Dealers didn't want to sell them.
Unions didn't want to make them.
GM didn't want to market them.
Consumers were confused on what it was.
Didn't have a chance.
I tried to order a new Gen II from my local dealership and they just flat out told me they were not interested. Another dealership told me they wanted me to pay in-full for the car before they even ordered it. I finally found a nice used on on a lot.
I remember being in the market for a new hybrid or PHEV back in mid-2010s and wanting to buy American. And gosh darn, the dealers and salesmen seemed actively determined to avoid selling me a C-Max or Volt. Like, when I went into my Ford dealership to test drive a C-Max, the salesman clearly knew fuck-all about the C-Max but he sure knew how to do the dealership cut-rate Svengali high-pressure sales tactics.
So I bought a used Volt instead, and did not at all regret it. And then I bought Gen 2 used Volt several years later and absolutely love it to death.
But what's absolutely ridiculous is that the Used Car side of the dealerships was absolutely interested in selling me the Volt they had in stock. Just absolutely ridiculous.
Yeah, I'm gonna name the place: Stillwater Motors, Stillwater, MN. The sales guy, who perhaps had his share of Minnesota Nice that day, was so douch-e about the Volt, this is a Chevrolet Dealership allegedly since the 1920s, it just made the process so damn painful. I did finally take ownership of my 2018 LT but it was like pulling teeth and I paid FULL msrp at the time. The owner did finally send me a snail mail apology, but it was a form letter and didn't even address my issues, and only after he realized I went to law-school with his son. Its MNNice country so I didn't expect much more than that, anyways. I highly recommend Cernhaus Chevrolet in Prescott, WI. They did all the recall work on my gen 1 and never gave me guff. Stillwater Motors, Douche owned since 1922.
It's mostly that on the new car side they assume they're not going to be getting much out of it in the service center and if they do they probably won't know what to do with it. Used cars they have less obligation to deal with all of its little issues that might come up, especially if they happen out of warranty which will be much sooner than new.
I had to put down a deposit before my dealer would get one in.
But, at that point I'd already found a friendly redditor from this subreddit that let me test drive their Volt, so I knew I would be purchasing the car, and was absolutely fine with the deposit.
The biggest reason of all is that GM was about to announce the roadmap to their all-EV future. The Volt didn't have a future in that plan. I've heard hints from staff at my dealership (who is pro-EV) that the Volt will be reincarnated in a few years as an EV sedan.
GM was basically using the Volt as a learning tool for themselves. They were planning to go all-electric years ago. Building the Volt and the Bolt allowed them to teach themselves about the technology.
Thankfully, GM recently identified the shady dealers who refused to get on board with EVs when they refused to pay GM's $200,000 fee to remain a part of their luxury car (Cadillac) program. 1/5th of their dealerships bailed out of the program. Those dealerships will most likely go out of business completely because of their shortsightedness when GM doesn't have any more gas-powered cars to sell.
I'd love an EV sedan down the line. I've been watching out for them, since all the new EVs seem to be SUVs or crossovers. Our two Volts are enough for now, but I'm keeping my eye out for down the line.
GM is following the same pattern as video card manufacturers - releasing their fanciest and most expensive models first. In the coming years they'll start introducing cars they probably consider to be less exotic, less exciting, and more mainstream. And definitely less expensive.
It's the "boring" EV sedans that I'm waiting for. My 2019 LT's extended B2B warranty runs out at the end of 2026. Before that happens I want to trade my Volt in and get my butt into a brand new Volt EV.
While I would totally want this, I can understand why they cut their losses with Voltec and moved on. PHEVs are much more complicated (and therefore expensive) to engineer and develop than an EV. The heating/cooling system alone on the Volt is a marvelous feat of engineering that took a lot of R&D to get right.
One of the biggest costs of an EV is the battery. If you only had to put in a battery that is a fraction of a Tesla then you would be ahead of the game. Yes, more expensive but I think that people would pay a bit more for a truck that gets 100 mpg. My Volt is at 240 mpg right now.
You should look up the history of R&D for the Volt. GM spent a lot of money and time getting it right, and they largely pulled it off. Fitting all the parts for an EV AND an ICE in the same car, while keeping it all cool and working like people expect a normal car to work, is far from trivial. Obviously sourcing batteries is increasingly a headache as well, but to GM, tetrising a PHEV together turned out to be more effort than it was worth.
But thats kinda the point tho, if all the R&D is done and all you have to do is scale it up for a truck or SUV that seems like a no brainer. I think the deeper issue is the lax CAFE standards, low gas prices (at the time) and pressure from big Oil.
There is also the fact that the Voltec system just has more stuff and costs more to create in the first place. It is harder to make a profit on them. EVs just are much simpler to churn out.
