Doin the Math…

Posted on by March 28, 2014

documented cost to operate a Chevy Volt…

Eric Bolling (Fox Business Channel’s Follow the Money) test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors.

For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine. Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles.

It will take you 4 1/2 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.

According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery. The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned so I looked up what I pay for electricity. I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh.

16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery. $18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery. Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg. $3.19 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile. The gasoline powered car costs about $15,000 while the Volt costs $46,000.

Edit- As readers have commented, it appears the $1.16 appears to be significantly inflated-  if it’s $0.16 per kWh then the numbers become $2.56 per charge = $0.1024 per mile.  So basically the same as a gasoline powered car.

My bad, should have done more research… sigh

So the Government wants us to pay 3 times as much, for a car that costs more than 7 times as much to run, and takes 3 times longer to drive across the country…..

REALLY ?? Where do I sign!!!  

Oh wait a minute… reality check… I’ll stick with my 2009 6.2 liter Yukon, 350mi range at 85mph, average day’s drive 800 miles and I only paid $44,000 for it!!!

Comments

Doin the Math… — 55 Comments

  1. How much did the US Taxpayers dump into GM to underwrite the R&D and the sales price of the Volt?

    That is an even bigger scandal than the dismal performance.

    Tesla, on the other hand, was not developed with government money and seems to have a good business model. The US Government is slapping it with sanctions because it is sold on the internet and not in dealerships…

    • You really need to check your facts. It is STATE governments like NJ that have not allowed direct sales of the Tesla… not the Fed.

      Tesla also received government incentives to get their technology to market.

      Also, GM paid back most of their government loan.

      I don’t recall people complaining when REAGAN bailed out Chrysler back in the 80’s.

      Pertain to the ‘dismal’ performance of the Volt. Have you ever driven one???

      I have.. and they’re an amazing vehicle. The technology will be used for decades to come… in particular when we switch to fuel-cell based vehicles… which will be 100% electric with no gasoline engine at all.

  2. The left love those little cars and Mass Transit because it limits your freedom of movement. If you can go where you want, when you want that’s just too much independence. And everyone knows us hicks have to be fenced in for our own good.

  3. I don’t know where the heck you are (just started reading the blog the other day), but continental US rates per KWH typically run from $.09 to $.20 (and those are the extremes). It’s about $.15 where I live.

    I still think the volt sucks, but that does change the math somewhat.

  4. And you forgot the biggest expenses, to wit…

    a. infrastructure… all them charging stations along interstates and in parking structures and along tree lined roads.

    b. all the gas, coal, ZOMG! NUCLEAR! power plants added to produce the extra kilowatt hours needed. Not to mention coal ash depositories, nuke reprocessing, and waste storage, and huge natural gas transport systems.

    Besides the cost of the vehicle in electronics rare earth elements and battery replacements.

    Still looking eco friendly?

  5. My primary ride is a 1994 Chevy K2500, extended cab, long bed — with that wonderful 454 (7.0 litre, for the modern) engine. Uses a fair amount of gas. But I was thinking of getting a new ride for a bit, and figuring how much I could save on gas. Um… then I did the arithmetic. I can drive Big Red, the amount I drive any more, for 12 years before I could save the price of a new car.

    Don’t think so.

  6. I’ll keep my ’11 Avalanche LTZ, 450-500 mile range @ 80mph. Premium sound system, leather, heated/cooled seats. Great view of the road from the drivers seat. 350+ mi from home to Colo Spgs 1/4+ tank left, 5hours, fresh as a daisy when I get there.

  7. Yeah, that would work so well where I live, with the nearest grocery store about 7 miles away. Not to mention that we’ve got potholes up here in which you could lose a small car. Keepin’ my Sante Fe, thanks.

  8. Sounds like just the bunch to run healthcare, Oh wait…

  9. I’m about 99.9% certain your math is off… if you’re paying $1.16 / kWh you’re paying a LOT more than market rate.

    I currently pay only $0.13 per kWH. I’m guessing you’re probably paying $0.16 per kWH, making your estimated cost to charge the car only $2.56.

