Chevy Volt Earns Top Safety Pick as Fiat, Nissan Falter

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jul 30, 7:05AM EDT

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It may be difficult for General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) to sell the Chevy Volt, but it is by one important measure a very safe car. It won the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) 2014 TOP SAFETY PICK+ award for small cars. Four cars finished at the bottom of the ranking with several “poor” ratings in crashes the research firm uses in tests.

IIHS reported:

The Volt, which has a basic-rated optional forward collision warning system, is the only car in this test group to earn a 2014 TOP SAFETY PICK+ award. The C-Max Hybrid, Countryman, Mitsubishi Lancer, and the Scion FR-S and its twin the Subaru BRZ qualify for TOP SAFETY PICK, the Institute’s second-highest award. These models miss the “plus” award because they don’t have an available front crash prevention system.

Among the cars that did very poorly were two from Nissan, the Leaf (its electric car) and Juke. The Fiat 500L was also near the bottom, as was the Mazda 5. Each received a “poor” for its overall grade.

Chevy only sold 1,777 Volts in June, down 34.1% from the same month in 2013. Sales numbers for the first half were not quite as bad. They dropped 12.6% to 8,615. No one could say it is any more than a niche product. It is worth recalling that when former GM CEO Rick Wagoner launched the Volt in 2007, he said it was a key to GM’s future. Issues with battery fires in 2011 made the Volt a public relations nightmare for GM.

Unfortunately, one good set of test results is rarely, if ever, an event that turns bad sales around. The Volt, although very different in price and engine construction, has been completely eclipsed by Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model S, which has received extraordinary safety ratings. There is no way back to success for the Volt. It has fallen much too far behind in the market for electric engine cars.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.