2026 Chevrolet Volt Becomes a Family With Hatch, Sedan, and SUV in Fantasy Land

Chevrolet is supposed to be the flagship for EVs in terms of mass-market brands, with the upcoming next-gen Volt, the compact Equinox EV, the $57k Blazer EV, and the upcoming Chevy Silverado EV models. On the other hand, Cadillac will bear the brunt of the EV attack with help from its equally massive roster of models: Optiq, Lyriq, Vistiq, Escalade IQ, and the flagship Celestiq.However, there’s just one big problem – every model is running late and is riddled with issues mainly pertaining to the software capabilities of the BEV3 platform and Ultium technology integration. As such, no one was really surprised when GM’s Mary Barra announced that the number one Detroit automaker is backtracking on the decision to kill its plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Hybrids seem to do just fine even in the world of Tesla’s EV revolution – and Toyota is the best example of that, as they are not exactly fans of the zero-emissions race. Curiously, while initially it seemed like they were wrong not to board the EV hype train, 2023 proved otherwise as the Japanese automaker held on to its worldwide sales crown with flying colors. On the other hand, at home in America, GM probably fears that in 2024, it may not be as easy to beat Toyota as it was last year.

As such, it is no wonder they are reverting to alternative options to bridge the gap between ICE power and EVs until they have everything sorted out with the latter. Naturally, it will take a while before the massive Detroit behemoth moves in the plug-in hybrid direction and comes up with something new entirely or adapts existing models to PHEV electrification.

On the other hand, time constraints are not an issue across the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. For example, Vince Burlapp (aka vburlapp on social media or burlappcar.com) is a prolific virtual artist who loves to dream of all the latest models across the wide-ranging automotive realm, and after hearing of GM’s reversal of abandoning the PHEV strategy, he immediately did the most logical thing – he brought back the popular Volt nameplate.

Naturally, the simplest way to do it was to imagine a third generation of the plug-in hybrid five-door liftback with mostly the same characteristics and only a quick design update to cope with the percepts of the mid-2020s. However, that was only part of what he did. Instead, the pixel master decided he shouldn’t stop with just one version and devised an entire Volt family with additional, never-seen hatchback and SUV body styles. They’re all compact and cute, right?