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2017 Chevy Bolt EV sales could go as high as 80,000 per year

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Chevrolet Bolt EV 2017The question of how many electric cars can be sold in a single year remains a topic of hot debate as the U.S. market awaits the launch of the 200-mile Chevy Bolt EV at the end of this year.

The world's best-selling electric car, the Nissan Leaf, had its highest-sales year in the U.S. in 2014, when just over 30,000 Leafs were delivered.

Despite a range boost from 84 to 107 miles for 2016, Leaf sales have never returned to that level.

Volumes for the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV have been debated ever since a volume estimate of 30,000 a year emerged soon after the car was unveiled as a prototype at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show.

GM spokesman Kevin Kelly subsequently clarified that the company was prepared to build as many Bolt EVs as it could sell, and that the 30,000 number did not in any way represent a production ceiling.

Now, Karl Brauer, analyst for Kelley Blue Book, has suggested that Bolt EV sales could run from 30,000 to 80,000 a year in the car's first year.

 The estimate comes from a Barron's article (via Autoblog), in which Brauer suggested that the Bolt EV could capture a percentage of the 400,000 reservations placed for the Tesla Model 3.

That $35,000 200-mile Tesla electric car isn't likely to be delivered in notable quantities until at least sometime in 2018.

We reached out to Brauer to learn more the reasoning behind his estimate.

The analysis, he told Green Car Reports, was "pretty straightforward," starting with sales of roughly 46,000 volume-priced electric cars last year.

The bulk of those sales came from the Nissan Leaf (about 17,000), the Chevrolet Volt (15,000), and the BMW i3 (11,000)—none of which has anything like the Bolt EV's 200-mile range.

"I genuinely believe [that range] will change the perception and willingness to buy an electric car," Brauer said. "It has for me; I'm planning on leasing a Bolt EV."

Then he looked at the 400,000 Model 3 reservations, most made by people who won't see their cars until 2018 or later under the best of circumstances.

"If the Bolt can appeal to just 10 percent of that market, that’s 40,000 sales."

The Bolt EV also qualifies for the "white" sticker that lets it travel in carpool lanes on California's notoriously crowded freeways—stickers for plug-in hybrids are presently unavailable.

Brauer suggests that the state could see 20,000 to 50,000 buyers alone, as those unwilling to commute in an 80-mile battery-electric car take the plunge.

"Add it all up," he concluded, "and I think 30,000 is a no-brainer, and 80,000 is possible.”

And that's even before sales to state, utility, and corporate fleets, which may opt for the Bolt for the same reasons individual buyers do: range, carpool sticker, and low cost of operation.

So there you have it: a more optimistic sales projection for Chevy's upcoming electric car than any we've seen to date.

SEE ALSO: McLaren is making the ultimate modern sports car — and its rivals should be worried

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NOW WATCH: A space-saving bookshelf doubles as a bed and a table


There's an excellent alternative to the Toyota Prius, but everyone is ignoring it (gm)

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Chevy Volt

Let me set the way-back machine to 2010 for a moment.

Excitement then around electric cars and plug-in hybrid electric cars was running high. The Toyota Prius had revolutionized the way Americans thought about fuel economy.

But the original Prius design didn't involve all-electric operation. So the next logical step in the evolution of the automobile was a different type of hybrid gas-electric design.

The Prius' parallel-hybrid powertrain, with gas and electric motors running at the same time, would be supplanted by a serial hybrid design, with an electric motor delivering about 40 miles of range before depleting its batteries, at which point a small gas engine would kick in to generate more electricity.

General Motors brought exactly this vehicle to market with the Chevrolet Volt.

At the time I did the math and figured that an average commuter would need to fill up the tank about only six times a year. But there would be none of the "range anxiety" issues that plague most all-electric cars, with the exception of Teslas — if a Volt owner were unable to recharge the batteries, he or she could keep going on good old regular gasoline.

Brilliant, right? Except that the Volt's sales never took off. Toyota has sold millions of Priuses in the US, but Chevy has sold only about 90,000 Volts between 2010 and early 2016.

But that hasn't stopped General Motors, Chevy's parent company, from rolling out an all-new Volt. We spent a few days with the car, driving around suburban New Jersey, and, as with the first-generation car, we were impressed.

Chevy has modestly upgraded the powertrain to deliver better overall electric and gas-powered performance — 53 miles on a single charge — and, as plug-in hybrids go, the Volt continues to be relatively fun to drive.

Chevy Volt

I own a 2011 Prius, and the 2016 Volt's performance blows it away. My family has to gas up the Prius only once a month, meaning that we spend around $24o a year of fuel, at current prices.

If we had a Volt and its 9-gallon tank, we'd definitely cut that in half — and, in fact, given that we don't take many long trips but typically use our car for errands and school pickups — if we charged a Volt every night, we could theoretically require gas power only in emergencies. Chevy claims that the new Volt has a whopping 420 miles of total range, running on batteries and the motor combined.

Toyota has rolled out an all-new Prius, with even better fuel economy, and I genuinely enjoyed the car. But it still isn't as impressive as the Volt.

Electric cars achieve maximum torque at 1 rpm, which means that their acceleration, even in the case of small motors, is impressive. The Volt is quite zippy off the line, with a claimed zero-to-60 time of about eight seconds. Not fast, but not slow, either, and the electric acceleration just feels faster. Around corners, the car is much meatier than the Prius or most of the full-electric cars I've driven, save the Tesla Model S — and the high-performance-oriented Tesla Roadster.

Mind you, the Volt is more expensive than a Prius — about $34,000 versus $24,000 for the base versions, but that's before tax credits, which can make the Volt comparable. And Toyota is, for the moment, not producing a plug-in version of the Prius, so if you're in the market for a serial hybrid, the Volt and the BMW i3 with a range-extender are pretty much your only options, unless you want to go for a used Fisker Karma.

Ultimately, the Volt is a superior piece of economics when it comes to green cars. Our test car did test that proposition, as it was fully loaded and tipped the price scales at nearly $41,000, complete with seat heaters, a heated steering wheel, and a pretty tasty eight-speaker Bose audio system.

The Volt was the Next Big Thing in 2010, the perfect car for the masses, long before Tesla started talking about its Model 3, its forthcoming all-electric vehicle that promises 200-mile range on a single charge. But obviously, it wasn't the Next Big Thing.

And this has always baffled me. If you think it through, the Volt is ... perfect! Who doesn't want a perfect car?

OK, the back seats aren't anything to write home about, with barely enough room for two kids, much less two adults. But the technology and infotainment system, including GM's 4G LTE Wi-Fi connectivity and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, are superb. Who needs a BMW 3 Series when you can have one of these?

Chevy Volt

Chevy Volt

A few days with the Volt gave me the answer to my question, however. Having the Prius in the driveway provided the insight I'd lacked.

The Volt requires too much thinking.

Basically, if you want to enjoy the full Volt experience, and the fuel-cost savings that go with it, you have to plug it in. Otherwise, you're just going to gas it up and get roughly the same MPGs that you'd get from a Prius. And you have to have been attracted to doing the math in the first place. Thinking, thinking, thinking ...

I've had my Prius for about a year, and I've never had to think about it. It's a transportation appliance. And that's not a bad thing. Toyota has just rolled out a redesigned model, succeeding the generation that my car is in, and while it's moderately sexier, a bit more solid, and gets better overall MPGs, it's essentially the same car. Why mess with something that works just fine?

The only time my Prius annoys me is when we need to drive all three of our kids someplace: They don't fit. For that, we need an SUV. But the Volt has the same problem, except worse: It can carry only four people.

Chevy Volt

Unless you're an enthusiast, deeply concerned about which of 22 different versions of the Porsche 911 you should get, you don't want to think about your car. The vast majority of people just want their car to get its job done. If they happen to love what they drive, and many do, then it's icing on the cake.

The Volt, as it turns out, is a thinking man's car. It had always been a thoughtful undertaking, from General Motors, the company that gave us the EV1 all-electric car, but then missed the Prius revolution. How can we advance beyond the Prius, GM thought, and ... presto! — the Volt, a visionary machine.

