General Motors’ shift from an internal combustion engine-producing company to one that makes electric motors is sputtering. EV sales are up, but growing slower than expected. The company’s next-generation Ultium platform, in particular, isn’t meeting expectations. GM’s new electric trucks and SUVs seem perennially delayed — or full of buggy software.
I think I have an easy solution to a lot of these problems: bring back the Chevy Volt.
Remember the Volt, GM’s scrappy Toyota Prius fighter from the mid-2010s? The company was lauded when it first came out in 2010 as a prescient bet on vehicles with electric powertrains. And it was undeniably a very good hybrid. The first-generation model got 36 miles of electric range before the gas kicked in, while later versions would get a whopping 53 miles of electric range.
My issue with the Volt is just that is was really crappy to be inside. It was a terrible Chevy interior combined with lack of space due to them trying to fit batteries into a platform that wasn’t designed for it.
Yes, it was great on paper. But when it came time to test drive one I was really turned off.
Chevy should indeed bring back a PHEV option because they’re just the most sensible choice for the most people until the charging infrastructure gets better. But the Volt kinda sucked so they should do something better like the Bolt.
Say what? I loved the Volt interior. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that the heater controls were a touch button you had to hold for like 60 seconds to go from hot to cold. Everything else was really nice. The little polite “beep beep beep” horn button on the end of the turn signal was brilliant, every car should have one of those.