General Motors astounded the auto industry Tuesday when it announced its Chevrolet Volt rechargeable electric car would get 230 mpg in city driving when it is released late in 2010.
Unfortunately, you won't be able to put a gallon of gasoline in it and go 230 miles.
That's the brain-teaser confronting both car buyers and federal regulators as more electricity-boosted cars begin to come to market. GM's claim is mileage four times better than the current champion, the Toyota Prius. But is miles per gallon the best measure if you're not burning gallons? Many skeptics don't think so.
"You can't give electric cars a free ride," a Consumer Reports blogger wrote. "That electricity comes from somewhere and needs to be counted in what the car consumes."
Rival Nissan isn't convinced either. Its all-electric Leaf is expected to arrive next year. In response to GM, its engineering team sniped on Twitter, "Nissan Leaf = 367 mpg, no tailpipe, and no gas required."
The Volt will be powered by an electric motor and a battery pack with a 40-mile range. After that, a small internal-combustion engine will kick in to generate electricity, giving it a total range of 300 miles. The battery pack will be rechargeable from a standard home outlet in about eight hours.
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It all depends
It would be possible to drive a Volt forever without burning a drop of gasoline, as long as you didn't drive more than 40 miles before you recharged. Beyond that, the gasoline engine would kick in; with that engine running, the Volt would get more than 40 miles per gallon on a longer trip.However, the Volt could indeed get 230 mpg -- if you included the electricity-only miles and your trip was only about 50 miles.
On longer trips, though, every mile after that would reduce the "mileage." GM estimates the car's range on a full charge and a full tank of gas at 300 miles. If the Volt's tank took six gallons at that point -- the size of the tank isn't final yet -- traditional measurements would return the 40-plus-mpg figure. And even that doesn't account for the electricity introduced into the car's battery during an overnight charge.
The Prius and other hybrids such as the Ford Fusion don't require that owners plug them in; instead, drivers recharge their cars' batteries as they coast and brake while operating on gasoline power. The vehicles can move on electricity alone for only very short distances. The Prius achieves 51 miles per gallon in city driving, the Fusion 41.
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Too good to be true?With its promise of 230 miles per gallon, is the Volt for real? Dutch Mandel of AutoWeek and Brian Moody of Edmunds.com examine the claims.
Nissan's figure for its all-electric car comes from methodology used by the Department of Energy, not the Environmental Protection Agency, which makes the rules. GM is marketing the 230-mpg figure after early tests using draft guidelines from the EPA for calculating the mileage of extended-range electric vehicles. The EPA guidelines, developed with guidance from automakers, figure that cars like the Volt will travel more on straight electricity in the city than on the highway.
But even the EPA is hedging its bets. The agency said in a statement Tuesday that it has not tested a Volt "and therefore cannot confirm the fuel economy values claimed by GM." The agency said it applauded "GM's commitment to designing and building the car of the future."
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