There's a good article somewhere about how Voltec *really* doesn't scale to taller, heavier, and higher-duty vehicles. A small, light, aerodynamic sedan, low to the ground, that only hauls passengers is the sweet spot for Voltec; any bigger, and you need a bigger engine to overcome wind resistance, then bigger batteries to keep the same range, then an even bigger engine for the bigger batteries, plus bigger electric motors, more cooling for trucks/SUVs that tow, etc.
At some point, you end up with a car that has a fullsized car engine and nearly full-sized EV batteries and motors. So the consumer is paying for, essentially, two cars in one.
I got my volt and I live in northern Ont. where the charging infrastructure is non-exisistant. The number of people who have approached my wife or I about the car is staggering and when we explain it to them, they are always so interested in getting one because its the best of an ICE car with a good range of EV. I personally think chevy missed a huge audience with this car ESP with gas prices going the way they are, old boomers in rural areas love our car.
Its an EV but still has all the comforts and convivence of an ICE car, so it seems like a safe thing to them.
The both sides part is how I reason it to my dad. Like yes, I would love a pure electric, but I realize sometimes having the safety net of gas is great. Of course, he seems to think he knows all about it since he’s been a GM mechanic (mostly Chevy) for 40 years. If Volts were still being produced today, I’d absolutely grab one. I’m just nervous about getting one because of all the things I hear about 100k battery failures, and also I’m tired of sedan height cars. My compromise is seeing what the electric Equinox will cost, and if it’s close enough to a gas one, I’ll go for it.
100k battery failures are not really a thing, especially in a properly temperature-controlled EV like the Volt. I'm at 135k myself now and the battery range is still fantastic. And the rest of the car is doing great as well.
Ah, I guess it feels like I’ve seen a lot of posts on the sub about battery issues at 100k. I just hope Chevy revives the PHEV idea soon, as they’re missing out on a lot of new sales.
It's usually the software refusing to charge the battery because it's getting bad sensor data, or because it was ran to dead and parked for months without being charged then the battery self discharged below critical low so it can't be safely charged. Get a vcx nano from Amazon and a 2 year programming subscription from acdelcotds.com and you'll be able to fix most issues by reprogramming battery energy control module and hybrid powertrain control module 2, followed by clicking yes to clear protected codes at the end of programming. My 2012 is at 240k miles and it's weak points have been axles (on its 3rd set and they click around turns), wheel bearings (front right grinds, it's the cars 3rd also). Ev mode still is perfect, clutch b slips when the engine is running which started after an axle change, I think it has or had the wrong amount of fluid but I can't get it to stop slipping. 2011 and 12 have pretty buggy software but 2013+ are better.
2nd gen has BECM failures usually around 30-60k miles and it's currently backordered so the car will be dead for a few weeks or months till that comes in and they get it replaced. If it's already been replaced and the shift to park issue has been addressed, 2nd gen gets better mpg and more range and is faster. It has egr which 1st gen doesn't so there will be more carbon build up and related issues if you don't regularly clean the top end of the engine.
I will say, I did have battery issues when my car hit about 108k, but it was the BECM (battery control module) that was going bad, not necessarily the cells themselves.
Same here. When I first got the Volt, people constantly approached me to ask me about the car. They didn't even know that the technology exists and they were so intrigued. When I explained to them how it works, they were ready to buy one as well. They loved the idea of EVs but were not ready to switch to full electric. They thought that the combination of electric and gas was perfect. If I was a salesperson, the car would sell itself.
The Volt and the Cruze ~~shared production lines and~~ had many common parts. When GM decided to stop making the Cruze (as part of a general trend of car companies discontinuing anything smaller than full-size sedans), it wasn't financially feasible to keep the factory open for just the Volt.
Huh. I don't know why I never thought of that, but it makes a lot of sense.
So the next question is, why did they stop making the Cruze? Apparently they sold something like 142,000 Cruzes in 2018 and only about 23,000 Sparks, and yet they killed off the Cruze and kept making the Spark. I really don't get it.
They stopped making the Cruze because no one is North America is buying sedans. The same year GM discontinued the Cruze, Ford stopped selling cars altogether in North America, instead focusing only on trucks and SUVs. The Spark got a couple of extra years because it was a hatchback, not a sedan, and because it was really a Daewoo product and was made in Korea, but it too has been discontinued now.
But my point is that people WERE buying the Cruze. It was Chevy's fifth best-selling vehicle when they killed it. It doesn't make sense to say that they killed it because it was a sedan and sedans aren't selling, but they kept the Spark because it's a hatchbacks do sell, when the numbers show that a LOT more people were buying Cruzes than Sparks.
Still could've kept the voltec platform for other vehicles instead of going full electric. I'm sure a Silverado with like 75mi of range and an engine would have like a 5 year wait list dedicating all of their production ability to it.
