The Chevy Volt is a decent enough looking car, and it really does have quite a nice interior. But if you’re anything like me, you probably look at the Opel Ampera (pictured) and feel like we in North America got the short end of the design stick. The cars are mechanically identical, but the Chevy design is far more restrained, and doesn’t really stir the soul. Fisker has shown us that a plug-in hybrid can confidently wear a bold and sporty exterior design, and it seems that the guys at Chevrolet are now wishing they had pushed the Volt a bit further.
In a conversation with Autoblog Green, Chevrolet’s Director of Exterior Design, John Cafaro, revealed that Chevy’s design department really liked what Opel had done to make the car look more aggressive. On the subject of the next generation of the Volt, he said “We’re going to do some things with the Volt down the road, make it a little more monochromatic, a little more road-hugging.” But even more importantly, the Volt’s drivetrain will also find its way into other vehicles, with two different Cadillac concepts already appearing with Volt innards. That means there can be several different styling themes to play with, and without one model needing to be whole company’s face for plug-in vehicles, the designs can be more daring.
Cafaro did say that “Ed Welburn is not going to let us do anything weird, I can tell you that,” although what specifically they will be doing is still up in the air. At present, they are still in the brainstorming stage, and they are carefully watching what happens with competing plug-ins. The Volt is actually continuing to sell reasonably well for a plug-in, and they will have to be careful not to change too much and lose that edge. The technology is probably responsible for more Volt sales than the styling is, but it couldn’t be a bad thing to have both working toward more sales.
Not sure I like the “Alice Cooper” look of the Ampera.
I drive a Volt. I really like the car from the front…however I am not a huge fan of the car from the back. If you think about it, we see cars from the back a lot longer than from the front.
Agree with Farris Khan. That front end grill work looks edgy for the sake of being edgy. My guess is that it’ll be changed out once focus groups indicate that it’s a bit too edgy :-)
I loved your “Alice Cooper” comment, definitely made me laugh. Personally, I really like the Ampera’s design, I also happen to like the Volt’s design as well. That said, GM should be cautious when approaching the Volt’s upcoming redesign. Especially when taking into account the Volt’s price tag and the demographic that is typically purchasing the car (most likely folks that are 35+). Go too “young” or “edgy” and you risk alienating a large portion of your potential customer base. To be fair, however, many youth-targeted cars like the Honda Element and Scion XB caught on really well with an unintended (read: older) demographic. So it’s tough to say what exactly will and won’t work with the upcoming redesign.
It’s possible that GM’s idea is to get those older buyers into Buick- or Cadillac-branded plug-ins and move the Volt into a more youth-oriented position where the more outrageous styling would be less of a handicap.
The Alice Cooper comment is spot-on though, and I love the Ampera.