The scuttlebutt about the Chevy Volt launch in 210 has started with a flourish. General Motors has announced it expects the car to get a whopping 230 miles per gallon in city driving. Although that number has been met with some skepticism, what are some examples of how far you could go?
230 miles per gallon! The figure is simply ludicrous when you really start thinking about it. The Toyota Prius is one of the most fuel efficient cars on the road and the Volt will get five times the fuel mileage! That is simply staggering. In fact, it is so staggering it is somewhat hard to picture how far that is, so let's look at some examples.
I live in San Diego. I drive a Mini Cooper and get just over 400 miles to a tank full. A tank is about 12 gallons of gasoline. With my commute, I end up filling up about three or four times a month. Now imagine if my Mini got 230 miles per galloon. One full tank would be good for 2,760 miles. I wouldn't have to refill my car for a month and half. I currently have 22,000 miles on my car after owning it for a year and half. During that time, I would've needed to fill up at the pump only nine times!
How about from here to there comparisons? I could drive my Mini from Los Angeles to New York City on just slightly over one tank of gas. I could drive round trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco about four times on a tank of gas. I could also do a single round trip from New York City to Miami on just one tank of gas.
Is there a catch? Of course. You'll note I used my Mini as an example. This is because the Volt has a range of 40 to 45 miles on its electric motor. While the 230 figure looks great, it is based on the idea that you would just be commuting and running errands around town. Since this is what most people do, the total mileage would be low enough that the electric motor on the car would be doing nearly all the work in lieu of the electric motor.
The Chevy Volt is going to have real problems living up to the 230 miles per gallon claim in the real world. Still, it should easily get in the high hundreds, which is more than amazing enough.
Dirk Gibson is with DCJAutoParts.com - where you can get
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