But ... it still has to be plugged in. Except that it doesn't. The gas motor takes care of that. A Volt owner who wants to use it in EV mode as much of the time as possible must have the discipline to plug in pretty much every day — 120V recharging is estimated at 13 hours, while 240V consumes 4.5. He has to seek out charging stations on the road, away from home. It's all too much. A Prius requires no extra infrastructure investment. The Volt does, starting ideally with a garage.

That's why nobody cares that it's the car of the future. Even if it is.

SEE ALSO: Tesla's most successful car could be on the verge of change that would make it even better

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NOW WATCH: The best car of the year — the Volvo XC90

9 innovative features in the 2017 Chevy Volt

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CV

You don't have to spend a fortune to get a teched-out car these days. 

Recently, I had the chance to try out the 2017 Chevrolet Volt. Pricing for the Volt begins at about $33,000  and I was blown away with the number of innovative features inside the car at that price.

Here's a look at some of technology in the car that makes it such a great deal. 

SEE ALSO: AOL's Tim Armstrong used a word that should have Yahoo employees shaking in their boots

The 2017 Chevy Volt has the range.

The Volt has an all electric range of 53 miles on a full charge. But with a full tank of gas and a full charge, the Volt can drive for up to 420 miles.



Once your charged up, you can select from a number of different 'Drive Modes.'

"Normal,""Sport," and "Mountain" modes are all electric. To tap into the gas power, you can select "Hold."



The Volt is compatible with Apple Car Play, so you have easy access to all of your data.

Connect your iPhone via the USB port and your apps supported by Apple Car Play will appear on the center screen. 

The 2017 Chevy Volt is also compatible with Android Auto. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

9 innovative features in the 2017 Chevy Volt (gm)

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CV

You don't have to spend a fortune to get a teched-out car these days. 

Recently, I had the chance to try out the 2017 Chevrolet Volt. Pricing for the Volt begins at about $33,000  and I was blown away with the number of innovative features inside the car at that price.

Here's a look at some of technology in the car that makes it such a great deal. 

SEE ALSO: AOL's Tim Armstrong used a word that should have Yahoo employees shaking in their boots

The 2017 Chevy Volt has the range.

The Volt has an all electric range of 53 miles on a full charge. But with a full tank of gas and a full charge, the Volt can drive for up to 420 miles.



Once your charged up, you can select from a number of different 'Drive Modes.'

"Normal,""Sport," and "Mountain" modes are all electric. To tap into the gas power, you can select "Hold."



The Volt is compatible with Apple Car Play, so you have easy access to all of your data.

Connect your iPhone via the USB port and your apps supported by Apple Car Play will appear on the center screen. 

The 2017 Chevy Volt is also compatible with Android Auto. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The Chevy Bolt is claiming an unlikely victim (TSLA, GM)

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Chevy Volt

  • As Chevy Bolt EV sales have increased, sales of the gas-electric hybrid Volt have declined.
  • The Volt was never as successful as GM hoped, but it paved the way for the Bolt.
  • We could be at the beginning of the end of the hybrid era.


Talk to anybody at General Motors about the Chevy Volt hybrid and they'll tell you that the company learned a lot from the car.

In fact, the automaker may have learned so much that the Volt could have contributed to its own demise.

GM hasn't made any announcements to that effect, but WardsAuto's James M. Amend reported that ever since the all-electric Chevy Bolt arrived late last year, Volt sales have slipped.

"According to WardsAuto data, the Bolt has sold 6,710 copies in the past three months compared with 4,416 deliveries of the Volt," Amend wrote.

"The Volt leads in calendar-year sales with 19,039 units, vs. 14,302 for the Bolt. But the Bolt was not available in 50 states until late June and even now availability remains thin."

A new kind of hybrid

Chevrolet Bolt 6

The Volt was never a great seller, but it did offer a step beyond other hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius. The Prius is a parallel hybrid, meaning that its electric and gas motors run at the same time to max out fuel-economy (some plug-in and later semi-electric versions of the Prius can run for short distances on battery power alone).

The Volt is a serial hybrid. When its rechargeable batteries are drained, a small gas motor kicks in and powers a generator that makes more electricity, which in turn spins the motors that drive the wheels (the gas motor doesn't directly motivate the powertrain).

This extends the Volt's range and makes it comparable to a regular gas-engined vehicle. But if you only drive 3o or 40 miles a day, you can never tap into that "range extender." Total range is over 400 miles, and the Volt goes for about $34,000 base.

The Bolt is an all-electric vehicle that Chevy says will provide about 240 miles of range before it needs a recharge. The base price is $37,500, and it was designed to go up against Tesla's $35,000 Model 3.

The perfect car?

Chevy Volt

I always thought the Volt was basically the perfect car: lots of range, flexible all-electric operation, fun to drive. When the vehicle debuted in 2010, I calculated that in normal use, I might gas up half a dozen times a year, at most. When I reviewed the vehicle a while back, I wrote that it's "a thinking man's car."

"It had always been a thoughtful undertaking, from General Motors, the company that gave us the EV-1 all-electric car, but then missed the Prius revolution. How can we advance beyond the Prius, GM thought. And ... Presto! the Volt, a visionary machine. "

As it turns out, the Volt's value for GM might have been to set the stage for the Bolt. Various engineers and executives I have talked to over the past few years have suggested as much. 

It could be that the hybrid age is now entering a period of decline. The vehicles have been rendered less popular thanks to a comeback by SUVs, and automakers often now think of hybrid tech as a way to add performance to a vehicle rather than to increase MPGs.

Meanwhile, a new generation of longer-range electric cars that are also affordable is arriving. I actually thought this would probably be the case, but I also expected extended-range hybrids like the Volt to be more popular.

As it turns out, automakers learned that while range-extended EVs captured some consumers, many just wanted an all-electric car that could go a long way between charges. 

SEE ALSO: There's a way better alternative to the Prius that everyone is ignoring

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NOW WATCH: Chevy has built a $37.5K all-electric car capable of a 238-mile range

Chevy Volt Owners Love Their Cars More Than Anyone Else

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chevy volt

Consumer Reports has released the results of its latest car owner-satisfaction survey, and one thing is clear: Chevy Volt owners love the Chevy Volt.

Asked “Considering all factors (price, performance, reliability, comfort, enjoyment, etc.), would you get this car if you had it to do all over again?,” 92 percent of Volt owners said yes.

That made it number one among the 240 models owned by nearly 350,000 survey respondents.

Other fuel-efficient cars were well-liked as well. Consumer Reports notes high rates of satisfaction among owners of the Toyota Camry Hybrid, Prius, and Prius C, and Nissan Leaf.

The least-liked cars on the list include Nissan's Verda Sedan and Armada, Mitsubishi Outlander SUVs, and V6 versions of the GMW Sierra pickup.

Owner-satisfaction is a crucial metric, especially for electric cars, which are unfamiliar to most consumers and come with "range anxiety" — the fear of running out of power while on the road and far from a charging station. 

Hearing that nearly everyone who owns a Volt is happy with their purchase can do a lot to convince wary buyers that an electric car is a good idea.

The Consumer Reports release backs up Chevy ads featuring Volt owners gushing about how much they love the car.

The Volt leads in American sales among plug-in electric cars this year. Sales surged in October, but dipped in November, according to Green Car Reports.

SEE ALSO: TEST DRIVE: The Chevy Volt Is One Of The Best Cars You Can Buy Today

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The Guilt-Free Luxury Of The Cadillac ELR Is Upstaging The Chevy Volt

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cadillac electric elr electric

Even if you’re not entirely a car person, you’ve likely noticed and perhaps even lusted after the stylish Cadillac CTS-V Coupe—perhaps in a way that you haven’t seen Cadillac before.

Now take some of that same gravitas, and plug it in, and you get some of the essence behind the all-new 2014 Cadillac ELR.

