diff --git a/novaclient/shell.py b/novaclient/shell.py
index 34e4317f2..c1fa1ecb4 100644
--- a/novaclient/shell.py
+++ b/novaclient/shell.py
@@ -86,10 +86,13 @@ class OpenStackComputeShell(object):
         self.subcommands = {}
         subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(metavar='<subcommand>')
 
-        actions_module = {
-            '1.0': shell_v1_0,
-            '1.1': shell_v1_1,
-        }[version]
+        try:
+            actions_module = {
+                '1.0': shell_v1_0,
+                '1.1': shell_v1_1,
+            }[version]
+        except KeyError:
+            actions_module = shell_v1_0
 
         self._find_actions(subparsers, actions_module)
         self._find_actions(subparsers, self)
diff --git a/tests/test_shell.py b/tests/test_shell.py
index 54f36072b..ce7d76635 100644
--- a/tests/test_shell.py
+++ b/tests/test_shell.py
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ class ShellTest(utils.TestCase):
             'NOVA_USERNAME': 'username',
             'NOVA_API_KEY': 'password',
             'NOVA_PROJECT_ID': 'project_id',
-            'NOVA_VERSION': '1.0',
         }
         _old_env, os.environ = os.environ, fake_env.copy()