2016 Chevrolet Volt

We like the new look; it’s fresh and less distinctive than the old Volt, making the new car more “normal”—very much what Chevrolet’s designers were aiming for. Non-Volt owners who saw the car reacted favorably, calling it “sporty” and “modern.” Our one concern is that many of the Volt’s styling cues look a great deal like those of the similarly sized Chevrolet Cruze compact four-door sedan. We think they’ll look awfully similar on the showroom floor, except the Cruze will start below $20,000 and the Volt starts above $33,000—a perceptual problem right there.

We also see a number of echoes of the Honda Civic sedan, particularly in the rear lights and roof pillars. That may not be a bad thing, but time will tell whether making the Volt more “normal”—less obviously a different kind of car—pays off with the larger public or puts off those who want to drive something distinctive.

Inside, we have nothing but praise for the new Volt’s interior. The old car’s gimmicky touch switches were deeply frustrating—even dedicated owners said so—and that’s all gone. There are still a few styling flourishes, but otherwise Chevy’s twin-cockpit design is executed in black with silver accents. The optional two-tone interiors add a touch of elegance, too.

Best of all, the switches, controls, and instruments are legible, intuitive, and easy to learn and use. The 8.0-inch touchscreen in the center of the dash is bright, crisp, and remarkably high-resolution. The old Volt’s graphics were a model for the segment in 2011, but they feel chaotic compared to the simplified and more elegant displays in the 2016 model.

The new Volt still feels like a heavy car for its size, but its steering feel and roadholding is livelier than the old car, which sometimes felt underdamped. The new Volt is hardly lithe, in the manner of a Mazda, say, but it’s a more enjoyable car to drive on twisty roads—and its quiet lack of fuss and smooth, consistent electric power delivery is soothing no matter what the road or traffic may be.

Battery capacity is now 18.4 kilowatt-hours, and the 2016 Volt uses a new generation of lithium-ion cells from LG Chem that offer greater energy density—and it uses one-third fewer of them too, 192 instead of 288.

The EPA rates its electric range at 53 miles, and its efficiency at 106 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent). Those are impressive ratings for any plug-in hybrid vehicle, and GM expects 90 percent of all Volt trips to be driven exclusively on battery energy from the grid. If the past is prologue, we might expect further capacity increases and greater ranges yet in 2018 and 2020, too.

Recharging the Volt’s larger battery completely now takes 4.5 hours, GM says, using a 240-Volt Level 2 charging station. Those owners who use only the 120-volt charging cable included with the car will find a full recharge takes nine to 12 hours, depending on a variety of factors that include outside temperature and the quality of the household circuit.

The new Volt’s onboard charger has a slightly higher power rate, 3.6 kilowatts rather than 3.3 kw, but Chevy chose not to use a 6.6-to-7.2-kw charger. Its reasoning is that most Volt owners recharge overnight—as shown by data from the first generation of Volts—so the higher rate isn’t needed, according to Chevrolet. No DC quick-charging is possible with the Volt either.

In the rare circumstances when the battery is entirely depleted and the 1.5-liter 4-cylinder engine comes on, the car is considerably quieter. We drove a 2016 Volt almost 100 miles in that mode, and simply forgot that the engine was on in most cases. Unlike some other plug-in hybrids, the engine start lags maximum power demand by up to several seconds, and it starts at a low speed.

In virtually every case, we missed the startup unless we watched the power-flow diagram on the central screen. The engine is still audible under maximum acceleration, especially at higher speeds, but it’s more of a remote hum than the higher-pitched howl delivered by the old Volt. It’s also more fuel-efficient, with an EPA combined rating of 42 mpg in range-extended mode—up from the prior car’s 37 mpg.

Finally, the engineers have improved the blending of regenerative and friction brakes to the point where no transition is perceptible. The old Volt was pretty good in this regard—certainly far better than first efforts from other makers—but the new one is exemplary.

The fifth “seating position” (Chevy doesn’t call it a seat) in the rear, however, is strictly for limber riders willing to put up with some discomfort over short trips. Its occasional-use status is reinforced by its lack of a headrest, though that rider does get a shoulder harness. It’s fine for a lithe teenage soccer player, so in other words, don't stick your middle-aged business colleague there.

The interior design is rendered in high-quality materials, with soft-touch materials in most places that get touched by passengers and Chevy spared its use of hard plastic surfaces.

Chevy says it listened carefully to its first generation of Volt buyers, and made a number of changes in response to their needs. One of the more notable is a separate side compartment in the cargo bay of the 2016 car that holds the charging cord—meaning drivers no longer have empty it out and lift the load floor to reach the charging cord stowed underneath, as they did in earlier Volts.

The new Volt is smooth and quiet under electric power, the mode in which it’s likely to spend most of its miles. Almost all modern electric cars are better in this regard than their gasoline equivalents, but we heard almost no hum from the electric components. The aero engineers have also done a good job reducing wind noise, and the hard rubber compound of the low-rolling-resistance tires is only noisy on certain road surfaces—though the car is generally so quiet that you’ll be surprised how much tire noise you hear on coarse concrete highway sections.

But once the battery has been depleted and the engine switches on, it’s a far quieter vehicle inside than the last generation was. GM’s engineers put a great deal of effort into reducing engine noise, starting with the engine design itself, and the difference between old and new Volts under full acceleration is notable.

All 2016 Volts come with 10 airbags and a rearview camera as standard equipment. In addition, optional safety equipment includes blind-spot monitors, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-keeping assist with lane-departure warning, forward collision alert, and automatic braking. There’s also an advanced parking assist function, which Chevy calls “semi-automatic parallel parking," which includes both front and rear assistance.

Outward vision—not a particularly strong point of the old Volt—is incrementally better in the 2016 model, but far from best in class. Chevy dropped the second vertical glass panel in the tailgate, so the rear-view mirror vision doesn’t show the road as close to the back of the car as it used to.

Over-the-shoulder vision is dismal, too, but at least Chevy opted to fit a high-end rearview camera as standard. It offers much better resolution and a crisper image on the 8.0-inch center display screen than we’ve seen in any other compact car. (We’ll find out if it’s easily blocked or distorted by rain and snow—as most of them are—when we have the car for a longer test.)

Finally, the old Volt’s notorious blind spot at the base of the windshield pillars has been reduced, but is still much larger than in other compact cars—Honda and Subaru are exemplary in that regard. Volt engineers explained that the steep angle of the windshield requires a larger structural support to withstand roof-crush tests.

Cloth seats are standard, but heated front seats are optional. Leather seats are available as an option too, as is a very handsome two-tone interior treatment. A navigation package is optional, as is a Bose premium audio system. Chevy has chosen not to offer a sunroof as an option.

Packaging starts at the base, LT trim, which provides a six-speaker audio system with AUX jack; leather-wrapped steering wheel; rearview camera; LED headlamps; 17-inch, 5-spoke wheels; and 8-inch touchscreen.

The next step up, the Premier trim, adds available active-safety packages such as blind-spot monitoring, forward collision alert and lane-keep assist; available leather seats; and standard automatic parking assist.

GM says 90 percent of trips in the new Volt will be made without turning on the engine, using battery capacity exclusively derived from charging. That makes the Volt essentially an electric car that occasionally turns on its engine.

Moreover, the new Volt’s efficiency rating of 106 MPGe—up from the old car’s 98 MPGe—approaches that of some battery-electric vehicles. In our view, it offers the best of both worlds: almost all-electric transportation, but without the worry of battery depletion. On gas alone, the Volt is rated at 42 mpg combined, according to the EPA.

As such, it rates our highest score of 10 on The Car Connection's Green rating.