2016 Chevy Volt (Spy Photos)

Originally published on Gas2.

After enjoying several years as America’s semi-official Jesus Car, the Chevy Volt is starting to lose its luster in the face of bigger, better plug in hybrids from Europe and Japan- not to mention the more practical Ford Fusion Energi built by Chevy’s cross-town rivals. With the launch of an all-new Chevy Cruze (upon which the Volt is based) in China and promises that it will replace the current 2014/2015 Cruze here in the US sometime next year, everyone is waiting to see what a new, 2016 Chevy Volt is going to look like- and, so far, this is the best look that anyone outside of GM has had.

GM is being cagey with the redesign of what is, arguably, its flagship model- but it’s worth noting that this camo’d body looks a lot more like the new Cruze than it does the muscle-car inspired “original” Volt concept that, you know, looked good. Still, there’s a ton of money in getting the hybrid Volt right. “The Ampera (Opel Ampera = Chevy Volt in the UK) has one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings of any car, but it’s simply too expensive,” Steve Girsky, Vice Chairman of GM and interim president of GM Europe, told us. “If you want to make money it’s not about the cleverest technology, but who can deliver fuel economy at a lower cost.”

That “low cost” comment seems to imply that rumors of a lower electric-range, lower-priced 2016 Chevy Volt set to do battle against the also hotly-anticipated Tesla Model E are true. “In the coming years I don’t think you will need 100km [62 miles] of electric range,” revealed Thomas Sedran, GM’s Vice President of Strategy and Operations. “Around 30 to 50km [18 to 30 miles] should be enough to get you in and out of town and after that you still have the range-extender engine to help.”

With that in mind, it kinda makes sense that the 2016 Chevy Volt will share more with the 2016 Chevy Cruze than the outgoing hybrid does with its ICE cousins, today. Here’s hoping it gets a more exciting, less anonymous look to it on its way down US production lines, as well. You can see where the car’s at, below, and head on over to AutoExpress (via the source link, at bottom) to see even more spy pic of the new Volt.

2016 Chevy Volt Spied

Source | More Photos: CarPix, via AutoExpress UK.

2016 Chevy Volt (Spy Photos) was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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