Chevy Volt Gets 230 mpg City?

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Yes, you read that right…General Motors is claiming the upcoming Chevy Volt will get 230 miles per gallon in the city. Sure it is based on a “new methodology” from the EPA that probably includes fairy dust, unicorn sweat and rainbow power but that 230 mpg is an attention getter.

The EPA has released a new methodology for determining a draft fuel economy standard for extended-range EVs like the Volt, and under this new procedure, the Volt will have a composite urban fuel economy rating of 230 mpg! On the electric side, the Volt will consume 25 kW/hours per 100 miles. That makes the Volt the first car ever to get a triple digit fuel economy rating.
 
CNN had a great write up on it.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/11/autos/volt_mpg/?postversion=2009081108

So let's say the car is driven 50 miles in a day. For the first 40 miles, no gas is used and during the last 10 miles, 0.2 gallons are used. That's the equivalent of 250 miles per gallon. But, if the driver continues on to 80 miles, total fuel economy would drop to about 100 mpg. And if the driver goes 300 miles, the fuel economy would be just 62.5 mpg.
 
If I had one, it would be damn near infinite MPG. My morning commute is only seven miles. So I could go all week without burning a single drop. I don't see myself having the disposable income to drop on one of these, when they come out, but I'd love to have one.
 
Funny, I don't remember reading that the marketing guys who make the fps % charts for NVidia and AMD got hired by the EPA recently.
 
I wouldn't mind having one if the price is right. I also have no desire to pay for GM's research trial/error platform though.
 
I heard the sticker price is going to be around $40,000, but GM is keeping it real hush, hush. So for comparing compact cars, you would need to drive the car for approx. 250,000 miles before it even began to pay for itself. If they sold it at the asme price as the Prius, they would be losing money.
 
But can you buy one? Prius FTW until the Volt is more than vaporware.

Prius is garbage. I'm not saying the Volt is great by any stretch (I personally think GM is a little late and it's expensive if rumors holds true).



But seriously, prius and ftw never belongs together.
 
So let's say the car is driven 50 miles in a day. For the first 40 miles, no gas is used and during the last 10 miles, 0.2 gallons are used. That's the equivalent of 250 miles per gallon. But, if the driver continues on to 80 miles, total fuel economy would drop to about 100 mpg. And if the driver goes 300 miles, the fuel economy would be just 62.5 mpg.

300 miles at 62.5 MPG is still pretty damn good, and it gets triple digit mileage throughout the average commute distance for most people.
 
It is too bad they can't make it cheap, like 20,000 or less. It should be for the short commute, short drive only market and not for long range.

if it cost 20,000 I could consider one 100%. 10 mile commute and using it where you waste the most fuel, getting around town, it would be worth it.

Hybrids = not worth it and not really a helpful technology.
 
I might have to get a Volt to offset the Camaro.

230 mpg city

vs.


4 mpg city


=

average 117 mpg

My household would then be environmentally friendly. ;)
 
I heard the sticker price is going to be around $40,000, QUOTE]

Yup, they start at $40,000. First gen buyers are going to be guinea pigs for working out the bugs, no thanks.

I'll take the Prius for $15k less for a proven hybrid.
 
Prius is garbage. I'm not saying the Volt is great by any stretch (I personally think GM is a little late and it's expensive if rumors holds true).



But seriously, prius and ftw never belongs together.

Do you own or have you ever driven a Prius? They are very well put together vehicles and an engineering marvel if you dig into the technology. Sure there are 50MPG diesels from the likes of VW, but easily/conveniently fueling them in the US would be a pain. The Prius is a great vehicle for what it is.
 
@ 40K per car its going to be vaporware for awhile. I might be speaking out of turn but I don't think alot of people can afford a 40K car either. Getting 230MPG is great but what does 25KW / 100 miles cost.

Assuming 0% interest and $0 down payment over 5 years at a purchase price of 43K (taxes, fees, etc) your payment should be around $604. Thats $150 a month more than I pay now just to have the priviledge of driving the vehicle. If the car lasts over that 5 years which is questionable because of battery life I might not see any cost reductions or realize any savings because I just have to roll back into another payment for a new car or may a loan to replace the battery system.

I am not convinced this is good.
 
