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Some 2012-13 Chevy Volts may not have enough battery coolant

The 2012 and 2013 model year Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in vehicle may have a battery glitch caused by low coolant levels. No recall has been issued and General Motors is taking care of the issue at no cost to drivers. Some of the affected Volts may have lower-than-advisable coolant levels because of some pesky air pockets in the car's cooling circuit. When the coolant levels get too low, the charging system for the battery powering the car's onboard generator (i.e. the Rechargeable Energy Storage System, or the RESS) may be shut down, turning one's Volt into a run-of-the-mill gas-powered car, and a pricey one at that. The Car Connection says GM is advising owners of the '12 and '13 Volts to contact their local Chevy dealer for a free fix. GM representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from AutoblogGreen for more details. We believe this is a separate issue than the one that brought 8,000 Volts back to the dealers for a battery coolant fix, what GM called a "voluntary customer satisfaction effort," a few years ago. General Motors sold 23,094 Chevy Volts last year after selling 23,461 Volts in 2012, so that fix-it list may get fairly lengthy. Check out a GM-Volt.com user thread related to this issue here. *UPDATE: Chevrolet spokesman Randy Fox confirmed in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen that the company issued a service bulletin to dealers that they may need to top off coolant levels on certain Volts because of the issue, and that the vehicle will "return to normal charging operation" once that's done.

Nissan sells 3,117 Leaf EVs in May, climbs over 3,000 for first time ever

Chalk up a big win for the Nissan Leaf. In May, the world's most popular electric vehicle sold a record 3,117 units, the first time any pure electric vehicle has sold over 3,000 units in a month in the US (unless Tesla managed that feat but rolled the number into a quarterly report). This marks the 15th month in a row of record Leaf sales and the seventh where the Leaf was the top EV seller in the US. The challenge bar is set for someone to step up to compete with this all-electric wunderkind. Chevrolet did sell over 3,000 Volts once, in August 2013. The Leaf's one long-standing competitor, of a sort, is the Chevy Volt, which used to regularly outsell the Leaf but moved only 1,684 units in May. That's still an increase of 4.8 percent over 2013 but is part of a 4.5 percent decline in year-to-date Volt sales for 2014 compared to last year. The last time the Volt outsold the Leaf was October 2013. Chevrolet did sell over 3,000 Volts once, when it moved 3,351 in August 2013. Let's take another look at those 3,117 Leafs sold last month. They represent a 45.8 percent increase over May 2013, when 2,138 Leaf EVs were sold, so someone is doing something right in Japan and Tennessee. So far, Leaf sales in the US are up 36.4 percent year-to-date, to 10,389 EVs. That's just under half of the 2013 total, and it was accomplished in five months. In 2013, Nissan sold a total of 22,610 Leafs. Anyone want to hazard a guess where the total will be at the end of the year? As always, we'll have our detailed monthly sales write-up including other plug-in vehicles as well as hybrids and diesel car, up soon. For now, though, the big news is big Leaf sales. Read Nissan's press release below. Nissan Group reports May 2014 U.S. sales May 2014 May 2013 % Change Nissan Group Total sales (units) 135,934 114,457 +18.8 Nissan Division May sales 125,558 106,558 +17.8 Infiniti May sales* 10,376 7,899 +31.4 NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nissan Group today announced total U.S. sales for May 2014 of 135,934 units, an increase of 18.8 percent over the prior year and a May record. Nissan highlights: Nissan Division set a May record at 125,558 sales in the month, an increase of 17.8 percent. This marks a monthly record for Nissan division in 14 of the last 15 months. May was the best-ever month for Nissan LEAF with 3,117 sales, an increase of 45.8 percent over the prior year. In May, LEAF passed 50,000 total U.S. sales since launch, further establishing it as the leader among electric vehicles.

First privately owned Corvette Stingray blitzes 1/4 mile in 12.23 at 114.88 mph

Chevrolet's latest road rocket, the Corvette Stingray, is a very quick car. If one needs further proof of that, we recommend they take a look at this video from Hennessey of what is claimed to be the first privately owned C7 Corvette to make a pass down the quarter mile. Not just any quarter mile, mind, this black C7 blitzed its way down the tuner's primary testing dragstrip. The Chevrolet ran the quarter in just 12.23 seconds at 114.88 miles per hour. That is a very quick time for a stock car.
Equipped with the Z51 package and a six-speed automatic transmission, not only does the C7 run a solid time, but it does so with little to no drama. That won't last though, as Hennessey will likely return it to its owner with far more power - we just hope they show a drag run of the completed product. Take a look below to watch the C7's 12.23-second run on video.