Will the Volt Really Get 230 MPG, or is it BS?

When GM announced that its electric car, the 2011 Chevy Volt, is expected to get 230 miles per gallon, people were dazzled – and doubtful. Is that really possible? What does that number even mean? How can the EPA even measure fuel consumption that low?

According to GreenCarReports.com, it’s all in the assumptions. Here’s one, among many others:

40 miles, no gasoline

The Volt, remember, stores energy in both a gasoline tank and a battery pack. And it will always prioritize using electricity from the battery to power itself before it ever switches on the gas engine. Unlike a conventional hybrid car, though, the battery pack is usually recharged by plugging the Volt into a wall socket.

But the Volt’s 16-kilowatt-hour battery pack only gives it 40 miles of electric range. To eliminate “range anxiety,” after that, the Volt switches on its engine to run a generator that provides power to its electric motor. That gives another 300-plus miles of range.

So depending on how many of the Volt’s miles are run on grid power, and how many by burning gasoline in the engine to generate its own electricity.

GM often cites the statistic that more than 70 percent of all US vehicles travel less than 40 miles a day. If your usage falls within that level, your Volt would never turn on its engine–and never use a drop of gasoline. That’s gas mileage of, well, infinity.

On the other hand, if you drive a Volt 140 miles every single day, still recharging it at night, it would travel 40 miles on grid power and 100 miles on gasoline. If the car gets 50 miles per gallon with the engine on, that’s two gallons burned, 140 miles total, or 70 mpg.

The more daily miles over that first 40, the higher the proportion of gasoline burned–and the lower the overall mileage.

EcoGeek notes that there are a few concerns about GM’s claim, and addresses them in order of validity. Here’s the first:

The EPA rules for fuel economy are draft rules, and there is no guarantee that these are the numbers that will be on the car.

This is absolutely true. GM took draft rules from the EPA, applied it to their car, and then created a gigantic advertising campaign celebrating the results. This could be an attempt by GM to force the EPA into keeping these new guidelines, or it could just be GM jumping the gun. Either way, it doesn’t seem like a good idea. If this number gets into the cultural consciousness and then people walk onto dealer lots in two years and see the fuel economy listed at  80 / 60, people are actually going to be disappointed by 80 MPG. That’s a situation GM doesn’t want to put itself in.

Other questions about the rating include whether the EPA could be fudging the numbers since the government now owns GM, and whether using electricity is worse than using gasoline.

Meanwhile, Nissan is now claiming that its own electric car, the Leaf, will get 367 miles per gallon. The company even took a shot at the Volt on its Twitter, saying:

“Nissan Leaf = 367 mpg, no tailpipe, and no gas required. Oh yeah, and it’ll be affordable too”

The Leaf will also be cheaper than the Volt, making it more accessible to everyday consumers  at a retail cost of $25,000 compared to the Volt’s $40,000 price tag.

What’s really important here is that we’ve got active competition between car companies to produce the greenest, most fuel-efficient car. That’s a huge step, and assuming it continues, we should get a whole new spate of ultra-green vehicles in the next few years.

Link [Green Car Report] + [EcoGeek]
Photo credit: GM

Will Consumers Kill the Electric Car?

Are consumers the biggest threat to the rise of electric vehicles? That’s what Bill Vlasic of The New York Times is exploring, as we reach a crucial point in determining the future of American automobiles. Cost is the biggest hurdle – the Chevy Volt has a price tag of $40,000, too high for many people.

Ford has bet the farm on the Volt, and other automakers are turning toward the electric car concept as well. The American auto industry realizes that drastic changes are necessary to survive and they’re pouring billions into the technology in a gamble that consumers will bite.

From The New York Times:

These are risky bets. There are no guarantees that consumers — for all their stated concerns about global warming, dependence on foreign oil and unpredictable gas prices — will buy enough of them. They may balk, for example, at the limits on how far they can drive on a single charge.

So far, consumers have proved to be fickle about how much they care about fuel economy. When gas prices soared above $4 a gallon last year, sales of the market-leading Prius hybrid surged so quickly that Toyota could not build them fast enough. But demand sagged when gas prices dropped below $2 a gallon.

Industry analysts also note that electric models could be a harder sell than hybrids, which have a gasoline engine to assist and recharge battery packs, freeing them from the need to be plugged in.

Since many people seem apprehensive about the idea of running out of juice while traveling, the NYT suggests that car companies allow customers to change their batteries on the fly, setting up stations to allow quick battery changes or plug-in charging outlets.

The more people buy electric cars, the more demand there will be for batteries to be produced in mass quantities right here in the States, which would substantially reduce costs. Car companies will have to make a big manufacturing investment in order to improve the chances of success for their electric models.

It’s tough to say right now, with the state of the economy, whether there will be real demand for electric vehicles priced at almost double the cost of a hybrid. Gas prices will inevitably go back up, though, and people will once again become concerned about the daily costs of running a gas-powered vehicle, so there’s hope.

