For the first time ever Car and Driver magazine included an electrically powered car among its 10 best. Listed among the 2011 Best Green Cars by Mother Earth News. 2011 Car and Driver Ten Best Cars. 2011 World Green Car announced at the 2011 New York Auto Show. 2011 Green Car of the Year by Green Car Journal. 2011 Edison Award - Gold in the Transportation Category, Personal Transportation Segment. 2012 Total Cost of Ownership Award in the electric car category, granted by Kelley Blue Book for the lowest projected costs during the initial five-year ownership period in its category. 2012 The Volt ranked first, for the second year in a row, in Consumer Reports' list of owner-satisfaction based on its 2012 Annual Auto Survey, with 92% respondents who owned the Volt saying they definitely would purchase that same vehicle again. Listed among the 2011 Greenest Vehicles of the Year by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. 2011 North American Car of the Year announced at the 2011 North American International Auto Show. Both the all-electric range and fuel economy ratings are the same for the 2017 model year Volt. The battery packs included monitoring systems designed to keep the batteries cool and operating at optimum capacity despite a wide range of ambient temperatures.
In two years, the carmaker put the battery packs to the equivalent of 150,000 real-world miles (240,000 km) and 10 years of use. The second generation rating for combined city/highway fuel economy in all-electric mode was 106 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent (MPGe; 2.2 Le/100 km), up from 98 MPGe (2.4 Le/100 km) for the 2015 first generation model. The combined gasoline-electricity fuel economy rating of the 2016 model year Volt was 77 mpg-US (3.1 L/100 km; 92 mpg-imp) equivalent, 82 MPGe (2.9 Le/100 km) in city driving and 72 MPGe (3.3 Le/100 km) in highway. 2011 Motor Trend Car of the Year. 2011 Automobile of the Year by Automobile Magazine. 2011 The Volt ranked first in Consumer Reports' list of owner-satisfaction based on its 2011 Annual Auto Survey, with 93% respondents who owned the Volt saying they definitely would purchase that same vehicle again. Availability in the American market was limited to California and the other 10 states that follow California's zero emission vehicle regulations. In July 2014, Opel announced that due to a slowdown in sales, they would discontinue the Ampera after the launch of the second generation Volt-and that between 2014 and 2018, Opel planned to introduce a successor electric vehicle in Europe.
Cars of this brand tend to have a lower performance level due to having smaller engines compared with other hybrids on offer from these manufacturers. The starting price was US$1,175 lower than the 2015 Volt. In April 2013, CEO Daniel Akerson announced that GM expected the second generation Volt to be priced on the order of US$7,000 to US$10,000 lower than the 2013 model year with the same features. Standard tech features include a backup camera, a customizable 4.2-inch instrument cluster in the center of the dashboard, a six-speaker AM/FM/SiriusXM/CD player audio system, a USB media port and two USB charging ports, and Bluetooth for hands-free phone and music streaming. A timer allows charging to take place during off-peak hours and can be set for either a start or end time. By the end of October 2007 CPI (LG Chem) delivered their finished battery pack prototypes, and A123 delivered theirs by January 2008. GM's testing process was conducted at the laboratory the carmaker had created for the GM EV1 program. Manufacturing of the 2017 MY Volt began in February 2016, and the first units arrived at dealerships at the end of February 2016. The 2017 model complied with stricter Tier 3 emissions requirements and was available nationwide.
The improvements allowed the 2016 Volt to deliver better EPA ratings than the first generation model. The second-generation Volt seats five rather than four, as in the first generation. Forty-nine American and Canadian automobile writers chose the Volt. The second generation Chevrolet Volt was unveiled at the January 2015 North American International Auto Show. The second generation Volt had an upgraded powertrain with a 1.5-liter engine that uses regular gasoline; the 18.4 kWh Hybrid Battery Replacement minnesota pack had new chemistry that stored 20% more electrical energy using fewer cells, 192 compared with 288 on the 2014 Volt. GM engineers explained that the second generation Volt was developed with extensive input from Volt owners. In October 2008, GM chose CPI (LG Chemical) to provide the battery systems for the first production version of the Volt. 1 and led the team from concept to production. On March 31, 2010, the first factory-built Volt was produced at the Detroit Hamtramck Assembly Plant to test the production line and for quality control purposes, both of the tooling and the pre-production vehicles produced before regular production began.