On Tuesday, August 4, 2015, General Motors announced that the new 2016 Chevrolet Volt, which is going on sale this upcoming fall, has a range of 53 miles on electricity. According to the Detroit Free Press, the range of 53 is higher than the automaker's prediction that the car would reach under 50 miles with just battery power alone. The range of this Volt is nearly a 40% improvement from last year's model, which only had a range of 38 miles. With the the added range, GM hopes that this new model of the Volt will help improve sales.
"We pushed to get every one-tenth of a mile we could," said Pam Fletcher, GM's chief engineer for electrified vehicles, in an interview at the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminar in Traverse City, "We knew we had to get 50 miles.At 50 miles, most people will be in electric mode most of the time.”
Today's Volt users use the electrical power on 80% of all of their trips. With the new and improved battery range, it is expected that users will be able to rely on their car's battery power for more than 90% of their time on the road. GM also expects current Volt owners to upgrade and buy the newer model. So far this year, Volt sales have been disappointing for GM. They only sold 1,313 Volts in July, which is down 35% from a year ago. In total, they have sold less than 7,000 this year so far, also down 35% from last year. Chevy Volts are however a relatively popular car in the Metro Detroit area.
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