MNN.COM > Transportation > Cars

GM says new Volt to get 230 mpg in city driving

Rechargeable electric car would be first car to exceed gas mileage in the triple digits, assuming GM's early tests are confirmed by the EPA.
By Kimberly S. Johnson and Tom Krisher, Associated Press
Tue, Aug 11 2009 at 9:01 AM EST
Read more: CARS, ELECTRIC VEHICLES

CHEVY VOLT: The Volt is expected to have a total range of around 300 miles per charge. (jurvetson/Flickr)
 
General Motors Corp. said Tuesday its Chevrolet Volt rechargeable electric car should get 230 miles per gallon of gasoline in city driving, more than four times the mileage of the current champion, the Toyota Prius.
 
The Volt is powered by an electric motor and a battery pack with a 40-mile range. After that, a small internal combustion engine kicks in to generate electricity for a total range of 300 miles. The battery pack can be recharged from a standard home outlet.
 
GM came up with the 230-mile figure in early tests using draft guidelines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for calculating the mileage of extended range electric vehicles, said Tony Posawatz, GM's vehicle line director for the Volt.
 
If the figure is confirmed by the EPA, which does the tests for the mileage posted on new car door stickers, the Volt would be the first car to exceed triple-digit gas mileage, Posawatz said.
 
GM has produced about 30 Volts so far and is making 10 a week, CEO Fritz Henderson said during a presentation of the vehicle at the company's technical center in the Detroit suburb of Warren.
 
Henderson said charging the volt will cost about 40 cents a day. "The EPA labels can and will be a game changer for us," he said.
 
Most automakers are working similar plug-in designs, but GM could be the leader with the Volt, which is due in showrooms late in 2010.
 
Toyota's Prius, the most efficient car now sold in the U.S., gets 48 miles per gallon of gas. It is a gas-electric hybrid that runs on a small internal combustion engine assisted by a battery-powered electric motor to save gasoline.
 
The first-generation Volt is expected to cost near $40,000, making it cost-prohibitive to many people even if gasoline returns to $4 per gallon. The price is expected to drop with future generations of the Volt, but GM has said government tax credits and the savings on fuel could make it cost-effective, especially at 230 miles per gallon.
 
"We get a little cautious about trying to forecast what fuel prices will do," Posawatz said. "We achieved this number and if fuel prices go up, it certainly does get more attractive even in the near-term generation," he said.
 
Figures for the Volt's highway and combined city/highway mileage have not yet been calculated, Posawatz said. The combined mileage will be in the triple digits as well, he said, but both combined and highway will be worse than city because the engine runs more on longer highway trips.
 
The EPA guidelines, developed with input from automakers, figure that cars like the Volt will travel more on straight electricity in the city than on the highway. If a person drives the Volt less than 40 miles, in theory they could go without using gasoline.
 
The mileage figure could vary as the guidelines are refined and the Volt gets further along in the manufacturing process, Posawatz said.
 
GM is nearly halfway through building about 80 Volts that will look and behave like the production model, and testing is running on schedule, Posawatz said.
 
Two critical areas, battery life and the electronic switching between battery and engine power, are still being refined, but the car is on schedule to reach showrooms late in 2010, he said.
 
GM is simulating tests to make sure the new lithium-ion batteries last 10 years, Posawatz said.
 
"We're further along, but we're still quite a ways from home," he said. "We're developing quite a knowledge base on all this stuff. Our confidence is growing."
 
"We're very pleased with the transition from when it's driving EV (electric vehicle) to when the engine and generator kick in," he said,
GM also is finishing work on the power cord, which will be durable enough that it can survive being run over by the car. The Volt, he said, will have software on board so it can be programmed to begin and end charging during off-peak electrical use hours.
 
Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and Daimler AG are all developing plug-ins and electric cars, and Toyota Motor Corp. is working on a plug-in version of its gas-electric hybrid system. Nissan Motor Co. announced last month that it would begin selling an electric vehicle in Japan and the U.S. next year.
 
Copyright 2009  AP News
 
 
Powered by Mochila

CLOSE link:

Comments(16)

Sort by:
Posted By Anonymous - Sat, Sep 12 2009 at 4:44 PM EST

China and the BYD

China already has BYD's on the roads of Shanghai, doing taxi service! and perfected! no bugs to work out! Less pollution to breath, plug-in chargeable! Volt still languors on the draughting boards in the 'states, collecting huge government monies as it was designed to do, until GM (China) catches up with BYD, and builds a better "Volt" than we can, for less, and exports it to us for astounding mark-ups and ROI's not possible for American manufacturers, and epochs even our car markets! This is a.... More

Posted By Richard - Sun, Aug 16 2009 at 2:23 AM EST

I like this alternative

Unlike the Volt that only gets good mileage for short trips, and slow in town speeds, here's a real challenger:
http://www.aptera.com/
300 MPG! It's quick! It's exceptionally efficient! It's much closer to production! It's also exceptionally safe if the industry standard simulations are accurate. The down sides? It's a two seater, and it looks different enough to make people pause. But.... More

Posted By Dan Kooper - Thu, Aug 13 2009 at 3:24 AM EST

too good to be true

but will there actually hit the market anytime soon? It seems to good to be true. That is such a leap in technology.

