Originally Posted By: The Critic
http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2011/02/2011-chevrolet-volt-fuel-economy-update.html
"@spaceywilly: Total miles driven divided by gallons of gas is a bogus figure. You don't get 125 mpg or whatever in this car...ever. You get 125 miles per gallon AND ALSO some other amount of electricity that you also pay for. Gasoline can only be included on its own during the miles when the engine is running.
That's the trouble I have with the way the Volt is being presented. On the one hand, they say it's an electric car. On the other hand, the diplay says 250+ mpg when the battery is full and the car is running with the engine off. MPG does not apply in electric mode. But they talk about MPG as if the electricity is free, invisible, non-existent. Sorry, it's real and you're paying very real money for it.
The last thing anyone should do is see a number like 125 mpg on the screen and put that in an equation, by itself, with the cost of gas to figure what this thing costs to run.
It burns gas 34 mpg when the engine is on, and it consumes electricity at a rate of 33.1 kWh/100 miles when the engine is dormant and the battery is running the show."
The volt that I drove did not give an MPG figure as it was only ever operating on batteries. Just a batery and total range. It showed battery SOC during operaion and power flow. There is no mechanical traction, the more accurate way to define above is that it consumes 34 MPG when the engine is generating, and approximately 33 kWh/100 miles for traction and hotel loads.
When the battery SOC goes too low, the engine will generate and provide both traction and battery recharge electrical power. The engine does not drive the car, it is just an alternate source of DC power for operation.
