General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Volt was named North American Car of the Year as the largest U.S. auto show began in Detroit. 
 
 GM’s electric-gasoline Volt beat Nissan Motor Co.’s all- electric Leaf and Hyundai Motor Co.’s Sonata sedan, the Automotive Press Association announced today at the North American International Auto Show. Ford Motor Co.’s Explorer sport-utility vehicle was awarded truck of the year. 
 
 The wins by a plug-in car in GM’s Volt and an SUV touted for its efficiency in the Ford Explorer reflect the auto industry’s investment in the notion that fuel economy will increasingly affect consumers’ purchase decisions, Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst at Edmunds.com, said in an interview. 
 
 “Even though the sales aren’t there yet, it’s sort of a chicken-and-egg thing,” said Krebs, one of the 49 automotive journalists and analysts who voted to decide the winners. “We have to go there, but the sales aren’t there yet. Americans still love their SUVs.” 
 
 The awards kick off Detroit’s annual show. Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG are among automakers expected to unveil more than 30 new vehicles, according to show organizers. 
 
 Ford won both awards in 2010 with the Fusion hybrid sedan and Transit Connect commercial van. That was the third time in 17 years that one automaker had won both awards. 
 
 Battery Power 
 
 The Volt runs for about 40 miles (64 kilometers) on an electric charge before a small gasoline engine kicks in to recharge the battery and extends the range to more than 350 miles, according to Detroit-based GM. 
 
 The Volt began sales in December for $41,000. Buyers are eligible for a $7,500 tax credit for plug-in hybrids and electric cars. 
 
 Ford began selling the Explorer late last year and will sell a version with a smaller, 4-cylinder engine. The standard Explorer with a V-6 engine gets 25 mpg on the highway, according to the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker. 
 
 The Volt was GM’s first finalist for the car award since 2008, when the Chevrolet Malibu won to beat out the Cadillac CTS and Honda Accord, according to the awards’ website. 
 
 GM fell 42 cents to $38.56 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Ford rose 4 cents to $18.31. 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: Craig Trudell in Detroit at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net; 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jamie Butters at jbutters@bloomberg.net. ||||| The Chevrolet Bolt, GM's first mass-market electric car, won Car of the Year at the Detroit Auto Show Monday. 
 
 It was the third significant honor for the breakthrough car. The Bolt had already won the Motor Trend Car of the Year honor in November, as well as the Green Car of the Year award given out at the Los Angeles Auto Show. 
 
 The Bolt is estimated to go 238 miles on a single charge. At a sticker price of about $30,000 after tax breaks, the plug-in Bolt will be less than half the price of the only other cars go more than 200 miles on a charge -- the Tesla Model S and Model X. The first of the Bolts were sold in California last month, with a national roll out anticipated later this year. 
 
 The Bolt beat out the Genesis G90, the key to Hyundai's attempt to establish a new luxury brand. It also beat the Volvo S90. 
 
 Related: GM to build self-driving cars in Detroit 
 
 The Chrysler Pacifica won the Utility Vehicle of the Year honor, the first time that category has been given an award separate from the Truck of the Year honors. (The award committee includes vans among utilities.) Among its notable options is a built-in vacuum cleaner. The Paficia is available in a plug-in hybrid version. 
 
 It beat the Mazda CX-9 and Jaguar F-Pace, both SUVs noted for their driving performance, for the utility. 
 
 And the Honda Ridgeline pickup won the Truck of the Year honor over two other finalists, the Ford F-Series Super Duty and the Nissan Titan. Unlike virtually all other pickups, the Ridgeline is a based on car-like front-wheel-drive engineering. It has a tailgate that can be opened either out to the side or straight down like a typical truck tailgate. It also has a lockable watertight "trunk" in the floor of the truck bed. 
 
 Related: Fiat Chrysler to put $1 billion into U.S. jobs and revive Jeep 
 
 The car, truck and utility of the year awards are given to new or significantly redesigned vehicles at the Detroit Auto Show by a panel of media auto critics. The awards are typically hyped in the the automakers' marketing efforts that follow.
– If the desire to go green wasn’t enough to convince you to buy a Chevrolet Volt, maybe this will: The $41,000 plug-in hybrid was named North American Car of the Year at the country's largest auto show. The Volt beat out Nissan’s all-electric Leaf and Hyundai's Sonata sedan to snag the top honor at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It's the latest in a long line of awards for the car, including Motor Trend Car of the Year, CrunchGear notes—but not everyone is impressed. Bloomberg reports that Ford's Explorer grabbed Truck of the Year.