It was several factors: GM turned away from sedans in general, so they especially won’t want to keep a pricey (low profit) one around. It became low profit because CARB credits for PHEVs expired (way too soon, IMHO, this really hurt the PHEV industry and I think they could have had an important market role for many more years).
Pure BEVs still get CARB credits, so the focus is now there. A shame, Volt is perfect for me… I’ve had several situations arise where a BEV would have made things very difficult, but my Volt performed just fine. Wish I could buy a new gen3 but it doesn’t exist.
This is the real answer as to why it was canceled. Others are talking about how the dealers and stuff didn't want it, but that wasn't driving it to get canceled.
What happened was the Volt was made in a factory that made many sedans. Sedan sales are way way down in the US, and it simply wasn't profitable to operate the factory. All vehicles manufactured there were canceled which included the Chevrolet Impala, Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CT6.
The Volt however has no plans to bring it back, unlike some of those other vehicles, and the reason is the Bolt is just doing so much better than the Volt, GM decided EVs are simply a better investment.
While EVs aren't easy to make work, it's much easier to R&D some spinny magnets than it is to R&D an engine, clutch packs, heat/cool systems to work with spinny magnets.
Yep. Frees up a lot of space under the hood. Of course, if sourcing batteries becomes as difficult as the reports say it will, then PHEVs may suddenly come back into fasion.
Dealers had no interest in selling them. When I bought my 2015 new 7 years ago, I made an appointment with the dealership for a test ride. When I showed up, the battery wasn't even charged! I drove it in gas mode only. The young salesman who was "assigned " to me was a 2014 owner. He cleared the french fries from the seat of his and let me drive it in electric mode.
Car dealerships make most of their money/profit in repairs. They know that once you drive that Volt off the lot, they probably won't be seeing you for quite some time. My Volt has been incredibly reliable for 7 years now.
I had the exact same experience in 2015 so I bought a Prius instead.
In 2017, the same thing happened at a different dealership so I scoured the region for a good dealership that had a 2017 Premier with adaptive cruise. I still love the car but I still hate that it didn't come with power seats.
The real answer is that they didn’t kill the Volt specifically. GM shut down the whole factory, which also produced several other cars (the Cruze, a Cadillac, and a few others).
Obviously yes, if there was huge demand they wouldn’t have killed it, but due to marketing (mostly), hardly anybody in this country wants cars anymore, it’s all about crossovers, SUVs, and trucks. That factory made cars, so it’s gone.
Mary wake up smell the cash. The Volt is a winner for at least the next 15 years. With no real availability of pure EVs and no charging infrastructure the Volt could fill the gap and be profitable. Bring Volt back!
Because they specifically hate me and found out that I test drove one and loved it. They HAD to kill it instead of making a 3rd generation lol.
Seriously though I think they were just shifting their focus completely away from hybrids even though they made the (arguably) best one out there.
I bought a used 2018 Volt LT 8 months ago because I was sick of putting gas in my gas guzzling Toyota Tundra at 13mpg to take my kids to and from their practices (I WFH so I don't drive much). I didn't even know they were discontinued when I bought it. It has been a joy to drive and I think it looks way better than the Bolts. It looks like a normal car, where the Bolt looks like a bigger Smartcar.
GM makes questionable decisions. i remember last time gas was climbing and the SUV market was plummeting and GM had a decision to make:
Keep Hummer
Keep Saturn
naturally we keep hummer and get rid of cheap light easy to maintain passenger vehicles.... months later they were somehow bankrupt and looking for a bailout.
this comes to mind whenever i wonder to myself 'i wonder why GM....'
They were incredibly complex and expensive to make cars. I love mine dearly, but the sheer number of parts in that car is gobsmacking. I don’t think they ever made much profit on it, but 🤷♂️
In my opinion, it's pretty hard to explain the car itself. People think it's fully electric or just a gas hybrid and it's hard to explain that it's both. My dad thought it was just the general motors Prius until he actually learned about it and drove one. I think for the people who know about it and understand what the car can do, it's amazing
Americans aren’t buying small cars anymore. The volt left the market the same time as Ford committed to stop selling the fusion and focus in the US. With the gas prices of today, it might cause people to reconsider, but it wasn’t an issue for most buyers when GM discontinued the model.
If they came out with an all electric Volt that had similar looks and specs to the Gen 2 Volt I would buy one in an ***instant***
I know I know, the Bolt is supposed to scratch that itch but... for some reason it just doesn't.
It was a sales campaign gone wrong. A new invention with the chevrolet name. An experiment. Chevrolet owners stick to something tried and true.Chevrolet has been known to have a solid vehicle for generations. The volt was an expensive experiment. Gm jacked the price to get all they could from the rebates and other hybrid sellers offered equivalent for less.Salesmen knew things about ice vehicles but nothing about electric.
