#Chevy volt range gas generator#
Rounder, pointier, and more sculpted at the nose, the new Volt looks like a cat with its rump in the air. A 1.5-liter inline-4 gas engine cuts in as a generator and powertrain supplement after range is depleted, and the 8.9-gallon fuel tank yields another 367 miles of range for a total of 420. Curb weight, the enemy of efficiency, is said to drop by more than 200 pounds. “You get a much better feel for the road,” Farah asserts about the solidly mounted cradle, “though you do have to worry about transmitted noise.” The wheelbase creeps up by 0.4 inch and length by 3.3 inches, while the roof is 0.2 inch lower. The body structure is stiffer than before, and one significant change is that the front subframe cradle is no longer isolated by means of rubber mounts. That means struts up front and a torsion beam under the rear end. Under its fresh sheetmetal, the Volt is still a member of GM’s front-drive Delta II family, alongside the Buick Verano and Chevy Cruze. Tires are low-rolling-resistance, all-season Michelin Energy Savers, size 215/50R-17. The pack enables a claimed all-electric range of 50 miles. The number of Compact Power lithium-ion cells in the T-shaped battery pack has dropped from 288 to 192, while revised chemistry helps energy capacity grow from the outgoing car’s 17.1 kWh to 18.4. The corporation also says that the new Volt will be quicker, getting from zero to 60 mph in 8.4 seconds, 0.4 second fleeter than the last Volt we tested.Įnergy capacity is up while battery mass has dropped by 31 pounds. The Volts total combined driving range of electricity and. So we will actually do that more often.” GM says the new Volt will get 41 mpg on gas and 102 MPGe on electricity, increases of four in both combined-driving metrics. After that, the Volt uses gasoline from an 8.9-gallon tank to power a 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine.
Once the batteries are depleted, Farah says, “the most efficient thing to do is to take torque from the engine to the wheels. Combined electrical power stands pat at 149 horsepower, while torque from the motors climbs 21 pound-feet to 294. The first-gen car used one large motor and one small one, but the new car’s motors are closer in size and share the workload more evenly. But, according to Farah, “not a single part number” is common between the first- and second-gen Voltec powertrains. True to the original recipe, the Volt still uses two electric motors. And lower rpm translates into lower noise.” And, no doubt, lower consumption. “What this really comes down to, with the new higher-compression, direct-injection, larger-displacement engine, is that we can get the same amount of power at any point we want with lower rpm. Range of 53 miles on electric charge & total range of 400 miles with 9 gallon gas tank. “There was speculation that the engine would be smaller, have fewer cylinders, or be turbocharged,” Volt chief engineer Andrew Farah says. Volt is perfect transition from ICE car because of backup gasoline engine. GM's new Ecotec small-engine family includes turbocharged and naturally aspirated three- and four-cylinders between 1.0 and 1.5 liters.