#2017 chevrolet volt range plus

Lindland, founder of, also notes, “Toyota buyers are very different than Chevy buyers.”įinally, for electric-car fans, GM was the company that destroyed the EV1 fleet, as chronicled in “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Even today, this site occasionally hears from people who claim they will never buy a GM car because of that action (despite the subsequent Bolt EV and Volt). While Prius owners did that too, Toyota soon expanded its hybrid technology across its model lineup, washing the whole brand with the Prius halo for those who wanted it. That was GM’s first and very, very critical error.” Innovators and early adopters are financially secure and risk-oriented: They want luxury, and will put up with inconveniences to be seen in the first of something. “It’s critical to understand the technology adoption curve, and the people who live there.

The problem, suggests auto analyst Rebecca Lindland, was that “Chevrolet is not an aspirational brand for innovators and early adopters.” Often you’d hear owners saying they drove a “Volt,” entirely ignoring the Chevrolet part. The first Bolt EV was delivered in December 2016.Īll of a sudden, the Volt plug-in hybrid had sibling rivalry: a car priced about the same, but a “pure” electric vehicle with usable range.Ĭhevrolet Bolt EV electric car and Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid The answer was almost surely yes, because in January 2015, the Chevy Bolt concept was announced, with 200 miles of range and a price of just $37,500. GM convened a task force to ascertain whether Tesla posed a competitive threat.

#2017 chevrolet volt range plus

When the first Volt was sold in December 2010, Tesla was struggling to recover from production delays for its Roadster, including a two-speed gearbox that had to be replaced entirely, plus the general effects of the economic recession.īy 2013, however, it was clear that the Tesla Model S-however slowly it entered production-was an entirely different kettle of fish. The Chevrolet Volt concept was revealed at the Detroit auto show in January 2007, only a few months after a crazy California startup called Tesla announced it would build battery-electric cars with 200 miles of range or more.