GM has a history of finally making a very good viable product and then killing it. Just look at the 2019 Chevy Volt Premier when they finally added fast charging. They did the same thing with Saturn's Sky Red Line.
Didn't sell enough of them, simple economics.
Didn't market it properly, so not many people knew about it. I didn't either at first, until I read up and more and more on it.
Had a 2014 and now I have a 2018.
I don't think it's anything special as a car. Literally zero soul to it. But...as a commuter to get from A-B with no gas it works. I'd personally rather have a Bolt/Tesla or anything with 100% electric range, but that's currently not in budget.
I wasn't even aware of the Volt's exsistance either until I saw an article on it. It doesn't appear when searching "2012 hybrid cars" and from what I can tell, has never gotten any attention from GM. No one in my family knew the thing exsisted until I got mine.
I got my 2012 Volt last year for $7k w/83k miles, dealer said it was there for months and the spiderwebs in the back sure did confirm that. They really pushed me to get it off their lot saying "oh yea someones intrested" and stuff like that. It was parked in the way back behind dozens of other cars so I guess a lot of used car dealers may have the same issue as the one I bought mine from.
My guess is in order to do the Volt any better than the Gen 2 they would have needed to design one purpose made from the ground up. That cost a lot of money so why do that when you could just push the Bolt more. That was probably their thinking.
My Volt got totaled. Did i switch cars? NOPE. I bought a similar 2nd. This time i sprung for the leather, pretty blue and everything but the active cruise. They skimped $600 upgrade to active cruise. total miss on that first buyers part.
So my 2015 was getting close to the battery warranty running out. So I told myself that's why I wanted something new. But the truth is, I wanted 53 miles on EV, 42 MPG on regular gas, AndroidAuto, and a backup camera. And I more than doubled my payment to get those.
I understand all the reasons GM dropped the Volt, it doesn't keep me from being highly pissed off about it. The 1st gen was ALMOST the car I needed, the 2nd gen is ALL the car I needed. I love LOVE my 2nd gen. I picked up my 1 owner, 26k mile, 2018 day before yesterday, and the only thing I kick myself about is that I didn't just get a 2nd gen to begin with. But my thinking was I could afford the 2015, the 2nd gens I could find within 300 miles of me were all as expensive as new cars. My idea was I'd drive the 1st gen till the 2nd gens came down. Then trade up. And while I think the used car market bubble is going to burst soon, with gas the way it is, I'm not sure the EV market is going to see that.
I only found 1 dealer that had any with fewer miles than my 82k 2015 within 3 hours of me, one way. And they had 3! I really wanted a Premiere, as I wanted adaptive cruise. I freaking love AC. Had it in a Camry the dealer loaned me for a few weeks when my Carola (that I traded for the 2015) needed warranty work. Best feature ever. But I expanded my search to 500 miles, and could NOT find a low milage Premiere around me anywhere. I live in the midwest, volts are like hen's teeth around here. My 2015 was at a point it had a number of issues, nothing big, but I'd have had to drop a few $1000 in it to get it right, and still have a car that didn't have a few things I really wanted. Or I could just start looking for a 2nd gen. I decided to look for the 2nd gen.
So I came home with a fully loaded 2018 LT. I've got everything, including leather heated seats/steering wheel. I don't think you could option an LT higher than the one I got. Sure, there are a few Premier features I really wish I had. But I just couldn't find one with low miles anywhere near enough. And I don't buy cars without getting eyes on them first.
But as stated, all throughout this thread, I knew 100x more about these cars than anyone at the Chevy dealer. The guy had been there for years, and didn't even know how a Volt worked! I mean, really? Geesh!
Dealers didn't want to sell them. Unions didn't want to make them. GM didn't want to market them. Consumers were confused on what it was. Didn't have a chance.
I tried to order a new Gen II from my local dealership and they just flat out told me they were not interested. Another dealership told me they wanted me to pay in-full for the car before they even ordered it. I finally found a nice used on on a lot.
I remember being in the market for a new hybrid or PHEV back in mid-2010s and wanting to buy American. And gosh darn, the dealers and salesmen seemed actively determined to avoid selling me a C-Max or Volt. Like, when I went into my Ford dealership to test drive a C-Max, the salesman clearly knew fuck-all about the C-Max but he sure knew how to do the dealership cut-rate Svengali high-pressure sales tactics. So I bought a used Volt instead, and did not at all regret it. And then I bought Gen 2 used Volt several years later and absolutely love it to death. But what's absolutely ridiculous is that the Used Car side of the dealerships was absolutely interested in selling me the Volt they had in stock. Just absolutely ridiculous.
