After losing favor to electric cars, plug-in hybrids gain ground in U.S.

In late 2010, General Motors sought to seize the high ground from Toyota’s successful Prius hybrid with the Volt plug-in hybrid — a car that could drive short distances on only electricity and fire up a gasoline engine for long trips.

But the Volt and other cars like it struggled to win over drivers, as many early adopters opted for fully electric cars like Tesla’s Model S and the Nissan Leaf. GM quietly did away with the Volt in 2019 as it trained its sights on all-electric cars.