GM announces that 2011 Chevrolet Volt will get 230 mpg city!
by John Neff on Aug 11th 2009 at 9:19AM 
In case you missed it this morning, General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson made some big news just one month after the "new" GM emerged from bankruptcy protection.
First of all, Henderson announced that the GM FastLane blog would now be used to solicit feedback on new designs directly from customers. Over the next two years, GM will be launching 25 new models in its four remaining "core" brands (Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC).
After the webcast ends, we'll going over to the design dome for a preview of the new large XTS and small ATS models from Cadillac. The latter will slot in below the CTS and be aimed directly at the BMW 3-series with rear- and all-wheel drive. The XTS is expected to be based on a stretched Epsilon II platform.
The biggest bombshell is Henderson's announcement that the "230" marketing campaign that's been floating around for the past week is related to the Volt. The EPA has released a new methodology for determining a draft fuel economy standard for extended-range EVs like the Volt, and under this new procedure, the Volt will have a composite urban fuel economy rating of 230 mpg! On the electric side, the Volt will consume 25 kW/hours per 100 miles. That makes the Volt the first car ever to get a triple digit fuel economy rating.
According to Frank Weber, vehicle chief engineer for the Volt, the number is based on combined electric only driving, and charge sustaining mode with the engine running. He declined to get specific about the proportions, but did say that the urban cycle would be predominantly EV only. The EPA has been studying real world vehicle usage and is developing the formulas to try and provide a representative number of what most customers could expect to achieve. In addition to the composite number, the new EPA stickers will likely also get numbers for mileage in charge sustaining mode and electric efficiency in EV mode.
Stay tuned for more news from this morning's event as it happens.
UPDATE: check out some more detail on the 230 mpg rating.
Gallery: 2011 Chevy Volt
[Source: General Motors]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Brett 9:25AM (8/11/2009)
Nice! But they do realize this is going to add to the pressure of the Nov. 2010 availability schedule that in the other post we hear is at risk..
Hype is great, when you can perform and back it up.
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Snowdog 9:27AM (8/11/2009)
Snake oil lives!
It is based on an arbitrary usage pattern. If you fully charge the car and put a gallon of gas in it, you will be lucky to see 80miles, no where near the 230mile sleazy advertising number.
You could also say have a 35 mile daily commute and charge it every night, and drive 41 miles per day on the weekend. You could then claim 10000mpg. It is complete BS.
It is completely misleading and slimy way to hype the car.
What you really need to know is:
1) EV range:
2) Charges sustaining MPG for when you exhaust EV range.
(you could have both of the above on both a city and highway cycle).
That is the honest way to describe the economy you can achieve. You don't buy gallons of electricity so reporting the MPG of electric mode is completely misleading.
I was ready to give GM the benefit of the doubt. With slime ball move like this, no more. Yes the EPA is complicit, but I remember the news a few months ago that GM was lobbying for the EPA to do this. I guess they won, and reason lost.
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Brett 9:33AM (8/11/2009)
Snowdog,
Chill out. The real number is based on driver activity. This is clearly a variable and a standard has to be declared such that we can compare PHEVs. This is not a conspiracy theory to pump the cars.
You should check out an article from the NYTimes about how they developed the standard to determine battery life for cameras. Same issue-
Snowdog 9:39AM (8/11/2009)
This discussion has happened before. Most agree it is extremely misleading to use these kind of arbitrary numbers, especially when EV range and charge sustaining MPG tell you everything you need to know to cover any driving pattern. Some arbitrary composite number tells you nothing. It is merely hype.
I am very disappointed in both GM and the EPA for choosing hype over substance. If this is the first taste of the "new GM", I have indigestion.
Snowdog 9:51AM (8/11/2009)
A challenge for Brett:
Now that we have the Volt "MPG" number. Can you tell me approximately how much gas it would take on a 600 mile day trip?
Hint: You can't because they really haven't told us anything about the fuel economy of this car at all.
GoodCheer 10:16AM (8/11/2009)
I'm in complete agreement with Snowdog on this one, though I don't blame GM. The real sleaze balls are at the EPA, when they allowed themselves to be bullied by a bankrupt company into developing this total useless BS rating system for PHEVs.
If we can all recall, they were initially proposing to only give the fuel economy in "charge sustaining" mode. This is unequivocally what they should have done, as it would answer one of the two questions we'd like to know.
Let's all say it together:
Range/mileage rating for PHEVs MUST be
a) range on battery
b) mileage in the city driving cycle (zero sum battery state of charge)
c) mileage in the highway driving cycle (zero sum battery state of charge)
Even if that's not how the PHEV works (ie, even if it uses a blended energy source mode when the battery is full), this is the only way to make a rational and useful assessment.
