Chevrolet VoltAge

How fast will a volt be able to go?
I live in Orlando Florida and the beach is 45 miles away on a 70 mph speed limit highway. Will I be able to make it to the beach (and back) with the Air conditioner and headlights on?
If I decide to drive to Washington DC which is 900 miles a way, can I do this at 75 mph on I-95 just by filling up the tank? How many tankfuls will it take?

the volt goes 40 miles after each electric charge. after you have used all of those miles, then the gas generator will kick in and produce enough energy to take you hundreds of miles, you can stop at a gas station and fill up your take and just go off of that. your miles will vary like they always do on every car in any condition so it is an estimated 40 miles to the charge.

I think I heard that the tank will be about 10gals in size and if the reported 150mpg proves to be true on the highway, that is a lot of miles on a tank of gas...........plus the 40 miles on the initial charge.

i heard that also. i cant wait to get the volt.

In the extender mode I think it will end up being more like 40 to maybe 50 mpg, but that's a guess. The numbers like 150 or 230 mpg is based on being charged up every day and "typical" driving. As to the size of the gas tank I'm thinking it will be more like 8 gallons. So if it is 8 gallons at 40 mpg equals 320 miles after the first 40 or so miles on battery power. If it is 10 gallons then it would be about 400 miles. Like I said these are just my guesses.

What if the gasoline fuel capacity of the gas tank
on the Volt? What is the gas milage of the Chebrolet Volt when the gas engine is charging the
batteries? In other words what could be expect for
driving range when the GASOLINE engine is being
used?

In following various articles written about the Volt, it can been said that the Volt will have a top speed of about 100 mph and will have no problem cruising at 75. The cruise range on a full tank of gas and a full electric charge will be about 300 miles, varying, of course, with your driving and environmental conditions. So a 900 mile destination should take 1 electric charge and 4 fuel stops. What the actul fuel economy will be can only be an estimate.
Perhaps the best examples for fuel economy that can be related to the Volt would be to compare similar vehicles. The Volt weighs 3,500 lbs. which is comparable in weight to the hybrid versions of the Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry, and the Nissan Sentra. These current cars return a miles per gallon fuel economy range in the mid to high 30s. The Prius and Honda Insight weigh 3,000 lbs. or less and return fuel economy above 40 mpg. An extreme example of how weight effects mpg would be the hybrid Tahoe with a curb weight of more than 5,600 lbs and fuel economy of 21 mpg.
My best estimate of fuel economy for the Volt when the battery is depleted would be about 40 mpg with the 1.4 liter gas engine and electric generator.
Your driving scenario represents only the 20 percent of driving done on the roads today. The other 80 percent of the people travel less than 40 miles each day and, in a Volt, will rarely have to be concerned about what the price of gas is.

Billtrez wrote:
My best estimate of fuel economy for the Volt when the battery is depleted would be about 40 mpg with the 1.4 liter gas engine and electric generator.


I really think that you are low on your estimate of 40mpg; I know that we really have no idea of the exact mileage stats for the Volt but you must remember that there will be no real 'load' on this 4cyl. engine when generating the battery/electric motor. Most 4cyl. engines must produce a certain amount of h.p. and torque to adequately drive the given vehicle (i.e. PT Cruiser)and this would be at a significant cost of mileage; you don't have that same burden with the Volt 'generator'.

The same can be said for a drivetrain using a CVT where the engine operates within a more efficient rev range than with a standard transmission. The Volt advantage of driving a generator rather than gears is somewhat reduced because of the loss of enegy in converting torque into electrical energy and back to torque. Current hybrid cars don't have that energy loss.
The point I'm making is that the biggest hurdle to fuel economy is weight and, believe it or not, the Volt weighs only 200 lbs less than an Equinox. If the Voltec system can give a 3,500 lb vehicle Prius like fuel economy then why even use a 400 lb 16 kw battery?
The Volt is the first electric car that actually works as a primary car (and not a toy like the Tesla). The car is being designed behave like a normal car that for most people will rarely need a fill up of gas, ever! Fuel economy is secondary.
I hope to be pleasantly surprised with better than 40 mpg fuel economy in ICE mode but I don't see how.

Would love to have a Volt expert engineer weigh in on this one.

Sure ey'll be a load. However, it'll be a non-varying load. The engine should be set to run at the most efficient RPM and torque at all times. The battery absorbs the instantaneous changes when accelerating.

I am the Chevrolet Product Manager for Volt.

The specific fuel economy ratings for the Volt have not been finalized for extended range mode (charge sustaining). Actual fuel economy that a driver achieves will vary based on driving style, use of accessories, as well as, how much of your trip is in EV mode.

The Volt will have a range of over 300 miles.

Hi Ms Landy and thanks for taking note of our thread here. The transparent progress of the
Volt developement is absolutely wonderful and the forum is noteworthy for its civility. Will you post the projected fuel economy for the charge sustaining mode when you can nail it down or wait until the window stickers are printed? I have guessed that charge sustaining mode will result in 40 mpg and that, for a 3,500 lb vehicle, it is an accomplishment that no other automaker can beat with cars sold in the US. Are we on the right track to hope that fuel economy will be this lofty or should we be content to accept the Volt as a revolutionary electric car and subjugate fuel economy to the role of aleviating range anxiety?

