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2016 Chevrolet Volt Officially Rated at 53 Miles Electric Range

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Chevrolet electric Hybrid and tagged 2016 chevrolet volt fuel economy volt on by (updated 3379 days ago)

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Back in January when Chevrolet first showed off the all-new second-generation Volt, we were told that the electric driving range would be at least 50 miles and the hybrid fuel economy would be about 41 mpg. This morning, they announced the official EPA certified results that would go on the fuel economy label and they beat those estimates. The larger 18.4-kWh battery and more efficient motors are now rated to provide a 53 driving range before the engine fires up. That’s a 40 percent bump from the 37 mile range on the 2015 model (the original 2011 was rated at just 35 miles) Once the battery is depleted (or when its really cold or if you’ve been running on electricity only for more than six weeks) the Volt is rated at 42 mpg combined. Unlike many cars in recent years, GM was always fairly conservative in rating the original Volt and it wasn’t at all unusual for many drivers to meet or exceed the 37 mile driving range on the label. Assuming that GM has done the same this time, most drivers should have little difficulty topping 50 miles but we’ll find out for ourselves in the not too distant future.

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#NAIAS15 – The 2016 Chevrolet Volt – Fully Recharged

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Chevrolet electric Hybrid technology and tagged 2016 chevrolet volt chevrolet electric car extended range EV naias naias2015 volt on by (updated 3379 days ago)

2016 Chevrolet Volt

Eight years after the debut of of the original Chevrolet Volt concept at the 2007 North American International Auto Show and four years after the production launch, General Motors is ready to publicly debut the all-new second generation model.  I was part of a group that got an early look at the GEN2 Volt along with the leaders of the Volt team a few days before the big show.

Then vs Now

Eight years ago, the car we saw was a pure concept, powered by golf cart motor alongside a mockup of what the E-Flex propulsion system would look like if GM actually opted to build one.  The whole idea had only been thought up about nine months by former GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz and then-VP of program management Jon Laukner. Lutz and Laukner had been spitballing ideas for how to respond to the negative publicity around the film “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and the result was a extended-range electric vehicle (ER-EV). There were no firm plans at the time to actually produce the car.

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General Motors Would be Crazy to Show New EV Next to Volt

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Chevrolet electric Hybrid technology the business and tagged 2016 2016 chevrolet volt bolt chevrolet chevy volt volt on by (updated 3379 days ago)

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Chevrolet will reveal a new electric car concept with a 200-mile range on Monday morning at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. We already know for a fact that Chevrolet will show the all-new second-generation Volt at the show (check back here after 12:01am EST on Monday, January 12 for my thoughts on this car) but I personally believe that showing the new concept would be insane.

It has previously been reported that Chevrolet has registered a trademark for the name Bolt, and GM executive vice-president for global product development Mark Reuss has acknowledged that the company planning a new EV with a 200-mile range for the 2017 time frame. We’ll just stipulate Chevrolet will in fact build a 200-mile EV called the Bolt at some time in the next two to three years.

My problem is with the idea that Chevrolet would show this car alongside the new Volt. GM designers and engineers have spent the past four years and at least hundreds of millions of dollars developing a second-generation Volt. No doubt, a big part of that effort went to reducing the manufacturing and part costs in the hope of at least breaking even if not making a profit on Volt. GM will want to sell as many gen-2 Volts as possible both to recover that investment and also to boost the company’s corporate average fuel economy numbers.

We have no idea how much the new Volt will cost, but I’m guessing it’s not going to drop much below $30,000 if it drops at all. Based on the photos of camouflaged prototypes released by GM, the new car doesn’t look like it’s going by much larger or roomier than the original.

According to the WSJ report, GM is targeting a starting price of just $30,000 for the Bolt. The Bolt is also expected to be larger than the Volt. Looking at this purely from a marketing perspective, why would you show a battery electric car with perhaps three to four times as much range, more space and a potentially lower price that won’t be available for two more years next to a car that you need to sell right now?

I can certainly understand wanting to get Bolt out ahead of Tesla and their Model 3. However, given Tesla’s track record for delivering products on time (reminder, they have never delivered anything on time), GM will probably be first to market. However, there is absolutely no reason to show the car now. I would wait until at least the LA Auto Show in November after people have driven the new Volt or perhaps the 2016 Detroit Show. What customer would even consider a Volt if they new the Bolt was coming?

Whoever might have thought showing a Bolt concept now should perhaps be relegated to the same dark corner as the marketer that came up with the infamous Volt dance at the 2009 LA Auto Show.

Not allowing a condo resident to plug in an EV is just plain idiotic, especially… 3

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged EV Google+ rechargingthecar volt on by (updated 4649 days ago)

Not allowing a condo resident to plug in an EV is just plain idiotic, especially if they are willing to pay for the juice. The only viable excuse for not permitting residents to charge would be if the wiring was not up to the task, but then it should just be upgraded.

#ev #volt #rechargingthecar

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Can Condos Coexist With Electric Cars? Volt Owner To Be Cut Off
Ask any automaker, and they'll tell you they believe most early electric cars will be charged at night, in garages attached to private houses. That would seem to cut out residents of multiple dwelling…

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My eBook Recharging the Car

This entry was posted in cars and tagged chevy volt recharging the car volt on by (updated 4820 days ago)

In December 2006, I was given a preview of a concept car that Chevrolet would reveal in a few weeks time at the Detroit Auto Show. Those of us in attendance didn’t get to see the car’s styling but we did learn about the interesting new powertrain architecture that Bob Lutz and Jon Lauckner had sketched out as a follow-on to GM’s last electric car, the EV1.

Over the next couple of weeks I wrote a series of articles that would be published at the same time the car was unveiled but that was just the beginning. Over the next four years, as engineers , designers and technicians at General Motors and its suppliers worked around the clock to transform the concept into the first mass-produced extended range electric vehicle, I wrote hundreds of thousands of words about the process on AutoblogGreen, Autoblog and GreenFuelsForecast.

Following the production launch of the Chevrolet Volt in late 2010, I began to compile most of those articles along with relevant articles about other similar vehicles into an e-Book. I’ve now published that anthology as Recharging the Car. It’s available now from Amazon’s Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble’s Nook store and as soon as Apple finishes its approval process it will be in the iBooks store.

Update: It’s now in the iBooks store for those of you using iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches