Let’s be charitable and say that Government Motors misinterpreted the numbers. Or that they exaggerated a tad. Or that they erred slightly.
Call it what you may, they misinterpreted or exaggerated or erred by about 500%.
The folks at Jalopnik have all the fouled-up fuel economy figures:
First of all, let’s talk about fuel economy. In August of last year, we heard GM’s then-CEO Fritz Henderson claimed with all the marketing might it could muster at a Detroit-area press event, that the Chevy Volt would get 230 MPG in city driving conditions. Now, as the Volt’s being tested by the auto trade press, we’re seeing some surprisingly low fuel economy figures amid the expected lavish praise buff books are heaping upon the Volt.
Let’s see what they’ve found out. Popular Mechanics saw just 37.5 MPG in city driving. Car and Driver apparently didn’t choose to use their wheel time for any city driving — but found with all-electric driving:
“…getting on the nearest highway and commuting with the 80-mph flow of traffic-basically the worst-case scenario-yielded 26 miles; a fairly spirited back-road loop netted 31; and a carefully modulated cruise below 60 mph pushed the figure into the upper 30s.”
Motor Trend, like the rest of the trade press other than Popular Mechanics, didn’t appear to do any testing in city conditions, but did find that:
“Without any plugging in, [a weeklong trip to Grandma’s house] should return fuel economy in the high 30s to low 40s.”
They also parrot GM’s new line of 25-50 miles of all-electric — a far cry from the 230 MPG they originally marketed — that the “Volt provides 25-50 miles of real-world electric operation no matter how hard you flog it.”
Oh, big deal. A measly 500% off. Admit it – you’d be thrilled if Tim Geithner could come up with budget numbers that accurate.
Source: Jalopnik
This post was last modified on October 15, 2010
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A couple of issues with electric cars:
1-How will the loss of the gas tax be made up?
2-Where does most of the lithium for the batteries come from? (China)
3-What does an ower do when the batteries die out? (disposal, cost)
4-How do you determine the remaining battery life if you buy one used?
5-Are all the firefighters/EMT's safe when dealing with a wrecked or overturned
electic car? (battery leakage, water squirted on accident)
6-What's the mileage with AC, heater, defrosters, sonic bass, etc running?
As with most lib ideas, it *sounds* great - but somehow, reality always prevails!
mv
Here in San Luis Obispo, IHTM's hometown on the central coast of California, the city is filled with Prius', Go Green stickers, and holier-than-thou econut wannabe San Franciscans. Well, right by us, in what's called the Carrizo Plain, some are trying to plan and build what would be the world's largest solar energy plant, providing just what the greenies want -- clean energy.
Carrizo Plain is out in the middle of nowhere, seemingly a perfect place for this. But nope, the ecowackos have mobilized and have found enough little bugs and rodents and weeds on the ground to protect, to halt the project so far.
Going back to the stone age is the only thing the environmentalists will accept.
I actaully don't believe our power grid can handle having to recharge these cars if they really take off. We would really have to build a ton of nuke & coal fire power plants to handle that, & the eco-marxist greens will never allow them to be built, NEVER.
My mistake, forgot to say that is $30 a week compared to $36 a MONTH. My ommission, sorry for the confusion. Prevailing electric rate in my area is about $0.11 per kwh. About 8 or 9kwh per day to run the Volt.
As for when there are 10,000,000 EV's on the road, I would hope by then batteries/electric engines would be MUCH more advanced and you wouldn't need nearly as much electricity to run them.
Upkeep on the car is minimal as the electric engine does't really need any, and the ICE will barely be used, so the maintenance schedule on it will be nearly non existent compared to a normal vehicle which uses it every day.
If something goes wrong with the battery, yes it is expensive, but I am leasing, and the battery warrant is 8 year 100,000 miles. I won't come close to that on the 3 year lease.
I'm not screaming about oil being depleted. I could personally care less. I just know using the Volt I will not be using nearly as much of it as I am now. And it IS a finite resource, if not in our lifetime, possibly the next generation's. The sun isn't going anywhere for a few billion years though.
I must admit, after reading some other comments on this article, I'm glad a few of you are being civil and logical about the arguments for both sides of the coin on this one. Kudos.
Even a typical democrat isn't dumb enough to buy one of these over priced jokes.
They'll have to be FORCED to buy them. MANDATED to buy them. At GUN POINT if necessary. Which is the whole point of having pieces of crap with wheels and being GREEN. The word ENVIRONAZI is more apt than ever.
I'm neither democrat or republican. I am buying one of these not because I'm being forced, but because it is an awesome looking car, has amazing gadgets in it, and with my weekly commuting, I will barely use 1 gallon of gas. I'll go from paying $30 a week in gas to paying $36 in electricity.
MikeD. states: I’ll go from paying $30 a week in gas to paying $36 in electricity.
OK, so you admit you will be paying (more) to the electric company instead of those *evil* oil companies. And how much coal is burned to produce that electricity? How much larger a "carbon footprint" are you leaving by choosing this way? Your logic makes no sense. And I would be willing to bet you don't figure in the cost of upkeep and maintenance on that car. Those batteries are NOT cheap. Well, it is still a free market (somewhat) and no one is forcing you to buy it, but I wish you the best of luck with it. My bet is you will have buyer's remorse after less than 3 years.
Oh and as for your earlier assertion that "gas is going to run out eventually".....I have read varying reports from actual geologists that suggest we may have 300+ years of JUST crude oil still available to us....IF we are allowed by our elitist betters to actually drill for it. And that doesn't include natural gas deposits, oil shale, coal, or methane hydrate deposits. Anyone screaming the chicken little/sky-is-falling/we're running out of oil meme is simply parroting the leftist/statist line so we are forced into more expensive and less convenient "alternative" energy sources.