They say "25 kW/hours per 100 miles". I have several problems with this. First kW/hr makes no sense at all, energy/time^2? That's dumb. I believe they ment to write 25kW*hr. Assuming that we still have another problem, exactly how fast are they driving? Air resistance from 40 to 75 is 3.5 times as great. But we'll ignore that for now too.

Doing a little math, a 30 mpg car at 2.50 $/gal will net you 0.083$/mile. At 0.10$/kW*hr that comes out to 0.025$/mile. A significant savings if you travel short trips.

Unfortunantly, beyond that have a machine that converts gasoline to mechanical energy and then to electrical energy then transmits it across wires to something that converts it to mechanical energy. It is highly doubtful you are going to be getting better than 30mpg while on gas.

If you drive less than 20 miles to work, it might make sense, right up until you see the 40K price tag. Figuring a honda civic hybrid with leather comes in at 24850 MRSP, and a city milage of 40mpg, and saying that you drive exactly 40 miles per day the cost to drive it would be $2.50/day. Using the above, we come out to 1$/day for the chevy volt. It would then take 10,100 days to make up the difference in price, or 27 years. Remember, this is the high end civic with leather, not a stripped down one either.
 
the Camero gets more then 4MPG, good god, a post about misleading numbers and you post more! The VOLT hasnt offically released its MPG rateing, but using the method established by the EPA, that every other car uses it gets 230. Its good copy (heck a computer hardware site posted it!) and advertising, but they have already stated it will probebly be rated at 60 some when the "official " numbers come ou, they will rate it differentlyt. Vaporware, no they are making several a month and testing them, Vaporware for buying public, yes, working model, no.

As for good, its already been stated many times that these cars use more OIL to produce then they will ever save (batteries use alot of oil to make). So the gas you arent useing has already been used up in making them. As for cheaper, I wish i could remeber the source, but the hybrids wont save you any money till gas reaches about $6 a gallon for a 10 year period (but most guess say the battieres will only last about 5 to 7), so that argument doesnt work either. So they dont save oil, they dont save money, they are butt ugly, small, and underpowered. No upside except its research for better stuff, it makes the owners smug (who wouldnt have bought one if they had actually researched, unless the "keep funding research" idea is why they bought it, but I have yet to hear any owner say that).

The volt is actually the best "current" solution, but its not a good one.
 
230MPG is great, but the thing is... Terribly weak vehicle, I'd imagine... The Prius is weak as-is, the Volt being 100% electric I'd imagine would be worse.

Sorry, I'd rather stick with my V8 that can get up and go on the highway without getting rear-ended because my vehicle won't get up to speed quick enough.
 
@ 40K per car its going to be vaporware for awhile. I might be speaking out of turn but I don't think alot of people can afford a 40K car either. Getting 230MPG is great but what does 25KW / 100 miles cost.

Assuming 0% interest and $0 down payment over 5 years at a purchase price of 43K (taxes, fees, etc) your payment should be around $604. Thats $150 a month more than I pay now just to have the priviledge of driving the vehicle. If the car lasts over that 5 years which is questionable because of battery life I might not see any cost reductions or realize any savings because I just have to roll back into another payment for a new car or may a loan to replace the battery system.

I am not convinced this is good.

I absolutely agree. The first Volt customers will need to be the wealthy who are buying the vehicle simply because they can. I don't believe that the Volt can be priced competitively until it's lithium ion battery production reaches an economy of scale.
 
Volt > Prius

I could literally use the Volt to do all my weekday driving (work, errands) without ever using a drop of gasoline. Win.
 
@ 40K per car its going to be vaporware for awhile. I might be speaking out of turn but I don't think alot of people can afford a 40K car either. Getting 230MPG is great but what does 25KW / 100 miles cost.

Assuming 0% interest and $0 down payment over 5 years at a purchase price of 43K (taxes, fees, etc) your payment should be around $604. Thats $150 a month more than I pay now just to have the priviledge of driving the vehicle. If the car lasts over that 5 years which is questionable because of battery life I might not see any cost reductions or realize any savings because I just have to roll back into another payment for a new car or may a loan to replace the battery system.

I am not convinced this is good.

Well, trading up for ANY vehicle for MPG reasons never pans out in the end. You can never justify it.
If you were looking for a new vehicle anyway, then have at it. But just for MPG, you'd never recoup your cost.
 
Volt > Prius

I could literally use the Volt to do all my weekday driving (work, errands) without ever using a drop of gasoline. Win.

