Volt 2.0: Ruess "It will leap-frog... the competition"

While I'm no big fan of the Volt.....or even GM lately......that just isn't true.
It is a PLUGIN Hybrid so you can state just about any MPG figure that you want.

IF......your daily commute is less than the battery threshold so that the gas engine ONLY runs every 6 months to burn out some stale gas, then you could rightfully claim an MPG figure in the thousands, and many do. And it is just as meaningless as 230.

 

Ahem.
The proposal was all GM; when GM withdrew the proposal after public ridicule, EPA canceled further consideration.

The sequence of events and EPA protocols does make it easy for manufacturers and fanbois to spin things as if the EPA was the instigator, but reality is different and known to anybody who bothers to learn how the EPA operates.

 

There's no point of advertising anything over 100 MPG.

It only servers to confuse & mislead, since the return beyond that point drops off significantly:



That real problem is not informing people of actual KWH and GALLONS consumed.... which some Volt owners absolutely refuse to do, focusing on EV miles instead... which does not represent a true measure of fuel-economy, nor does MPG.

 

There is no proper context. We all know the variance within EPA testing results and real-world vary dramatically. Beyond 100 MPG, that variance can be greater than the value itself.

A consumer choosing a 300 MPG vehicle over one listed at 230 MPG may not use any less gas, based on how the vehicle is actually used. And even if they did get exactly what the sticker states for testing results, that's only a difference of 15 gallons over the course of 15,000 miles. That's just 450 miles of travel for a 30 MPG vehicle. That same "70 MPG" difference equates to 350 gallons of gas when comparing that same 30 MPG vehicle to one which delivers 100 MPG instead. That's 10,500 miles of travel for the 30 MPG vehicle.

Context is far from clear and will basically never be represented properly in terms of MPG. The only appropriate method is stating KWH and GALLONS. For example:

300 MPG for 15,000 miles = 50 gallons
230 MPG for 15,000 miles = 65 gallons
100 MPG for 15,000 miles = 150 gallons
75 MPG for 15,000 miles = 200 gallons
30 MPG for 15,000 miles = 500 gallons

Notice how higher MPG doesn't actually make much of a difference? Notice how that MPG is achieved is not told?

Then, there's the reality of how far a person travels before recharging. That makes comparisons even between like vehicles unrealistic. Between different vehicles, it's even more difficult. Since it takes a lot more battery usage to compensate for a less efficient engine, that mismatch complicates matters tremendously. It's a mess!

How could vehicles appropriately depict efficiency without having kWh quantity information?

 

Why, by quoting the ever so asinine MPG(e), of course !

 

nice. The volt has the highest user satisfaction of any gm vehicle.

It seems to people most unhappy with the volt are people that bought other cars, or have a political agenda.

From the on-star data average mileage is going 100 miles on a gallon of gas plus 22 kwh of electricity. 82% of trips use no gas at all, so ymmv depending a great deal on the route and how often you recharge (how many trips between charing, or if charging during trips how much)

I expect the next generation will use even less gallons of gasoline per year for the same usage patterns.

 

That is one horrible stat.

 

Really? That's amazing!

 

OK, but the stat should be put in context: we are mostly talking about people who like EV and who took advantage of cheap lease deals for ~ 3 years.

And yes, much the same can be said of the PiP

 

Wow! That is horrible.

My 100-mile average is 1.36 gallons plus 9.1 kWh.

I had no idea Volt was so much less efficient. What a great example of MPG being misleading! Are you sure that is correct?

 

Really ? I thought it was obvious from the moment the actual EPA numbers were published. For a while I pointed out to Volt fanbois that they were going to save trivial to no money on fuel costs but reality is not their strong suit.

And while I can understand the 'electricity rather than petrol' stance, my strong impression of the Volt demographic is that their other cars are GM gas guzzlers. Meaning they are basically FOS. Not exactly a demographic to base an industry on.

 

Exactly, more MPG does not mean higher fuel economy. Average Volt efficiency is 60.5 MPGe while yours is 61.4 MPGe. My first year average was 75 MPGe.

Another way of saying, more EV range does not mean higher fuel economy.

The electric economy (or the lack of) brings down the overall efficiency down, along with lower gas efficiency.

High speed with battery operation isn't a good idea. First, it takes a long time to charge. Second, the battery pack, motor and electronics for that speed add a lot of weight. Third, you indirectly pay with lower gas efficiency, later. Oh, and higher price tag for a smaller car.

For some, downsizing to a 4 seater was worth the surefooted heavy SUV-like ride. They also think electricity is free with zero emission. Can't reason with them.

 

Jeff, 50% EV with PiP could probably get you similar result as Volt with 68% EV.

The difference is much lower electricity consumption.

Didn't you know Austingreen works for GM, specifically at OnStar?

 

Yes, that is one of many things GM withholds. Instead, they flaunt the total miles. The lack of any effort to prevent incorrect assumptions is really annoying. Some would call the lack of detail greenwashing, knowing it contributes to misleading.

Anywho, that real-world OnStar ratio as of this very moment is 62% EV.

And remember, that misleading comes about from people believing the EV value from PiP is the only time plug-supplied electricity is used. Many people have no idea that blending is counted at HV.

 

GM is the company that spent YEARS proclaiming "40 miles on 8 kWh."
I actually find GM to be somewhat refreshing, in that I know that they will always spin so fast and hard they might as well lie.

 

I don't quite see the horrible in it. I am not absolutely sure of gm's accuracy, but yes those are the best numbers we have for the full fleet of volts. For comparison to individuals, I would choose the self selectors, which are the drivers in volts stats. There the median is 78.9% electric miles, with 1 gallon of gasoline burned for every 160 miles for an mpge of 69.5. Your mpge is 61.3 a little better than the average of the full fleet (60.5), but far worse than most on volts stat self reporters ended up with in the cars. Volts stat calculates epa electric use so the electric mpge may be off. Another study found 15% of 2012 my volts in california went further than 40 miles on a full charge.

I would strive to understand statistics a little better. individual owners are only single data points in over a billion mile samples

I don't know how gm keeps the statistics on electricity use. The gas usage is tracked though. Detailed data was made available to austin energy and other organizations when gm passed 500 million electric miles. We had a large number of government officials speculate that people simply wouldn't plug-in these cars. Some of them don't, but it is a small minority and included in the data.

I have no business or personal relationship with gm. I have consulted to bmw and toyota. Information is available on the volt but some people don't want to look. Toyota does not want to be part of the austin energy study, and has not provided any information, which is rather sad.