![]() The 8-inch touchscreen is one of the better ones out there, and there are plenty of USB ports. The interior design is the funkiest we've seen from GM in quite some time, and it's a genuine five seater, although the trunk space could do with being a bit bigger. I'd go as far as to say that if I still had a commute and somewhere to plug it in at night, I'd seriously consider one as my next vehicle. That meant I was also not able to quite match Chevrolet's claimed 53-mile (85km) electric range-although Tiffany Kelly did just that during our first drive of the car in 2015.Įven though I was never able to quite match the official economy figures, my combined time with the Volt has left me a fan. This took two full battery charges (about six hours) connected to a level 2 (240v) charger, but not once in July did I have to hear the engine rumble into life. Using the paddle to slow the car quickly becomes second nature, and again the car helps out, giving feedback of how many kW are being recovered.Īnd yet, try as I might, the best I could accomplish in almost 100 miles (160km) was a paltry 90.3MPGe. Heavy braking was also banished, thanks to the Regen paddle behind the steering wheel's left spoke. On city streets with 25mph (40km/h) speed limits, a short burst of acceleration goes a surprisingly long way. This allows the car to coast, which it did with remarkable gusto. With clearer roads ahead, D was my preferred choice. With the transmission selector in L, the MGU begins to harvest kinetic energy from the front wheels as soon as the accelerator pedal is lifted, perfect for inching through stop-and-go traffic. The normally green ring around the central driver's display turns yellow if you accelerate or brake too hard, giving an easy visual cue to help retrain one's driving brain. In stark contrast to February, even with the AC on blast the car was happy to run in fully electric mode (although I quickly switched from "Max" to "Eco" once that all-black cockpit was close to tolerable). And with pavement hot enough to fry eggs, there was no intrusion from the internal combustion engine to disturb that peace. When you're not racing to every red light, driving becomes a much more serene activity, particularly under electric power with nothing but a little wind noise and NPR for a soundtrack. (To do the latter in February would have ended in certain frostbite, the same in July a nice case of heat exhaustion.) The car was left in Normal mode after all there's no point selecting Sport if you're trying to stretch a charge. I modified my driving style with plenty of lifting and coasting, although without certain hypermiling tricks like over-inflating the tires or driving everywhere with the climate control turned off. All Rights Reserved.Further Reading Test-driving the new Chevrolet Volt at CESAs with February's test, I made an effort. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2019 and/or its affiliates. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. ![]() Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc.2019. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. And GM says the engine has also been tuned to provide better driving performance. The new electric drive system, which includes the electric motors and gears, also weighs about 100 pounds less. The 2016 Volt will use smaller, lighter battery packs that store more energy than those in today's Volt. Owners can often drive to work and back, for instance, and charge the car overnight without using any gas. That's because even 38 miles - let alone the 53 miles the new car will provide - is already more than most people drive on a typical day. For comparison, a non-hybrid Honda Civic gets about 33 miles per gallon combined.Įven owners of the current Volt model often go weeks or months without refilling the gas tank, according to GM ( GM) and Volt owner Web sites. That's up from 37 miles per gallon for the current Volt. When the new Volt is powered by the gasoline engine it will get about 42 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving. Even then, there will still be notable improvements.
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