CarBrandLogos archive · General Motors · 2010

General MotorsChevrolet Volt

Electric for the commute, petrol for the rest, and neither felt like a compromise.

Photo: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in General Motors history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the General Motors Chevrolet Volt, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

GM's answer to the question of what to build after the EV1 was not another electric car. The Volt was a plug-in with an engine, but arranged unusually: an electric motor drove the wheels, a battery supplied it, and a petrol engine ran as a generator once the charge was gone, with some direct mechanical assistance at higher speeds. GM called it an extended-range electric vehicle and spent years arguing about the terminology with people who called it a hybrid.

2011 Chevrolet Volt 2 -- 04-21-2010 · IFCAR · Public domain

Design and engineering

The reasoning was practical. Most daily driving is short, so most Volt journeys could be electric, but no buyer had to plan around charger availability. Jelani Aliyu's concept design was widely admired; the production five-door liftback was softer, a consequence of aerodynamic work.

Chevrolet Volt WAS 2011 946 · Mariordo Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

It arrived in November 2010, took North American Car of the Year for 2011 and became a political argument in the United States in a way the engineering never deserved. Owners were unusually loyal, and real-world data showed most of their miles being driven on electricity.

Chevy Volt EDTA DC 04 2011 1836 · Mariordo (Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz) · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

A second generation in 2016 improved the drivetrain, the range and the packaging, but it never sold in the volume GM needed. Production ended in February 2019 as the company moved to fully electric platforms. The Voltec technology outlived the car, and the Volt is now generally regarded as having been right about how people would actually use a plug-in.

At a glance