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Chevy Volt coming to Australia in 2012

Holden has pulled another rabbit out of the hat: Chevy's range-extended vehicle, the Volt, is coming to Australia. In 2012.

Derek Fung
Derek loves nothing more than punching a remote location into a GPS, queuing up some music and heading out on a long drive, so it's a good thing he's in charge of CNET Australia's Car Tech channel.
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Derek Fung
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Sydney Motor Show 2008 Holden has pulled another rabbit out of the hat: Chevy's range-extended vehicle, the Volt, is coming to Australia. In 2012.


General Motors pulled the covers off the production version of its petrol-electric sedan, the Chevy Volt, barely a month ago to kick off the company's 100th anniversary celebrations. Last week at the Sydney Motor Show, Holden gave Aussies the first chance to get up close and personal with the car that's been tasked with saving the mothership's image, and bacon, in the US.

Like other hybrids on sale today — such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic and Lexus RX400h — the Volt features both an electric and petrol engine, as well as a bevy of batteries. Unlike those hybrids, in the Volt, the electric engine is solely responsible for driving the wheels. The petrol engine is just there to recharge the batteries when they're close to being drained — this allows GM to cheekily claim that the Volt is an electric car that's been "range-extended".

Leave the Volt plugged in to mains power overnight and it should give you about 60km of electric-only motoring. GM estimates that should you plug your Volt in every night, the Volt will consume about the same amount of energy as a fridge.

Although it's been revealed already, and will play a role in the forthcoming Transformers 2 movie, the Volt won't go on sale until 2010 in the US. Australian sales have been scheduled in for 2012, although it's not yet clear whether it will wear the Chevy bow-tie or the Holden lion.