Causecast

by AARON HORWITZ, Contributing Writer

Could the world-renowned Toyota Prius soon become more irrelevant than that old 27-inch TV/VCR combo in my living room? The answer is yes, if Chevy (and a few others) have anything to do with it.

GM announced today that its new Chevy Volt can reach 230 miles per gallon (MPG) in city driving. Nope, that wasn’t a typo. With the news, the Volt becomes the first mass-produced automobile to achieve a fuel economy of more than 100 mpg. The Prius, currently the gold standard among hybrid vehicles, currently boasts an estimated 48 city mpg, so the question must be asked: how the heck did Chevy quintuple that? Well, the answer to that isn’t so cut and dry, but that 230mpg figure is fairly deceptive.

First off, the Prius is not a true electric- it actually runs off of gasoline like most other cars on the road. Rather, it uses an energy-efficient engine that burns gas more effectively. The Volt however is a true electric car…with hybrid capabilities. Unlike the Prius, the Volt can be plugged in, recharged, and capable of running on no gasoline at all. Its most impressive figure is that it can run up to 40 miles before ever having to make use of its gasoline engine. While that may not sound like much, consider that the commute for 80% of Americans is less than that on a daily basis.

However, after 40 miles, when the Volt switches over to gasoline, estimates claim that the mileage drops to around 50 miles per gallon. But that doesn’t account for the 40 miles it just drove. If one were therefore to drive an extra ten miles (50 miles total now), which would use about 0.2 gallons of gas, the traditional EPA methodology would suggest that the car gets 250 miles to the gallon. Stretch that over a 300 mile drive and that figure drops to ‘just’ 62.5 mpg. Still impressive in its own right, but no 230.

Charging the Volt is very simple and pretty cost efficient as well. An overnight charge in your garage, which takes about 8 hours, would cost only 40 cents during off-peak hours. Lets be optimistic here and say you drive 40 miles or less five days a week, you’d spend a total of $2.00 fueling your car during your work week; that’s much less than the average price for a single gallon of gas. Pretty cool, right?

So in short, while the 230 mpg figure is misleading, the Volt could still spark a revolution, and will be by far the most fuel-efficient vehicle out there…until others like Nissan’s Leaf can top it. Chevy is also confident that the vehicle will provide an enormous jolt to fledgling GM’s sales figures.

At current, the Volt is scheduled to release in November 2010.

Photo by igloowhite, flickr

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