The first-generation Chevrolet Volt was heralded at General Motors as the dawn of a new era. The Volt came as gas prices surged and Americans began downsizing into smaller vehicles. But, the economy began to recover, and the country rediscovered its love with pickups and SUVs.
The same could potentially be said for Australia where GM actually exported the Volt as the Holden Volt, right-hand drive and all. CarsGuide reported on Wednesday that the Volt flopped hard in Australia, and it may have been due to Holden’s target audience at the time.
When the Holden Volt launched in 2012, the company was busy putting the final touches on the VF Commodore family. Australians were still scooping up big sedans and the brand hardly had a reputation for hybrids, let alone plug-in hybrid cars.
How poorly did the Volt do? Over three years, Holden sold just 250 of them. The brand killed the car in April of 2015 and Holden hasn’t announced plans to bring the second-generation Volt to its portfolio of cars.
Perhaps Holden will one day receive its own electric car via the 20 new electric cars planned between now and 2023. But the Volt itself may not be long for this world, either. Reports indicate the Volt could morph into a plug-in crossover next decade—or die off altogether.
Comments
If Holden used the marketing approach similar to that of Chevrolet then it flopped because people just didn’t understand what the Volt is supposed to be.. the Volt is a electric vehicle and should be sold as one in commercials before saying there’s a gas engine to extend the battery range when necessary so you can have the best of both worlds.
Volt. Best car I have ever owned ,looking forward to my next one
If that’s not one of the worst cases of badge engineering ever I don’t know what is.
If the effort they put into a unique emblem (and grille) is any indication, I don’t think the folks in charge cared one bit if it flopped or not.
I thought the same thing! It’s still got the angled cut out for the bowtie on it. At least make it symmetrical. Like you say, just looks like the oem doesn’t care.
The price in Australia killed the car, it sold here for 65K when it was 35K in the States and at a time when the Aussie dollar was almost at parity.
Some ‘keen’ dealers had it at $69,995, after it had been on the market a year. The dealers didn’t know what to do with it.
I later picked up a 2013 Demo Volt from Bunderberg, done 4000ks for $40K, still have it 4 years later and it has now done 93Ks and going like a dream, never an ICE car again for me.
Ironically enough I just picked-up a 2012 Volt in Crystal Red, same as picture except has a bowtie. 600 miles so far and have only used 3.1 gal. running the engine/generator. I bought a 240V charger from clipper creek and had it installed inside warehouse at work, amazing how fast in charges vs standard level 1 charger. My ’16 SS can now take it easy!
Honda is doing well explaining Clarity as an electric car with gas backup just in case. Chevrolet meanwhile let this “almost an electric car” imagine surround the car and people decided on waiting for the real thing.
Why is Bolt a failure? Much like Holden Chevy is seen as a Tahoe, Camaro brand.
An electric Corvette could help change this.
In all honesty I doubt Holden actually wanted to have much to do with the Volt as they were busy trying to close manufacturing in Oz.
With a price tag similar to the US (40k) and some advertising, I reckon they would have sold considerably more Volts and given the Toyota Prius a shock.