Increased 2016 Chevy Volt range renews Bolt dilemma

“We listened to our customers,” said Andrew Farah, the chief engineer for the 2016 Volt in a statement. “We are confident that the 2016 Volt delivers both”.

The 2016 Chevrolet Volt will travel 53 miles on electricity before its gasoline range-extending engine kicks in.

In addition to improving all-electric range by 40 percent over the outgoing first-generation Volt to a total of 53 miles per charge, the 2016 Chevrolet Volt also benefits from an improved electric efficiency of 106 MPGe, up from its predecessor’s 98 MPGe.

First, General Motors upgraded the 17.1 kWh lithium-ion battery pack to 18.4 kWh.

The automaker said it expects many Volt owners will use electric-only power for more than 90 percent of trips compared with the current 80 percent.

GM’s engineers reached a little more than they planed in the all-new second-generation Voltec extended-range electric propulsion system.

The Volt was launched in late 2010 with great fanfare after Detroit-based GM had emerged from bankruptcy a year earlier and had been trying to come up with an antidote to the technological bragging rights Toyota Motor Corp. earned with its Prius hybrid.

The next-generation Volt’s new 1.5L range-extender, designed to use regular unleaded fuel, offers a combined EPA-estimated fuel efficiency of 42 MPG.

For now, the Chevrolet Volt is on the top but we are expecting them to take the lower spot when the sales numbers for the Tesla Model S arrives. In should go on sale a month or two, with a starting sticker of $26,495, with the $7,500 federal tax credit. While initial response was excited, it’s yet to be clear whether the Volt will be a sales success or not.