Chevy Volt Rated At 230 mpg In the City

necro81 writes "General Motors, emerging from bankruptcy, today announced that its upcoming plug-in hybrid vehicle, the Volt, will have an EPA rating of 230 mpg for city driving (about 98 km/L). The unprecedented rating, the first in triple digits, is the result of a new (draft) methodology for calculating the 'gas' mileage for vehicles that operate primarily or extensively on electricity. The Volt, due out late next year, can drive approximately 40 miles on its Li-Ion battery pack, after which a gasoline engine kicks in to provide additional electricity to charge the battery. Running off the gasoline engine yields approximately 50 mpg. Of course, the devil's in the details, because the conversion of grid-based electricity to gasoline-mileage is imprecise." Now we know the meaning of the mysterious "230" viral marketing campaign.

Comments

Vaporware

[sunderland56]

Chevy has been promising the Volt for years now. *IF* it ever does come out, it might be interesting - but by now their marketing campaign seems to be run by Duke Nukem.

Re:Vaporware

[AP31R0N]

Heh. i'm just the far seeing visionary in the marketing dept. If you want actual solutions, we'll need you to talk with our Engineers.

__

Hmm, let's go for it!

Well, maybe it could be sockets in lamp posts or posts between the concrete dividers in the lot. Or better yet, have trellises that cover the parking lot. They support planters that provide shade to the lot and maybe clean up the air a bit. Add some solar panels here and there. Have power cords dangling from the posts.

Maybe some kind of induction system, if there is a way to do it safely. The network knows that it's ok to charge your car when it senses an RFID. The panel under the asphalt charges your car by induction.

Imprecise conversion

[Anonymous Coward]

Twenty rods to the hog's head, etc.

Re:Come on GM, at least make the lie BELIEVABLE

[DreamsAreOkToo]

According to GM, I guess if I never go on longer trips, my Volt will be getting infinity miles per gallon.

Ahh, only good old GM could make a car that gets 230 mpg when it could be getting infinity mpg!

One small detail was left out

[fataugie]

They forgot to mention the Forward Mounted, Cannon Fired Grappling Hook (TM).

The instructions were a little vauge, but the pictures showed the driver aiming on a HUD at a City Bus....so you fill in the blanks.

Re:good luck with that.

[fataugie]

In all fairness, everywhere they drove during the test was downhill.

Prejudicial Treatment

[Trails]

I would just like to point out that I'm sick of the American auto industry treating us Canadians and the rest of the metric world like second class citizens. You in the US all enjoy your wonderfully efficient 230 mpg, whereas we are stuck with only 98km/L, less than half!! For shame.

I plan to start a boycott until this terrible treatment of the metric world halts.

Who's with me?

Gallons?

[qmaqdk]

How many gallons of electricity does it hold?

The US government owns both GM and the EPA

[PolygamousRanchKid]

So I guess there is no conflict of interest there?

The Chevy Volt has great mileage, by Presidential Executive Order.

Re:Heat & A/C

[lymond01]

How does this thing provide heating/cooling and what impact does running these systems have on said MPG performance?

The answer is two-fold, my boy:

It's air conditioning is wind powered!

The effect on MPG is directly related to which way the wind is blowing.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. I can provide detailed equations like E=mc^2 and c=pi*r^2 if you need them.

Re:Vaporware... or thoroughness?

[macraig]

Maybe Chevrolet's engineers are just insisting on being thorough and working the bugs out BEFORE release... which is a concept too many software engineers seem to have forgotten? That fleet of 50 "beta" Volt cars that's been on the road wasn't just for advertising, ya know.