“New GM”; 230 MPG Volt, Buick Hybrid, GM On eBay
Bankruptcy? What bankruptcy? New GM emerged from a gov’ment cradled bankrupcty filing just a month ago, but it seems like business as usual at the former American manufacturing giant. At a press conference this mornig, New GM CEO Fritz Henderson wasted no time explaining a recent marketing campaign involving the numbers 23 and a smiling electrical outlet.
230 “composite” miles per gallon for the Chevy Volt, city rating of course. 230 miles per gallon? What kind of voodoo magic are they putting in those batteries?
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UPDATE: This rating has not been verified by the EPA, but is based on a new system for rating the equivalency of electric-hybrid cars. Since the Volt can go up to 40 miles on electricity alone before its flex-fuel engine kicks in to recharge the engine. This rating is a “draft proposal”, as the EPA is still working out exactly how to classify electric cars in a way that everybody can understand, and this will apply to all car makers. Per 100 miles, the Volt uses 25 kWh of electricity; for comparision, an electric blanket used for 120 hours uses 24 kWh. Fritz estimates that off-peak in Detriot, it costs just $.40 to fully recharge the Volt, about a penny a mile.
While they wouldn’t elaborate on the specifics of the EPA “draft proposal” rating since it is not yet set in stone, it could make an excellent selling point for the much ballyhooed (and expensive though yet un-priced) Volt. A 230 MPG rating would also allow GM to pursue vehicles like the Camaro SS and ZR-1 Corvette, which guzzle gas greedily. But is GM getting ahead of itself?
EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION: The EPA rating comes from electric-only driving with the Volt’s gas engine running in charge-sustaining mode. This is urban driving only. No specifics on how the EPA got this rating such as the external temperature or how it is driven, and this rating could change between now and the Volt’s launch. But for now this makes the Volt the first car with a triple-digit gas mileage rating.
New GM is about more than the Volt however. Cut down to just four core brands, New GM is taking what they can from discontinued cars and applying them to those vehicles that remain. One such vehicle is the once-promised Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid. Both Saturn and the Vue are no more, but the plug-in hybrid technology is being ushered into a newly-announced Buick hybrid vehicle. Not yet named or priced, this small SUV hybrid will be offered with either a 2.4 liter or 3.0 V6 engine, both flex-fuel capable engines. While it won’t have the same electric range as the Volt, the Buck hybrid should see a gas mileage rating in excess of 40 MPG. This would place it far above the current SUV hybrids like the Ford Escape or Toyota Highlander hybrids. Plus, marketing it as a Buick places it in a higher price bracket and allows it to be sold in China, a huge market for Buick and GM right now.
Finally, something completely unrelated to alternative fuel. New GM is planning to sell some of its inventory on eBay, starting in California, and allowing people to bid and compete for prices on cars. An interesting idea, something no other manufacturer has tried yet. Would you buy a new car from eBay?
Source: GM
While electricity is nearly free, a consumer requires two numbers, which cannot be combined, to determine the “mileage” of a hybrid: the all-electric range, and the all-gasoline miles per gallon. Combining them is at best arrogant and at worst fraudulent. Never trust a manufacturer who combines them.
Or a website which reports a combined number non-incredulously.
The rating actually comes from the EPA. Like I said, the system they used is not set in stone, and nobody would clarify exactly HOW they came to that rating. But this is what they claimed; I am just providing you the information so you can make up your own mind about it.
I have lost all faith in GM during its negligent management, and wanton disregard for its customers. Tesla and Fisker hold promise so I eagerly await any news on their behalf, but news about GM is typically more propaganda than reality, and GM execution of anything it builds is more half-baked than desirable. Hopefully, Fisker will dump the gas driven engine its chosen for a more reliable one and manufacturer.
Great catch Chris!
A
“Alternatively, the fuel and electricity use can be combined into a single metric that makes assumptions about the equivalent values of the two energy forms.
One example is the commonly used energy-equivalency of gasoline and electricity (1 gallon [gal] = 33.44 kilowatt-hours [kWh]), which leads to a metric that accounts for both, but fails to account for differences in the supply-chain efficiency of each.
Even if a different energy-equivalence factor is used to account for supply-chain efficiencies, it does not account for likely differences in the primary energy source for each supply chain.
One megajoule of coal (for electricity) may have the same primary energy content as one megajoule of crude oil (for gasoline), but these sources are certainly quite different from an economic, environmental, and geopolitical perspective.
(My note: let alone comparing gasoline v various greener mixes of electricity…Or if powered off your own solar roof = zero CO2)
Other examples of equivalency factors include cost-equivalency factors (e.g., 1 gal @ $3/gal = 30 kWh @ $0.1/kWh) and CO2 emissions-equivalency factors.
However, all metrics based on equivalency factors suffer the disadvantage of not providing useful information about net petroleum consumption impact.
Ultimately, there are a variety of stakeholder perspectives that must be addressed when devising a method for fuel economy reporting.
Motorists may be primarily concerned with vehicle operating costs and therefore may want a metric that conveys the magnitude of those costs.
On the other hand, policymakers and environmentalists may be primarily concerned with national petroleum impact and CO2 production levels and may want a metric that can be extrapolated to the fleet level.
Vehicle manufacturers, however, are obliged to focus on benchmarking and certification procedures and will also want a metric that is well-suited to this purpose.”
Woops, I left out the link to the quote - from the NREL - has been working on devising this metric fairly and accurately:
http://www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/vsa/pdfs/40377.pdf
GM has to come up with something good to get back in the game.
Any equivalency measurement MUST be based upon the total carbon base of the entire energy supply for the system. Anything less is deceitful at best, or at worst, just plain fraudulent.
I am tired of all of these large car makers exec’s and there arrogant attitudes. I am glad to see that other people are working on better cars than the volt. We have had alt fuel cars for years and all I see is the inventive thinkers are getting crushed or suppressed by the big guys. It all boils down to where’s the money not what’s good for the planet!
GM,
If I fill the tank with gasoline, charge batteries overnight and drive non-stop Volt for 230 miles. How much gasoline I have to add to fill the tank again?
GM,
If I fill the tank with gasoline, charge batteries overnight and drive non-stop Volt for 230 miles. How much gasoline I have to add to fill the tank again.