The Results Are In: More Range for the 2016 Volt
EPA-estimated pure electric range is 53 miles

DETROIT – The 2016 Volt is engineered to offer customers more of what they want: range, range and more range.

The Volt's all-new second-generation Voltec extended range electric propulsion system delivers 53 miles of pure EV range, based on EPA testing. That is nearly a 40-percent improvement over the first generation Volt.

Chevrolet expects many next-generation Volt owners will use power solely from their battery for more than 90 percent of trips. Today, Volt owners use battery power on 80 percent of their trips.

This means that the average Volt owner may expect to travel well over 1,000 miles between gas fill ups, if they charge regularly.

For the first 53 miles, the Volt can drive gas and tailpipe-emissions free using a full charge of electricity stored in its new 18.4-kWh lithium-ion battery, which is rated at a combined 106 MPGe, or gasoline equivalent. When the Volt's battery runs low, a gas-powered generator seamlessly operates to extend the driving range for a total of 420 miles on a full tank.

"We listened to our customers," said Andrew Farah, vehicle chief engineer, "They were very clear when they told us that they wanted more range, and a fun driving experience behind the wheel. We are confident that the 2016 Volt delivers both."

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.

Data shows that drivers of the first-generation Volt achieved, and often exceeded, the published EPA-estimated mileage. Chevrolet expects the same label-exceeding result with the next-generation Volt.

The 2016 Chevrolet Volt is the second generation of Chevy's range-extended electric car. It's all-new this year, and it retains all of the Volt's strongest attributes while fixing most of the shortcomings of the previous model. It has more all-electric range--53 miles--and higher fuel efficiency, with an EPA rating of 42 mpg combined. And it's slightly less expensive than last year's Volt, though its starting price before incentives is still more than $30,000.

The styling is crisper, more rakish, and very much in concert with the rest of the current Chevrolet lineup. But inside, Chevy has dialed down its attempts to be high-tech, giving the new Volt an intuitive cockpit with more conventional controls. Its predecessor's irritating touch switches are gone, and there are ***** for things like audio tuning and heating.

On the road, it's quieter, smoother, and more powerful than its predecessor. Responding to owner requests, Chevy has given the Volt a fifth seat, though it's only for occasional use on short trips by lithe passengers who are on the small side. And that 53 miles of range is realistic, based on our two days of test-driving a very early production model around the San Francisco Bay Area.

The company hopes, in fact, that drivers of the new 2016 Volt will be able to make fully 90 percent of all their trips on electricity alone. When the range-extending engine does switch on, though, the new Volt is much quieter and less strained even under full power, maintaining the smooth, silent feeling of electric drive even as the engine generates power to drive the car.

From the outside, the 2016 Chevy Volt is visually lower and much tauter than its predecessor. It's still a five-door hatchback, but its proportions are visually quite different, with a much lower cowl and sculpting on the doors eliminating the slab-sided look of its predecessor. The front of the car comes to a point and wraps back around the corners, with a rising window line and a tail designed so that it appears from some angles like a very sleek, wedgy sedan.

In profile, the Volt has some similarities to the current Honda Civic sedan, another form that uses a steeply raked windshield and rear window. There are echoes of some other cars, too: a touch of Acura in the pointed nose, some older Subaru Legacy sedan in the curve of the taillights. But the textured silver blanking plate up front that replaces a conventional grille, along with a black "Volt" beltline spear on the front fender tie the 2016 model firmly to its lineage.

Inside, the new Volt retains the central display screen and instrument-cluster display of the previous Volt, but the glossy plastic console with capacitive touch switches is gone. They're replaced by more conventional, intuitive ***** for the heating and air conditioning that are much closer to standard Chevrolet interior hardware.