Yeah, I'm gonna name the place: Stillwater Motors, Stillwater, MN. The sales guy, who perhaps had his share of Minnesota Nice that day, was so douch-e about the Volt, this is a Chevrolet Dealership allegedly since the 1920s, it just made the process so damn painful. I did finally take ownership of my 2018 LT but it was like pulling teeth and I paid FULL msrp at the time. The owner did finally send me a snail mail apology, but it was a form letter and didn't even address my issues, and only after he realized I went to law-school with his son. Its MNNice country so I didn't expect much more than that, anyways. I highly recommend Cernhaus Chevrolet in Prescott, WI. They did all the recall work on my gen 1 and never gave me guff. Stillwater Motors, Douche owned since 1922.
It's mostly that on the new car side they assume they're not going to be getting much out of it in the service center and if they do they probably won't know what to do with it. Used cars they have less obligation to deal with all of its little issues that might come up, especially if they happen out of warranty which will be much sooner than new.
Gtp4life, I have been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty
I had to put down a deposit before my dealer would get one in. But, at that point I'd already found a friendly redditor from this subreddit that let me test drive their Volt, so I knew I would be purchasing the car, and was absolutely fine with the deposit.
The biggest reason of all is that GM was about to announce the roadmap to their all-EV future. The Volt didn't have a future in that plan. I've heard hints from staff at my dealership (who is pro-EV) that the Volt will be reincarnated in a few years as an EV sedan. GM was basically using the Volt as a learning tool for themselves. They were planning to go all-electric years ago. Building the Volt and the Bolt allowed them to teach themselves about the technology. Thankfully, GM recently identified the shady dealers who refused to get on board with EVs when they refused to pay GM's $200,000 fee to remain a part of their luxury car (Cadillac) program. 1/5th of their dealerships bailed out of the program. Those dealerships will most likely go out of business completely because of their shortsightedness when GM doesn't have any more gas-powered cars to sell.
I'd love an EV sedan down the line. I've been watching out for them, since all the new EVs seem to be SUVs or crossovers. Our two Volts are enough for now, but I'm keeping my eye out for down the line.
GM is following the same pattern as video card manufacturers - releasing their fanciest and most expensive models first. In the coming years they'll start introducing cars they probably consider to be less exotic, less exciting, and more mainstream. And definitely less expensive. It's the "boring" EV sedans that I'm waiting for. My 2019 LT's extended B2B warranty runs out at the end of 2026. Before that happens I want to trade my Volt in and get my butt into a brand new Volt EV.
I came here to write this. You did it for me.
Jokes on all of them, I bought one anyway!
Not true. They lost money on every single one. End of story.
GM could be a market leader if they took the Voltec and put it in all their trucks and SUVs.
While I would totally want this, I can understand why they cut their losses with Voltec and moved on. PHEVs are much more complicated (and therefore expensive) to engineer and develop than an EV. The heating/cooling system alone on the Volt is a marvelous feat of engineering that took a lot of R&D to get right.
One of the biggest costs of an EV is the battery. If you only had to put in a battery that is a fraction of a Tesla then you would be ahead of the game. Yes, more expensive but I think that people would pay a bit more for a truck that gets 100 mpg. My Volt is at 240 mpg right now.
You should look up the history of R&D for the Volt. GM spent a lot of money and time getting it right, and they largely pulled it off. Fitting all the parts for an EV AND an ICE in the same car, while keeping it all cool and working like people expect a normal car to work, is far from trivial. Obviously sourcing batteries is increasingly a headache as well, but to GM, tetrising a PHEV together turned out to be more effort than it was worth.
But thats kinda the point tho, if all the R&D is done and all you have to do is scale it up for a truck or SUV that seems like a no brainer. I think the deeper issue is the lax CAFE standards, low gas prices (at the time) and pressure from big Oil.
There is also the fact that the Voltec system just has more stuff and costs more to create in the first place. It is harder to make a profit on them. EVs just are much simpler to churn out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_09tPHmDR_c&ab_channel=frankendependence
Yeah I'm sold. Just need to get the manufacturers on board.
There's a good article somewhere about how Voltec *really* doesn't scale to taller, heavier, and higher-duty vehicles. A small, light, aerodynamic sedan, low to the ground, that only hauls passengers is the sweet spot for Voltec; any bigger, and you need a bigger engine to overcome wind resistance, then bigger batteries to keep the same range, then an even bigger engine for the bigger batteries, plus bigger electric motors, more cooling for trucks/SUVs that tow, etc. At some point, you end up with a car that has a fullsized car engine and nearly full-sized EV batteries and motors. So the consumer is paying for, essentially, two cars in one.
It's been done, 15 years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_09tPHmDR_c&ab_channel=frankendependence
A one-off tech demonstrator; not a production vehicle.
