From a sporty electric vehicle experiment to a cousin of Toyota Prius, which is most commonly driven by „Bolt“ drivers in my country.

First impressions

When I saw the concept, it really dropped my jaw. I couldn’t imagine that the Volt originated from such an interesting concept! It was exciting, but also disappointing at the same time. When you look at the trasformation again, it becomes clear why:

Comparison. Left photo - production. Source: autoweek.com, right photo - concept. Source: supercars.net

It’s incredible how such a car became the Volt we know now. And I don’t mean that incredibleness in a good way. Chevrolet could’ve made something big out of this concept. I guess we won’t see it come to life ever again.

Only question: why?

GM already got the style and resources to make this beautiful concept come to life. Of course, there had to be some changes, like glass geometry and other minor changes in design. It was interesting, fresh and futuristic, plus not a bad choice for an EV, but they changed almost everything, resulting in a significant loss. I’m sure most of you think the same way.

Car specs

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| ------------------------- | --------------------- | --------------------- |
|       Specification       |        Concept        |       Production      |
| ------------------------- | --------------------- | --------------------- |
|        Engine type        | Gas/Electric (hybrid) | Gas/Electric (hybrid) |
|     Battery capacity      |        16 kWh         |        16 kWh         |
|   Battery recharge time   |    Up to 6.5 hours    | Up to 4.5 hours, 220V |
|       Transmission        |       Automatic       |       Automatic       |
|        Drive type         |   Front-wheel drive   |   Front-wheel drive   |
| Acceleration (0-100 km/h) |         8.5 s         |         9.2 s         |
|         Max speed         |        193 km/h       |       160 km/h        |
|         Fuel type         |          E85          |    Regular octane     |
|        Engine size        |         1.0 L         |         1.0 L         |
|         Horsepower        |          160          | 149 (depends on year) |
|     Range on batteries    |      Up to 64 km      |      Up to 80 km      |
| ------------------------- | --------------------- | --------------------- |

Judging from the specs, we can see a slight downgrade in terms of acceleration and horsepower. Overall, the production Volt managed to keep up pretty well.
Yes, the Volt can only reach up to 160 km/h, which makes it impossible to go on a trip with this car. It’s slow, it can’t go far, yuck! It was never meant to be a car for long trips and rather a city car though, so it’s kind of forgiven. But besides that, there are quite a lot of known issues, like electric system problems, engine related problems and failures in the brakes system. Not something anyone would like to have in their car.

Verdict and Recap

This car went from being a new and exciting sports car entry to EV market by Chevrolet to something horrible. Yes, its performance wasn’t too much Sadly, I can’t rate this nothing more than 2 stars. Interesting try, but now I see why it didn’t blow up in popularity. Not much of a failure, but not a miracle, considering it’s from a big and well-known company like Chevrolet. 2 stars.