Volt plugin

Today Gm announced the EPA rating of the Volt at an astonishing 230 miles per gallon.  Now we all know what that 23 followed by an outlet ad campaign was for (particularly crafty subtle for GM) this past week.

We talked earlier about how the EPA didn’t have a concrete plan for testing this new kind of car.  How should you rate a car that uses gasoline but can drive a significant distance without it?  In generator mode the Volt nets about 50 MPG, still a really good rating.  But practically speaking the Volt gets 40 miles gas free, how do you reconcile that since the majority of people don’t drive more than 40 miles a day?

Do you say that the MPG rating in electric mode is infinity and try to figure out how to average infinity with 50 MPG in generator mode?  According to Frank Weber, vehicle chief engineer for the Volt, the number is based on combined electric only driving and charge sustaining mode with the engine running. He declined to get specific about the proportions, but did say that the urban cycle would be predominantly EV only.

So it sounds like the 230 number is the ‘city’ equivalent.  I doubt that the highway number would be as high, if there even is one.  My guess is that The General is using some fuzzy math here to come up with the 230 number.  Realistically a lot of people could do better since they drive less than 40 miles per day (they might never use gas – the Volt works fine for 40 miles if you remove the gas engine).

It will be interesting to see if the EPA requires GM to put a miles per kilowatt rating as well on the Volt.  A lot of cars planned are electric only, so MPG ratings will be useless.  They will use a significant amount of electricity though, so that number would be useful for potential buyers to see.  The Volt is rated at 25 kW/hours per 100 miles driven, will other cars be more efficient?