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I talked to a guy today about the Volt and he made a good point. GM claims it might cost as much as 75 cents to $2.50/$2.75 (USD) to fully charge the battery at home with the plug-in charge. Next they claim it will go 40 miles on electricity only. Well heck, many sub-compact gasoline cars get at least 40 miles a gallon, and the price of gasoline here is under $2.50 currently (this could change soon however). Most charges would be only a partial charge with the plug-in due to the fact the battery will most likely be charged to an extent when parked. It gets rather confusing. So there seems to be no real advantage in savings if you drive 40 miles or less a day and it costs $2.50 to charge it. The real money savings will have to kick in once the gasoline motor starts charging the car at the rate of 230 miles per gallon- even if you subtract 40 miles, that is still 190 mpg.
I think GM better breakdown their numbers better because in some ways it does not seem as good. It all depends on how you look at the numbers and how much you depend on the gasoline motor to recharge the battery.
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