Motor Trend fires back at Rush Limbaugh on Chevy Volt award
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Volt is rated 93 mpg on electricity alone, 37 mpg on gas generator

By Fred Meier, USA TODAY

The Chevrolet Volt got its much-awaited EPA mpg ratings today:

  • The equivalent of 93 miles per gallon (mpg-e) in combined city and highway driving while running on electricity alone.
  • 37 mpg when running on juice from its onboard gasoline-powered generator.
  • An annual average fuel cost ranging from $601 if you run it only on its plug-in electric charge to $1,302 if you run it only on its gas-powered generator. (Since most people would not be able to do either exclusively, the actual cost would be somewhere between the two.)
  • A range on electricity alone in the EPA test cycles of 35 miles.

Those will be the figures on the Volt's fuel economy window sticker when deliveries of the plug-in car begin next month. Because the car is currently the only one of its kind, the EPA sticker was designed for and is unique to Volt. The Volt is priced at $41,000, though buyers may qualify for an up to $7,500 federal tax credit and other state and local incentives.

Earlier this week, the Nissan Leaf all-electric plug-in got a window-sticker rating of 99 mpg-e for combined city and highway driving, an average annual fuel cost of $561 and a range of 73 miles in the EPA testing. The Leaf has no onboard generator and Nissan estimates its range, subject to variables such as climate and drivers' habits, at about 100 miles and then the car must be plugged in to recharge. Leaf starts at $33,800 with shipping and also qualifies for the federal credit.

GM says Volt can go 25 to 50 miles on electricity alone, also subject to variables, then a 1.4-liter gasoline engine kicks in to provide juice for the electric motor, making its range the same as a non-electric car -- a capability General Motors has advertised as eliminating "range anxiety." To electric car purists, however, that makes it not a fully electric car.

The ratings means potential buyers needs to look closely at their driving needs. Owners who can do much or all of their typical daily driving on electricity and plug in at night will get stellar mileage. But if a driver needs to use the gas-engine generator much of the time, a conventional (and cheaper) hybrid, as well as several regular gas-engine (and much cheaper) cars would provide similar fuel efficiency.

GM, on a conference call today, estimated that an average user with an average mix of driving would average 60 mpg-e over the life of the vehicle.

There are a lot of variables in the way mpg-e rating is calculated for a car running on electricity:

The electric energy has to be generated somewhere and that may involve fossil fuels or not, as in some areas of the country that get electricity from nuclear power or from dams. The EPA calculates the mpg-e rating for electrics such as the Leaf and Volt (when running on the plug-in charge) based on a formula of 33.7kW-hrs of electricity being the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline. To measure the car's energy use, it puts them through its "five-cycle tests" that incorporate varying driving and climate conditions.

-- Fred Meier/Drive On

Motor Trend fires back at Rush Limbaugh on Chevy Volt award
GM takes government bailout head-on in sappy TV ad