Holden Volt was ahead of its time and Australia needs it right now as plug-in hybrids such as the 2026 BYD Shark 6 and Sealion 6 grow in popularity | Opinion

Plug-in hybrids are all the rage at the moment. Sales of vehicles fitted with the fuel-saving technology spiked more than 130 per cent in 2025 and sales were already up more than 60 per cent in the first two months of 2026, before fuel prices started to soar.

One company was well ahead of the curve on the plug-in hybrid hype, but unfortunately so far ahead its ground-breaking fizzled before it could take off.

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In 2012 it arrived with a lot of fanfare and hope of appealing to those who still loved a sedan but wanted something more fuel-efficient than the VE Commodore of the day. The Volt promised that, with its 1.4-litre petrol engine used exclusively to charge the batteries, never actually drive the wheels directly.

At the time, Holden claimed up to 80km of driving on the batteries before the motor would kick-in, which was also ahead of the curve. There were even reports from the US, where it was developed and sold as the Chevrolet Volt, that owners who recharged regularly wouldn’t even use a full tank of petrol in a year.

In theory then, it should have been a popular choice for Australian customers, as petrol prices had started to creep up and customers were looking for more efficient vehicles. As we wrote last week, Holden was pushing to make E85 and LPG a more popular option in the Commodore, but ultimately that fell flat too.

The problem for the Volt was it cost $59,990, more than double what the similar-sized Holden Cruze would set you back. The argument at the time was that this cost would be absorbed by the so-called early adopters, the kind of people that spent $10,000 on the early flat-screen televisions (yes, young people, TVs used to not be flat). 

Whether there simply weren’t enough early adopters or because people were just too reluctant to spend $60k on a car with a Holden badge, sales of the Volt were slow before almost trickling to a halt.

At the time, electric vehicles (EVs) were only just arriving and sold in incredibly small numbers. In 2012 just 253 EVs were sold in Australia, so Holden was facing a major challenge in convincing buyers to try this in-between technology no-one else was really selling.

But in hindsight, if Australians had embraced PHEVs back in the 2010s, what might the new car market look like today? PHEVs had a few false starts after the Volt was pulled from sale in 2015, but in the last three years it has surged back into relevancy and looks set to continue to grow in the coming years as the government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard incentivises car makers to promote PHEVs and EVs. 

As 2026 plays out, the growth of PHEVs will be worth watching to see if they continue to grow in popularity even if fuel prices decline to pre-Middle East conflict levels. The pre-’26 growth suggests Australians are ready and willing to make the switch to this technology, a decade after Holden gave up on it.

Holden failed in Australia because it didn’t provide the cars we wanted. Or at least that’s what we’ve been telling ourselves. Sure, the Commodore declined as the family car of choice, but Holden tried everything it could to adapt to the changing demands of the local market, only to find itself with the right car at the wrong time.