volt getting 1000 miles to a tank at 111mpg

[Dirt McGirt]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The electric-powered Chevrolet Volt is averaging 1,000 miles on each tankful of gas, according to General Motors.
The Volt's gas tank holds 9.3 gallons, so that means drivers are averaging about 111 miles per gallon. As a result, Volt drivers are stopping to fill their gas tanks only about once a month, GM (GM) said.


GM collected the fuel economy and fill-up data through the vehicles' OnStar system, spokesman Rob Peterson said.
As of Friday, there were about 2,000 Volts in customer hands, he said.
While there's no reason to doubt GM's claim -- 1,000 miles a tankful could be easily achievable if drivers recharge their cars' batteries frequently -- it doesn't necessarily mean drivers are really paying a lot less per mile to drive, said Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of the automotive website Edmunds.com.
"What's not being stated is that Volt drivers who go 1,000 miles between gasoline fill-ups are also charging their vehicles with electricity each night and incurring the cost of electricity," he said.
The Volt can travel about 35 miles on a fully charged battery, according to EPA estimates. If the battery becomes depleted, a gasoline engine comes on to generate electricity for continued driving.
Chevrolet Volt vs. Cruze Eco: Battle of the gas misers
Electricity generally costs less, per unit of energy, than gasoline. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates it would cost $2.75, on average, to drive a Chevrolet Volt 25 miles on gasoline but just 99 cents to drive that far on electricity.
There are some places in the United States, however, where electricity is extraordinarily expensive. In those places, that cost gap would be narrower and could, in some cases, even go the other way.
"It's a good marketing claim, but it's not a practical point of comparison," Anwyl said of GM's 1,000-mile-a-tankful figure.
But real-world fuel economy figures like this could help GM's marketing efforts by helping consumers understand its benefits. Up to now, there has never been a simple, straightforward fuel economy figure for the Volt as there is for almost every other car.

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While the Toyota Prius, for instance, gets overall fuel economy of 50 miles per gallon, according to the EPA, the Volt gets two separate EPA figures -- 93 miles per gallon equivalent on electricity and 37 miles per gallon on gasoline -- and consumers are left to figure out for themselves how that translates into real driving.
GM's 111-mpg figure, while based on real driving and not formal testing, at least offers something easily comparable to other vehicles. While it's less than half the 230 mpg the automaker unveiled to much fanfare in the summer of 2009, it's still much better than any other gasoline-powered car on the road.
"I think it does help to maybe put the Volt into perspective a little bit," said Alec Gutierrez, an analyst with the auto website Kelley Blue Book.

[neonpla]

35 miles on a full charge, what a joke, that'd cover my trip to work and I'd be stranded to get home

[C1DoG]

I will bet they are paying twice as much for electricity as for gas.

[Marcel]

I will bet they are paying twice as much for electricity as for gas.

yep. somehow electricity is the saviour for the earth but some people tend to forget how it's being produced.

[Paul56]

I already only fill my tank once/month... and don't have the electrical costs.

[04 Mo Neon]

35 miles on a full charge, what a joke, that'd cover my trip to work and I'd be stranded to get home

Then you drive home on fuel. GG???

Oh and as a note not in response to the quote, I live close to work and many people do literally I use 4 mi round trip per day to go to work so yeah I would probably fill this car up once a year? lolz

[racer12306]

35 miles on a full charge, what a joke, that'd cover my trip to work and I'd be stranded to get home

Then you drive home on fuel. GG???

This.

The Volt is no different than any other hybrid in terms of using a gasoline engine.

There was speculation that the gas engine would only be a generator but it turned out to be a plug in hybrid. It's supposed to get low-mid 40s on gas alone.

[04 Mo Neon]

Does this mean we have 2 categories of hybrids now racer12306? hybrid type one which relies on gas and uses electricity as backup like the pyris and type two that is the reverse? More car types bahhhhhh lol

[racer12306]

No, there are plug in and non plug in.

All hybrids use gas and electric power with a bias on electric power when possible. Some hybrids can just go longer on electric power.

[Fuzzyneon]

I like where these cars are going but they claim so much and promise the world. Its neat but nothing i would want to purchase

[racer12306]

I'd be curious about how many kilowatt-hours it takes to recharge a Volt.

I pay about $0.085 per kilowatt-hour for electricity.

[iThane]

I will bet they are paying twice as much for electricity as for gas.

yep. somehow electricity is the saviour for the earth but some people tend to forget how it's being produced.

what are you talking about, sir? there are plenty of ways planet Earth
can provide us with clean electricity with its natural elements! such as:











oh wait...

[racer12306]

It still costs money to maintain those systems.

I don't know about wind but I do know that large scale PV systems are incredibly expensive to start up.

I can imagine the same for the others.


In the end the point is that one way or another energy must be produced. Kind of one of those pay me now or pay me later but you will pay me situations.

[Haganracing]

In the end the point is that one way or another energy must be produced. Kind of one of those pay me now or pay me later but you will pay me situations.

[Undesolved]

This is basically what my entire Environmental chemistry class focused on. Although wind power is an effective system. Its only effective when the wind is blowing(mid day when there is hardly any energy usage and since they haven't figured out a way to STORE the energy used from wind power...)
Solar power is just not efficient enough.
Hydro-electric is pretty good depending on how much of a change in elevation there is from where the water starts vs where it leaves.
Nuclear power is the most feasible energy source, IF using Breeder reactors. In which the Uranium and Plutonium rods used can be "re-charged" where as right now they are frowned upon for many reasons such as we deposit our spent fuel rods into a land-fill basically. That and there hasn't been a new licensed nuclear reactor since the 1970s i believe, it could be the 60s however.

