The Chevrolet Volt first hit the market in December of 2010 – that’s four years ago now, for those who don’t want to do the math. For that reason, you might imagine that the love received from car guides like Kelley Blue Book ought to have diminished as the car grows longer in the tooth.
Not so, as KBB has just named the Chevrolet Volt its Electric/Hybrid car “Best Buy” for 2015.
So what does the Volt get right? “The Volt might not be the newest entry in a group that includes the Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 and Toyota Prius, but a clever powertrain and exceptional value helped Chevrolet’s gasoline/electric wondercar secure the win.” In short, the car maximizes value in a way that other contenders do not.
Sure, the MSRP for a base Chevrolet Volt is substantially more than that of the Toyota Prius or the Nissan Leaf, but still less than the lavish BMW i3. Factoring in tax credits at the state and federal levels, and the Volt often ends up costing about $10,000 less than MSRP.
And then there’s the day-to-day experience of ownership. Kelley Blue Book remarks on the sustained importance of a gasoline range extender to most prospective customers – BMW’s i3 avails one as a $4,000 option, while the Nissan Leaf simply doesn’t offer one. The Chevrolet Volt, meanwhile, boasts a 380 mile gas+electric range, and definitively satisfies the customer’s range anxiety.
Add to that the decent handling afforded by a low center-of-gravity and the impressive, instantaneous torque of the electric drive motor, and it’s not hard to imagine why KBB continues to be enamored with the Chevrolet Volt.
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