The ELR is built on the same platform that underpins the Chevrolet Volt, with essentially the same extended-range electric-vehicle (EREV) propulsion system—including the 16.5-kWh battery pack, and the same 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine under the hood.

You’ll get about 35 miles of driving on electric power alone before the gasoline engine fires up seamlessly to provide range-extending power for the motor system (as well as traction-motor support at higher speeds).

But thanks to revised software and calibration, as well as a new Sport driving mode, GM has managed to eke more performance from the electric system: The electric motor system delivers a bit more: 207 hp (154 kW), with 295 foot-pounds of instant torque, and 0-60 times are expected to be eight seconds, or possibly even a bit better than that.

Doing more with the Volt

“We’ve found ways to exercise the battery more, and done more with motor control,” said chief engineer Chris Thomason, who confirmed that the ELR does use a wider depth of charge for the battery pack compared to that of the Volt.

Powertrain and underbody aside, according to the team behind the ELR, that’s where the similarities end. Designers managed to preserve most of the 2009 Converj Concept’s sheetmetal and rakish proportions—with top-notch details such as jewel-like all-LED headlamps and taillamps, as well as a flush-look version of the Cadillac eggcrate grille, with active grille shutters beneath.

And in order to get the right ride quality, refinement, and low rolling resistance out of huge 245/40R20 tires—to keep the proportions on the outside—Cadillac looked to Bridgestone to develop a special OEM version of its Potenza line.

Performance takes a step up in the ELR, too—and better handling and a more refined ride should be a big part of it. Cadillac started by borrowing the front suspension layout from the Opel Astra GTC, incorporating a HiPer strut layout (but with a transverse brace across the bottom), and a Watt’s linkage in back.

Then it fitted hydraulic ride bushings, as well as the Continuous Damping Control (CDC) system that’s used in other Cadillac models, like the SRX. And to provide the right attitude the Sport mode makes accelerator response more aggressive while firming up the suspension and steering feel.

Truly a luxury car in every respect

To keep it quiet inside the plush cabin, there’s standard active noise cancellation, with a Bose ten-channel premium sound system included, and the now-familiar CUE system at the center of the instrument panel, with proximity sensing, natural-voice commands, and capacitive touch controls, just as in the ATS, CTS, SRX, and XTS. The gauge cluster is an eight-inch reconfigurable display with four different layouts, and EV-specific displays.

Also of note is the materials that are going into the ELR’s cabin. Although the ELR will come in a limited number of build combinations, it has an almost ‘bespoke’ look, with new surfaces like microfiber, real piano-black wood, real carbon fiber, and trivalent chrome—all with exposed stitching and interesting cutlines that flow organically downward to the center console and back around the doorsills.

No fast charging; but charged back to full in a workday

With all that’s different from the Volt, one thing isn’t going to change: There are no plans for fast-charging. Although GM does say that the ELR can be charged on 240 volts in just 4.5 hours.

The ELR will be made at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck (Michigan) assembly plant, alongside the Chevy Volt, but it’s not limited to the U.S. Look for it to also put a redemptive sheen on Cadillac’s lineups for China and Europe as well.

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See our full coverage of the 2013 Detroit Auto Show for more on the ELR as well as all the important production and concept cars.

This story originally appeared at Motor Authority

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The Boeing Dreamliner Does Not Use The Same Batteries As An Electric Car

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boeing 787 dreamliner construction

Gird yourself: It's possible we're about to see a new wave of attacks on electric cars that ignore battery science.

This time the culprit is the troubled Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

The FAA has grounded all 787s after a string of fires in their lithium-ion battery packs; other countries have done the same.

Which has led at least one supposedly authoritative commentator to say that Boeing is having the same battery problems as those "that have shown up in electric cars."

The problem is that the two types of batteries are, in fact, quite different.

Here's the offending quote, from Paul Czysz, professor emeritus of aeronautical engineering at St. Louis University, as cited in a Boston Herald article this morning:

"Unfortunately, what Boeing did to save weight is use the same batteries that are in the electric cars, and they are running into the same problems with the 787 as the problems that have shown up in electric cars."

The author of the Boston Herald piece then went on to describe a 2011 fire in a Chevy Volt crash-test car that occurred several days after it was wrecked and rotated through 360 degrees by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

chevy voltIn January 2012, the NHTSA closed an investigation into Volt fires, concluding that "no discernible defect trend exists" and that "modifications recently developed by General Motors reduce the potential for battery intrusion resulting from side impacts."

Here's the problem: While the battery cells in Boeing 787s and, say, Chevrolet Volts are both in the lithium-ion family, they use very different chemistries.

You can think of lithium-ion cells rather like motor vehicles: They all do some variation of the same thing, but there are many different types, sizes, shapes, and different technologies to make that happen. Consider the difference between gasoline and diesel engines, for example.

The cells in the 787, from Japanese company GS Yuasa, use a cobalt oxide (CoO2) chemistry, just as mobile-phone and laptop batteries do.

That chemistry has the highest energy content, but it is also the most susceptible to overheating that can produce "thermal events" (which is to say, fires).

Only one electric car has been built in volume using CoO2 cells, and that's the Tesla Roadster. Only 2,500 of those cars will ever exist.

The Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car, on the other hand, uses LG Chem prismatic cells with manganese spinel (LiMn2O4) cathodes.

While chemistries based on manganese, nickel, and other metals carry less energy per volume, they are widely viewed as less susceptible to overheating and fires.

So if you see coverage of the Boeing 787 battery fires that says anything at all about electric cars, do consider dropping a friendly note to the reporter involved.

It may be unreasonable to expect every reporter in the world to know that "lithium-ion batteries" are a family of very different chemistries.

Science reporters, on the other hand — let alone engineering professors — really should know better.

You have been warned.

+++++++++++

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Why I Like My Tesla Model S Better Than My Chevy Volt

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chevy volt

I've been leasing a 2011 Chevrolet Volt for almost two years now. And about three months ago, I took delivery of a 2013 Tesla Model S, the 60-kWh version.

So I've gotten an extended first-hand look at arguably the two most technically advanced production cars in the U.S.--and the two best-selling plug-ins so far in 2013.

Although not precisely comparable--the Tesla is pure electric, while the Volt has a range-extending gas engine to back up its battery--driving the two cars back-to-back on a daily basis has highlighted the pluses and minuses of each.

So how do they stack up against each other? And which do I prefer?

I Prefer The Tesla, But.....

The bottom line, of course, is which car I choose to drive when I walk out to my driveway each morning. 

By this measure, the Tesla  almost always wins.  It's hard to resist the sleek, powerful, head-turning Model S, which Consumer Reports recently raved about--saying it "performs better than any car we've ever tested."

The Volt has been mostly relegated to duty as my 17-year-old daughter's student-driver car, as well as an occasional long-distance back-up for trips beyond the Tesla's range. (My wife, a fanatical stick-shift devotee,  stubbornly clings to her 2008 Mini Cooper.)

But that doesn't mean the Volt isn't a great car.  At half the price, it's damn near as good as the Model S in a lot of ways--and superior in a few. 

In fact, driving the Tesla has only confirmed my long-standing appreciation for the Volt.

So how do they compare?  Let's count the ways.

Performance

No surprise here: The Tesla outperforms the Volt.

The Model S has more than double the electric horsepower of the Volt (302 to 149). Its 0-to-60-mph time of  5.9 seconds blows away the Volt's 9.0-second number.  Top speed is 120 mph, compared to the Volt's 100 mph.

When I take friends for rides, the Tesla's seamless, silent, ear-flattening acceleration always elicits the same reaction: giddy, uncontrolled laughter.

"Like a roller-coaster ride," one friend commented. The Volt can't come close to matching the Tesla's balls-to-the-wall fun factor.

But you know what? In normal real-world driving, the Volt in Sport mode feels nearly as peppy and responsive as the Tesla. More so, in some circumstances.

While the Volt has only half the  power of the Tesla, it puts out only a bit less peak torque (273 lb-ft to the Tesla's 317 lb-ft). Adjust for the Volt's lighter weight (3780 lbs vs. 4650 lbs for the Model S), and the Volt actually has a better torque-to-weight ratio.