Link [The New York Times] via [Dot Earth]
Photo credit: Flickr user McPig

How the Chevy Volt Could Get 100mpg

GM vice chairman Bob Lutz boldly proclaimed at the 2007 Detroit auto show that the new Chevy Volt would get up to 150mpg based on a variety of driving conditions. Now that the model is headed for production, Lutz’s claim will have to stand up to government-approved ratings. The process of deciding exactly how to rate a new generation of hybrid-powered cars is still being worked out.

From The New York Times:

Often criticized as the killer of kilowatt cars, G.M. is now the champion of their revival. The Volt, which the company plans to begin selling in November 2010, should easily double the fuel economy rating of today’s mileage hero, the Toyota Prius. The Prius, which carries a 46 m.p.g. rating in combined city and highway driving, is a conventional hybrid that uses modest amounts of electricity to minimize the fuel consumed by its gasoline engine.

The Volt takes the opposite approach, relying mainly on electric power, with its gasoline engine running only when needed to stretch the driving range. The 100 m.p.g. automobile, which once seemed an impossible dream, will become an official E.P.A.-rated reality with the Volt’s arrival.

G.M. calls the car an extended-range electric vehicle, or E-REV. For the first 40 miles after leaving home with a fully charged battery, the Volt will consume no gas at all, according to G.M.; when the gas engine does fire up, it will only drive a generator — the engine is not connected to the wheels. Owners will recharge the battery overnight from a wall socket, which brings the Volt into the category of plug-in hybrids.

Since the Volt does consume gas on trips longer than 40 miles, it’ll have to have a guide to gas consumption on the window sticker. But it will be hard to determine a meaningful mileage rating on a car capable of going through the government test cycle without using any gas at all. The New York Times called the EPA’s task of helping automakers determine these mileage figures as “a job only slightly less daunting than weather forecasting.”

The way the EPA calculates these numbers has changed a bit lately to reflect compensating factors. A good example is the Tesla Roadster, which never consumes petroleum while driving. Its EPA-required window sticker lists the energy consumed in kilowatt-hours of electricity, which are 32kwh per 100 miles in town and 33 on the highway. Translated to the more familiar miles per gallon using a textbook conversion factor, you get 105 mpg city and 102 highway. But use the adjustment factor devised by the Energy Department, which takes factors like scarcity of fuel and production and distribution efficiency into account, and you get a staggering 256mpg city and 249 highway.

So, it will be interesting to see just how far over 100mpg the Chevy Volt actually ends up getting. GM hopes to separate the Volt from ordinary hybrids, defining its mileage in a new way. We’ll find out when it debuts next year!

Link [The New York Times]

Bob Lutz Chats with Stephen Colbert About the Chevy Volt

Bob Lutz appeared on Stephen Colbert last night as part of the media blitz for the newly-debuted Chevrolet Volt, GM’s electric car that will be available starting in 2010.  Lutz, the Vice Chairman for Global Product Development, was grilled about his previous statements about global warming and got in a quick plug for the Volt.  Check it out:

Link [YouTube]

GM Gives Close-Up Look at New Chevy Volt Electric Car

GM CEO Rick Wagoner debuted the new Chevrolet Volt electric car to an audience of thousands on Tuesday, giving the world its first look at the vehicle set to go on sale in 2010.  The Volt is powered by electricity stored in a large T-shaped lithium-ion battery pack that runs the length of the car.  It takes a few hours to charge, costs less than 2 cents per mile to drive on electricity and runs for 40 miles per charge.  The price hasn’t been announced yet.

From CNN:

To charge the batteries, drivers will plug a cord into one of the ports just ahead of each of the side mirrors. The cord can then be attached to an ordinary home electrical outlet.

As the battery begins to run down as the car is in use, a small gasoline engine will turn on and generate enough electricity to drive the car about 300 miles.

The Volt’s battery pack goes where the “transmission tunnel” would be in a conventional rear-wheel-drive car. That means the batteries don’t take up cargo space as they do in some hybrid cars. Unlike its smoothly rounded front, the back end of the car has a sharp, angular shape. In the rear, where air flows together as it trails off from the vehicle, sharp angles help smooth air flow.

Some people are disappointed that the production version of the Chevy is far less sporty looking than the original concept vehicle, but the question that most have is, how green is it? The most environmentally friendly aspects of any electric car are lower emissions and the fact that they’re not consuming as much petroleum, but it still has to be charged with electricity, much of which currently comes from coal-fired power plants.   And, beyond the 40-mile charge, when the gasoline engine kicks in, the MPG decreases rapidly – from an estimated 100 miles per gallon in all-electric mode to 50 miles per gallon on a 100-mile trip or 35 miles per gallon on a 200-mile trip (stats via CNET).

Of course, once the day arrives that we can charge cars like this on solar or wind power and use non-food-sourced ethanol, the green score will go through the roof!

Link [CNN]
Photo credit: General Motors