Ms. Landy thanks for your response;

Can you tell us the size of the gasoline tank in the Volt.........it would seem that if the tank is 10 gals of fuel, and an expected range of 300miles, that would bring the mileage down closer to 30mpg. in Extended Range mode. For an electric vehicle that may be marketed as more than a simple commuter car, this would not be impressive.
It is hard for me to believe that with 80 Volts out there being test driven, somebody does not have a good idea of the mileage in ER mode.

To quote, "It is hard for me to believe that with 80 Volts out there being test driven, somebody does not have a good idea of the mileage in ER mode."

Well, I am sure they are tweaking the computer programs etc to squeeze out the best mileage GM can get. And like GM says it's dependent on how you are driving. How about at night in a blizzard vs in the morning, 65 degrees, driving at 60 mph on a flat road with a tail wind.

My guess, and it's just a guess, think of 40 mpg and thus an 8 gallon tank, but 9 wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities.

I just read some of what Chevrolet had to say about questions and concerns regarding a reliable "miles/gallon km/litre" answer in regards to how far the chevy volt could travel in relation to the traditional ratings on gas powered vehicles. Apparently, the government of Canada is working with Chevy to work out a system to give us a layman's term answer to a non-layman's technology. Personally, I think the only answer can come with a similar structure to what you see in the newspaper with respect to "highway" mileage as opposed to "city" mileage. For those living in the city, who will never travel than the specified 40 km of travel allowed by the volt without ever using a single drop of gas; you might say that miles/km to gallons/litres is infinite, only restricted by the life of the battery. However, for those living in rural areas, who travel farther distances, traditional fuel mileage comes into play. either way, compared to the gas mileage offered by any traditional petroleum powered car, due to the fact that the fuel is used to charge the battery and not consumed directly by the engine, I don't feel that it is even necessary to determine this, as the volt would surely smash any mileage record ever set by any gas guzzling engine. Just my two cents on this particular bit posted by Chevy. The future is definitely exciting!

@ Todd. Hi my name is Dave and I'm a PR guy for Volt. The Volt has a controlled top speed of 100 mph. It can travel on electricity up to 40 miles without an engine assist. When the battery runs low, an engine generator kicks in to keep you going. As long as you refuel (like a traditional car), you can keep driving. The total range - on a full battery and tank of gas - is more than 300 miles.

I can't wait 'til the day when I have a Volt in the driveway and say "I don't bother with gas anymore."
When the battery runs down my Volt goes on using some gas but only until I plug it in again. Nice.
Fuel economy is important during the times I will need to use gas, but more often than not, I'll waving to a Prius driver as he stops for gas and I don't.
Winning a debate over fuel economy becomes the last hurrah for petroleum. IMHO, the Volt won't have bragging rights in that competition. So if my Volt gets really good gas mileage I'll be happy, but it's not that important anymore.

Someday soon gas stations will be reserved for truck stops and hybrids.

I don't believe it will get anywhere near even 40 mpg for a lot of reasons. The first, most important reason is that corporations ALWAYS state their benefits early and often. 40 mpg or better would be a benefit, much less the 150 mpg sated elsewhere. They are hiding something. I've been around corporations for way too long. They are avoiding answering this question as best they can. I've looked everywhere and they are being very, very ambiguous. That is a sign that things are not going to be very good.

Another reason is that the person stated below 300 miles per tank (including charge). So, the tank would have to be about 7 gallons to get 40 mpg. 10 to 12 gallons seems more likely, which would put the mileage at about 20 to 25 and it certainly could be worse. If the mileage is anywhere near 30 mpg, everybody should be happy.

The technical problem is this. With a gas engine running directly to the wheels about the best seen is approximately 35 mpg. Now, you have just added an extra conversion into the process. That ALWAYS costs in efficiency when you add a conversion. It's not magic, they are going to lose mpg due to the conversion. So, once again, the best I could estimate would be in the 20 to 25 mpg range and ,more likely, in the 15 to 20 mpg range.

The Volt engineering team has been remarkably open on all phases of developement of the Volt and they deserve applause. I understand that your mistrust of their ambiguity regarding fuel economy lets you think that their hiding poor fuel economy. But if ICE mode fuel economy was in the range of small suv's then GM would have gone into damage control mode long ago.
The energy loss of converting torque to electricity and back to torque is offset by the rate of electrity needed to regenerate the lith/ion batteries.
Even though a typical hybrid operates the ICE through a relatively fuel efficient CVT transmission, the gas motor still must increase output directly on how hard you step on the gas pedal. Say you step on the gas to go from 0 to 60, The Volt is not bound by that direct relationship. The Volt can recharge the batteries at whatever rate works best. It could recharge the batteries in 9 seconds (the time it takes to go from 0 to 60) or it could recharge the batteries in a hour. Just like running a mile. You use a heck of a lot more energy in running a mile in 4 minutes than you do in walking a mile in 15 minutes.

So I believe that the Volt team just hasn't figured out the best recharge rates for the 3 modes of drive that Volt uses. When they do I hope that the fuel economy is in the 40 mpg range.

Don't forget that the Volt is a really quiet car. When the ICE has to rev up to 4k rpm it gets as loud as a hybrid. Are the Volt guys trying to stay out of that rev range?