And because of its more aggressive low-end throttle mapping in Sport mode, the Volt actually feels more responsive pulling away from a traffic light than the Tesla.

(We're assuming light-to-moderate pedal pressure, typical of everyday driving. When you floor it, of course, the Tesla blows the doors off the Volt.)

Whenever I transition from Tesla to Volt, my first few take-offs in the Volt tend to be a bit jumpy as I adjust to its more responsive accelerator.  And when I go back to the Tesla, it feels a little lethargic pulling away from a stop in normal driving.

So, yes, on paper, the Tesla far outperforms the Volt.  But in normal every-day driving, the Volt feels surprisingly close.

Ride and Handling

Let me be up front about this: I am not a high-performance driver. I don't go screeching around twisty mountain roads. The only four-wheel drift I've ever done was in an icy parking lot at 20 mph.  Heel-and-toe? I read about it once.

So my opinions here apply to my comparatively sedate everyday driving--a bit faster and more aggressive than your averageshmo on the road, perhaps, but well short of the aggression of the typical car-magazine test drive.

With that behind us, I have to say I don't notice a lot of difference between the ride and handling of the two cars.

Both have a heavy, solid, smooth feel.

Both steer with alacrity and precision. (Among the Model S's three options for  steering feel--Comfort, Normal, and Sport--I typically use Comfort mode.)

Both cruise smoothly over typical bumps with a muted rumble.

And both are exceptional highway cruisers.

My sense is that the Model S's air suspension makes its ride a tad firmer than the Volt's.  At times the Tesla seems just a bit harsh; I'd like to see an adjustable suspension with a slightly softer (as well as a sportier) option.

In terms of ride and handling, both cars are superb in normal driving. I'd call it a toss-up.

Comfort

As a  bigger car, the Tesla has more interior space for driver and passengers.

tesla model sBy my tape measure, Tesla front-seat riders have about two inches more shoulder room. The advantage tapers to an inch in back.

The Volt's big drawback in comfort is its limited rear-seat knee room.  I'm 6'2", so when I push the driver's seat all the way back, the poor soul sitting behind me is likely to have his knees crushed.

In the Tesla, there's sufficient--though hardly copious--space for adult kneecaps in the rear, no matter how tall the driver.

Rear-seat headroom, however, is another matter. My head makes hard contact with the Model S headliner in the back, requiring a slight slouch. In the Volt, on the other hand, I can sit fully upright in the back with only a few wisps of hair brushing the ceiling. Score one for the Volt.

But with this single exception--a tall guy in the back seat--all my passengers much prefer the Tesla.

For the driver, I've found, the question is not so clear-cut.

Once in the driver's seat, I find both cars quite comfortable. The seats are comparable. The Tesla feels more spacious, but it's mostly a visual effect. Some may even prefer the more intimate cockpit of the Volt. Call it a toss-up.

But getting in and out of the two cars?  Definitely not a toss-up. For a tall, creaky guy like me, climbing into the Tesla--with its low roofline, swooping windshield, and narrow door opening--is a pain in the butt (or in my case, the neck and back).

Whenever I transition to the Volt, with its wider door opening, I breathe a huge sigh of relief as I slip much more easily into the driver's seat.

Overall verdict on comfort: Tesla by a nose, with an asterisk for tall drivers and tall rear-seat passengers.

Utility

The compact Volt, with its battery pack running down the middle of the car, is strictly a four-seater. The Tesla is touted as a 5+2, with the option of two rear-facing child seats in the cargo compartment under the hatchback.

Without the kid seats, the rear cargo area is huge. With back seats folded down, it becomes humongous. And then there's the front trunk--which Tesla insists on calling a "frunk"--an auxiliary cargo space where the Volt stashes....an engine.

For me, the question of utility is mostly academic. In two years, I've had to leave behind a fifth passenger in the Volt maybe twice. I've not yet had occasion to use anywhere near the Tesla's available cargo space. (In fact, I've yet to use the front trunk at all.)

And through an accident of geometry, it turns out that my extra-large size mountain bike slips into the Volt more easily than into the Tesla, due to its marginally wider hatchback opening.

The way I keep score, the Tesla's advantage hauling a rare fifth passenger is balanced by the Volt's bike-carrying advantage. I'd call it even. But the Tesla becomes the obvious choice if you're always hauling lots of stuff, or regularly transporting that fifth passenger.

Range

In terms of ultimate utility, the elephant in the garage is the Tesla's limited range and slow "refueling" time. Until the Tesla Supercharger quick-charging-station system is fully in place, the Model S simply doesn't work for me on trips more than 180 miles.

To the chagrin of hard-core electric-car proponents, I've always believed that there has to be a gas engine in the family somewhere. After three months of owning a Volt and a Tesla, I've not changed my view.

Yeah, I know: Plug-in devotees have taken Teslas on long cross-country trips. Hooray for them.

Frankly, I'm not willing to plan my whole trip around finding charging stations.

Case in point: a recent overnight visit to a friend 200 miles away. Theoretically, this is within the car's EPA range of 208 miles. Am I willing to cut it this close? No chance.

But suppose I had managed to get there, cruising at 55 mph with A/C off. And suppose I'd found a charging station somewhere nearby. That still means the friend has to come pick me up at the station, then drop me off the next morning.

Why not just plug in at my friend's house?  No way: To charge the Tesla's 60-kWh battery fully from a standard 110-Volt outlet takes two full days.

So my trip was a no-brainer: Take the Volt.

In three months of Tesla ownership, I've now made four trips where I had to take the Volt.

Until the day that Superchargers are installed at 150-mile intervals along the New York State Thruway and New Jersey Turnpike, "Take the Volt" will be a familiar refrain in my household.

Range Loss in Winter

The Chevy Volt suffers a fairly dramatic loss of electric range in winter. In my experience, it drops from 40-plus miles in summer to as low as 25 miles when the temperature falls to the teens. That's about a 40-percent loss.

If you do the math, the Volt uses about 250 Watt-hours per mile in summer, and 400 in winter. Annual average: 320 Wh/mi.

Since I've never run the Tesla's battery down to zero--and hope never to do so--I can't pinpoint actual range. But the car does report its efficiency. In February, I averaged about 360 Watt-hours per mile, compared to about 320 Wh so far in May, a difference of just 11 percent.

I expect  efficiency to keep improving as the weather warms up. Whether the ultimate difference is 12 percent or 15 percent, it's still a huge improvement over the Volt. Tesla engineers are clearly the unchallenged masters of battery management.

Overall, the way I drive it, it looks like the Tesla's annual efficiency will average about 320 Wh/mi--virtually the same as the Volt. 

My results match the EPA numbers fairly closely:  35 kW/100 mile for the Tesla, 36 for the Volt. (Multiply by 10 to get Wh/mile.)

Considering that the Tesla is almost half a ton heavier and has better performance, that's a big win for the Model S.

Random Things I Like Better About the Volt

The Tire-Pressure Monitoring System: The Volt has an on-demand readout of current pressure in each tire.

The Tesla, by contrast, has only a crude  "Tire pressure too low" or Tire pressure too high" warning that comes on when necessary.

I've also been getting  "Check tire-pressure monitoring system" alerts. (My Tesla service guy assures me these are spurious.)

The Center Console: The Volt has a standard console with both open and closed storage spaces. The Tesla has only an armrest, with two cup holders that appear when the armrest is slid back.

The Tesla's open floor between front passengers' knees gives a feeling of spaciousness, but there's no place to put stuff.

Sunglasses, wallet, insurance card, driving glasses, 5-Hour Energy shots, and the like simply get thrown on the floor. There are low rails that prevent stuff from sliding around, but it looks messy.

So I recently purchased a Center Console Insert (CCI) from an independent company called Teslaccessories. It snaps into place between the floor rails and provides a better-placed cupholder and a small closed storage area. It's a big improvement.