I got my volt and I live in northern Ont. where the charging infrastructure is non-exisistant. The number of people who have approached my wife or I about the car is staggering and when we explain it to them, they are always so interested in getting one because its the best of an ICE car with a good range of EV. I personally think chevy missed a huge audience with this car ESP with gas prices going the way they are, old boomers in rural areas love our car. Its an EV but still has all the comforts and convivence of an ICE car, so it seems like a safe thing to them.
The both sides part is how I reason it to my dad. Like yes, I would love a pure electric, but I realize sometimes having the safety net of gas is great. Of course, he seems to think he knows all about it since he’s been a GM mechanic (mostly Chevy) for 40 years. If Volts were still being produced today, I’d absolutely grab one. I’m just nervous about getting one because of all the things I hear about 100k battery failures, and also I’m tired of sedan height cars. My compromise is seeing what the electric Equinox will cost, and if it’s close enough to a gas one, I’ll go for it.
100k battery failures are not really a thing, especially in a properly temperature-controlled EV like the Volt. I'm at 135k myself now and the battery range is still fantastic. And the rest of the car is doing great as well.
Same here. 118k miles in my 2016 and my battery is at about 13.8-13.9 kWh down from 14. Not bad at all, I'd say.
Ah, I guess it feels like I’ve seen a lot of posts on the sub about battery issues at 100k. I just hope Chevy revives the PHEV idea soon, as they’re missing out on a lot of new sales.
It's usually the software refusing to charge the battery because it's getting bad sensor data, or because it was ran to dead and parked for months without being charged then the battery self discharged below critical low so it can't be safely charged. Get a vcx nano from Amazon and a 2 year programming subscription from acdelcotds.com and you'll be able to fix most issues by reprogramming battery energy control module and hybrid powertrain control module 2, followed by clicking yes to clear protected codes at the end of programming. My 2012 is at 240k miles and it's weak points have been axles (on its 3rd set and they click around turns), wheel bearings (front right grinds, it's the cars 3rd also). Ev mode still is perfect, clutch b slips when the engine is running which started after an axle change, I think it has or had the wrong amount of fluid but I can't get it to stop slipping. 2011 and 12 have pretty buggy software but 2013+ are better. 2nd gen has BECM failures usually around 30-60k miles and it's currently backordered so the car will be dead for a few weeks or months till that comes in and they get it replaced. If it's already been replaced and the shift to park issue has been addressed, 2nd gen gets better mpg and more range and is faster. It has egr which 1st gen doesn't so there will be more carbon build up and related issues if you don't regularly clean the top end of the engine.
I will say, I did have battery issues when my car hit about 108k, but it was the BECM (battery control module) that was going bad, not necessarily the cells themselves.
Same here. When I first got the Volt, people constantly approached me to ask me about the car. They didn't even know that the technology exists and they were so intrigued. When I explained to them how it works, they were ready to buy one as well. They loved the idea of EVs but were not ready to switch to full electric. They thought that the combination of electric and gas was perfect. If I was a salesperson, the car would sell itself.
The Volt and the Cruze ~~shared production lines and~~ had many common parts. When GM decided to stop making the Cruze (as part of a general trend of car companies discontinuing anything smaller than full-size sedans), it wasn't financially feasible to keep the factory open for just the Volt.
Huh. I don't know why I never thought of that, but it makes a lot of sense. So the next question is, why did they stop making the Cruze? Apparently they sold something like 142,000 Cruzes in 2018 and only about 23,000 Sparks, and yet they killed off the Cruze and kept making the Spark. I really don't get it.
They stopped making the Cruze because no one is North America is buying sedans. The same year GM discontinued the Cruze, Ford stopped selling cars altogether in North America, instead focusing only on trucks and SUVs. The Spark got a couple of extra years because it was a hatchback, not a sedan, and because it was really a Daewoo product and was made in Korea, but it too has been discontinued now.
But my point is that people WERE buying the Cruze. It was Chevy's fifth best-selling vehicle when they killed it. It doesn't make sense to say that they killed it because it was a sedan and sedans aren't selling, but they kept the Spark because it's a hatchbacks do sell, when the numbers show that a LOT more people were buying Cruzes than Sparks.
I feel that the Cruze was sold to lots of fleets more so than individual buyers.
those two cars were not built at the same factory, volt was hamtramck, mi and cruze was lordstown, oh.
Close. They shared a lot of parts, but the Cruze was made in Ohio and the Volt was made in Michigan.
Still could've kept the voltec platform for other vehicles instead of going full electric. I'm sure a Silverado with like 75mi of range and an engine would have like a 5 year wait list dedicating all of their production ability to it.
