 1 Volt). You can tell Chevrolet stylists had more time to work on the Volt this time around, as it’s far more attractive and much more conventional in its styling.
The new car is one that will appeal to shoppers who are just seeking a stylish compact sedan, never mind the Volt’s impressive electric abilities. This is not a bad thing the best thing that could be said about the old Volt was that it was an obvious product of the wind tunnel. From the low, pointed front end to the much bigger taillights and the side window trim that connects them, the new Volt looks more like a modern Honda Civic or FCX Clarity fuel-cell car than it looks like its old self. If you see a new Volt on the street and think it’s a Honda, you’ll be forgiven. The result is a new and improved Volt that looks, feels and performs better in almost every way. That’s why the 2016 Chevrolet Volt is a revelation: It’s an obvious, serious refinement of the current model, a product of GM listening to customers and fixing only what was wrong while quietly improving what was already good (compare the 20 models here). Instead, they’re fans of the “start over and change everything” school of thought. It may seem obvious, but “fix only what’s broken” is not something American automakers often practice. The standard practice of many Japanese automakers is to change popular models minimally from generation to generation. Or to see a side-by-side comparison of the two model years, click here. Nothing major has changed for 2017, but to see what’s new, click here.
Chevrolet has transformed the Volt from a quirky science experiment into an extremely impressive premium compact sedan, with far more refinement and usable technology than any of its competitors.Ĭompetition is still not entirely an apples-to-apples comparison, as no car on the market can do what the Volt does – drive 50-plus miles on electric power only and continue to more than 400 miles at 42 mpg before needing refueling.Įditor’s note: This review was written in December 2015 for the all-new 2016 Chevrolet Volt.
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