The seats remain fairly low to the ground, and the two rear outboard seats still take the form of individual buckets. But there is a fifth seating position, complete with seat belt, though no head rest--it's not mandatory, according to GM engineers. To call it a seat would be a stretch; it's basically cushioned padding over the battery pack, and the wide battery tunnel requires the fifth occupant's legs to splay into the footwells of the outboard passengers. It is, technically, possible to fit three adult males in the back seat if the center rider is slim. But none of the three will be happy, and Chevy stresses that the fifth position is just for occasional use. Heated seats, both front and rear, and a heated steering wheel are available.

Not only is the 2016 Volt's body all-new, it rides on a new generation of GM's compact-car architecture. This is the same platform that will sit under the next-generation Chevrolet Cruze and a whole variety of other compact vehicles, but it's heavily adapted to accommodate the Volt's T-shaped battery pack.

That battery uses just 192 lithium-ion cells, down from 288 in past Volts, with each cell holding more energy. Total battery capacity is 18.4 kilowatt-hours, or about 8 percent more than the 2015 battery. And that gets us to the really important statistic: The 2016 Chevy Volt gets a stellar EPA rating of 53 miles of electric range, about one-third more than the 38-mile rating for 2013-2015 Volts. That range will let Volt owners cover nine of every 10 trips solely on grid power, Chevy says, up from about 80 percent previously.

The range extender is a 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine from GM's latest global family of three- and four-cylinder engines. It delivers 101 horsepower at 5600 rpm, and importantly, it runs on regular (87-octane) gasoline. For best fuel economy, its combustion process has been modeled to simulate the ultra-efficient Atkinson Cycle under some circumstances.

When the Volt's battery pack has been depleted, the engine generates electricity by turning one of the two motor-generators to flow electricity to the battery pack. Total output to the wheels between the two motors is 111 kilowatts (149 hp) and a remarkable 294 lb-ft of torque, and the generator can recharge the battery at up to 45 kW. An 8.9-gallon fuel tank and the larger battery give a rated range of 430 miles, substantially higher than the last Volt's 340 or so miles.

The engine can clutch in to assist the electric motors in powering the front wheels directly if that's most efficient. The new Volt system also allows both motors to power the front wheels together, or one motor to drive the car while the other recharges the battery, depending on which combinations are most efficient at delivering the power requested while using the least energy. Altogether, the new Volt is rated at 42 miles per gallon in range-extending mode, and 106 MPGe when operating on battery power alone.

But the mechanics underneath can be transparent to Volt occupants, who will feel only the smooth and relatively quiet flow of electric drive. There are no fixed gear ratios, and Chevy says one of the main goals of using a more powerful engine was to let it operate at lower, and hence quieter, speeds more of the time. Especially when it's delivering maximum output, Volt engineers said, the 2016 Volt engine is far quieter than the previous range extender--and our road tests confirmed that.

The new Volt weighs 3,540 pounds, roughly 200 pounds lighter than its predecessor. Lighter weight and more power help cut the 0-to-60-mph acceleration time to around 8 seconds from about 9 seconds previously.

The new Chevrolet Volt will be available in China as a Buick, according to local publications Autohome and Car News China.

The websites stumbled upon images of a Buick-badged Chevrolet Volt from the directory of the China's Ministry of Cars, the authority which approves vehicles before they hit the local market.

The images reveal that the model will be dubbed the Buick Velite, the same name used by a company concept from 2004. It is then asserted that the model will be produced locally courtesy of the Shanghai-GM joint venture, rather than being imported from the U.S. and simply rebadged as Buick's in China.

Beyond the name, the Velite is expected to remain identical to the U.S.-spec Volt. That means it will come standard with a 1.5-liter petrol engine delivering 99 hp and sipping just 0.9 liters of fuel per 100 km.

A local debut at December's Guangzhou Auto Show has been pencilled in before the model hits the local market in early 2017.

This isn't the first time the Volt has been sold in China. In fact, it was imported between 2011 and 2014 but was soon pulled from the market for being too expensive, costing the equivalent of almost $79,000.