2011 Chevrolet Volt: Fuel economy estimated at 230 mpg city

In a Webcast press conference this morning, General Motors announced the fuel economy figures for the Chevrolet Volt extended-range vehicle. GM claims more than 100 mpg overall for the Volt, with a city fuel economy rating of 230 mpg based on "proposed EPA methodology for labeling plug-in vehicles." GM President and CEO Fritz Henderson says he is confident these figures are representative of what consumers will experience. (Once the car goes on sale, we look forward to seeing how it performs in Consumer Reports' fuel economy tests.)

The wheels are driven exclusively by electricity, with an E85-compatible engine available to provide additional electricity when needed. GM claims the Volt will travel up to 40 miles on power from its 220 lithium-ion cells alone. The 1.4-liter, four-cylinder gasoline engine can extend that range as needed to more than 300 miles. The electric drive unit produces 150 horsepower and 273 lb.-ft. of torque.

GM estimates that the Volt could use about 25 kilowatt hours per 100 miles in city driving, based on EPA methodology. GM calculates that a typical Volt driver would pay about $2.75 for electricity to travel 100 miles, or less than 3 cents per mile, based on a U.S. average electricity cost of 11 cents per kWh.

Production for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt is scheduled to begin in late 2010.

See our Chevrolet Volt preview for more information. And read: "2011 Chevrolet Volt: Fuel economy results may vary."

—Jeff Bartlett

Comments

[Dan]

If so, one would have to drive about 700K miles to break even with the Volt over the Prius. But factor in that the Volt looks better and might have a more pleasant interior so what is that premium? Maybe $10K. The lithium ion/polymer batteries have to get much much cheaper for this to make sense.

[Cale]

GM should have sold the Volt research and manufacturing technology to pay down its debt. Chevrolet dealers won't know how to sell the Volt, they're expertise is mainstream cars and SUVs. GM management won't know how to price the Volt, they're expertise is short-term planning for short-term results (the sort of decisions that make stock traders happy...).

Does anyone notice that GM touts the Volt whenever it needs to distract the public from what's really going on in the company? On July 22, GM said they sold 22% FEWER cars in the 2nd quarter than during the same period last year, AND last year's sales were really bad!.

GM's management is unapologetically arrogant. It's time for them to put the rest of their house in order. Not another word about cars that aren't even sold.

[CyCarConsulting]

I'm not seeing anyone address the effects of EMF on the occupants from this fully electric power train. The telecom industry has suppressed the damage to DNA, and the formation of cancer cells from over exposure to cell towers, and cell phones. The same types of dangers are lurking in these pseudo electric vehicles, and without any policing, could go unchecked. One of the more common immediate effects from over exposure to EMF is drowsiness. HELLO! anyone home?

[Loren]

You're looking forward to how it performs in your fuel economy tests, but how will you test it? If you boil it down to a single number, anything between it's battery depleted mileage (about 50 mpg) and infinity (operating on batteries alone) could be considered accurate.
Will you try to match whatever the EPA does? Will you just see how far it goes on batteries and what the gas consumption is after the batteries run out, then let the reader try to figure their own overall mpg?
Obviously this will become an increasingly common problem as more plug-in hybrids, range extended electric vehicles, and pure electrics come online. I hope you fine folks at CR will give your test procedures and reporting methods a lot of thought in the next 15 months.

[Michael_LaBorde]

In theory at least, one of these could get infinite gas mileage if you drove less than 40 miles a day (all city probably) and recharged every night. You could then have an interesting problem with people filling the tank and then having the gasoline go bad from extended storage. People will start having to add stabilizer to the tank if they burn little or no gasoline or they could damage these fairly expensive vehicles.

[GearheadGeek]

Cale: Q2 numbers as reported in Autoblog show GM down as a company by 19% in unit sales over Q2 2008, and that's being dragged down by some of the dead-weight divisions they're trying to dump. If you look just at Chevrolet, for example, you see Chevy is down only 9%, compared to Toyota's drop of 11%. All is not lost at GM just yet, and it would be a stupid and short-sighted move to abandon their genuinely unique offering and all of the investment they've made in it to satisfy those who just want to see GM fail.

[David Brodbeck]

CyCar, you seem to be conflating two different issues: RF exposure, and low-frequency electromagnetic field exposure. While both involve electromagnetic fields, the energy levels involved and the effects on the human body are very different. The electromagnetic fields generated by the Volt would most resemble those generated by electric power lines, which have no proven link to cancer. Additionally, the occupants of the car would presumably be shielded by the underbody and firewall of the car from any fields generated by the motor and power conversion electronics. Car bodies are made out of mild steel, which does an excellent job blocking EMF. In short, I really don't see this as an issue.

[Paul Rivers]

I really don't understand this - how do you rate an electrically charged car in MPG? How would you measure a "gallon" of electricity?

[David Rust]

Mr Brodbeck is correct in his statement about EMF vs RF. The cell phone is transmitting up to 1/4 watt RF power right next to your head while the passenger is shielded from nearly all of the electric fields of the motor and wiring. You probably get a lot more EMI (Interference) from the AC-powered alarm clock next to your bed. Also if I'm not mistaken, the Volt uses a low voltage DC motor which is much different even than the AC voltage for power lines.

As for cellular phones there is not yet a DEFINITIVE study to show negative long term effects of cell phone usage in humans. Just the same i wouldn't tempt fate by holding one next to my head for hours a day.

As a living science experiment, I spent 4 years on nuclear submarines (nuclear weapons and power plant), 10 years as a test engineer in the cell phone industry, and another 15 years testing high power electronics. I'm 55 and still only have 1 head and 10 fingers, and not a single health problem. Bring on the Volt !!

[Ed]

Forget about the EPA's "proposed methodology." At the end of the day, its all very simple: put a gallon of regular gas in it --nothing else-- and see how far it will go.

EPA ratings are marketing fantasy -- I don't know of anyone that ever got the advertised EPA mileage from their car.

[David Brodbeck]

David Rust, you may be right about the motor. I couldn't find any reference to the motor type so I assumed they were using an AC induction motor with a variable-frequency drive, like the EV1 did. I think the major players in electric vehicles have mostly abandoned DC brush motors because of their lower efficiency and the maintenance issue of replacing the brushes.

[Jeff Bartlett - Consumer Reports]

The comments here were getting a bit personal. We cleaned up the comments. Please stay on topic.

[Jennifer @ Improve Gas Mileage Guide]

EPA mileage ratings are the best you have to go on, but they specifically say that not everyone will get the mileage they say the car will get. That's because it's not just the car that determines MPG, but the driver as well.

If you don't drive fuel efficiently, your car will not get the advertised fuel economy. Also, you gotta remember to maintain your car regularly - per the manual's instructions.

As for the vehicle in this article, in addition to gas mileage, I also concern myself with cost - of the vehicle itself, maintenance of the vehicle, etc... Will this car be cost effective for most consumers, or yet another environmentally friendly vehicle out of the budget of most drivers?

We'll have to see what comes of this.

230 MPG city driving sounds too good to be true to me.