GM releases some teasers for Volt 2.0

Another shot with better lighting to illuminate the rear.

 

12th jan, or the 12th gen Volt?

 

EV range? It's all about the range.

 

looks like a squashed prius...

 

Keep in mind these pictures are taken at about tire level or lower so the perspective is going to be quite a bit off. I'd imagine the car won't look nearly as squished and the back not quite as sloped when your standing next to it instead of almost under it. Overall I am a bit underwhelmed so far, will be going to NAIAS this year to check it out in person for myself, hopefully they will let us look inside on the show floor so I can get some good pictures.

 

From that shot it looks like the roof hump is really far forward. That looks worse for aerodynamics and rear passenger headroom. Strange choice, but I might not have the best look. Car looks like about the same drag as the previous one.

12 january is when we get the real details. 2 gen volt.

 

Agreed and it's hard to say much on the aero. One angle makes it appear to slope in the rear much more than the Gen I or it's tapering quite a bit like the EV1 did.

The hood has some odd bulges too. Looks cool but I'm sure there is a purpose behind it. I'm curious about the taillights. They appear to bulge out unlike the Gen I.

 

For what it's worth, I liked the Volt 2.0 taillights I saw at the private LA Auto Show preview event. They were quite different than the original Volt. They weren't particularly small or large or bulbous -- just pretty mainstream but interesting with kind of a hexagonal thing going on.

 

i don't agree that it's all about range unless you're going bev. imo, the volt has plenty of range for the masses. i think it's all about size. when they make it as big as a prius, or even a little bigger, i think it would really start to take off. i wonder how many miles you would have to give up to do that, and how to keep the cost down?

i hope toyota isn't going with the large mouth bass/ rhino grille on the gen IV kiss of death imo.

 

Like the Mirai? Whale sharks should stay in the ocean.

 

exactly. i hate the front of the new camry, now the v, why do theses styling cues have to carry across the whole product line???

 

They want uniform product characteristics. Like Chevy did with the Gen I Volt front end. They didn't need to have the split grille but it's a Chevy thing. It's all about brand marketing. Eventually the image changes and not always for the better. That is the way Toyota seems to be going. Butt ugly front ends mated to a non-matching rear end. I really really hope they don't screw up the next Gen Prius.

 

My first thought upon seeing the new Volt styling was that it looks like a Civic with a '99 Solara front end. Nothing really fresh but better than the current model.

 

A few others including myself "saw" a Civic as well. It's definitely less polarizing although I prefer the GenI so far. The side profile will likely be better than mine though.

 

I think upping the size and improving CS fuel economy is more important than actually increasing EV range for the gen2. Range is nice, but keeping it where it is while leveraging battery advances to reduce the pack's size and cost will go further to increasing sales.

The shiny bits is because a previous generation loved their chrome metal bumpers, and now that we can make chrome plastic cheaply, designers feel it is time to bring the style back. I personally got some black vinyl to cover up the more objectionable bits on my Sonic. I heard Plasti-dip also works well.

The Toyota that reminds me most of a filter feeder is the Venza, though more of an alien type.

 

I agree, the extra range is nice but the biggest improvements IMO as a current Volt owner is better CS mileage and a reduction in CS Mode noise/vibration. I really hate having the ICE on mostly because of the sound.

 

why is it so difficult to build a small, quiet, smooth engine, is it the mpg tradeoff? the i3 range extender review complained about the same thing. maybe it's just in comparison to an electric motor.

 

Part of it has to do with the engine revs independent of the throttle input. The Prius engine is obnoxious when it is rev'd high too but since it is directly controlled by the driver it's not so much of an issue. Having the engine rev'd up while driving through a parking slowly just sucks. lol

 

I doubt they would give up any range at all to make it look like a prius
A) It would be more aerodynamic so better hwy range. Slightly more we
B) Batteries could be laid out as part of the lower chasis (like tesla, ford transit connect)
This would likely be more expensive if volume is not high enough.

small does have a trade off with quiet. The quietest engines will be a straight 6 or larger. A straight 6 is natural balanced so their is not noise from unballance. The nearly ideal cyclinder size is half a liter or larger, so we get to 3L 6 cylinder as the smallest old size. Building unballanced ballance shafts and direct injection though can do wonders. This adds costs, but gets us down to about 1L 3cylinders as the smallest size for a quiet efficient engine, and 2 cyclinders would likely add effieciency, cut cost, but increase NVH. BMW went this way with 2 small cylinder for lower cost and size. If you add variable lift, as the new gm engine has it, a design like the ford 1L ecoboost + variable lift is nearly ideal for small, although the iron block reduces physical size, and warm up penalty, it adds to weight. GM decided with this ice to go bigger, 1.5L I4 aluminum block with di and variable lift. If they did a good job this should be quieter than the prius ice, and less expensive to build and likely nearly twice as long than the ford 1L ecoboost. The ecoboost would be more efficient on short trips (quiker warm up) and city type drives, but because of the larger displacement and potential atkinson cycle the new volt ice might be more efficient on cruze control and highway acceleration.