The gas-electric Volt, now quicker and less eccentric, is the embodiment of New Age versatility.
We have only fond memories of the original Chevy Volt,
that slab-sided toccata and fugue of Yankee ingenuity from 2011. It
looked like something Jimmy Carter acolytes created after locking
themselves in a bunker with a Commodore PET computer, the Tupperware
collection for 1981, and a laserdisc of the movie Tron. But the
Volt worked, delivering both electric-vehicle stealth and
internal-combustion freedom. It may have missed the energy crises for
which it was perfectly suited, but its timing was still propitious. The
77,000 or so units that Chevy sold, the majority in California,
thoroughly expunged the mark of Cain borne by General Motors ever since
it was accused of killing the electric car.
The Volt II proves that GM’s novel idea for an enviro-hybrid has cleared
the tower of experimentation and is on full-powered ascent into a
regular product line with a history and a sustaining business case.
Could we finally see the Volt give birth to a family of vehicles—at
least, besides a Cadillac coupe? Given the public’s current fascination
with small crossovers, surely GM must have a little SUVolt in the
works.
Either way, the new Volt’s styling makes a 30-year thematic leap to
contemporary windswept sensuality, and the interior is no longer
something out of the Apple catalog c. 1999. The silly touch-sensitive
capacitive controls are gone, replaced by a mosaic of conventional push
buttons set in a pleasingly organic fan of interior plastics and
complemented by an elegantly integrated infotainment screen.
No doubt some Voltifosi will lament the car’s reach toward design normalcy, toward looking a lot more like a Honda Civic.
But the car both looks and functions a lot better, especially since GM
makes a terrific effort to cater the car’s controls to the needs of EV
buyers and especially their hypermiling radical elite. And Volt lovers
can rejoice that the basic four-door-hatchback envelope is essentially
unchanged, with just about a half-inch inserted in the wheelbase and 3.3
inches added overall, mainly for styling and to give rear-seat
passengers a little more legroom. Indeed, the frontal area and claimed
drag coefficient of 0.28 are essentially as they were before.
While the car grows, its weight shrinks, our loaded Premier tester tallying 3396 pounds against 3766 for our last Volt test car. That triumph means the Volt effectively eliminates the mass gap with its arch rival, the Toyota Prius
plug-in, and greatly narrows it against the regular Prius. Much of the
Volt’s excess cottage cheese came off the electric drive unit (99
pounds) and battery pack (31 pounds), which is where the most-profound
changes to Volt II are found.
GM’s marching orders from its customers were clear: Give us more range
in EV mode, make the engine quieter, and give the car more driving
spunk. The old powertrain, which paired an iron-block 1.4-liter
four-cylinder to one large propulsion/regen motor/generator and one
smaller multipurpose electric machine, got a complete rethink. Now, a
more powerful Atkinson-cycle 1.5-liter aluminum-block engine works in
concert with two smaller motor/generators, housed inside a transaxle to
drive the differential through a chain rather than gears as before.
Engineers studied a range of engines, from a 1.0-liter turbo
three-cylinder to the 1.5, and selected the largest because of a fact
that Corvette
owners have long known: A bigger engine turning more slowly can be
remarkably efficient. And quiet. And quicker, if need be, since the
bigger engine doesn’t need to call on the motors as much when the driver
floors it. The long, 86.6- millimeter (3.41-inch) stroke makes the
Volt’s lump a sort of automotive tugboat engine, a low-speed torque
machine with its 101 horsepower arriving at just 5600 rpm.
A T-shaped battery pack still lies under the tall center tunnel, but its
capacity climbs from 17.1 kWh to 18.4, with fewer but larger
liquid-cooled prismatic lithium-ion cells to generate more power from a
lighter but slightly larger package.
The new transaxle houses two electric motors with 31 percent less
combined power and 28 percent less torque than before, three clutches,
and two planetary gearsets. Five propulsion modes are available. As long
as energy is available from the battery pack, the Volt drives on one or
both electric motors. When the charge is depleted, one of the motors
cranks the engine to begin extended-range operation. Manipulating the
clutches provides three distinct ranges for accelerating, cruising, and
high-speed driving, with the motor/generators participating in
propulsion and battery-charging roles. As in the original Volt, the
electric motors also charge the battery during deceleration (regen).
