The Chevy Volt - a question on MPG?

[lguz]

I understand the Volt will get 40 miles per charge. For me, that would cover my commute every day, with mileage to spare.

My question is this: I frequently travel about 200 miles (one way) to visit family. After the 40 miles EV is used, what mileage will the Volt get? I've looked at their site, not a lot of information on that.

Also, does the gas engine power the battery, like the Prius? Of does the Volt, after using the 40 miles of EV, then run on gas only?

Thanks all. I'm really, really interested in this vehicle. The $40k price tag doesn't bother me, a $7500 credt from the gov't will offset some of that, and I could virtually eliminate fuel costs for my commute.

[John A]

The 230 MPG is based on a formula. Once the gasoline engine kicks in, it will probably get between somewhere around 40 MPG on the highway. Chevy claims it will go 640 miles on a single tank, but they haven't revealed the size of the tank. For an average 15 gallon tank, that works out to 43 MPG.

Unlike most hybrids, there's no connection between the gas engine and the drive system, and the engine is only used to charge the battery. On the plus side, this means the engine can run at a constant speed regardless of how fast you're driving, and this makes it very efficient.

[RU Quazee]

Had a blurb on the news the other night saying the thing "may" get up to 230 mpg. Find that incredible, myself. As you state, the first 40 go by battery power. Then as I understand it, a tiny gas engine kicks in to compliment the electric motor, or possibly run a generator.
I ran a Honda Insight for a while, got 57 mpg with that, which is a hybrid gas / electric motor, where the electric half boosted the power of the gas half ( a tiny 3 cylinder thing ) and then coasting or braking charged the power cells up again. No plug in required. However the 2000 year production all had issues with the power cell management system and would all fail at around 60 to 80,000 miles. Upgrading after that failure to the guts out of a later model fixed the problem. All models after 2001 never fail no matter what the mileage.

[Chris G]

It will get 230 MPG's based on the 40 mile commute in which it only uses a little gas for a systems check at start-up. After the 40 miles it works like any other hybrid, and will probably get about the same fuel economy as a Prius or Insight.