[Midnight_Rider]

Yup, build those nuclear reactors and then find a place to "safely" bury the radioactive waste for thousands of years. Or have a Japan-like disaster...

[Undesolved]

Or have a Japan-like disaster...

You've got to remember though. The Japan earthquake was a freak of nature. It was the 2nd most powerful earthquake in recorded history. It cracked both the inner and outer domes that were keeping the radiation in, as well as the fact that they were spraying water into a water-cooled system so it was causing the radiation to "catch" onto the water and spread that way.

[DuhNeon179]

I went to the NYC International show and there was a VOLT there. 3 People said it take $1.50 to fully charge. Ha my ass $1.50 and if you plug that thing at home how much is your electric bill going up? lol

[racer12306]

The $1.50 is not unreasonable at all.

I did a little searching and it seems that the absolute most power the battery will draw is 12-13 kWh to fully charge.

Apparently the national average is about $0.13/kWh.

13kWh x $0.13 = $1.69 to charge from full depletion

Assuming you fully deplete the battery every single day (~35-40 miles) it will add between $50 and $53 to you monthly bill.

Essentially the full electric mode saves you a gallon of gas (if you don't factor in the regenerative braking and such). Currently the national average for gas is $3.98 so it saves $2.29/day, ~$69/month.


The big problem, as with all hybrids, is the initial sticker price. There are a lot of federal and state tax incentives to buy a Volt but I don't know how much they knock off the $40,000 price tag.

[INVUJerry]

$40K car that will use less gas.

$800 neon that gets 35MPG.

Neon 1
Volt 0

[Haganracing]

and on that note..

/thread

[03sxt]

35 miles on a full charge, what a joke, that'd cover my trip to work and I'd be stranded to get home

And that's in decent weather. Go over to CARS.com and read the reviews they've done. They bought a Toyota Leaf and a Chevy Volt and they're doing long term studies on them. Something like during the cold winter months (~15 - 20 degrees) you can only get about 20 miles per charge. It was a pretty good article, actually.

[04 Mo Neon]

$40K car that will use less gas.

$800 neon that gets 35MPG.

Neon 1
Volt 0

Volt:
1 | New car that feels like a car and not a big go-cart
2 | Like we've figured out the average price per gallon/assumed energy unit in this case is about 1 dollar comparatively the 35 mpg you mention means nothing.
3 | Electricity is more abundant than oil>gas (using sustainable methods)
4 | Price after the 7,500 tax deduction is around 33k about average for a new car that isn't a lol Chinese base model without power steering etc etc.
5 | The whole point here is not about money but about finding new ways to be less energy dependent as a society whole, this is one very small step but you have to take baby steps before you can walk, run and fly.

Score
Volt: 5
Neon: Old

[Haganracing]

^^^

[NEON PARABOLA]

Im going to rebell against the whole eco thing, im going to buy a 68 dodge dart and run leaded gas.... LOL

[heydockyle]

Okay so to put it in Math terms.

If the car is $33,000 after whatever rebate you are talking about, you will still end up paying 40 after interest and tax. So...

Volt - $40,000
Neon - $1,000

Neon - Drive 35 miles a day will cost $4
Volt - 35 miles per charge will cost $1.69 a day.

By driving the Volt you save $2.31 a day.
It will take 47 years for the volt to pay for itself if you only drive it 40 miles a day, ever day of the year..


There is more math to be done but I don't feel like doing anything else.

The only place that I see the Volt winning is that it is helping the environment, and it is a newer more luxurious car.
But honestly, you're going to have to do alot more then get a hundred thousand people to switch to a volt to get the environment in better shape.

[racer12306]

You can't compare a new car to a used car, let alone a 12 year old econocar (I'm assuming 1GN due to the $1000 price tag).

You have to compare new car to new car.

[heydockyle]

I'm comparing the feasibility of me driving an old car that I already have or that I would spend $1000 on vs. buying a new car that gets great gas mileage.

Why can't I compare that?
It may not be a suitable situation for everyone, but In my situation it is not feasible what so ever to buy a new hybrid vehicle when It would take me till I die to come out on top. A hybrid is nothing more then a new econocar.



Even still, new car for $15k that gets 35mpg vs hybrid for 40k.
It would take almost 30 years before the volt makes money there.

[04 Mo Neon]

Okay so to put it in Math terms.

'Blah'.

Edit: I replaced all of the text with 'Blah'. Hope you don't mind but you seemed to miss what I wrote.

Maybe flashy text color underline and bold will help.

5 | The whole point here is not about money but about finding new ways to be less energy dependent as a society whole, this is one very small step but you have to take baby steps before you can walk, run and fly.

The only place that I see the Volt winning is that it is helping the environment...

But honestly, you're going to have to do alot more then get a hundred thousand people to switch to a volt to get the environment in better shape.

This is very true and why if you really want to make an impact you should look at where you live and why I am in the major and career path I am (landscape architecture). But the attitude that one person cannot make a difference is not true. You have to start somewhere.

What would really make a difference is how much energy our buildings use and if you would like to learn more check out this.

http://architecture2030.org/multimedia/videos

[heydockyle]

And you missed my point. Idc what it does for the environment because I cannot afford one. Almost everything boils down to money.

If I can't afford to do it, I'm surely not going to jump into something that will lead me to bankruptcy just to hope I can help the environment.


I completely understand where you are going with this. But it's such a drastic change and movement that it will be quite some time before I see it catching on and being the new norm.