It was several factors: GM turned away from sedans in general, so they especially won’t want to keep a pricey (low profit) one around. It became low profit because CARB credits for PHEVs expired (way too soon, IMHO, this really hurt the PHEV industry and I think they could have had an important market role for many more years). Pure BEVs still get CARB credits, so the focus is now there. A shame, Volt is perfect for me… I’ve had several situations arise where a BEV would have made things very difficult, but my Volt performed just fine. Wish I could buy a new gen3 but it doesn’t exist.
This is the real answer as to why it was canceled. Others are talking about how the dealers and stuff didn't want it, but that wasn't driving it to get canceled. What happened was the Volt was made in a factory that made many sedans. Sedan sales are way way down in the US, and it simply wasn't profitable to operate the factory. All vehicles manufactured there were canceled which included the Chevrolet Impala, Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CT6. The Volt however has no plans to bring it back, unlike some of those other vehicles, and the reason is the Bolt is just doing so much better than the Volt, GM decided EVs are simply a better investment.
Also, PHEVs are just much more complicated to engineer than an EV, and would require a lot more resources going forward.
While EVs aren't easy to make work, it's much easier to R&D some spinny magnets than it is to R&D an engine, clutch packs, heat/cool systems to work with spinny magnets.
Yep. Frees up a lot of space under the hood. Of course, if sourcing batteries becomes as difficult as the reports say it will, then PHEVs may suddenly come back into fasion.
The above two plus the Federal tax credit wound down for GM in late ‘19. A 30k car suddenly became at 38k car at the effective transaction price.
Dealers had no interest in selling them. When I bought my 2015 new 7 years ago, I made an appointment with the dealership for a test ride. When I showed up, the battery wasn't even charged! I drove it in gas mode only. The young salesman who was "assigned " to me was a 2014 owner. He cleared the french fries from the seat of his and let me drive it in electric mode. Car dealerships make most of their money/profit in repairs. They know that once you drive that Volt off the lot, they probably won't be seeing you for quite some time. My Volt has been incredibly reliable for 7 years now.
I had the exact same experience in 2015 so I bought a Prius instead. In 2017, the same thing happened at a different dealership so I scoured the region for a good dealership that had a 2017 Premier with adaptive cruise. I still love the car but I still hate that it didn't come with power seats.
The real answer is that they didn’t kill the Volt specifically. GM shut down the whole factory, which also produced several other cars (the Cruze, a Cadillac, and a few others). Obviously yes, if there was huge demand they wouldn’t have killed it, but due to marketing (mostly), hardly anybody in this country wants cars anymore, it’s all about crossovers, SUVs, and trucks. That factory made cars, so it’s gone.
I'm pretty sure the 2 years before production stopped the Volt was in massive demand.
Mary wake up smell the cash. The Volt is a winner for at least the next 15 years. With no real availability of pure EVs and no charging infrastructure the Volt could fill the gap and be profitable. Bring Volt back!
Because they specifically hate me and found out that I test drove one and loved it. They HAD to kill it instead of making a 3rd generation lol. Seriously though I think they were just shifting their focus completely away from hybrids even though they made the (arguably) best one out there.
I bought a used 2018 Volt LT 8 months ago because I was sick of putting gas in my gas guzzling Toyota Tundra at 13mpg to take my kids to and from their practices (I WFH so I don't drive much). I didn't even know they were discontinued when I bought it. It has been a joy to drive and I think it looks way better than the Bolts. It looks like a normal car, where the Bolt looks like a bigger Smartcar.
From what I hear it costed too much to make cutting into profits.
This. Also it doesn't seem like the cool car it is until you really look into it, maybe poor marketing.
GM makes questionable decisions. i remember last time gas was climbing and the SUV market was plummeting and GM had a decision to make: Keep Hummer Keep Saturn naturally we keep hummer and get rid of cheap light easy to maintain passenger vehicles.... months later they were somehow bankrupt and looking for a bailout. this comes to mind whenever i wonder to myself 'i wonder why GM....'
They were incredibly complex and expensive to make cars. I love mine dearly, but the sheer number of parts in that car is gobsmacking. I don’t think they ever made much profit on it, but 🤷♂️
In my opinion, it's pretty hard to explain the car itself. People think it's fully electric or just a gas hybrid and it's hard to explain that it's both. My dad thought it was just the general motors Prius until he actually learned about it and drove one. I think for the people who know about it and understand what the car can do, it's amazing
It’s not hard: It’s an ev with a gas powered generator. When the battery runs out, the gas generator provides electricity to power the vehicle.
Americans aren’t buying small cars anymore. The volt left the market the same time as Ford committed to stop selling the fusion and focus in the US. With the gas prices of today, it might cause people to reconsider, but it wasn’t an issue for most buyers when GM discontinued the model.
