When is volt coming out

The Volt did develop a loyal fan base, many of whom are upset with the company for scrubbing the project. Richard Winters, a year-old physician from Poteau, Oklahoma, said the Volt still is useful in areas like Oklahoma and Arkansas where electric vehicle charging stations are few. He bought his first Volt in for the mile round-trip commute from home to the Arkansas hospital where he works. He bought another one last year, a revamped model that can go 50 miles on electricity before the gas generator starts.

Because he can recharge at work, most of his commute is done on battery power. Winters routinely goes 1, miles between gas station fill-ups, which he likes.

Winters had always wanted an electric car, but like many, was afraid he'd run out of juice and get stranded. GM, he said, should have spent more to promote the car. Originally, the Volt was to be a sleek, futuristic five-seat vehicle built to hold a battery and a new three-cylinder engine to generate electricity, said Navigant Research analyst Sam Abuelsamid.

But because of GM's financial problems, the project was scaled back and became a modified version of the Chevrolet Cruze compact car with only four seats and many parts from other GM vehicles, he said.

The second-generation Volt debuted at the Detroit auto show amid a significantly different automotive landscape than just five years prior. The Volt went on sale as a model year vehicle with a staggered rollout that began in California and then spread to other states.

Ultimately, the untimely demise of the Volt cannot be pinned on any one factor, but rather a significant number of fairly recognizable "usual suspects" that eroded the business case for its continued production since its launch, leading to an outcome that will no doubt continue to be studied for years to come. For a vehicle billed as the GM car of the next decade, the Volt arrived amid a cratered auto sales landscape with a fairly significant sticker price, offset somewhat by a delayed tax credit.

The following model year turned out to be the high water mark for the first-gen model, with Chevrolet selling 23, examples of the Volt stateside. Sales dipped a little in , with the Volt recording 23, sales in the U. The final year first-gen model saw 15, Volts find new homes in the U. Canada turned out to be the second-biggest market for the Volt, but annual sales peaked sharply at 1, units in For a Prius -fighter, all of these numbers were not quite what was hoped for.

The second generation experienced a peak in sales for the model year, which saw 24, units find new homes in the U. Indeed, proved to be the high water mark for the second-gen Volt as sales fell by about 4, units to 20, in Sales in are expected to reach 20, units. The Volt faced the challenge of being designed and engineered in one economic climate, to arrive on sale in a vastly different one. The impact of the economic downturn that occurred halfway through the Volt's gestation cannot be overstated -- the company barely made it out alive -- but the Volt still had to contend with a different landscape when it went on sale.

It helped that new car sales favored fuel-sipping models, but the Volt's sticker price did not make it a popular alternative to something like a used Prius, or any used car for that matter. Third, the level of oil production and gasoline prices that were predicted for the middle of the s did not materialize in the U. The relatively low gas prices had a number of effects, most of which depressed the growth of EVs and hybrids as segments during this time and which persist to this day.

The established players like the Prius remained and were even joined by a couple more contenders, but hybridized versions of the Chevy Tahoe were clearly not the direction that EV and hybrid fans were hoping for.

Most automakers moved to anticipate, by the end of this decade, relatively higher gasoline prices, significant advances in battery technology and a shift toward more efficient vehicles. It's debatable whether even one of these three expectations truly materialized. The Prius seemed like a particularly prescient car, and it was hard to argue with the expectation of ever-rising oil prices and a turn to renewable energy. Related Content. Notice for the Postmedia Network This website uses cookies to personalize your content including ads , and allows us to analyze our traffic.

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