Chevy Volt: 93 PG?

GM (NYSE: GM) says the miles-per-gallon equivalent that its new Chevy Volt will get depends on how it is driven. The No.1 US car company says “The Volt is a complex vehicle that is incredibly easy to use.  And while the new fuel economy label also looks complex, it has more information than any EPA label before it.”

That may be an understatement. The EPA sticker on the Volt’s window shows that its gets an equivalent of 93 MPG when it is powered only be electricity. The number falls to 37 MPG when it is operated on gas alone. That is worse than most small economy vehicles, so drivers who buy a Volt better count on their ability to use only the car’s battery.

GM says that the Volt can operate emissions-free for 25 to 50 miles. That would indicate the need to recharge the Volt battery after every relatively short trip.

The GM announcement about fuel economy points to the weaknesses of the electric car. It is inconvenient to recharge a car after it has gone a relatively short distance. There are few “electric car service stations.” The Volt will presumably need to be taken to the driver’s home for another charge.

Widely regarded auto research firm J.D. Power recently commented that the mass market adoption of electric vehicles is a decade away. Its “Drive Green 2020: More Hope than Reality” predicts that “Combined global sales of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are expected to total 5.2 million units in 2020, or just 7.3 percent of the 70.9 million passenger vehicles forecasted to be sold worldwide by that year.” The first reason that this is likely be true, the research firm says, is that the price of gasoline will not come down enough in ten years to make electric cars a cost-effictive replacement. Power also expects that the current versions of electric car batteries don’t work well enough to result in a groundswell of consumer demand. The research firm also believes that governments will not offer enough financial support to buyers to make electric cars economically attractive.

Drivers often are confused by MPG claims related to electric cars. Nissan said its Leaf will get 99 MPG gasoline equivalents. That is, of course, if the gasoline engine of the Leaf never kicks in. And, what if the car cannot be driven far enough to get back home?A gasoline-powered tow truck will have to pull it there.

Douglas A. McIntyre