When General Motors launched the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid in 2010, it was heralded as a breakthrough "car of the future." Turns out it came with an expiry date.
Come March, GM will no longer produce the Volt, as part of the automaker's restructuring plan announced last month. GM said it will focus on growing its truck and SUV business, while prioritizing future investments in next-generation of battery-electric vehicle architectures.
The Volt isn't part of that plan, news that EV fans took hard.
A primary selling point for the Volt was that owners could go (mostly) electric without having to compromise on range. The Volt’s roughly 50-mile electric range covers most daily commutes in America. For longer journeys, the car seamlessly switches over to using its small gasoline engine to power an on-board generator, for a total hybrid range of more than 400 miles.
But GM's customer data shows that Volt owners simply aren’t turning on their gasoline engines all that much anymore.
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