The plug-in hybrid was chosen by a panel of journalists and competed against 35 other cars. Opel CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke says in a press release that getting this award "encourages us further to continue our leadership role in the area of e-mobility."
However, it's ironic that sales for the Chevrolet Volt has been quite slow. The company originally planned to sell around 60,000 cars worldwide for 2012 but news of the car catching fire during a crash testing raised concerns from the public which then affected its sales.
For the first two months of the year, only 1,626 cars have been sold and General Motors has decided to stop production for the Chevrolet Volt from March 19th to April 23rd in order to focus on studying the market's current car demand.
Nevertheless, the company is optimistic about the car's technological innovation and plans to manufacture more similar models in the future.
Currently, the Chevrolet Volt is dubbed as the most fuel-efficient compact car sold in the United States, as rated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The car operates as an electric vehicle but has the ability to automatically switch to the gasoline engine when the batter power drops to a predetermined threshold charge. This feature is the main reason why the Volt is able to save much on gas.