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 3:51 PM EST

Snow Bound

How does it drive in snow?

Posted By Vinny61 - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 12:30 PM EST

Oh yeah?, I don`t think so...

What a bunch of bull !!, I find it really hard to believe, all of a sudden GM comes up with this car, it will supposedly get that kind of fuel mileage.Preliminary tests,how about real world tests. it sounds too good to be true if you ask me.and how about a bio-diesel motor that will charge the lithium-ion batteries,instead of petrol, or solar cells,and where do they get lithium from? not any where around the United states. what if they raise the fuel prices now and force everyone to.... More

Posted By Kevin Wright - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 12:03 PM EST

Good for GM

To EastSideChick:
The Chevy Volt will be charged by a regular wall outlet overnight at your house (just like a cellphone). Then you drive it on electric power for up to 40 miles. After 40 miles the battery is dead and a gasoline engine (exactly like what is in most cars on the road today) takes over. The gasoline engine does not drive the wheels directly like today's cars, instead it turns a generator which powers the electric motor, which turns the wheels. The gasoline engine uses.... More

Posted By peter nenos - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 11:46 AM EST

wonderful will it work?

I have an 02 buick strait six will it work on my application?

Posted By Ron B. - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 10:47 AM EST

I like the way it looks

Sweet car - both in looks and in MPG.

Posted By EastSideChick - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 10:46 AM EST

power

I am still kind of confused, though....so the car only runs on electricity for 40 miles and then it just runs on a engine? What powers that engine? I guess it's electric? Maybe someone can explain that to me better. This is neat, but where would we charge up if we weren't at home?

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 11:06 AM EST

Through an internable combustion on board generator; like most h

The batteries are powered on the road by a combustion engine. Technology isn't new, it has been around for some time... Considering that most heavy excavating & mining equipment, cranes and locomotives have been powered by electric motors, run by on board diesel generators.

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 11:09 AM EST

Good link to plug-in-hybrids

http://www.calcars.org/vehicles.html

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 10:44 AM EST

Impressive? Wait a second...

Before we get all excited, please read the following article (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/320/5883/1593).
Basically we are using a misleading measure - instead of miles per gallon (mpg), we should be using the more logical gallons per (1000) miles (the rest of the world does - or something similar - like liters per 100.... More

Posted By GreenErinF - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 10:43 AM EST

exciting

Although I realize there are still a lot of kinks to work out, this is a very exciting trend. I am interested to see what the final MPG numbers are once the EPA has confirmed its ratings on the Volt. Like any new thing, it will probably be available to only the most affluent (or those willing to sacrifice to pay for it) but then I hope it will become more popular and the price will come down for the "rest of us".

Posted By Grey Garvin - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 10:41 AM EST

the commentators on Fox....

...last night were going on & on about how GM was going to sell Volt at a loss right at first and how this is a failure because of that and yada yada. I gotta tell you, though, that I haven't been on a GM lot in ....well, never. But if the Volt came out, sure, I'd drive on by....and who's to say that I wouldn't end up buying one of their other cars. In my mind, this is nothing but good news.

Posted By Bill Signet - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 10:36 AM EST

Love it!

I think Americans are waiting for an excuse to buy American cars, beyond the Cash for Clunkers program. The Volt may be the answer.

As a Prius driver, though, I gotta tell you that its fast on GM's heels. The next model is rumored to go 94 mpg. Let the mileage battles begin.

Posted By Hudson N. - Wed, Aug 12 2009 at 12:57 AM EST

Impressive!!

The new modern world is striving for a better purpose. Starting things maybe difficult but GM started to change the way for car companies to evolve into a greener car models. Volt is a successful masterpiece. New York Post Deadly Doctors refers to an op-ed by Betsy McCaughhey, and she isn't in favor of Obamacare. The piece described a purported tenet of the public health care plan, which would create an allotment system that would deny care to the mentally disabled and the elderly. (This.... More

Add your comment

You can't fool Mother Nature
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

ADVERTISEMENT

JIM'S RECENT POSTS

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GREEN TRANSPORTATION
+ add this to my site

MNN ORIGINALS

Not sure which green way is best? Get answers from our experts.

Is your dog the Green Dog of the Year? Nominate your dog today.

Government data you need to know, in a way you can understand.

Check out eco-photos of the week, top 10 lists and more.

Learn more about everything from acid rain to wildlife.