Tesla is readying its own factory drop-in center console, which its website says is "coming soon."  

Not soon enough, if you ask me.

The Regenerative Braking System: Both cars have two regen settings: a "Normal" that feels like a standard gas car when you back of the accelerator, and a more aggressive setting that slows the car rapidly and pumps more energy back into the battery.

In the Volt, the settings are selected by the gear lever: D for the standard setting, L for the aggressive one.  It's easy and intuitive to flick back and forth between the two settings, depending on traffic and hills. It's actually a lot of fun, like downshifting in a stick-shift gas car.

The Tesla, on the other hand, requires the driver to change regen settings through the touch screen. Typically, it takes up to three taps to find the right screen and make the change. That rules out on-the-fly adjustments.

The Volt regen system has a further advantage over the Tesla: It's not affected by cold weather.  In the Model S, the aggressive regen is limited below about 50 degrees and turned off altogether below about 30 degrees until the battery warms up. This can take as long as 20 or 30 miles of driving.

The Battery State-Of-Charge Indicator: The Volt's 10-bar State of Charge (SoC) gauge is a bit crude, but it's better than the Tesla's vague sliding bar, which has no delineation whatsoever.

Virtually all electric cars have SoC indicators of some sort--even the cheapest one available, the 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive, has a nice little dial that that reads down to 1 percentage point. It's bizarre that the super-expensive, cutting-edge Model S lags so far behind in this respect.

Random Things I Like Better About the Tesla

tesla model s steering wheelThe Dashboard Touch Screen: No doubt about it, the 17-inch touch screen in the Tesla Model S is way better than  the Volt's tiny screen and confusing welter of buttons.

The Tesla screen's many virtues are well known, so I won't go over them here. Suffice it to say that anything else seems utterly primitive by comparison.

Getting Software Updates: In almost two years, I've gotten one upgrade on the Volt--which required taking it in to the dealer. (I waited for a regular service appointment to get the upgrade.)

In three months with the Tesla, I've gotten two software upgrades, both remotely over the car's 3-G wireless connection.

Remote is better. Duh.

The Bottom Line

If I could keep just one car, which would it be?

I guess if you put a gun to my head, I would reluctantly give up the Volt.

The style, performance, and overall pizzazz of the Model S are simply too compelling to give up.

The Tesla's charms would far outweigh the annoyance of having to rent a noisy gas-guzzling combustion-engined car for long trips.

Decision Point: September 2014

Fortunately, no one is putting a gun to my head. I'll definitely be keeping both cars until September 2014, when the Volt lease expires.

By that time, hopefully, there will be a full network of Superchargers around the Northeast (and the rest of the country).

When that happens, the Model S will finally be in a position to make its case as the best car in the world.

David Noland is a Tesla Model S owner and freelance writer who lives north of New York City.

SEE ALSO: 29 Reasons Elon Musk Is The Most Badass CEO In America

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Chevy Is Slashing The Price Of Its Electric Car To Boost Demand

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2014 Chevrolet Volt carpool hov lane

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co <GM.N> said on Tuesday it is slashing the price of its Chevrolet Volt electric car by $5,000 to help boost demand for the plug-in hybrid in a segment still struggling to gain a foothold in the U.S. auto market.

The price cut for the 2014 model will lower the price to $34,995, including delivery fees before federal tax credits. Pricing could fall as low as $27,495 with the tax credit.

"We have made great strides in reducing costs as we gain experience with electric vehicles and their components," Don Johnson, U.S. vice president for Chevy sales, said in a statement.

GM did not quantify the cost savings for the 2014 model, but has said the next version of the Volt, due in 2015, will cost $7,000 to $10,000 less. The 2014 models will begin arriving at dealer stores later this month.

"Chevrolet has quickly discovered that when price savings at the pump and ultimately value are your key selling points, a $40,000 cost of entry makes for a difficult hurdle to overcome for most budget conscious consumers," Kelley Blue Book senior analyst Alec Gutierrez said. He expects GM to roll out aggressively priced lease deals on the new Volt.

The 2014 Volt will offer consumers the equivalent fuel economy of 98 miles per gallon on electric power and 40 miles per gallon when powered by its gasoline engine. The car can drive almost 40 miles on its electric charge, with 380 miles of total driving range.

Several automakers have slashed prices on their electric cars to help overcome consumer qualms about high costs and fears about driving range, and are pushing to develop the technology in hopes the vehicles could become a bigger seller as fuel-efficiency requirements rise globally.

Through July, sales of electric vehicles in the United States had more than doubled from last year to almost 49,000 vehicles, according to website hybridcars.com, but still only 0.54 percent of the overall market. In the same period, Volt sales were up 9 percent to 11,643 vehicles.

In January, Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> cut the price of its Leaf EV by more than $6,000, and in May Honda Motor Co <7267.T><HMC.N> slashed the lease price of its electric-powered Fit subcompact car by one-third. In July, Ford Motor Co <F.N> reduced the price of its 2014 electric Focus by 10 percent.

GM had cut the price of the 2013 model Volt by $5,000 to help boost demand. In late May it launched the Chevy Spark electric vehicle with a lower-than-expected starting price of $27,495 and is offering discounted leases on both cars.

The Volt price cut is another step in GM's effort to seize the mantle of "greenest automaker in the world" from Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T><TOYOF.PK>, which makes the popular Prius hybrid car. Toyota also sells a plug-in version of the Prius.

GM is aiming by 2017 to build up to 500,000 vehicles a year with some form of electric engine power, including the Volt, Spark EV and those with its eAssist system that boost fuel efficiency in gas-powered cars.

GM will begin building the Cadillac ELR plug-in electric couple late this year.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

SEE ALSO: BMW's New All-Electric Car Is A Strange-Looking Challenge To Tesla

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South Korea Now Has Roads That Recharge Electric Cars As You Drive

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2013 chevy volt owner plug in

A city in South Korea just turned on its first network of roads that power electric vehicles as they drive.

It sounds like science fiction, but it could be a look at the future of transportation.

As ExtremeTech's Sebastian Anthony reports, the city of Gumi, South Korea has "electrified" 15 miles of road. 

It works by transmitting electricity through cables about a foot below the road. By running power through the cables at a specific frequency, an electromagnetic field is generated.

A coil located underneath vehicles interacts with this field and generates a current, charging the vehicle's batteries.

While the city is currently only using the technology with a few electric buses, it's easy to see how the technology would completely change the logistics and cost of owning an electric vehicle.

It would ameliorate the range problems people have with electric cars. Currently, most electric cars that don't also have a gasoline engine (like the Chevy Volt does) can only travel about 100 miles or less before they need to recharge. Many Americans don't like the idea of having to make frequent stops to recharge on road trips, making range a dealbreaker.

With roads that charge your car as you drive, range is less of a factor. And if that's the case, then batteries can become smaller and cheaper.

Forbes' Bob Lutz estimates that the Chevy Volt's battery costs about $6,000. If Chevy could assume that drivers don't need to worry about range, they could move to a cheaper battery with less capacity, like Toyota's Prius Plug-In. That would shave several thousands of dollars off the price of the battery and make the car more profitable to produce.

An obvious point to bring up is the cost of rolling out electrified roads. The research study behind Gumi's network concluded that only 5-15% of roads need to be electrified for the concept to be viable.

Basically, local and state governments would need to bury the necessary cables as they repave roads. While that's easier said than done, it seems like an easier step than asking Americans to change their driving habits.

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GM Realizes That Electric Vehicles Won't Sell At A Big Premium

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2014 Chevrolet Volt HOV lane

General Motors announced Tuesday it is slashing the price of the Chevy Volt by $5,000, in an effort to spur lagging sales.

It's evidence that the company is realizing that most people wont't pay a big premium to help the environment.

Missing Sales Goals

The plug-in hybrid electric compact car now starts at $34,995, including an $810 destination fee, and before a $7,500 federal tax credit.

In its announcement, Chevy said the drop will "broaden [the Volt's] exposure to price-sensitive prospective buyers."

