Re-badged from Chevrolet to Holden, the 2012 Volt makes its appearance as Holden’s first plug-in petrol / electric vehicle where it is expected to sell at around $60,000 from limited import numbers.

Holden regards the Volt as a five door hatchback extended range electric vehicle, because it has two different drive-trains. An all electric motor and a lithium-ion battery that after a full plug-in recharge drives the car for the first 64 kilometres and a petrol engine powered by a hybrid system that automatically takes over after that to give the car an additional 500 kilometre range.

The fuel tank can be filled as normal, but the vehicle can also be plugged into an ordinary 240 volt household wall outlet for the battery to be fully recharged in under four hours.

The heavy 1715 kg hybrid is driven by a 1.4 litre four cylinder petrol engine delivering 60 kilowatts, but whether the electric motor is running by itself or channelled with the petrol engine, the combined total is always 111 kilowatts/368 Nm. General Motors estimates that compared to petrol-powered vehicles, that average 7.8 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres, the Volt will save motorists up to 1892 litres of fuel a year.

A Satellite navigation system comes standard inclusive of a hard drive for digital music files. Leather upholstery, heated front seats, front and rear sensors and a reverse camera will be available for the top line model.

Safety features include ABS, traction control, EBD, ESC, driver and passenger airbags, front-side airbags and curtain-side airbags. Among the many features available in the US, is a remote-charging and vehicle-control program that includes pre-heating and cooling the car, that owners can download and run from their Blackberry and iPhone apps.