The Chevrolet Volt is no more.
Production ended earlier this month with General Motors coiling the charging cable one last time. News of the Volt’s demise is disheartening, but at the same time, understandable. The car-buying public is shunning sedans for crossovers, SUVs, and trucks, and cash-conscious Americans no longer have to worry about high gas prices either, making the Chevrolet Volt less and less of a necessity. The final Chevrolet Volt rolled off the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly line Tuesday, February 19, at 10:00 AM not with the whine of an electric motor, but a quiet whoosh heading off to the GM Heritage Center.
A moment of electrified silence.
It’s sad to see the revolutionary Chevrolet Volt disappear from the marketplace, but General Motors contests consumer demand for the plug-in hybrid isn’t there anymore (and probably never really was). The final Chevrolet Volt isn’t some special model with a placard on the dash, either. It’s painted a rather anonymous Mosaic Black Metallic (as pictured above), but with the top-end Premier trim. The front-wheel-drive runabout sports 17-inch wheels, its standard MacPherson strut front suspension and semi-independent compound crank rear suspension. LED headlights, DRLs, and taillights are included on the car. Even certain Cadillacs don’t have LED headlights or DRLs.
The interior is swathed in Jet Black leather. Features include a leather-wrapped and heated steering wheel, heated front seats, heated rear seats, and the sports pedal kit. An eight-inch touchscreen infotainment screen is standard. It appears the Volt sports the Black Accent Package, which blackens the front and rear bowtie emblems. Also included is the sport pedals, and 17-inch wheels.
It’s sad to see the Chevrolet Volt go. Less than a decade ago, the Volt was billed as the car that’ll not only save General Motors but the automotive industry as well. It’s crazy how much can change in just a few short years. When GM introduced the Volt in 2011, the U.S. was still recovering from the Great Recession which saw millions of Americans lose their jobs, homes, and retirement. Gas prices were sky-high, and the Volt hybrid was GM’s answer to its financial woes from just a few years before.
Except gas prices fell, and the economy recovered. Americans no longer need semi-affordable fuel sippers, hybrids, or electric vehicles. Slow sedan sales overall help kill the Volt even though electrification remains a vital part of GM’s future with the automaker planning to release 20 new EVs by 2023. While the Volt hybrid as we know may be gone, as it no longer fits into GM’s electrified future, the nameplate may return one day.
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Comments
I’d love to see GM refine the Volt’s powertrain and put it in the Equinox, Terrain, Encore, and Trax. It’s one of the best hybrid setups out there and would make for unique offerings in the affordable crossover-suv market. They could then keep jobs of those who make the Volt powertrain, or even add more, and the environmental benefits don’t hurt either.
I couldn’t agree more with you Yee to the Haw. I think it is one of the most attractive looking vehicles out there. I also like the fact that is both electric and gas, meaning you can actually go on a road trip across the State and not worry about range anxiety. The other benefit I see is during the cold months when harsh weather conditions can deplete battery range – you still have a gas engine as a back up – again negating the range anxiety issue.
My only con with the Volt is the back seat is not truly able to seat 5 passengers, and maybe give the backseat passengers a little more head and knee room. I think that is where GM drop the ball on this vehicle. Also advertising and\or education about the vehicle?
Otherwise, great vehicle, great technology. I hope GM learnt its lesson from the Volt and somehow apply the technology to a future GM product.
Don’t worry, they won’t. May is 100% committed to totally electric vehicles and sadly the great Volt hybrid technology will be allowed to die.
GM quit on the Volt because of a lack of profitability. GM circa 2019 is about making big profits on every unit that rolls out of every assembly plant. The Voltec drive system is expensive, to survive it needed to be in a more mainstream CUV, like the Equinox? GM gave up a long time ago trying to make the clueless masses understand Voltec and why it was good/different/superior. Even if there was a “Voltec Equinox”, GM would not know how to promote and market that version? It would be very expensive and likely sell poorly vs ICE “gas” versions. The other ironic thing is, the Volt actually outsold the Bolt last year! I think the Bolt is in serious trouble as well, once it loses the tax credit and other vehicles like the Hyundai Kona Electric become more widely available, the Bolt will be axed as well. GM will quit again.
LFX323HP: I generally agree with your comment, but I would add that GM did not try very hard to get the “clueless masses to understand”. I had no idea what the Volt was; I was about to buy a Mitsubishi PHEV until my husband, who subscribes to several car magazines, suggested I look at the Volt.
Once I saw it’s advantages, I was sold, but not because of any marketing/advertising that GM did. As to clueless masses, both my husband and I are experienced graduate engineers, him electrical and myself mechanical. I come from a GM retiree family and my father in law would buy nothing but Chevrolets. We both worked in fields somewhat related to “Green Energy”. We are both somewhat “car enthusiasts” with multiple sports cars in our past history. How did we somehow almost miss GM’s marketing efforts?
GM gave up before they ever started.
Such a shame, it’s a great PHEV, far better than anything out of Japan. Unfortunately the super sized American public cannot fit in sedans anymore so they’re going for big gas guzzling SUVs. There’s also the issue of Chevy’s reputation, which drives many EV buyers to Japanese brands. The Volt is in fact a highly reliable car but it takes decades to rehabilitate a reputation as bad as Chevy’s.
I do wish Chevy had offered a Volt SS with better handling and MRC dampers. It would have been the ultimate PHEV and IMO better than a Tesla. One other complaint: the rear sill is far too high so you can’t load/unload the hatch without getting dirt on your clothing. Not a dealbreaker, but definitely something to be fixed if there was a gen3 Volt.
A few thoughts here from a ’13 Volt owner. First I agree with the mistake of not making a CUV out of it so I lifted ours 3 inches and will keep it till it dies – which from the looks of it could take a decade or two. Two, I agree with the fact that GM seems lost when it comes to marketing anything other than a gas hog to the shallow thinking masses. And three, I realize that the Voltec powertrain is expensive and will soon be outdated by cost effective BEVs, but it sur seems to me that they were at least a year premature on it’s cancellation – especially given that all there EV promises have so far been nothing but hot (stinky) air. And I am still eagerly awaiting a reasonably priced working BEV pickup which is increasingly looking like will come from someone, hell, anyone other than GM!
You folks are great. It seems clear that the smart thing for Mary to do is to stop the music. Get Hamtramck open. Make Volts. Tell people about Volts. Sell Volts.
I think Chevrolet actually “introduced” (i.e., started selling) the 2011 Volt in late 2010. Might want to update the article.
I own both a first-generation Volt and an ELR and love them both. They’ve been incredible reliable, comfortable, and have saved me at least $6,000 in fuel costs, factoring in my actual electricity costs. 96% of my driving in both cars has been electric. It’s been a pleasure not visiting the gas station unless I’m going on a road trip. I’m very disappointed that there’s not going to be a pure EV replacement for the ELR before my lease ends, but I’m hopeful that options will be available soon. (I plan to keep my ELR for now.)
Thanks to everyone involved in developing the Voltec system! It worked extremely well, especially when considering how much had to be developed from scratch and pulled from other industries.
This could have been the automotive architecture bridge that lead General Motors from gas to electric as it was perfect, charge up the battery and get drive for over 50 miles then when the battery charge is down the gas motor kicks in to recharge the battery; this architecture would have worked for every vehicle in the GM fleet including sports cars like the Chevrolet Corvette.. future models could have switched to a fuel cell which would have been green meaning no urgency to move to an all electric fleet.
There should have been a VOLTEC-powered CUV. GM, you blew it!!
A Voltec CUV actually was originally planned but product planners axed it because all the other hybrids were sedans and they didn’t think a CUV would sell.
It’s the perfect encapsulation of all that is wrong with GM. Over and over they engineer some of the best powertrains and chassis in the business but then fail to leverage them into competitive products. Another case in point: the Alpha platform. Widely regarded as one of the best handling platforms in the world for it’s price range, yet GM has built only failures with the platform. ATS, CTS, and Camaro: all poor sellers due to the various poor design decisions made during development. The ATS is cramped and had a hideous dashboard, the Camaro is cramped, impossible to see out of, and has a trunk opening the size of a suitcase, and features adolescent styling that turns off many sophisticated buyers despite the car comparing favorably with BMWs.