Chevy Volt Will Get 230 MPG, Insert Fine Print Here
The Chevy Volt may be the first car publicly available to get a 3 digit MPG rating in the city.
The catch?
It doesn’t really get 230 MPG.
This morning, Government General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson made the incredible announcement,
“Having a car that gets triple-digit fuel economy can and will be a game changer for us.”
While we would definitely agree something must first be explained.
For the first 40 miles you drive the Volt will be running on battery power and use virtually no gas. After that the gas engine will kick in and take you from there. Henderson said, “most Volt drivers will operate on a daily basis without having to use a single drop of gas,” claiming that 3 in 4 drivers travel less than 40 miles a day. After the vehicle runs out of battery power in that first 40 miles or so the gas engine will kick in that could get as much as 50 MPG.
Determining fuel economy on a true electric car can be tricky. With a Toyota Prius it is relatively easy because all of the driving power of the Prius is still generated by gas, it just handles its energy more efficiently than a standard vehicle. The Prius averages 46 mpg while other similar sized vehicles only get low 20s.
The Volt is different in that it gets its energy from two different sources, a battery–charged by an outside sourc–as well as gasoline. On the gas the Volt may get the same fuel economy as the Prius but that is not accounting for the fact that the Volt has already gone 40 miles on battery power and used no gas.
So, if you never go more than 40 miles a day then your gas mileage will be roughly infinity. The way that GM has been able to come up with the 230MPG figure is by assuming that the average person will travel roughly 50 miles a day. The first 40 miles will consume no gas and then for the last 10 miles 0.2 gallons will be used. 50 miles on roughly 0.2 gallons equals 250 MPG which is really impressive. But if you go 300 miles the fuel economy would only be 62.5 mpg.
Don’t get me wrong that is still excellent but it is no 230 MPG which is very deceiving. Still at 40 cents a charge driving to work and back could be really cheap if these vehicles are reasonably priced when they come out.