The Volt is the country's best-selling plug-in, but sales have not hit the numbers GM wanted, Karl Brauer, an analyst with Kelley Blue Book (KBB), said in an interview. After putting 23,461 units on the road in 2012, Chevy has sold fewer than 12,000 in 2013.

That's because the "small market" of people who will pay a big premium for new, environmentally-friendly technology isn't enough to sustain significant sales, Brauer said.

The promised fuel savings from an electric car aren't compelling, either, when the EV costs so much more up front. Brauer pointed out that on KBB.com, shoppers looking at the Volt most often compare it to another compact car, the Ford Focus, and not the Focus Electric.

The basic gasoline version of the Focus starts at $16,200 and gets a very solid 31 mpg. Compare that to the $39,145 Volt, which gets the equivalent of 98 mpg, and it's easy to see why Chevy sales aren't taking off.

Electric Car Prices Are Dropping Across The Board

In January, Nissan slashed the price of the all-electric Leaf by nearly 20%, after the car fell way short of ambitious sales goals. It worked: Compared to 9,819 sales in 2012, Nissan has already put nearly 12,000 units on the road this year.

The Volt price cut will have some effect on Chevy, but it's tough to tell if it will produce a modest sales bump or something bigger, Brauer said. It would have been more effective if Chevy had made the move earlier, before the image of the Volt as an expensive car could become fixed in consumers' minds, he added.

Chevy and Nissan aren't the only ones lowering prices to drum up demand. KBB data shows the average transaction price of electric and plug-in hybrids on sale in the U.S. dropped from $40,497 in 2012 to $36,922 in 2013 (year to date), a 10.2% change. That's a big discount.

The Ford Focus Electric, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, and Toyota Prius Plug-in all cost less than they did a year ago.

The Big Exception

The big exception to the trend is Tesla, which is selling as many $70,000 Model S sedans as it can produce. Elon Musk and company have done something other automakers haven't, said Brauer: "They've broken out of the electric car quandary."

The difference between Tesla's car and other EVs is that the Model S is a premium car than can go hundreds of miles on a charge, so buyers don't feel like they're getting a golf cart that can't go farther than around the block a few times.

bmw i3 electric car

BMW also just came out with a premium electric vehicle, but Brauer was skeptical that it would be successful.

The car, called the i3, is just as compact, strange-looking, and limited in range as its competitors (the gorgeous Model S is an exception).

But it costs more than $41,000, and does not exactly look like a luxury car.

"I think that car is going to have a very rough time," Brauer said of the i3. It will have its dedicated fans, "but there's where you don't want to be," he added.

Perhaps BMW should have taken a lesson from the Chevy Volt and other EVs that have dropped their prices: The state of battery technology means that electric cars will remain small, limited in range, and more expensive than gasoline competitors.

Appreciation for the planet and the potential for long-term savings at the pump don't make up for that. So if you want to sell an electric car (that isn't the Model S), you have to make it cheaper.

Just not so cheap that it becomes really popular, and your entire stock is snapped up at a loss.

TEST DRIVE: Jaguar's Brand New Sports Car Is An Incredibly Fun Ride

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Here's How Tesla's Model S Compares To Other Top Electric Cars

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Having won accolades like Motor Trend's Car of the Year, the Tesla Model S has positioned itself squarely at the top of the electric car field.

Luckily for those who want to drop gasoline but don't have $70,000 to spend on a ride, there are plenty of other options.

Not that it's easy to know which is the best balance of price, range, looks, and power.

To help out, we've put together a comparison chart, noting the most important specs for the nine best electric cars (including two plug-in electric hybrids) on the road today or the near future.

The orange bar represents the most impressive car for each category. Note that charge times vary widely based on equipment and battery options for each vehicle. (We've selected charge times, provided by the automakers, for the more expensive options.)

Take a look:

electric vehicle car comparison chart

SEE ALSO: Go Inside The Factory Where Robots Build The Tesla Model S

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NOW WATCH: The New Mercedes Driverless Car Even Has The Driver's Seat Facing Away From The Road

How It Feels Going From A Chevy Volt To A Tesla Model S

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For the past week, I've been cruising around in a Chevy Volt. But for one day, I got the privilege of driving a Tesla Model S.

(And not just any Tesla Model S either. I got to drive the more powerful, higher end Tesla Model S P 85, which starts at $87,070 after a $7,500 federal tax credit.)

While the Chevy Volt (base price of $26,685 with a tax credit) and Tesla Model S aren't exactly in the same class, I really liked the styling and performance of the Volt. Not to mention Chevy's offering is a plug-in hybrid — meaning it can run on either electricity or gas.

So, what does an extra $60,000 get you in the Tesla Model S that you can't get in the Chevy Volt? Watch the video to find out.

Produced by William Wei

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SEE ALSO: The Impossible Choice That Had Elon Musk On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown

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5 Things Everybody Gets Wrong About Chevy's Electric Car

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2013 chevrolet volt

How badly does the public misunderstand the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car?

Pretty badly indeed, if the comments received by Volt owners are any indication.

Last week, we wrote that Chevrolet admits most consumers fail to comprehend how the Volt works, why any car with a 38-mile electric range could possibly be appealing, and so forth.

Now we've done an informal survey of Volt owners, to come up with the major misunderstands and rebut them.

DON'T MISS: Three Years Later, Most Consumers Don't Understand The Chevy Volt

Here are the top five things Volt owners hear that are just flat-out wrong.

1. It runs out of charge and dies after 30 to 40 miles, leaving you stranded at the side of the road.

Nope. Once the battery pack is depleted, the range-extending engine kicks on to turn a generator that provides electricity to power the wheels for another 300 miles or so.

The confusion may reflect Chevy's inability to explain the "range-extended" part of the name--or its refusal to call the Volt a plug-in hybrid, which may be more easily understandable to car shoppers who already have some grasp of what a hybrid is.

2. Owners have to replace the battery every three or four years.

Chevy warrants the Volt battery for 8 years/100,000 miles or 10 years/150,000 miles (depending on the state it was sold in), and early indications seem to be that battery-capacity loss has been almost nonexistent.

It's worth noting here that GM's Voltec engineers took a very, very conservative approach to the battery, using less of its total capacity than in almost any other plug-in car.

They also equipped it with liquid cooling, a step that adds expense and some complication but probably offers the best possible way to keep the battery at the optimal temperature for long life.

3. Recharging the battery costs the same as filling a gas tank—but every night—and will bring down the electric grid.

No and no. The average U.S. household pays 12 cents per kilowatt-hour, so recharging a Volt battery costs about $2 to go 35 or 40 miles—the equivalent of an 80-mpg car if gas costs $4 a gallon.

MORE: PG+E Data: Electric Cars Have Almost No Grid Impact So Far

And electric utilities are quite confident in their ability to handle the slowly increasing draw from electric cars, especially if they're recharged overnight when power demand is lowest. They say the effect of electric cars will be far less disruptive to the grid than was the quick adoption of cheap home air-conditioning in the 1960s and 1970s.

4. President Barack Obama forced General Motors to build the Volt and then subsidized each one with $7,500 of Federal tax credits.

This is one GM likely doesn't want to touch—but that doesn't make it any less wrong. In fact, Chevrolet showed the first Volt concept in 2007, and the company made the decision to build it well before Obama was elected.

Following GM's 2009 bankruptcy, in fact, the White House Auto Task Force tried hard to kill the project during the restructuring process, since it wouldn't make money for several years—if ever.

GM's then-product czar, Bob Lutz, fought  hard (and successfully) to save the Volt on the grounds that the company needed a technology-driven halo car.

Finally, the $7,500 Federal income-tax credit was signed into law by Obama's predecessory, President George W. Bush.

5. "Government Motors."

To this one, all you can say is: Yep, that happened. Five years ago. Get over it.

SEE ALSO: 6 Of The Worst Car Styling Cliches

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GM Will Reveal The 2016 Chevy Volt At The Detroit Auto Show (GM)

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2016 Chevrolet Volt Teaser

General Motors confirmed Thursday that the revised 2016 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car will be released at next January's Detroit Auto Show.

