The Chevy Volt isn’t an electric car, exactly. The Nissan Leaf is. Nevertheless, the General Motors car scored a victory today when it beat out the Leaf and the Hyundai Sonata to be voted the North American Car of the Year by automotive journalists at the Detroit auto show.
The Chevy Volt has been voted the 2011 North American Car of the Year. (Getty Images)
The Volt is a plug-in hybrid with a 1.4-liter gasoline engine (comparison). Unlike hybrids like the Toyota Prius, it is capable of all-electric operation, going about 35 miles before internal combustion kicks in to power the battery for another 300 miles or so.
The Leaf has a range of about 100 miles, excellent for an all-electric car but not competitive with gasoline-powered cars.
Both have tiny sales, but the Volt outsold the Leaf by more than 10 to 1 last month, 250-350 for the Volt, less than 20 for the Leaf. At this point, sales are mostly a function of production, as both have long waiting lists and will be ramping up their assembly lines this year.
The Leaf, which won the European Car of the Year award, has many fans and narrowly won the CNet head-to-head competition shown below. But given that U.S. drivers have a higher comfort level with a longer-range vehicle, as well as the larger market share of GM in this country, it seems likely that Volt proves the bigger hit domestically.
Also was surprised at the other electric car story this week that Norwalk has beaten other cities to the punch and installed charging stations there. Where was Stamford? Also cool to see the US designed and built Tesla at the media event. The coupe seemed to steal the show and thunder from the Volt, but at a price tag slightly north of 100k, well………..
Charles, I’m surprised the F-150 didn’t get the Truck of the Year nod, BUT, the new Explorer did and rightly deserved. I saw it at the NYC unveiling with Mike Rowe. Very impressive, although since it is no longer a “Body-on-Frame” vehicle, it does lose a bit od street cred in the Built Ford Tough department. We’ll see how that all works out.
Congratulation GM, spite of the fact my all time favorite automobile is the FORD F-150 well in different class in all.
Thank you
Charles A Balint Chem Engr.
Congratulations Chevy, GM, the UAW and the people of this great country who put their faith in GM. Now it is paying off.