Smoke and Mirrors or Extreme Fuel Efficiency?

GM announces new Chevy Volt will get 230 mpg

A week ago, General Motors revealed its new plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, along with the claim that the $40,000 car will get 230 miles per gallon.

It's a bold and slightly ironic claim from the company that's credited with killing the electric car. I'm willing to let bygones be bygones, and I'm thrilled to see an American car manufacturer step up to the plate with a car that really does reduce its driver's dependence on fossil fuels. But the claims raise some questions: How do you measure fuel efficiency and fossil fuel consumption when a vehicle is being powered by a plug? If the local source of energy is a coal-fired power plant, how should that be calculated into fuel efficiency, and how should driving style and location be considered in calculating fuel efficiency for an electric car?

As Peter Whoriskey points out in a Washington Post article, if a driver only drives 30 miles a day before recharging, and the battery range of the vehicle is 40 miles, then on could claim "infinite" fuel efficiency. In fact, you could drive cross country without using any fuel if you stopped to recharge every 40 miles. But you can't drive from Boston to Montreal on a single gallon of gas. GM calculates the cost of the electricity to power the vehicle at about $0.03 per mile.

-Berne Broudy

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READERS COMMENTS

British petroleum company is among the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six "super majors" (vertically integrated private sector oil exploration, natural gas, and petroleum product marketing companies). People have been getting curious about the Thunder Horse platform. To clarify, the Thunder Horse platform is an oil rig that is about 150 miles off of New Orleans, in the Gulf of Mexico, run by BP. BP being short, of course, for British Petroleum � that's right, a British Company is drilling for American Oil. Well, they've found a lot of it � the rig estimates up to or over 300,000 barrels a day. (All profits going to Britain, not to America.) The rig was originally named Crazy Horse, but the descendants and the Lakota (or Sioux) objected. That translates to a lot of <a rev="vote for" title="Get Instant Cash When You Need It" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/Payday-Loans/instant-Payday-Loans/instant-Cash/ ">instant cash</a> for the owners of the Thunder Horse platform, as long as the weather doesn't cause any Thunder Horse pickles.

Posted: Sep 05, 2009 EarlHu

ANY HYBRID OR ELECTRIC CAR BUILT TODAY IS NOT GREEN. PUGOT'S IS AND THE NEW BREED OF HIGH EFFICIENCY DIESELS ARE. ELECTRIC CARS WILL BE GREEN WHEN WE REDUCE OUR DEPENDANCE ON COAL AND FOSSIL FUELED POWER PLANTS (CURRENTLY AROUND 70% OF THE ELECTRICITY IS GENERATED FROM THESE SOURCES). IF THE COUNTRY COULD FOCUS AN BUILDING NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS THEN THE DREAM OF A CLEAN ELECTRIC CAR COULD BE TRUE (ALTHOUGH THE CURRENT BATTERY TECHNOLOGY STILL NEEDS TO GO A LONG WAY).
Posted: Aug 25, 2009 kevatron

According to the article, it costs $2.75 to drive the Volt 100 miles. So the $40,000 Volt doesn't save you any money compared to a $30,000 car that gets 30 mpg's assuming you drive it less than 200,000 miles and pay $2.50 at the pump.

Plus... if you live on the East Coast, you can almost guarantee that the electricity powering your car comes from a big, dirty coal plant.

So the Volt doesn't save you any green... in any sense of the word.
Posted: Aug 24, 2009 Mike

Cool, though the popularity of the car will likely depend on gas prices at the pump.
Posted: Aug 23, 2009 Hal

In Europe, the Peugeot 308 recently broke the Guinness record for fuel savings, managing to travel 1919 km on a full 60 litre tank. Converted into US milage, that's 75 mpg! This discrepancy in milage between the US and Europe is not uncommon - most cars in Europe get far higher milage than the 26mpg US average.

The Chevy volt's figures are very misrepresentative. Nobody is going to drive at 40 miles per hour for a maximum of 30 miles. When the gas engine kicks in, fuel economy drops significantly.

Even the Prius only gets 45mpg, so I'm left wondering why somebody doesn't import Peugeot cars into the US.
Posted: Aug 23, 2009 Mark Roberts

Every Backpacker issue that comes out always has at least 5 adds for gas guzzling SUV's. I find it very ironic that Backpacker's "going green" issue that came out earlier this year had tons of ads for gas guzzlers.
Posted: Aug 23, 2009 Matt

I'm curious, do any of the outdoor companies that advertise in your MAG push the limits on specs? The USA is still a capitalistic economy for now, and the consumers will decided if they like the car or not. Let car mags give reviews on cars and you can review outdoor products related to backpacking.
Posted: Aug 22, 2009 Medeco