And the company released the first teaser image of the car, showing a more rounded rear to the liftgate of what will likely continue as a compact five-door hatchback

The Chevrolet press release noted that more than 65,000 electric Volts have been sold in the U.S. since it went on sale in December 2010.

That makes the Volt the best-selling plug-in electric car in the U.S. (although the Nissan Leaf is catching up fast, at almost 58,000 sales as of the end of July).

Volt drivers have collectively covered more than half a billion miles powered by grid electricity, representing 63 percent of all the miles traveled.

The other 37 percent were driven using the car's gasoline range extender, which is rated by the EPA at 37 miles per gallon combined.

Volt owners who recharge regularly, Chevy says, typically drive almost 1,000 miles between fill-ups, and visit a gas station less than once a month.

The novel electric car with the range extender has logged the highest customer-satisfaction scores of any vehicle GM has ever sold, and more than 90 percent of Volt owners say they'd buy another one.

Moreover, it's attracting new buyers to the Detroit maker who would otherwise likely never have considered buying a U.S.-made car from a domestic brand.

More than 70 percent of Volt buyers are new to Chevrolet, GM said.

The 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit will open to the general public on Saturday, January 17, 2015, and run through the following weekend.

SEE ALSO: How It Feels Going From A Chevy Volt To A Tesla Model S

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Cadillac killing the ELR reminds us of the most obnoxious car commercial ever

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cadillac elr poolside commercial

Cadillac is ditching its premium luxury hybrid — the ELR coupe.

The $58,000 car has had an unceremonious run as Cadillac's feisty plug-in. It pulled onto dealer lots in 2013 with a much higher price tag — close to $76,000 — but it never caught on with buyers.

Cadillac's president, Johan de Nysschen, was cited in Automotive News saying "we don't plan further investment" in the ELR. That means the car most likely won't be back for a second generation after the current one ends in the next couple of years.

The coupe runs on architecture sourced from the Chevy Volt. And even though the Volt has been redesigned for 2016, few changes were made to the ELR — except that Cadillac lopped off a significant chunk of the original $76,000 sticker price.

Still, sales of the ELR barely crested 1,000 units in 2015 — down more than 20% from 2014.

Cadillac clearly had high hopes for the car, if this 2014 ad was any indication:

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NOW WATCH: This futuristic BMW has no mirrors

There's a way better alternative to the Prius that everyone is ignoring (gm)

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Chevy Volt

Let me set the Wayback machine to 2010 for a moment.

Excitement then around electric cars and plug-in hybrid electric cars was running high. The Toyota Prius had revolutionized the way Americans thought about fuel economy. 

But the original Prius design didn't involve all-electric operation. So the next logical step in the the evolution of the automobile was a different type of hybrid gas-electric design.

The Prius' parallel-hybrid powertrain, with gas and electric motors running at the same time, would be supplanted by a serial hybrid design, with an electric motor delivering about 40 miles of range before depleting its batteries, at which point, a small gas engine would kick in to generate more electricity.

General Motors brought exactly this vehicle to market with the Chevrolet Volt. 

At the time I did the math and figured that an average commuter would need to fill up the tank only about six times a year. But there would be none of the "range anxiety" issues that plague most all-electric cars, with the exception of Teslas — if a Volt owner was unable to recharge the batteries, he or she could keep going on good old regular gasoline. 

Brilliant, right? Except that the Volt's sales never took off. Toyota has sold millions of Priuses in the US, but Chevy between 2010 and early 2016 has sold only about 90,000 Volts. 

That hasn't stopped General Motors, Chevy's parent company, from rolling out an all-new Volt. We spent a few days with the car, driving around suburban New Jersey, and as with the first-generation car, we were impressed. Chevy has modestly upgraded the powertrain to deliver better overall electric and gas-powered performance (53 miles on a single charge), and as plug-in hybrids go, the Volt continues to be relatively fun to drive.

Chevy Volt

I own a 2011 Prius, and the 2016 Volt's performance blows it away. My family only has to gas up the Prius once a month, meaning that we spend around $24o a year of fuel, at current prices. If we had a Volt and its 9-gallon tank, we'd definitely cut that in half — and in fact given that we don't take many long trips but typically use our car for errands and school pickups — if we charged a Volt every night, we could theoretically require gas power only in emergencies. (Chevy claims that the new Volt has a whopping 420 miles of total range, running on batteries and the motor combined.)

Electric cars achieve maximum torque at 1 rpm, which means that their acceleration, even in the case of small motors, is impressive. The Volt is quite zippy off the line, with a claimed o-60 time of about 8 seconds. Not fast, but not slow, either, and the electric acceleration just feels faster. Around corners, the car is much meatier than the Prius or most of the full-electric cars I've driven, save the Tesla Model S (and the high-performance-oriented Tesla Roadster).

Mind you, the Volt is more expensive than a Prius — about $34,000 versus $24,000 for the base versions, but that's before tax credits, which can make the Volt comparable. And Toyota is, for the moment, not producing a plug-in version of the Prius, so if you're in the market for a serial hybrid, the Volt and the BMW i3 with a range-extender are pretty much your only options, unless you want to go for a used Fisker Karma.

Ultimately, the Volt is a superior piece of economics when it comes to green cars. (Our test car did test that proposition, as it was fully loaded and tipped the price scales at nearly $41,000, complete with seat heaters, a heated steering wheel, and a pretty tasty 8-speaker Bose audio system.)

The Volt was the Next Big Thing back in 2010, the perfect car for the masses, long before Tesla started talking about its Model 3, its forthcoming all-electric vehicle that promises 200-mile range on a single charge. But obviously, it wasn't the Next Big Thing. 

And this has always baffled me. If you think it through, the Volt is ... perfect! Who doesn't want a perfect car?

Okay, the back seats aren't anything to write home about, with barely enough room for two kids, much less two adults. But the technology and infotainment system, including GM's 4G LTE Wi-Fi connectivity and both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, are superb. Who needs a BMW 3-Series when you can have one of these?

Chevy Volt

 

Chevy Volt

A few days with the Volt gave me the answer to my question, however. Having the Prius in the driveway provided the insight I'd lacked. 

The Volt requires too much thinking.

Basically, if you want to enjoy the full Volt experience, and the fuel cost savings that go with it, you have to plug it in. Otherwise, you're just going to gas it up and get roughly the same MPGs that you'd get from a Prius. And you have to have been attracted to doing the math in the first place. Thinking, thinking, thinking.

I've had my Prius for about a year and I never have to think about it. It's a transportation appliance. And that's not a bad thing. The only time it annoys me is when we need to to drive all three of our kids someplace — they don't fit. For that, we need an SUV. But the Volt has the same problem, except worse: it can only carry four people.

Chevy Volt

Unless you're an enthusiast, deeply concerned about which of 22 different versions of the Porsche 911 you should get, you don't want to think about your car. The vast majority of people just want their car to get its job done. If they happen to love what they drive, and many do, its icing on the cake.

The Volt, as it turns out, is a thinking man's car. It had always been a thoughtful undertaking, from General Motors, the company that gave us the EV-1 all-electric car, but then missed the Prius revolution. How can we advance beyond the Prius, GM thought. And ... Presto! the Volt, a visionary machine.

But ... it still has to be plugged in. Except that it doesn't. The gas motor takes care of that. A Volt owner who wants to use it in EV mode as much of the time as possible must have the discipline to plug in pretty much every day (120V recharging is estimated at 13 hours, while 240V consumes 4.5). He has to seek out charging stations on the road, away from home. It's all too much. A Prius requires no extra infrastructure investment. The Volt does, starting ideally with a garage.

That's why nobody cares that it's the car of the future. Even if it is.

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Everyone is ignoring this excellent alternative to the Toyota Prius (gm)

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Chevy Volt

Let me set the wayback machine to 2010 for a moment.

Excitement then around electric cars and plug-in hybrid electric cars was running high. The Toyota Prius had revolutionized the way Americans thought about fuel economy.