Chevy claims a 19-percent reduction in the zero-to-30-mph time; that
jibes with our measurement of 2.6 seconds for the new car versus 3.2
seconds before. The old Volt took 8.8 seconds to hit 60; the new Volt
takes 7.8 seconds. The original was said to provide around 40 miles of
electric driving; Volt II comes with a 53-mile claim. In two complete
drains of the battery during normal driving, we saw 52 and 56 miles.
Unfortunately, GM wouldn’t leave the car with us long enough to get a
thorough fuel-economy test. Further testing to follow at a later date,
but, as you know, the Volt doesn’t yield a simple fuel-economy number
because it depends entirely on the way you operate it.
Drive it less than 50 miles per day and recharge overnight, as most Volt
owners do (actually, 41 miles per day is the average, says GM), and the
87-octane gas in the tank will just slosh around unused, the engine
nothing more than a couple hundred pounds of dead weight. Unless you
command it to do otherwise, the Volt runs on electric power until it
depletes the usable portion of the battery, and then seamlessly switches
to a combination of gasoline and electricity. We did manage to get in a
120-mile run in this combined engine/electric mode with mixed traffic
and road types, and it yielded a Prius-like 48 mpg.
Suffice it to say, the Volt is thrifty. It’s also livelier, with a
strong pull from a prodded gas pedal, and has reliable brakes and
accurate if not thrilling steering. The Michelin Energy Saver tires
supply quiet and adequate grip, but only to a fairly low threshold of
0.80 g. Bank robbers won’t be looking here.
The new Volt has an interior that looks like a car interior (and a nice one) instead of a soon-to-be laughably outdated gadget.
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As promised, the Volt is quiet even with the plugs firing, unless you
really draw the battery down by, say, running nine successive
quarter-miles, or by climbing a mountain. When it needs to run hard, the
1.5 buzzes with labored effort, a noise especially apparent when you
come to a red light. Most engines are at their quietest then, but the
Volt’s can be cranking away in a frenzy, charging the battery. It’s one
of the peculiar idiosyncrasies of this powertrain, but GM claims that
the Volt II falls into these charging holes less often than Volt I, so
it’s a rarer occasion. At its highest speeds, the engine vibrations in
our early test car found something sympathetic in the body to rattle,
producing a clattery duet.
You can tell that GM closely studied the way EV drivers operate their
vehicles. It’s all about energy management, and Volt II gives you lots
of control. For example, the four driving modes include normal, sport,
and mountain, which cuts the EV-only range to preserve the battery for
expected long climbs, plus hold, which lets you save the battery for
whenever you want EV miles. Those modes carry over from the gen-one
Volt, but even handier is a new regen paddle on the back of the steering
wheel, which turns a clunky hypermiling technique done with the shifter
in many EVs into a simple fingertip function. Most EVs offer some kind
of max-regen mode, but you usually have to shift into low or “B” to
engage it, then shift back to D for normal acceleration. The Volt makes
it much easier. The paddle only works when you lift off the gas,
engaging maximum regeneration. In many daily situations, the paddle cuts
the car’s speed enough to provide all the deceleration you need and it
will even stop the car completely. Which means the friction brakes,
those energy-squandering devices from the smokestack era, can be used
less often in favor of the paddle, which pours electrons back into the
battery.
The rest of the cockpit has its share of plain black plastic but is laid
out with pleasing hints at pseudo-grandeur. Mercedes could take a
lesson from the artful integration of the central touch screen into the
dash. Apple CarPlay was working on our car with an iPhone, though, as we’ve already reported, the functionality is limited.
The driver’s instruments are displayed on another multicolor screen with
four selectable configurations (though really two with two minor
variations of each). Nothing from the old Volt’s display is carried
over, and the navigation map can now be echoed in a small window below
the speedometer, though without a separate zoom function. Rear-seat
riders will have to duck under the sloping roof to enter. Chevy now fits
a middle seatbelt but adds no legroom, so the necessarily short person
there must straddle the battery as if riding a Shetland pony.