230, 8/11

[Japher]

Yeah, tomorrow we will all know!

What, exactly, I have know idea. Something to do with an electrical car that competes with my dryer for power or something.

[-Jrabbit]

They're finally announcing the Chevy Volt.

[Heraclitus]

Yay, technology from the early 90's to the rescue!

[VetLegion]

I've bet my friend that by the year 2030 there still won't be 10% of the cars in Europe with electric-only propulsion.

[Japher]

230 mpg (city)... that is nice

It will probably look like a dildo though

[KrazyHorse]

It's not actually 230 mpg. It's 230 mpg if you drive a certain distance with the batteries fully charged. The actual figures are something like

40 miles on electric power
50 mpg on gas from there on

In order to get some idea of the true mileage of the car we have to account for the cost of charging, which the above figure does not.

The Volt's battery pack is apparently 16 kWh. In my neck of the woods, electric power is ~13 cents per kWh, including all taxes, while gas is ~2.50 a gallon.

The cost to charge the Volt fully, assuming no waste in the charging process (likely not a terrible assumption) is therefore 0.13*16 cents = 2.08$

At 40 miles per full charge, this gives a driving cost of 2.08$/40miles = 0.0502$/mile. Converting to an equivalent cost in gasoline, this is ~2.50$/gallon / (0.0502$/mile) = 49.8 mpg

In other words, 230 mpg is just a bull**** number that disguises the true cost of fueling the car. The car gets ~50 mpg cost in both hybrid and plug-in mode, at the current ratio of gas price to electricity price.

[Kitschum]

Huh?

[Japher]

The cost to charge the damn thing is equivalent of paying $2.50/gallon of gas. Current national average is $2.64/gallon, and that's due to recent spikes. So, where is the benefit?

We have cleaner ways to create electricity, but that doesn't help with the costs.

[KrazyHorse]

Huh?

What?

[Japher]

In Cincinnati they say "please"

annoying as hell.

[Sava]

I went to Cincinnati for a hockey tournament a couple years ago. And let me say, the city could be wiped off the face of the Earth and it would be no big loss.

[Japher]

I live about 20 miles east of Cincinnati. And let me say, if the city was wiped off the face of the Earth I wouldn't notice.

[Felch]

So if it actually gets 50 mpg, where the hell does the 230 number come from?

A little joke about 230.

"I have a dentist appointment"
"What time"
"Tooth hurty"

It's a knee slapper, ain't it?

[KrazyHorse]

I explained it to you: they count the first 40 miles as being infinite miles per gallon (because you're running on battery power), then add in that you drive an extra x miles on gas.

The x they get is probably from some study of what "typical" users do.

The thing is that they completely ignore the cost of charging the battery. It's absolute nonsense. In actuality the cost of electricity and the cost of gas as they are currently makes both modes of operation equally expensive, making the electric mode equivalent to ~50 mpg

[Felch]

So it's marketing bull****? I understand now.

Still a car that can run on battery and uses the gas as a backup has no business even trying to quantify mpg. It's like if I had a gas powered car that ran out of fuel, and I got out to push it. Would I rate it in "potatoes per mile" or some bull**** like that?

Using a back up source of power to illustrate your power consumption is intrinsically deceitful. Especially since, as you pointed out, there's no real difference in price between electric and gas power.