Will the Chevy Volt's 'Shaky' 230 MPG Save General Motors?

Aug. 12, 2009— -- After years of building big trucks and SUVs, the Big Three Detroit automakers for the last year have been pegging their hopes on fuel-efficient hybrid cars.

The most-dramatic and hyped of these is the Chevrolet Volt, which General Motors now says could get up to 230 mile per gallon, the first mass-produced American vehicle to ever achieve triple-digit fuel economy.

It's an eye popping number that critics say is misleading, but GM is planning to center it's marketing campaign around the number.

The Toyota Prius gets only 50 miles per gallon, granted the Prius is already on the road and the Volt isn't expected to hit showroom floors until late next year.

But let's back up a minute: that 230 mpg is a great attention-grabber but it might not really be accurate on a car that will in some cases not use any gas at all.

That's because, unlike most hybrids, the Volt runs only on electric power for the first 40 miles after a recharge. After that, a small gasoline engine takes over to recharge the battery, giving it a total range of more than 300 miles. On other hybrids, the gasoline engine kicks in from the start, whenever the driver demands hard acceleration or the car is going up a hill.

Detractors, like the tech Web site Endgadget.com says GM's 230 figure, which has not been verified by the EPA, is "shaky," pointing out that people who drive more than 40 miles a day will never enjoy that kind or efficiency.

GM says the figure was arrived at using the EPA's revised methodology for electric cars and is a "composite" number.

Regardless, most Volt drivers will see their gas bill dramatically drop. But what about their household electric bills? Each night they will have to plug in the car just like most Americans also recharge their cell phone, iPod and BlackBerry.

Right now, electric bills are relatively affordable. According to GM, the U.S. average cost of electricity -- approximately 11 cents per kilowatt hour, that a typical Volt driver would pay is about $2.75 for electricity to travel 100 miles, or less than 3 cents per mile. A conventional car getting 25 mpg would use four gallons of gas to travel that same distance. At $3 a gallon, that trip would cost $12 or 12 cents a mile.

On ABC's "Good Morning America" today, correspondent Bianna Golodryga summed up the Volt this way: "This is not your grandfather's GM."

And that's exactly what the troubled automaker hopes people will think as it tries to rebuild itself after bankruptcy.

"A car that gets triple digit fuel efficiency will be a game changer for us," GM CEO Fritz Henderson said yesterday.

But GM has competition in the race to dominate the hybrid market.

Nissan is set to unveil its new all-electric Leaf next year, while Honda will roll out the hybrid gas/electric Insight. The Leaf promises to get more than 350 miles to the gallon. Both are expected to cost between $10,000 to $15,000 less than the $40,000 Volt.

Don't expect the Volt to be the silver bullet that will save the auto industry. GM will only roll out 60,000 Volts by 2013 and the technology could take 15 to 20 years to become mainstream, according to some analysts.