The general consensus is that GM played up the Volt’s electric side too prominently in its early days, leading to assumptions about its ability - something the automaker admitted in the recent past.
#CHEVY VOLT RANGE ON ONE TANK OF GAS DRIVER#
Considering its price and size, the Volt remains the best bet for a driver who wants to travel most of his or her miles electrically, while maintaining the capacity for go-anywhere road trips. The second-generation model improved upon its predecessor’s range. Unlike early PHEVs, the Volt offered a healthy electric range designed to get the average commuter to work and back without the need to fire up the onboard inline-four generator. A lack of a proper customer perception played a very large role in the demise of the Chevrolet Volt.” Speaking to Automotive News, Michael Harley, managing editor of Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, said, “Overall, marketing and advertising for the Volt needed to focus on education as much as it did traditional selling. To this not-insignificant swath of the population, the mere presence of the words “plug” and “electric” means one thing - that the vehicle is, in fact, fully electric, and might leave them stranded on the side of the road in a remote corner of the countryside where those unsolved murders happened four years ago. Many don’t know that a plug-in hybrid actually has an engine that powers the vehicle most of the time.
#CHEVY VOLT RANGE ON ONE TANK OF GAS DRIVERS#
Even recent studies show that modern drivers in first-world countries remain confused by terms like “electrified.” Which is why GM’s preferred descriptor for the Volt - a “range-extended electric vehicle” - may have been a poor choice when dealing with a fearful public and a fledgling segment. Suffice it to say that battery capacity was limited, range anxiety was widespread, and the majority of the driving public wasn’t even close to making the switch. How does 76 miles of driving distance sound, under ideal circumstances?
Minus the limited (and pricey) Tesla Roadster, electric vehicle ownership, be it a Nissan Leaf or Ford Focus Electric, meant renting a car for road trips out of town. A victim of falling sales, though your author would be curious to learn the model’s margin.ĭespite offering the most practical combination of conventional gas-powered driving and electric ability, many claim the Volt’s failure was one of marketing, not engineering.įirst off, while electric vehicles were all the rage in the waning days of Obama’s first term, the novelty didn’t rub off on everyone. Plug-in hybrids are struggling, however, and the most famous of them all is now dead. In the truck-loving land of (relatively) cheap gasoline, electric vehicles are only just now eating up more than 1 percent of the market, thanks mainly to the Tesla Model 3 and what ownership of said vehicle says about your lifestyle and viewpoints. On that day, General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant produced the last Chevrolet Volt - a green car born at the dawn of a new era that didn’t take off exactly as envisioned. February 15th was a sad day, even for those who hate cars.
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