Quote Of The Day: Chevrolet Volt, One Generation On

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

“When someone thinks of an electric vehicle, they don’t think of Chevrolet; they think Toyota or Tesla.”

-Jamaal McCoy, general manager of Findlay Chevrolet in Las Vegas, quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

When the Chevrolet Volt launched at the start of the decade, the plan was to sell 70,000 units annually, with talk of selling as many as 120,000 units in later years. Now, the Volt is ending product of its first generation with roughly 70,000 units total finding their way off the showroom lots.

The next Volt will be a more advanced car, with a better drivetrain and seating for 5. From a qualitative perspective, the Volt is now better positioned to suceed in the marketplace. Unfortunately, it is being introduced in the midst of record low energy prices, and a market that is heavily favoring trucks and SUVs – the kind of vehicles that the Volt was intended to displace in America’s auto market.

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

More by Derek Kreindler

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 123 comments
  • CRacK hEaD aLLeY CRacK hEaD aLLeY on Apr 10, 2015

    I'm going on my 2nd year with my Volt. It is not a perfect car, but it is very, very good for what I need: commute 66km total a day with free charging at work. 3 tanks of gas in two years /34,000 kms of commuting: in 2 years it used less gas than my 200cc KTM dirtbike used in one summer. Bus service would cost $7,50 and take 1.5 hr each way. Bicycling/walking would add probably 10 years to my life expectancy provided I did not get hit by a car/truck at 3am when leaving for work.

  • Russycle Russycle on Apr 10, 2015

    Poor Volt can't catch a break. It was introduced during Carmageddon, now the gen 2 is coming when gas prices are incredibly low. At least GM will sell plenty of Suburbans.

  • KixStart KixStart on Apr 10, 2015

    Volt 2, if it lives up to the hype, is what Volt 1 should have been. - Nominal seating for 5 (although the 5th seat is, arguably, a bad joke). - 40+ MPG in CS mode on regular gas (still, the Prius PHV gets 50). - Probably lower cost. - Good looking (tastes differ but that's my opinion). They've lightened it up, reconsidered the battery engineering, ditched the crappy iron block Family Zero (selected because it was cheap and available) in favor of something more sophisticated and generally improved it in many ways. The tragedy here is that Volt 2 may be what Volt 1 *could* have been. Andrew Farah (I think) was heard at the introduction to say, "this time, we ran it through the whole process [of design and engineering]." Last time, they were just scrambling in response to El Lutzbo's dicktates. The car was designed from the top down on a paper napkin and it shows. In spite of the "moonshot" declaration, GM didn't put key resources into this car to make it a real winner from the get-go. It was pretty obvious what was going to happen when one of the key people, Frank Weber, bailed before launch and went to BMW.

  • Lostindecoland Lostindecoland on Apr 10, 2015

    Have a volt. It's as quiet as my old lexus. My old pruis averaged 45 mpg, the volt - 60 mpg even with the considerable long distance driving that I do. The volt is very comfortable on long trim trips; unlike the prius. It handles better than the prius. Yes the looks are rather mundane but overall it is one of the few cars that I can recommend as an every day driver without reservations.

Next