Shock! Chevy Volt Wins European Car of the Year: 2012 Geneva Motor Show
 

Given that the Nissan Leaf was named European Car of the Year at the 81st annual Geneva Motor Show in 2011 and the buzz surrounding electric vehicles shows no signs of abating, it probably wasn't surprising that in 2012, the Chevy Volt and Opel/Vauxhall Ampera (it's European market derivative), garnered the annual ECOTY award this time around..

The accolade comes as GM continues to aggressively push the Chevrolet nameplate into Europe, while Opel, the company's established brand in the region, continues to struggle against volume competitors like Volkswagen and Ford, largely due to higher labor costs and limited access to markets outside heavily saturated Europe.

Although the Ampera is little more than a badge engineered version of the Volt, raising Opel's profile should at least help the brand in the short term. As to the future of GM's extended range electric car overall, in the US, sales have so far failed to meet expectations, not helped by negative publicity involving battery fire and leakage investigations last year.

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