The significance of GM's Chevy Volt
How impressed should you be by the mileage figure of an electric car?
The Chevy Volt: Extra mileage for your money
"It's official," said Jamie Lendino in PC Magazine. General Motors' new Chevy Volt, which goes on sale next year as a 2011 model, "is expected to get 230 miles per gallon on the EPA's city fuel economy test." That's because on short trips the GM Volt will be able to operate only on battery power, and even when using gas power on longer trips, it will end up squeezing out more miles per gallon than Toyota's current mileage king, the Prius.
The Chevy Volt's 230 mpg would be "by far the highest fuel efficiency rating of any car now rated by the Environmental Protection Agency," said Martin Zimmerman in the Los Angeles Times. The Prius gets 50 mpg—and it's way ahead of most of the pack. The GM Volt's trick is that it is "designed to run on electric power only for about 40 miles, after which a small gasoline engine kicks in to re-charge the battery."
It's unfair to compare miles per gallon figures when you're talking about an electric car, said Brian White in Blogging Stocks. The makers of the Chevy Volt hope that by using a figure on everybody's mind—miles per gallon—they can get some attention and rally people around their new technology. But the real question yet to be answered is whether a quadrupling of fuel efficiency will get people to spend twice as much on a GM Volt ($40,000) than they would pay for a Prius, even though the Volt runs on "unproven technology."
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5 Comments
Posted by Dailyhoo, Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 3:48 pm This is another American failure in the making. Dumb as it sounds, you can tell if an auto has been wellthoughtout by how much effort and creativity goes into the name. Good cars Accord, Taurus, Civic, Mustang, Camaro, Golf. Bad cars Aztek, Charade, Flex, Aveo, Equinox, Traverse. A product that's not well put together holistically shows immediately by what its creators decide to call it. Another allfluff disappointment from America. I feel bad for our auto industry.
Posted by Art Finkelstein, Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 4:11 pm Dailyhoo, you are completely right. I wish other people would recognize that it's not the car, it's the name of the car that matters. Although the name Volt pretty well accurately communicates what the vehicle is an electric car, the mere fact that they would begin a car's name with a V is downright ridiculous. It's only one syllable how is a car supposed to be good with only ONE syllable? The US auto companies need to put themselves back together and start naming cars better, and then maybe they'll start making them better.
Posted by APatt, Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 4:14 pm Ah, so the same government that wanted to give us the highest tax increase in America's history via Cape and Trade now wants us to buy a car that relies heavily on electricity. How ironic.
Posted by jerry friedman, Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 4:35 pm Hey fellas, just wait till you see what the same smart guys bring us by way of health care reform!
Posted by Brett, Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 8:55 am Boy, I wish the rest of us 'knew' what the future is definitely going to bring like you conservatives!! Strange how your predictions are ALWAYS wrong, though. Don't you guys ever notice that? The rest of us sure do!
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