Earlier this week I reported about Motor Trend having found out that the Volt isn’t purely motivated by electricity and how the on-board gasoline “range extender” engine kicks in to help out when traveling above 70 mph. The lead foots over at Motor Trend have released some real world mileage figures for the Chevy Volt. 127 and 75 mpg. Click past the jump for the explanation.
It turns out that if you take a fully-charged Volt and drive it like a sane person, you can get 127 mpg. If you run the air conditioning at full blast and drive more aggressively (including running the Volt up to its speed-governed 101 mph), you end up closer to 75 mpg.
Those numbers are still better than most cars, which may average in the mid to high 20-mpg range on the highway. And this was done mostly in the city.
While the exact cost to recharge a Chevrolet Volt may not yet be known, it most likely won’t be the $35-55 it takes to fill up most passenger vehicles these days, and having travelled 299 miles on around 2.5 gallons of gas, the Volt showed itself to be far more efficient than any other hybrid I’ve heard of.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why it doesn’t bother me much that the Volt’s gas engine helps propel it in certain circumstances.
by John Suit
Source: Motor Trend
We must all keep in mind that daily driving is where the Volt’s technology will save you money. It will not save you money when comparing it to 700 mile journey’s and comparing it to the Prius. However, it will kick the Prius’s tail end when charging at home and driving back and forth to work every single day. My trip to work would be the cost of electric alone. I would fill up once a month. The Volt wins over the Prius in the application GM Engineers designed it for. Prius lovers, drive from NY to LA. Volt owners will hold down the fort (at work) while your playing.