So GM announced today that the Volt will get 230MPG in the city. They also unveiled the charger (110/220V presumably). However the numbers aren’t official – its GM’s estimate based on the EPA’s draft mileage standards for plug-in and E-REV vehicles. And GM isn’t too keen on disclosing the highway mileage either, but they are confident that the combined rating will be 100MPG+.
If GM is targeting 100MPG or more, and the EPA remains firm on the 45H/55C split, they’ll need to manage about 60MPG on the highway by my calculations (which is higher than the rumored 50MPG, which would mean combined 88MPG).
The figure is very impressive, and rest assured that once the promotional campaign kicks into high gear, GM will have a large amount of work explaining to people they need to plug it in every night in order to get that 230MPG figure. GM should build some sort of mapping app, where you can type in various destinations, put them in order and it would use Google Maps or something to calculate your daily and weekly MPG numbers. From there, they could give you your personal Volt MPG – a figure that would include things like listening to the radio, A/C, etc. Judging on my daily commute and various other activities, my personal Volt MPG is probably somewhere around 275-300MPG (fill up once every 8 weeks and drive 200 miles a week).
The main issue is that, at least with the Volt and other mixed-fuel vehicles is explaining to people not only how they operate but how to get the optimum fuel economy. Hopefully, GM would put in some sort of notification system if the user gets out of the habit of charging the vehicle nightly, along with other user behavior reminders/modification. I’d love it if I parked it in my garage and it would text me to remind me to plug it in if I haven’t.
(via: GM Fastlane Blog )
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