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2015 Chevrolet Trax

After the obligatory product presentation for the 2015 Trax, I caught up with Steve Majoros, Chevrolet's director of marketing for crossovers and cars, and asked him to elaborate on which markets his planners believe will be the hot starters for this tiny CUV. Without much hesitation, Majoros began to click off traditional sales havens for Subaru, namely, New England and the snowy bits of the East Coast, Colorado and the Pacific Northwest. That news might not surprise you, but it did me. Perhaps it's something as basic as the Trax's tall-hatchback looks, or the emphasis Chevrolet put on the urban driving cycle during my test in San Diego. But before my chat with Majoros, I'd considered this a crossover pointed at the Millennial city mouse more than his bumpkin cousin. But a closer look had me re-examining the granola cred of Chevy's smallest crossover. Having spent my fair share of time in New England and around New Englanders, I started by mentally listing the Trax's Subaru-like traits: practicality, thrift, all-weather ability and, well, just a dash of ugliness. (I suppose a hatchback needn't always be ugly to sell in Maine, or Boulder or Portland... but a 'distinctive' face doesn't seem to hurt.) After a day of driving through sunny San Diego and its surroundings, I can say that Trax makes an interesting case for itself against the standard bearers of the L.L. Bean set, but I'm less sure of its argument for young urbanites. The Trax looks a lot like an Equinox whose suit shrunk in the wash. Chevy's has downsized its own, rather conservative crossover styling to fit the proportions of the subcompact Trax; to my eyes, it looks a lot like an Equinox whose suit shrunk in the wash. That's fine for offering a cohesive look for the Chevy family of crossovers, but it seems out of step with the rest of the segment. If the Trax's current competitive set were the cast of a high school-based TV show, the Kia Soul would play the lovable nerd, the Nissan Juke perhaps the outsider musician and the Subaru XV Crosstrek the athletic outdoorsy kid. Chevy may see the Trax as the hipster chick wearing intentionally ironic mom jeans, but to me the styling is a little too on the nose; more like an actual grownup trying to hang with the kids. These mom jeans are genuine. Per my earlier point, that quasi-conservative look may be just fast enough for staid New Englanders, but I have a hard time seeing the bluff, big-Bowtied front end playing in Bushwick or Wicker Park.

2016 Chevy Volt will not need premium gas

Buried in the new technical details of the 2016 Chevy Volt released yesterday was a throwaway line about a small but important change that's due to the new 1.5-liter, four-cylinder engine. The first-gen Volt has always required premium gas but the new powerplant will be happy burning plain old regular. The Volt's chief engineer, Andrew Farah, told AutoblogGreen that the change was due to today's Volt owners explaining they were not happy paying for top-shelf petroleum. "The ability to use regular unleaded was based directly on customer feedback," he said. "Since the range extender is an all-new engine, it was optimized to use regular unleaded at the outset. Using regular fuel will not have effect on vehicle acceleration or other performance factors." As Larry Nitz, GM's executive director of vehicle electrification, told AutoblogGreen yesterday, the new engine is more powerful and quieter than the outgoing 1.4-liter engine that's used in the current Volt. Fuel economy and EV range specs for the next-gen Volt are not expected until the full car is revealed at the Detroit Auto Show in January.

Nissan Leaf sells 1,553 in April, Volt climbs to 905

After three months in the 500 and 600 range, sales of the Chevy Volt climbed to 905 in April. That's up for the year so far – likely due to increasing discounts – but still down 41.5 percent from April 2014. As we've been saying every time the Volt turns in less-than-exciting monthly sales numbers, we suspect a large number of potential Volt buyers are waiting for the next-gen model to arrive in the second half of 2015. While the price for that car has not yet been announced, the updated tech specs show that it will probably be worth the wait for drivers who want the latest and greatest. Over on the Nissan Leaf side of things, April sales were 1,553 units this year. That's the second-best month of the year but down from the 2,088 units sold last April. After the Leaf finally climbed to the top of the cumulative best sellers list for plug-in vehicles last month, the difference between these two leaders is now 1,824 in favor of the Leaf. Nissan says that sales were influenced by the launch of its No Charge To Charge promotion in Indianapolis and Fresno, CA. This deal gives new Leaf buyers and lessees two years of no-cost quick charging in these markets. No Charge To Charge is not available in 15 US markets for (San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Nashville, Phoenix, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta) and will expand to 10 more by the middle of this year. As we do every month, our full wrap-up of US green car sales is coming soon. For now, enjoy discussing these sales figures in the Comments below.