230 Miles Per Gallon?
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
I haven't been able to post much lately on the subject of the auto industry, even through the whole bankruptcy, which is realy a shame because I could have vented a lot.
Today though, GM announced good news for a change. Their new green, halo car, the Chevy Volt will be E.P.A. rated in the city for 230 miles per gallon! 
This would be calculated by some sort of combined driving cycle where the car runs on battery power only for the first 40 miles, using no gas, and then on electric drive with electricity being supplied by the on-board generator.
It will also be able to run on E-85 and will be built in Detroit starting next year.
This is quite an achievement unobtainable a few short years ago.
See autoblog here.
See CNN Money here, which explains a possible driving cycle.
All I can add is this: Fuck You Toyota!
7 comments:
Dude, sweet.
The funny thing is that it looks like the love child of an Honda Accord and a Chrysler Sebring.
Wait, I thought it was originally a 2-door coupe?
From a new gadget perspective, sounds cool. I have some practicality questions, though.
At 40 grand, it's too pricey for anything more than a novelty.
What's the maintenance costs, especially of the battery? My laptop battery of 7 years holds half the original charge, if that. I know the technologies aren't the same, but it's gonna give out eventually, right? If I take care of my car, I can easily get $150k+ miles out of it, and 10+ years of life. How long will this realistically last?
Ultimately, I think the Volt is more marketing hype than any sort of game-changer in the auto world. Just my $.02.
"At 40 grand, it's too pricey for anything more than a novelty."
True, but early adopters will buy it and with a $7500 tax credit it will run about the same as a loaded Prius. I bet they sell every one they can make without a problem.
"My laptop battery of 7 years holds half the original charge, if that. I know the technologies aren't the same, but it's gonna give out eventually, right? If I take care of my car, I can easily get $150k+ miles out of it, and 10+ years of life."
GM's battery warrenty will be for 10 years and 150k miles. The batteries in many hybrids have been outliving expectations.
I wish they hadn't watered down the styling so much...
I really think a big part of the Prius' success was the fact that it screamed "I'M DRIVING A HYBRID!" It waaay out sold hybrid Camrys and Civics simply for that reason alone, imo.
People who pony up for this car are going to want that same stoplight satisfaction of everyone looking and saying, "is that one of those electric Volts?"
I'm not sure that bulbous Malibu that got left in the sun is going to do the job...
My mother-in-law's Civic hybrid has over 160,000 on it and all she's had to do is replace tires...no problems with the hybrid drivetrain or battery.
And 230 mpg?
You could get that in your Mustang, Bob, if you calculate based on coasting down a hill in neutral and then drafting into a parking lot and calling it a commute.
"You could get that in your Mustang, Bob, if you calculate based on coasting down a hill in neutral and then drafting into a parking lot and calling it a commute."
Since posting this, I have been trying to figure out how the EPA will rate a car for mileage, when if it is used one way, it can use no gas and when used incorrectly, it will use a lot more. There is no simple method.
The best I can tell is the EPA will drive this and similar cars over a standard course that represents a typical driver. In that case, a person would drive about 50 or 60 miles in a day and charge the car at night. This would yield about 230 mpg over the 50 to 60 miles. If you drive it longer distances, without charging it, the mileage will drop. While it would be completely stupid to do so, some think it will get around 50 mpg if never charged.
On one Volt enthusiast site, they asked GM about the mileage:
“Q: How many miles per gallon will the Chevy Volt get?
A: A bit of a trick question. For the first 40 miles it will get infinite mpg, because no gas will be burned. When the generator starts, the car will get an equivalent of 50 mpg thereafter. One can calculate the average mpg per for any length drive starting with a full battery: Total MPG = 50xM/(M-40)”
Source: http://gm-volt.com/chevy-volt-faqs/
I plugged the formula into a spreadsheet to yield:
TRIP DISTANCE / MPG AVG. OVER TRIP
40 / infinite
50 / 250.00
60 / 150.00
70 / 116.67
100 / 83.33
110 / 78.57
120 / 75.00
130 / 72.22
140 / 70.00
150 / 68.18
160 / 66.67
170 / 65.38
180 / 64.29
190 / 63.33
200 / 62.50
210 / 61.76
220 / 61.11
230 / 60.53
240 / 60.00
250 / 59.52
260 / 59.09
270 / 58.70
280 / 58.33
290 / 58.00
300 / 57.69
It will get much less mileage if you drive it cross country, but no matter what, it will get fantastic mileage and use zero gas if you want to use it that way.
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