But the original Prius design didn't involve all-electric operation. So the next logical step in the evolution of the automobile was a different type of hybrid gas-electric design.

The Prius' parallel-hybrid powertrain, with gas and electric motors running at the same time, would be supplanted by a serial hybrid design, with an electric motor delivering about 40 miles of range before depleting its batteries, at which point a small gas engine would kick in to generate more electricity.

General Motors brought exactly this vehicle to market with the Chevrolet Volt.

At the time I did the math and figured that an average commuter would need to fill up the tank only about six times a year. But there would be none of the "range anxiety" issues that plague most all-electric cars, with the exception of Teslas — if a Volt owner were unable to recharge the batteries, he or she could keep going on good old regular gasoline.

Brilliant, right? Except that the Volt's sales never took off. Toyota has sold millions of Priuses in the US, but Chevy has sold only about 90,000 Volts between 2010 and early 2016.

That hasn't stopped General Motors, Chevy's parent company, from rolling out an all-new Volt. We spent a few days with the car, driving around suburban New Jersey, and, as with the first-generation car, we were impressed.

Chevy has modestly upgraded the powertrain to deliver better overall electric and gas-powered performance (53 miles on a single charge), and, as plug-in hybrids go, the Volt continues to be relatively fun to drive.

Chevy Volt

I own a 2011 Prius, and the 2016 Volt's performance blows it away. My family only has to gas up the Prius once a month, meaning that we spend around $24o a year of fuel, at current prices.

If we had a Volt and its 9-gallon tank, we'd definitely cut that in half — and in fact given that we don't take many long trips but typically use our car for errands and school pickups — if we charged a Volt every night, we could theoretically require gas power only in emergencies. (Chevy claims that the new Volt has a whopping 420 miles of total range, running on batteries and the motor combined.)

Electric cars achieve maximum torque at 1 rpm, which means that their acceleration, even in the case of small motors, is impressive. The Volt is quite zippy off the line, with a claimed o-60 time of about eight seconds. Not fast, but not slow, either, and the electric acceleration just feels faster. Around corners, the car is much meatier than the Prius or most of the full-electric cars I've driven, save the Tesla Model S (and the high-performance-oriented Tesla Roadster).

Mind you, the Volt is more expensive than a Prius — about $34,000 versus $24,000 for the base versions, but that's before tax credits, which can make the Volt comparable. And Toyota is, for the moment, not producing a plug-in version of the Prius, so if you're in the market for a serial hybrid, the Volt and the BMW i3 with a range-extender are pretty much your only options, unless you want to go for a used Fisker Karma.

Ultimately, the Volt is a superior piece of economics when it comes to green cars. (Our test car did test that proposition, as it was fully loaded and tipped the price scales at nearly $41,000, complete with seat heaters, a heated steering wheel, and a pretty tasty eight-speaker Bose audio system.)

The Volt was the Next Big Thing back in 2010, the perfect car for the masses, long before Tesla started talking about its Model 3, its forthcoming all-electric vehicle that promises 200-mile range on a single charge. But obviously, it wasn't the Next Big Thing.

And this has always baffled me. If you think it through, the Volt is ... perfect! Who doesn't want a perfect car?

OK, the back seats aren't anything to write home about, with barely enough room for two kids, much less two adults. But the technology and infotainment system, including GM's 4G LTE Wi-Fi connectivity and both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, are superb. Who needs a BMW 3-Series when you can have one of these?

Chevy Volt

 

Chevy Volt

A few days with the Volt gave me the answer to my question, however. Having the Prius in the driveway provided the insight I'd lacked.

The Volt requires too much thinking.

Basically, if you want to enjoy the full Volt experience, and the fuel-cost savings that go with it, you have to plug it in. Otherwise, you're just going to gas it up and get roughly the same MPGs that you'd get from a Prius. And you have to have been attracted to doing the math in the first place. Thinking, thinking, thinking.

I've had my Prius for about a year and I never have to think about it. It's a transportation appliance. And that's not a bad thing. Toyota has just rolled out a redesigned model, succeeding the generation that my car is in, and while it's moderately sexier, a bit more solid, and gets better overall MPGs, it's essentially the same car. Why mess with something that works just fine?

The only time my Prius annoys me is when we need to drive all three of our kids someplace — they don't fit. For that, we need an SUV. But the Volt has the same problem, except worse: It can only carry four people.

Chevy Volt

Unless you're an enthusiast, deeply concerned about which of 22 different versions of the Porsche 911 you should get, you don't want to think about your car. The vast majority of people just want their car to get its job done. If they happen to love what they drive, and many do, it's icing on the cake.

The Volt, as it turns out, is a thinking man's car. It had always been a thoughtful undertaking, from General Motors, the company that gave us the EV-1 all-electric car, but then missed the Prius revolution. How can we advance beyond the Prius, GM thought, and ... presto! — the Volt, a visionary machine.

But ... it still has to be plugged in. Except that it doesn't. The gas motor takes care of that. A Volt owner who wants to use it in EV mode as much of the time as possible must have the discipline to plug in pretty much every day — 120V recharging is estimated at 13 hours, while 240V consumes 4.5. He has to seek out charging stations on the road, away from home. It's all too much. A Prius requires no extra infrastructure investment. The Volt does, starting ideally with a garage.

That's why nobody cares that it's the car of the future. Even if it is.

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2017 Chevy Bolt EV sales could go as high as 80,000 per year

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Chevrolet Bolt EV 2017The question of how many electric cars can be sold in a single year remains a topic of hot debate as the U.S. market awaits the launch of the 200-mile Chevy Bolt EV at the end of this year.

The world's best-selling electric car, the Nissan Leaf, had its highest-sales year in the U.S. in 2014, when just over 30,000 Leafs were delivered.

Despite a range boost from 84 to 107 miles for 2016, Leaf sales have never returned to that level.

Volumes for the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV have been debated ever since a volume estimate of 30,000 a year emerged soon after the car was unveiled as a prototype at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show.

GM spokesman Kevin Kelly subsequently clarified that the company was prepared to build as many Bolt EVs as it could sell, and that the 30,000 number did not in any way represent a production ceiling.

Now, Karl Brauer, analyst for Kelley Blue Book, has suggested that Bolt EV sales could run from 30,000 to 80,000 a year in the car's first year.

 The estimate comes from a Barron's article (via Autoblog), in which Brauer suggested that the Bolt EV could capture a percentage of the 400,000 reservations placed for the Tesla Model 3.

That $35,000 200-mile Tesla electric car isn't likely to be delivered in notable quantities until at least sometime in 2018.

We reached out to Brauer to learn more the reasoning behind his estimate.

The analysis, he told Green Car Reports, was "pretty straightforward," starting with sales of roughly 46,000 volume-priced electric cars last year.

The bulk of those sales came from the Nissan Leaf (about 17,000), the Chevrolet Volt (15,000), and the BMW i3 (11,000)—none of which has anything like the Bolt EV's 200-mile range.

"I genuinely believe [that range] will change the perception and willingness to buy an electric car," Brauer said. "It has for me; I'm planning on leasing a Bolt EV."

Then he looked at the 400,000 Model 3 reservations, most made by people who won't see their cars until 2018 or later under the best of circumstances.

"If the Bolt can appeal to just 10 percent of that market, that’s 40,000 sales."

The Bolt EV also qualifies for the "white" sticker that lets it travel in carpool lanes on California's notoriously crowded freeways—stickers for plug-in hybrids are presently unavailable.

Brauer suggests that the state could see 20,000 to 50,000 buyers alone, as those unwilling to commute in an 80-mile battery-electric car take the plunge.

"Add it all up," he concluded, "and I think 30,000 is a no-brainer, and 80,000 is possible.”

And that's even before sales to state, utility, and corporate fleets, which may opt for the Bolt for the same reasons individual buyers do: range, carpool sticker, and low cost of operation.

So there you have it: a more optimistic sales projection for Chevy's upcoming electric car than any we've seen to date.

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