Chevy Volt to Get 50-MPG Once Electric Charge Used-Up Says Top Engineer

Remember all that nonsense about the Chevy Volt getting 230-mpg? Well, after the EPA denied coming up with the number and Chevy admitted there was no standardized way to compare the fuel consumption of a range-extended electric vehicle like the Volt with a conventional gasoline vehicle, the whole business died down for a while – or at least it did after Nissan claimed its fully electric Leaf gets 367 mpg.

To give a better idea of what drivers should expect, top Volt engineer Andrew Farah recently told the Detroit News that in testing the car is getting 50 mpg once the range-extending gasoline engine kicks in. For the record, that’s after the car has driven for 40 or so miles on pure electric power. Now 50 mpg might not sound all that impressive considering the Prius already gets 51 mpg in the city, however, for those first 40 miles no gasoline is used at all. What this means is that for those who travel 50 miles each way and can power up at work, a 10 gallon tank of fuel should deliver 25 full days of commuting.

Taking all this into account, the 230-mpg number doesn’t sound so ridiculous after all.

More concrete fuel economy numbers are expected to be released later this year or in early 2011, around the launch of the car.

[Source: TheDetroitNews]