FujiAbsolute Don’t get me wrong. The GM Volt is probably a good thing. But headlines like G.M.: Chevy Volt Gets 230 M.P.G. are misleading, vulpigerating. Using the same logic, the vehicle that takes me to work and back most days (photo at left, used with permission from http://www.flickr.com/photos/rudiriet/ / CC BY-SA 2.0) gets infinitely-many M.P.G.

What’s doesn’t fit in the headline is the fact that—unlike a Toyota Prius, say—the Volt needs to be topped up with electricity as well as gas. You have to plug it in and charge it. With a cord. And pay for the electricity. Like your computer and cell phone, except the battery is way bigger. Way bigger. According to this Wall Street Journal article, GM says the car will use 25 kWh of electricity for every 100 miles driven. That’s on top of the just-over-a-penny per mile you’ll pay (at today’s prices) for gas. Where I live, electricity costs about $0.17 per kWh and fuel costs about $2.55 per gallon, and here’s a more useful analysis, still based on a slew of questionable assumptions. I didn’t break it down, but just so you know, the electricity a Volt needs will cost you about 4 times as much as the gas.

Fuel

Also not clear is where the number 230 comes from, except that it appeared on a green banner (assuming the smiley-faced electric plug is supposed to be a zero) behind Fritz Henderson in a photo in the New York Times. Google returned no hits for any of these phrases at gm.com: “230 MPG”, “230 M.P.G.”, “230 miles per gallon.”

Notes:

  • A couple of years ago, my 1989 Honda Civic, which I’d had for 8 years, gave up the ghost. It got about 44 mpg on the highway and 32 mpg in the city.  The car I had for 5 years before it was a 1981 VW Rabbit (Diesel), which got about 45 mpg on the highway and no less in the city. My 2007 Honda Fit only gets about 32 mpg on the highway, largely because of an extra 1000 pounds (over the Civic and Rabbit) needed to make it safer should an SUV or Hummer crash into me. It also pollutes less than either the Civic or Rabbit, which I like.
  • I haven’t called State Farm to ask them whether I would have to pay more for my personal liability insurance if I stretched an extension cord out the door, down the sidewalk in front of 12 neighbors’ doorways, and out into the parking lot.
  • GM is reported to have said you can buy a kWh of electricity off-peak for a nickel (that’s $0.05 for readers outside the U.S.). I don’t know where they sell that, but I’m sure I can’t afford the extension cord. There’s no off-peak potential savings here.