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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

First 2015 Chevy Corvette Z06 engine blows up at just 891 miles

You've waited and watched and waited some more for the arrival of your 650-horsepower, $78,000 Chevrolet Corvette Z06. Finally, that joyous day arrives and you eagerly, but gingerly, begin to break-in the 6.2-liter supercharged V8 monster under your hood. Then 900-odd miles after delivery, your excitement grinds, quite literally, to a halt. That's what the owner of one 2015 Z06 claimed happened to him when a simple break-in drive resulted in a lunched engine. The owner, known as Lawdogg149 on Corvette Forum, says he was out breaking-in his car ahead of a January track event when it happened. "While making a pull from 35 miles per hour, I accelerated and shifted short of redline, and boom - the car began knocking. I pulled over and popped the hood. I could hear a loud knock coming from the No. 6 cylinder area along with a serious, grinding, metal-on-metal sound coming from the supercharger area," Lawdogg wrote. A subsequent trip to the dealer confirmed his concerns, with the service facility telling Lawdogg that the No. 6 valvetrain had failed. The dealer couldn't research the issue further, though, as General Motors requested the engine be returned for a more thorough evaluation. The good news for the Z06's unlucky owner, at least, is that GM will be covering the engine replacement under warranty, an expense that Corvette Forum estimates is a nearly $24,000 procedure. At this point, the two leading theories behind the engine's detonation involve a manufacturing defect – which could be why GM is so keen to tear the blown powerplant down – or a mistake on the part of Lawdogg. As Motor Authority points out, such an error could be something as simple as the Z06's owner accidentally shifting to first rather than third during his 35-mph pull. If, however, there's a deeper manufacturing problem with the Z06's engine, this might not be the only case we end up hearing about.

Meet the mother-daughter team that's worked on almost every Chevy Volt

It's Mother's Day, and we're soft enough we love our mothers enough to share a new video from General Motors with you. In it, we meet Monique Watson (left) and Evetta Osbourne, a mother-daughter team that works at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly where GM makes the Chevy Volt (along with all of GM's other plug-in hybrids: the Opel Ampera, Holden Volt and Cadillac ELR). The two work side-by-side and have installed the lithium-ion battery pack on almost all of those vehicles - nearly 80,000 of them - since GM started making the pre-production Volts in 2009. In a prepared statement, Watson said that she likes working next to her mom, day in and day out, and they the two are totally in sync when it comes to putting the 400-pound, 16.5-kWh packs into the vehicle undersides. They two can also share stories throughout the day, and Watson said, "The arrangement has absolutely improved our relationship." Osborne started working at Detroit-Hamtramck in 1999, Watson since 2006. If you're driving a Volt today, you probably have them to thank for doing a bit of the work putting your car together. See a short video of them in action below. It's Always Mother's Day for Detroit-Hamtramck Duo Mother, daughter install lithium-ion battery pack in nearly all GM electric vehicles 2014-05-08 DETROIT – For Detroit resident Evetta Osborne, every day is Mother's Day. That's because she literally works side by side with her daughter, Monique Watson, at General Motors' Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. They have installed the lithium-ion battery pack on nearly every Chevrolet Volt, Opel Ampera, Holden Volt, and Cadillac ELR since production began. In fact, apart from vacation days and an occasional sick day, the mother-daughter duo has installed almost every battery pack since the Volt was in pre-production in 2009. The ELR launched earlier this year. All told – including Ampera – that's more than 80,000 electric vehicles. "We're a good team and our relationship is secondary when it comes to performing our jobs – but it's great to work alongside my daughter, said Osborne, a mother of five. Because the battery packs weigh more than 400 pounds each, automatic guided vehicles – robotic carts that use sensors to follow a path through the plant – deliver them just as the vehicle body structures glide into position overhead. The carts then lift the T-shaped packs, and Osborne and Watson guide them into the chassis and secure each one with 24 fasteners.