When it was first introduced to the market, the Chevrolet Volt was the answer to the Toyota Prius and it makes it easy for anyone to have the fuel mileage desired with an EV range that can be enjoyable along with an excellent range extender that gives you up to 600 miles of overall driving range on a single tank of fuel. This car is still one that many love to choose when they want a plug-in hybrid and don’t want to have the range limitations of one of the full EV models that we currently see in the market.
The question that surrounds this car for the future is whether or not it will survive. Nearly every automaker has announced they are looking toward the future and ready to launch between 15 and 30 EV models in the next five to ten years in order to give us a complete EV lineup for the future. This hints at an infrastructure change that could take place in order to bring more charging stations to the world and upgrade what we already see, but these cars currently face an even greater challenge that will make us turn to the Volt for the answer.
The Continued Challenge
Unless battery technology is improved dramatically over the next several years, the Chevrolet Volt will continue to be a smart option for us to drive. Right now, this model is expected to end its production in 2022 with GM planning to launch twenty new EV models by 2023, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a next generation for the Volt or a viable replacement that happens to give us something more for the drive than what an EV can offer when it’s time to head out on the road for a distance drive.
The added ranges offered by fully EV models has become more impressive and we see that a daily driving range can be had that will allow us to venture out of the city or be away from charging stations most of the time. Even so, if you were to take a road trip or use your car for driving on vacation or for the holidays, you might be extremely disappointed. Charging times are much longer than fueling times with gasoline, making your stops longer and causing your travel to take much longer than it should when you head out.
Even if you stop to charge your EV model in the future, and you have a fast charging system to make use of, you’ll typically only reach a percentage of the full charge in an hour or more before you head back on the road. In a model such as the Volt, you can refuel the gasoline tank and head back on the road with the full range of the gasoline that’s been filled in as little as fifteen minutes. Until EV models completely replace the gasoline-powered vehicles we drive, there will always be a place for models that are plug-in hybrids that make use of both electricity and gasoline to get you where you need to go. This doesn’t mean the Volt will survive, but it should make its way to continue in the market in some form from GM.
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