Volt to get 230 MPG – NOT!

Leave it up to General Motors to claim the ridicules.  GM claims the EPA “may” give the new VOLT a city mileage rating of 230 miles per gallon. When you mix that with the estimated 50 mpg the volt may get in highway driving, they come up with an overall rating of 100 MPG.

Trouble is, an “electric vehicle” is not burning “gallons” while traveling on electric power. You therefore can not include the distance traveled under electric power, inside the MPG calculations.

The exact calculations used to determine EPA MPG ratings are difficult to determine. However, we can guess that given the estimated 40 miles of travel on electric power for a GM Volt, before the gasoline powered generator kicks-in, and the estimated 50 MPG the volt will achieve under “gasoline charging”, the EPA system must assume about 50 miles of travel.

Thus the calculations would go something like: 40 miles on electric at ZERO gallons of gas, plus 10 miles on ONE FIFTH of a gallon, EQUALS 5 x 50 = 250 MPG (5 times one fifth of a gallon = 1 gallon).

Crazy numbers that don’t make sense! If you only traveled 41 miles, you would get 40 miles “free”, plus one mile at the rate of 50 MPG, for a final MPG of 41 x 50 = 2050 MPG.

The EPA needs to put two rates on Electric Vehicles -1) miles traveled under battery charge, 2) MPG while under gasoline charge.

Let’s compare apples to apples.

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