4th generation coming 2015!

They should take a page from Blackberry's book; it's easy to lose the race while you're snoozing on your laurels.

 

New pics of the volt 2.0: The 2016 Chevy Volt Goes 50 Miles On A Charge.
Any thoughts on the new style? I think it looks like a ford focus, in a good way. Definitely demonstrates that a green vehicle can look "normal".

 

Style is great, but I'm more interested in what's inside. Nothing sadder than a pretty vehicle sitting in a junkyard.

 

Ok. Jalopnik published the good photos, so here is what I saw testing in Ohio. Still amazed that there was an Opel van in the USA.

Bill the Engineer

 

From a visual standpoint ..... I like the Volt 2. Had the emblem been a little different, I would have said "WOW. I love the new Prius."
Said another way, this is what the G4 should have looked like. Well done Chevy.

If only it was not a GM product.

 

6 years ago this week, Toyota unveiled the 3rd generation Prius at the Detroit NAIAS.
I wonder where they'll unveil it this time.

 

But wasn't there more pics a month prior? Ballsy of toyota to keep quiet while gm wows with two potentially great cars. However. It might be in toyotas best interest to reveal the next gen prius with the next gen PiP before the volt 2 is released (which is scheduled for June or something?)

 

^Pardon my ignorance, but what's the 2nd potentially great GM reveal (aside from the Volt)?

 

Bolt EV presumably

 

If Volt 2.0 is given the rear end of Prius G3, I would say the two cars would look remarkably similar. Also, I would be curious to know what GM has achieved in terms of wind drag coefficient.

But at the end of the day what has GM really achieved here after 5 years - the increased EV range is partly due to improvements to battery tech, ICE efficiency is still running behind Prius G3 so not much of an achievement there. 0-60 time has improved which is commendable. Car structure and weight is improved but this was a smaller car to begin with and Volt 2.0 is still not bigger than Prius G3 so still catching up really in all those aspects.

Don't worry, Prius G4 is in the oven, we don't want a raw cake do we? Let's give Toyota time to give us a perfectly baked cake. Yes those who are too hungry to wait will go and get something else but this is baker Toyota we are talking about and this is the Fourth time they are making this type of cake - I can't see them getting it wrong, it also needs to be perfect to sell in millions and perfection takes time.

 

It indeed looks like SiC but that would be way ahead of schedule as last year Toyota was targeting 2020 for use in commercial vehicles. If that reveals true that would be great and would easily explain the delay in the launch of Gen 4.

 

There were almost no pics prior to the reveal in Detroit, only a few screen shots from the Blue Man crew video. After the reveal came gobs of photos and a 4 month wait for arrival on west coast. There was a group that went to a viewing and social in about March 2009. Lot of them were PCers

 

I'm sure that resources were diverted to the fuel cell car. Perhaps technology wasn't ready, but this has given competitors much time to catch up, which from a buyer's standpoint, is not a bad thing.

 

I think the Volt 2.0 improvements say a lot actually.

• Lighter components
• Slightly larger car
• Better battery tech without sacrificing the back seat (although it's probably not as large as a prius, it can most likely fit 3 children fine)
• Longer range with better battery tech - there's something to be said here, the battery only increased from 17.1 to 18.4 which is a 7.5% increase, yet range is from 38 to 50 which is a 32% increase and yet HP and electric motor is more powerful?
• That means you spend less to charge your car to go further
• I agree though, 39 mpg to 41 is not great
• But because of that increase in EV, why can't the PiP increase 32% and get a range of 14.5 miles with its current configuration. With Gen IV perhaps it is geared toward 15 miles EV, but I'm excited if they can churn out 60 mpg instead of the 55 expected. However, Volt 2 increased the range by 32% and used less space for the battery. So theoretically, Toyota could possibly make the current PiP go 15 miles+ - maybe even 20?

I like the Volt 2, only thing I'm disappointed in is the 41 mpg. On their next generation I suspected them to get closer to the aging Gen 3 Prius

The thing that I worry about though...is the design trend of the Mirai and other concept car and how it doesn't look like the NS4 (some sources say)

 

Thanks, I was researching and found it for myself. Time from concept to release seems to be typically 4 years, and GM hasn't even announced a release date yet to my knowledge. They'll be lucky if it beats the Tesla Model 3 to market.

 

I think I saw a 2017 MY release date which could mean late next year...

 

Speculation or from GM themselves?

 

What if Toyota used a hybrid approach (no pun) with SiC transistors in the buck/boost converter. The buck/boost converts battery voltage to a higher voltage that the MG bridges work at and back during regen. That's only 2 transistors compared to a dozen in the MG bridges. The conversion frequency could be increased allowing the inductor to be reduced in size and weight. Lots of marketing claims could be made. Also, buck/boost conversion gets inefficient as the voltage difference increases. If the new battery uses fewer but bigger NiMH cells, which they can due to patent expiration, they'll need either a transformer which is bigger and heavier or some highly efficient switches.