For the sake of argument, let's just assume everything you say is correct and that there are eventually 10,000,000 of these electric cars on the road.
How will the electricity be generated when the same environmentalists who wants these cars simultaneously do everything in their power to fight wind generation, nuclear generation, coal generation, solar generation and hydro generation? According to the environmentalists, they're all damaging to the environment?
Surely, you've noticed that they do fight all those alternate sources of electric generation just as strongly as they fight oil.
Find yourself a two-car cave, pal, because that's where you'll be living when the environmentalists leave us with no means of generating power.
The obvious answer to develop steam powered automocars. They are true multi-fuel powered hybrids. Run out of coal or whale oil, just cut down a couple of trees. Maybe add a mast & sail ... Wait a minute I can't be giving out my great ideas. Mmm buggy whips... Just forget what I wrote above. If any of you steal my ideas you will be hearing from my attorneys!
You could even develop "personal dirigibles" for the libtard crowd... they would be self sustainable because they run on hot air... and that's something libtards have in abundance.
I was just going to point out that you can power cars with methane already. Just shovel some BS in, and off you go. The perfect car for today's liberal politician.
I want to know what fuels are going to be used to produce the additional electricity required for all these electric cars. I mean, what is the saving if they have to be powered by electricity produced using the fossil fuels we already are using? How is that supposed to save the globe? We cannot even get a reasonable cost production of electricity for our current needs!
Simple fact is, gas is going to run out eventually. Electricity won't, especially if we continue on a path to more wind, solar, and hydro power. Someone has to start moving vehicles in this direction, or we're in for a world of hurt.
Hogwash. You have no idea of the scale of these oil deposits. You use "we use an awful lot of gas" as your sole measure of the rate of consumption, and you use whatever figures are handed to you by people with every incentive to be dishonest as your measure of reserves. Tell me -- how many times a week do you get suckered into those Nigerian scams? I know, on the scale of the Kenyan scam we have going on now they're peanuts, but I wonder...
I know real geologist who work for real oil companies, who get paid when they find oil, and they say the real problem is not that we will run out, but that it will get expensive to get it out. Especially when the do-gooders protest everything -- flat-earth creeps that they are. Why is it that the oil companies drill offshore, given the expense and inconvenience? Because it is harder to march around a rig 20 miles offshore waving signs. There's another motivation, too -- money. There's plenty of oil onland -- you just have to pay someone to access it, and Uncle Sam would prefer to cash that royalty check himself.
Uncle Sam, just by an amazing coincidence, has undisputed title to ALL of our offshore oil reserves. The amount of money is staggering. A socialist country that I will not name demands a 95% royalty for oil from their offshore reserves. They get it. What this means to you is that of a $2.50 gallon of gas, $.45 goes to highway taxes, $.05 goes to the gas station, $1.90 goes to that country, and $.10 goes to the "Big Oil" company that Barack wants you to confiscate the profits from.
Big Oil isn't Shell or BP -- it is the U.S. Government. Is it no wonder that they gin up protest of on-shore drilling?
When the oil under the ground FINALLY runs out in a hundred years or so, there are ways to continue to produce hydrocarbons as we need them. Oil is an efficient way of transporting a large quantity of energy in a relatively safe way. As the cost goes up, the profit in alternate ways to generate it increases until that happens. They can already do this -- but the trade-off for now is that we need a nuke plant to do it. It certainly isn't the lack of raw sewage holding us back -- there's enough in DC to power the whole freaking world right now.
If the government types were actually concerned about running out, they'd make us start doing things that are not literally dumping waste heat into the environment. (regenerative brakes on cars, recapture waste air conditioning heat, etc.) The reason they don't is because doing intelligent things to actually improve the environment (as defined by themselves -- I have a difference of opinion on the nature of the problem facing us) just isn't all that sexy, and there wasn't really that big of a problem in the first place. It is single issue politics taken to an extreme, and it pays off big in corporate welfare/graft/electioneering.
Mike D. Is right. This is a dumb story, GM has n ot intentionally lied, the tenor of this STORY is intentionally distorting facts.
There are plenty of real reasons to go off on the "messiah". There is no reason to make them up, and as a result, weaken our position.
So you guys look for anyone who agrees with your govt hating agenda? Typical right wing spin. Reports I see on companies often show false advertising without govt help.
Reports I have read on this car show milage far above the 20% you are claiming here.
It's a GM auto, so I have no interest. Nobody who cares about our nation should buy a GM car until the gov't & the UAW are out of the boardroom.
Please get informed before you go on a tirade.
25-50 is the range on battery alone. They have always said "up to 40", so that is still correct. Most reviewers are returning values between 36 and 56 miles on pure battery.
the 230mpg figure was made using a PROPOSED EPA test cycle, back from 2009. Using that cycle, you would average 230mpg from a combination of the battery range and the extended range. I'd more blame the EPA for that not being true, as both GM And Nissan announced figured based on it, and then the EPA turned around and said they wouldn't be using that test cycle.
Jalopnik completely mixed up those 2 figures. they should not even be compared to each other.
Finally, anyone who buys a Volt and drives around without ever plugging it in is a moron. That is not the way you should use it. Most Americans will go all week without using a drop of gas on their commute.
Doubleplusgood, citizen! Big Brother is watching with approval.
Obama is funding green jobs and new green construction vehicles.