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The Chevrolet Volt has now earned the right to call itself the 2012 European Car of the Year. The award adds to the long list of notable awards that the electric car has earned so far, such as the North American Car of the Year and the World Green Car of the Year awards for 2011. The panel of 59 automotive journalists came together and awarded a total of 330 points to the Chevrolet Volt. Second place was claimed by the Volkswagen Up! with 281 points and the Ford Focus came in third in the voting with 256 points. "It is a proud moment for us and an honor to receive this award from Europe's leading jury of automotive journalists," said Susan Docherty, President and Managing Director of Chevrolet Europe. "Our car demonstrates that electric driving can be fun and reliable without ever compromising the owners' lifestyle." The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle manufactured by General Motors. The Volt operates as a pure battery electric vehicle until its plug-in battery capacity drops to a predetermined threshold from full charge, at which point its gasoline engine powers an electric generator to extend the vehicle's range. However, a multiple-award winning car may not translate to equally successful sales result. As a result of rising inventory and poor sales, General Motors made the decision to halt the production of the Volt for five weeks from March 19 to April 23.

It looks like the Chevrolet volt fails to create that spark with consumers. Low sales volume and high inventory, which stands at 6,300 vehicles at end of Feb 2012, caused General Motors to make the decision to halt the production of the Volt and Opel Ampera (European version of the Volt) for five weeks. At the current buying rate for the Volt, the current inventory can last for 154 days. The shutdown will cause 1300 employees to be temporarily laid off. The production hiatus comes after a retooling break that only ended in early February. The upcoming shutdown is scheduled to last from March 19 to April 23. As a GM spokesman commented, "We're matching our production levels with demand and building to market." If the sales is so poor at the moment, it seems like a poor business decision to spend money to retool the plant. Or, they could have scheduled the retooling to coincide with the plant shutdown. In 2011, the GM moved 7,671 units of the Volt, which is far short of the 10,000 unit sales target. In January 2012, GM only sold 1,023 Volts, the lowest in the past five months. It looks like GM needs to do a lot more to promote the Volt if the company wants to meet the sales target of 45,000 Volts in US this year. President Obama has personally endorsed the Volt by saying that he intends to buy one when he leaves the office in five years