Doug 10:17AM (8/11/2009)
"What you really need to know is:
1) EV range:
2) Charges sustaining MPG for when you exhaust EV range.
(you could have both of the above on both a city and highway cycle)."
100% agree.
This 230MPG number is nonsense and completely misleading to consumers who don't know any better. We should blame the EPA for allowing it.
Throwback 10:20AM (8/11/2009)
"The EPA has released a new methodology for determining a draft fuel economy standard for extended-range EVs like the Volt, and under this new procedure, the Volt will have a composite urban fuel economy rating of 230 mpg!"
snowdog your beef should be with the EPA not GM. If they are following the rules, you need to blame the game, not the players.
Snowdog 10:23AM (8/11/2009)
Throwback. Read my last paragraph. There was a story months ago that GM was pushing the EPA to have this kind of regime. I do blame the EPA for caving, but GM was lobbying to have the right to make these kind of outrageous claims.
Chris H. 12:05PM (8/11/2009)
I agree with Snowdog on this issue. I think that this misleading information will only further erode GM's already shaky credibility with North American consumers.
As an object lesson in "Why it's wrong to lie to people", I propose that we put Fritz in a Volt out in the middle of the desert, 230 miles from the nearest gas station, with exactly 1 gallon of gas in the tank. Just to be nice, we'll allow him a fully charged battery. :)
Ernie 3:27PM (8/11/2009)
In that case, you've just proven a point for pure EVs: go all electric so that you *know* what your milage is like!
guyledouche 9:30AM (8/11/2009)
TYPICAL CORPORATE FLUFF. Nuff said.
GM- Instead of manufacturing dreams and false hopes, can you actually get back to manufacturing vehicles? The Volt would be a good start, although I doubt we will see one in dealerships before 2012.
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nrb 9:38AM (8/11/2009)
The EPA rating system for plug-in vehicles (or anything not pure gasoline ICE) has absolutely got to change.
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Joe 9:41AM (8/11/2009)
Man, I was really hoping for an EV. This is stupid. That number is bogus.
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Steve 9:52AM (8/11/2009)
This is just a ploy to sell a vehicle with a gas engine and a battery that hardly takes you
anywhere. Also Electric cars are not measured in Miles Per Gallon
they are measured in range per charge. The engine will be running
constantly at a specific RPM to maintain a charge contributing to the
same pollution as if it were just a regular ICE engine. Wake up! GM is
in it to make money not be environmentally friendly or present new
technology.
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SkiD666 9:57AM (8/11/2009)
@Steve,
Is there any automotive company out there that is in it just to be 'environmentally friendly' and profits be damned?
Remember, the Volt is just a bridging technology to be used until a 'real world' solution is found for battery capacity, at some point in the future all cars will be electric, we just don't know if that will be 10 years away, 20 years away, etc.
BlackbirdHighway 10:03AM (8/11/2009)
Umm, no that's how a Prius works, but not the Volt. The Volt runs on battery alone for about 40 miles, then the ICE starts up to keep going until you have a chance to stop and plug in again.
John Lee 9:58AM (8/11/2009)
What 230mpg means to me is that the engine is used so infrequently, that it probably makes more sense to spend that money weight and volume on batteries instead.
I want an electric car.
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Joeviocoe 10:11AM (8/11/2009)
I won the speculation contest on the last blog at
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/08/10/gms-secretive-230-ad-campaign-gets-a-potential-hint/2#comments
> GM should not claim equivalent MPG based on arbitrary data such as:
> 40 miles per day for 5 days each week = 200 miles at infinite mpg (no
> fuel at all used)
> Then on Saturday and Sunday, 60 miles each day which is 20 miles each
> day on gasoline = (80 miles at infinite mpg) and (40 miles at 30 mpg)
> = 320 total miles driven on only 1.34 gallons! This equals 238 MPG.
I should feel like a winner but I don't. We all lose. This is just hype!
You KNOW it is BS when using this rating you can get a MPG ranging from 32 mpg 1000 mpg.
It is an insult to our intellegence to think they need to tell us what will be the overall number based on abritrary miles driven per day.
If you are buying a car, you should know how to calculate your real MPG based on the two factors that they should give:
Average electric mile range
MPG when running the range-extender
We can do the math! Don't insult us.
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Chibi Chaingun - blackhivemedia.com 10:37AM (8/11/2009)
Why do you guys bitch and moan SO MUCH about this car? This is a great step forward and you have the ability to get insane gas mileage, or run in EV mode and most importantly it's designed for mass adoption unlike the elite pricing of electric cars out there that are worth a damn.
OOOH, I get it. Because it's not a Toyota. :)
Go get a Prius, get worse mileage, and get it over with already.