You will also have spent roughly twice as much money after tax/title/delivery for this little badge of honor. No thanks.
 
Is it really a good thing that we will be burning more coal and putting more stress on our electrical grid to recharge our electric cars?
 
Do you own or have you ever driven a Prius? They are very well put together vehicles and an engineering marvel if you dig into the technology. Sure there are 50MPG diesels from the likes of VW, but easily/conveniently fueling them in the US would be a pain. The Prius is a great vehicle for what it is.

It's certainly an eyesore. I cringe everytime I see one of those ugly POS' on the road.
 
230MPG is great, but the thing is... Terribly weak vehicle, I'd imagine... The Prius is weak as-is, the Volt being 100% electric I'd imagine would be worse.

Sorry, I'd rather stick with my V8 that can get up and go on the highway without getting rear-ended because my vehicle won't get up to speed quick enough.

I like how you make judgments on what you "imagine" the car will be like.

Electric motors can produce copious amounts of torque and power. The Tesla Roadster can do 0-60 in about 4 seconds.

The 0-60 time for the Volt will be about the same as or better than most current mid-size cars, coming in around 9 seconds. So imagining that because a vehicle is electric you will be constantly getting rear-ended from lack of acceleration is...... rather silly.

You don't need a V8 with 350 HP to keep up on the highway.
 
Is it really a good thing that we will be burning more coal and putting more stress on our electrical grid to recharge our electric cars?

Yes, because those coal plants are cleaner and much more efficient than car engines.
 
You will also have spent roughly twice as much money after tax/title/delivery for this little badge of honor. No thanks.

First of its kind. Other manufacturers will follow suit and prices will come down.

A plug-in hybrid makes much more sense than a traditional hybrid.
 
I have had a Vision of the Future..

I see very angry customers and lawsuits from manipulated numbers and deceptive advertising.
 
230MPG is great, but the thing is... Terribly weak vehicle, I'd imagine... The Prius is weak as-is, the Volt being 100% electric I'd imagine would be worse.

Sorry, I'd rather stick with my V8 that can get up and go on the highway without getting rear-ended because my vehicle won't get up to speed quick enough.

I like how you make judgments on what you "imagine" the car will be like.

Electric motors can produce copious amounts of torque and power. The Tesla Roadster can do 0-60 in about 4 seconds.

The 0-60 time for the Volt will be about the same as or better than most current mid-size cars, coming in around 9 seconds. So imagining that because a vehicle is electric you will be constantly getting rear-ended from lack of acceleration is...... rather silly.

You don't need a V8 with 350 HP to keep up on the highway.


The volt will come in at under 6 seconds 0-60, which is rather pretty quick for that battery box.
 
I can't wait for the Li-ion batteries to go boom from overcharging to increase mileage as happens with cell phones and MP3 players.
 
Yes, because those coal plants are cleaner and much more efficient than car engines.

worth repeating. amazing how many people miss that point. Not to mention coal being a cheaper fuel.

These "plug-in" hybrids would be an even better idea if the fucking NIMBY's would let there be more nuclear power plants.
 
the Camero gets more then 4MPG, good god, a post about misleading numbers and you post more! The VOLT hasnt offically released its MPG rateing, but using the method established by the EPA, that every other car uses it gets 230. Its good copy (heck a computer hardware site posted it!) and advertising, but they have already stated it will probebly be rated at 60 some when the "official " numbers come ou, they will rate it differentlyt. Vaporware, no they are making several a month and testing them, Vaporware for buying public, yes, working model, no.

As for good, its already been stated many times that these cars use more OIL to produce then they will ever save (batteries use alot of oil to make). So the gas you arent useing has already been used up in making them. As for cheaper, I wish i could remeber the source, but the hybrids wont save you any money till gas reaches about $6 a gallon for a 10 year period (but most guess say the battieres will only last about 5 to 7), so that argument doesnt work either. So they dont save oil, they dont save money, they are butt ugly, small, and underpowered. No upside except its research for better stuff, it makes the owners smug (who wouldnt have bought one if they had actually researched, unless the "keep funding research" idea is why they bought it, but I have yet to hear any owner say that).

The volt is actually the best "current" solution, but its not a good one.

Steve didn't make a misleading post. Maybe Camaros in general have higher gas milage, but have you seen Steve's Camaro? :-P
 
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