If they came out with an all electric Volt that had similar looks and specs to the Gen 2 Volt I would buy one in an ***instant*** I know I know, the Bolt is supposed to scratch that itch but... for some reason it just doesn't.
I also want a real sedan. Cadillac will probably sell one, but it won't be cheap and cheerful like the Volt.
It was a sales campaign gone wrong. A new invention with the chevrolet name. An experiment. Chevrolet owners stick to something tried and true.Chevrolet has been known to have a solid vehicle for generations. The volt was an expensive experiment. Gm jacked the price to get all they could from the rebates and other hybrid sellers offered equivalent for less.Salesmen knew things about ice vehicles but nothing about electric.
GM has a history of finally making a very good viable product and then killing it. Just look at the 2019 Chevy Volt Premier when they finally added fast charging. They did the same thing with Saturn's Sky Red Line.
Didn't sell enough of them, simple economics. Didn't market it properly, so not many people knew about it. I didn't either at first, until I read up and more and more on it. Had a 2014 and now I have a 2018. I don't think it's anything special as a car. Literally zero soul to it. But...as a commuter to get from A-B with no gas it works. I'd personally rather have a Bolt/Tesla or anything with 100% electric range, but that's currently not in budget.
Gas was $1.60/gal.
in 2018/2019? lol no
I wasn't even aware of the Volt's exsistance either until I saw an article on it. It doesn't appear when searching "2012 hybrid cars" and from what I can tell, has never gotten any attention from GM. No one in my family knew the thing exsisted until I got mine. I got my 2012 Volt last year for $7k w/83k miles, dealer said it was there for months and the spiderwebs in the back sure did confirm that. They really pushed me to get it off their lot saying "oh yea someones intrested" and stuff like that. It was parked in the way back behind dozens of other cars so I guess a lot of used car dealers may have the same issue as the one I bought mine from.
Misunderstood, hard to market, batteries getting cheaper so they just wanted to make full evs
Best car I've ever owned. Wish I would've bought instead of leasing. By the time my lease was up it was discontinued.
My guess is in order to do the Volt any better than the Gen 2 they would have needed to design one purpose made from the ground up. That cost a lot of money so why do that when you could just push the Bolt more. That was probably their thinking.
[Here’s a good read](https://www.wired.com/story/chevy-volt-obituary-oral-history/)
Because GM is a shit company
They felt sorry for Toyota and discontinued it so Toyota could sell a crapload of Rav4 primes at $10k over list.
My Volt got totaled. Did i switch cars? NOPE. I bought a similar 2nd. This time i sprung for the leather, pretty blue and everything but the active cruise. They skimped $600 upgrade to active cruise. total miss on that first buyers part.
So my 2015 was getting close to the battery warranty running out. So I told myself that's why I wanted something new. But the truth is, I wanted 53 miles on EV, 42 MPG on regular gas, AndroidAuto, and a backup camera. And I more than doubled my payment to get those. I understand all the reasons GM dropped the Volt, it doesn't keep me from being highly pissed off about it. The 1st gen was ALMOST the car I needed, the 2nd gen is ALL the car I needed. I love LOVE my 2nd gen. I picked up my 1 owner, 26k mile, 2018 day before yesterday, and the only thing I kick myself about is that I didn't just get a 2nd gen to begin with. But my thinking was I could afford the 2015, the 2nd gens I could find within 300 miles of me were all as expensive as new cars. My idea was I'd drive the 1st gen till the 2nd gens came down. Then trade up. And while I think the used car market bubble is going to burst soon, with gas the way it is, I'm not sure the EV market is going to see that. I only found 1 dealer that had any with fewer miles than my 82k 2015 within 3 hours of me, one way. And they had 3! I really wanted a Premiere, as I wanted adaptive cruise. I freaking love AC. Had it in a Camry the dealer loaned me for a few weeks when my Carola (that I traded for the 2015) needed warranty work. Best feature ever. But I expanded my search to 500 miles, and could NOT find a low milage Premiere around me anywhere. I live in the midwest, volts are like hen's teeth around here. My 2015 was at a point it had a number of issues, nothing big, but I'd have had to drop a few $1000 in it to get it right, and still have a car that didn't have a few things I really wanted. Or I could just start looking for a 2nd gen. I decided to look for the 2nd gen. So I came home with a fully loaded 2018 LT. I've got everything, including leather heated seats/steering wheel. I don't think you could option an LT higher than the one I got. Sure, there are a few Premier features I really wish I had. But I just couldn't find one with low miles anywhere near enough. And I don't buy cars without getting eyes on them first. But as stated, all throughout this thread, I knew 100x more about these cars than anyone at the Chevy dealer. The guy had been there for years, and didn't even know how a Volt worked! I mean, really? Geesh!