l believe the original Checy Volts were EV only. I never even heard of a hybrid version, but I never kept up with them once originally discounted as being a waste. There were tons of articles at the time about it being the Edsel of EV's.
Still no. The basic premise has been the same since launch. Not to belabor the point, but Chevy marketed them as EVs with a "range extender" but they have *always* had a gas motor and have actually always been PHEVs by anyone but Chevy's understanding of the term. The difference with the Volt is the gas motor runs to recharge the battery as it's primary function, and is never the primary driver of the vehicle. It can assist the electric motor in certain situations, but the electric motor is always primary, even if the gas motor is powering it due to low battery, it never switches to gas only mode like competitors.
Original review by Edmunds in 2010:
Is the 2011 Chevrolet Volt an electric vehicle or a hybrid? Or does it even matter? We break down the complicated workings so we can understand how it really works.
www.edmunds.com
But the 2011 Chevrolet Volt is supposed to offer 40 miles of electric-only driving range, GM claims — a big jump that potentially puts the Volt at the three-quarters point along the line and perhaps farther along than that.
GM seems to want to lay claim to the right-hand endpoint of the line, however. This is the Volt, a name synonymous with electricity, and GM has tried to reinforce its image by describing it as an extended-range electric vehicle. But we cannot ignore the fact that the Volt has a gasoline engine. The 2011 Chevy Volt is a plug-in hybrid. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, there's a lot right with such a concept.
Just for whatever reason, Chevy advertising really pushed the electric part and gave short change to the gas part, as seen in
advertising for the original model year:
