Comments on: GM Claims 230 MPG City for 2011 Volt http://ecomodder.com/blog/gm-claims-230-mpg-city-2011-volt/ Wrench smart - driver smarter - save fuel Fri, 18 Nov 2011 08:51:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Neil Blanchard http://ecomodder.com/blog/gm-claims-230-mpg-city-2011-volt/comment-page-1/#comment-4477 Neil Blanchard Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:53:34 +0000 http://ecomodder.com/blog/?p=1516#comment-4477 Hi, Apparently, if you drive exactly 50 miles in the Volt, you use the battery for the first 40 miles, and then you burn 0.2 gallons to go the last 10 miles -- which yields 250mpg. http://apteraforum.com/showpost.php?p=35957&postcount=26 So, they backed it off by 20mpg. Woo. The much more important number is the Volt gets ~50mpg while in the charging mode. And it goes 40 miles on a fully charged battery. That's the real numbers... Sincerely, Neil Hi,

Apparently, if you drive exactly 50 miles in the Volt, you use the battery for the first 40 miles, and then you burn 0.2 gallons to go the last 10 miles — which yields 250mpg.

http://apteraforum.com/showpost.php?p=35957&postcount=26

So, they backed it off by 20mpg. Woo.

The much more important number is the Volt gets ~50mpg while in the charging mode. And it goes 40 miles on a fully charged battery. That’s the real numbers…

Sincerely, Neil

]]> By: Rob http://ecomodder.com/blog/gm-claims-230-mpg-city-2011-volt/comment-page-1/#comment-4475 Rob Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:01:15 +0000 http://ecomodder.com/blog/?p=1516#comment-4475 Hmm. Something's fishy. I'm getting about 21 m.p.g., and spending about $0.15/mile. So, (15/2.75)*21=114.5 m.p.g. Not a fair comparison exactly, since kilowatt hours are not directly convertible to joules in a gallon of gas, but let's try. A kilowatt hour is 3.6 megajoules, so 25 kilowatt hours is 90 megajoules. A gallon of gas has about 125 megajoules of chemical energy available by oxidation. 125 megajoules of electricity would take the car (125/90)*100 or 139 miles on a gallon of gas worth of electricity. I can't find a way to justify 230 m.p.g. Are they pulling a Pelmear and figuring that the electric motor takes them 4/5 of the way and ignoring that and the other 1/5 is a 46 m.p.g. gasoline motor? I don't know, but I don't see a way to yank 230 m.p.g. from the numbers given. Hmm. Something’s fishy. I’m getting about 21 m.p.g., and spending about $0.15/mile. So, (15/2.75)*21=114.5 m.p.g. Not a fair comparison exactly, since kilowatt hours are not directly convertible to joules in a gallon of gas, but let’s try. A kilowatt hour is 3.6 megajoules, so 25 kilowatt hours is 90 megajoules. A gallon of gas has about 125 megajoules of chemical energy available by oxidation. 125 megajoules of electricity would take the car (125/90)*100 or 139 miles on a gallon of gas worth of electricity.

I can’t find a way to justify 230 m.p.g. Are they pulling a Pelmear and figuring that the electric motor takes them 4/5 of the way and ignoring that and the other 1/5 is a 46 m.p.g. gasoline motor? I don’t know, but I don’t see a way to yank 230 m.p.g. from the numbers given.

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