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2016 Chevy Volt sneak peek at CES

Here it is, folks – your first real glimpse at the 2016 Chevrolet Volt. The gasoline-electric sedan will officially debut at the Detroit Auto Show next week, but Chevy gave us a sneak peek of its redesigned Volt at a media event in Las Vegas late Sunday, as part of its CES festivities. There isn't a ton to see here, and sorry about the low quality video (and for us not standing front and center during the reveal). But we can clearly see the car's redesigned front fascia – something recently previewed at a fan event in Los Angeles. For another view, check out a high-res photo of the new Volt from our friends at The Verge, here. Chevy even tweeted a photo of the Volt's new nose on its official Volt Twitter account, which you can see below. The automaker didn't divulge any details about its new Volt, but we already know quite a bit. For starters, the Volt will use a new, 1.5-liter gasoline engine and won't require premium fuel. It'll have more EV range and a bigger battery, too. We'll have a whole mess of information when the 2016 Volt is fully revealed in Detroit in about one week's time. In the meantime, here are some more looks at the Volt, courtesy of the Twitterverse. We're so excited about #NextGenVolt we brought it out early at #CES2015! Full details on 1/12 at #NAIAS. pic.twitter.com/hPCbTFGSV4 - Chevrolet Volt (@ChevyVolt) January 5, 2015 Take a look at the new Chevy Volt http://t.co/laCvWLRMXk pic.twitter.com/uOzRh5XCrP - Engadget (@engadget) January 5, 2015 The very first look at the 2016 Chevy Volt doesn't disappoint: http://t.co/PM0HcnyQOo pic.twitter.com/WFtoyd0utH - Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) January 5, 2015 Chevy just gave @Tim_Stevens a very quick look at the next-gen Volt at #CES2015. #CNETatCES http://t.co/3n6EK1yOrC pic.twitter.com/7KDYh0VSg0 - CNET (@CNET) January 5, 2015 Related Gallery 2016 Chevy Volt at CES Related Gallery 2016 Chevrolet Volt Teaser Images Green CES Detroit Auto Show Chevrolet GM Alternative Fuels Green Automakers Electric Hybrid Videos Sedan 2015 Detroit Auto Show CES 2015

Cadillac XT4 crossover to be built in Kansas City

Cadillac's upcoming XT4, a crossover we've previously known as the XT3 in a long series of spy shots of heavily camouflaged mules, will be built at General Motors' assembly plant in Kansas City on the same platform as the Chevrolet Malibu, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the plan. That will give Cadillac another entry in the red-hot luxury crossover segment and, GM hopes, help to reverse a sales slump in the U.S. It'll also breath life into the Kansas City plant that makes the slow-selling Malibu, where GM cut a third shift last year, by sharing the assembly line between the crossover and sedan and defraying costs for each vehicle. The XT4 was known most recently as the XT3, with styling cues based on the Escala concept sedan from 2016. It's slightly smaller than the XT5, Cadillac's top-selling vehicle, and will also augment the full-size Escalade in Cadillac's stable of SUVs when it makes its expected debut later this year. Cadillac last week reported its second-highest-ever sales mark with 356,467 vehicles, an increase of 15.5 percent over 2016. But that mark papers over an 8 percent sales decline in the U.S. to 156,440 vehicles. The luxury brand is on a hot streak in China, where sales jumped 50.8 percent last year to 175,489 units.Related Video: Image Credit: Brian Williams Plants/Manufacturing Cadillac Chevrolet GM Crossover sales cadillac xt5 cadillac xt4 cadillac xt3

2016 Chevy Volt powertrain technical details

The last time General Motors launched a Chevy Volt, it was operating without really knowing how people would use the plug-in hybrid. Sure, it had experience with the EV1, but the Volt was a new kind of car, and you can see in the archives just how much time GM spent explaining this fresh, new powertrain to potential customers. Then, once the vehicle was released, the company collected voluntary data from a large number of owners to learn about their driving and charging habits. The company also asked them what they wanted most in the new version. There's got to be an algorithm buried somewhere in GM headquarters that was used to take all of the numbers GM collected and spat out the headline figures for the 2016 Volt: 50 miles of EV range and 41 miles per gallon. Another important number – price – is something GM isn't talking about yet (expect it in April or May), but the company is sharing some powertrain details about the upcoming car. At a preview lunch in Detroit last week for the SAE 2015 Hybrid & Electric Vehicles Technologies Symposium that's happening now in California, GM engineers Peter Savagian (who is presenting a paper on the new inverter used in the updated Volt) and Tim Grewe (talking about the entire second-generation powertrain) sat down with AutoblogGreen to tell us about the Volt's all-new propulsion system: The overall gist is that the new Voltec 5ET50 drive unit is lighter, smaller and more powerful thanks to a redesigned two-motor traction drive. As previously reported, the new engine is a 1.5-liter DOHC four-cylinder that offers 101-horsepower (at 5,600 RPM). Grewe said it's "great for range extension." The electric motor side of the powertrain offers 149 motoring horsepower from a two-motor, continuously variable transaxle. Initially, the new engine will be made in Mexico. GM will move production to Flint, MI during the first year it makes the 2016 Volt. The battery is slightly bigger in the new Volt – 18.4 kWh compared to 16.5 in the current-gen – and will have less range variation in the cold. GM is also using more of the overall capacity in the pack in the 2016 Volt than in previous versions, but is not saying how much more. GM is not ready to publish acceleration times just yet, but the 2016 Volt has improved numbers, especially when going from 30-60 miles per hour. Most everything on the new powertrain has become more efficient compared to the first-gen Volt.