  10. I thought GM stood for Government Motors. It seems that everything that is for the betterment of man and the environment (ie. windmill’s, recycling, etc) cost more than just using what please you. Like, I would use recycle printing paper if it didn’t cost a dollar more than regular ‘tree killing’ paper.

  11. “So the Government wants us to pay 3 times as much, for a car that costs more than 7 times as much to run, and takes 3 times longer to drive across the country…..”

    Heck, by government standards that’s a bargain.

    • Math isn’t your strong suit is it?

      Where can you buy a new car for 1/3 the cost of a Volt?

      I mean… really? You think you can buy a new car for $11,000 ?

      I have friends with volts that love them and get well over 250 mpg on average over a years time.

  12. My boss, PhD engineer has one. His round trip commute to and from work is less than 10 miles a day. Our electrical rates are $0.0548 per kWh which is $0.86 to charge the car each night at a complete discharge. So following the authors logic it cost him less than 4 cents a mile.

    The second thing was he paid $31K for the car so payback is much faster. We take it to the BNA for travel and it has no problems with the 140 mile round trip.

    For a commuter car it handles and moves along very well. I would never have it as my only vehicle but as a second car it works out well.

    I will agree that Uncle Sam had no reason to subsidize it’s development.

  13. Double check your Kwh numbers. The average price people in the U.S. pay for electricity is about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/10/27/141766341/the-price-of-electricity-in-your-state
    I own a volt, and I love it. I’m no greenie, but with my short commuting distance, I rarely use gas. And the town I live in gets almost all of it’s electricity from hydro and wind, so I am not just transferring my consumption from one fossil fuel to another.

  14. Not that I doubt the dubiousness of the utility of a Volt, but where is this guy that he is paying that much?

    I found this table for electricity cost per kW/H broken down by state: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_5_6_a

    The range of cost I found for the CONUS is about $0.07 to $0.20 per kW/H.

    That is, unless there is a lot of loss when charging the battery, i.e. it takes significantly more than 16 kW/H consumed from the wall to fully charge the battery.

    • Maybe she was doing total cost including generation, delivery and taxes

  15. Lithium-ion batteries have a charge efficiency of ~80%, it takes 20kWH to charge that 16kWH battery pack.

    It costs me $0.10 per kWH according to my electric bill. They do include fees that can throw off the cost significantly, but I have to pay those regardless of whether I have an electric car or not.

    By my calculations it would cost me $2 to charge that battery pack. My Neon gets 34 m/gal (I’m no hypermiler but use some of the same tricks), which comes out to $0.094 per mile, versus $0.125 per mile of the Volt. I paid $5k for that 2000 Neon in 2004, so am more efficient running and capital cost.

  16. $1.16/kwh? UMMM…where do you live? its around $.10 /kwh where I live..So it cost 11 times what I’m paying where you are? I agree they are not as eco-friendly as they appear, with the added charging infrastructure, rare earth batteries etc, but I think your charging cost calculation is way off.

  17. Maybe you should move somewhere that isn’t gouging you for electricity. a KWH costs about 5 cents in Seattle. I don’t know where you live, but I couldn’t afford to charge my iPhone there.

  18. The numbers are a bit fuzzy, but the Volt is problematic when we consider the “carbon footprint” of producing electricity. We also need to account for the toxic waste problem of changing out the battery, plus the additional cost of battery. That cost is around $2300.00 or more. The battery is guaranteed for 8 years, but you have to figure in the additional battery cost, plus regular maintenance costs.

  19. All- I took the quote directly from the report. After looking at your responses, I agree the numbers are wrong. I’ll fix it.

  20. I looked at the Energy Information Agency electricity rate schedule link posted by tirno and my Oregon rate was about 10 cents per KWH. Then I looked at my bill and divided the total by that month’s usage and got 17 cents per KWH. In other words, so many fees and taxes are tacked on that the actual KWH price is meaningless. That said, as a former manufacturer of an all-steel tool that took a lot of welding, sawing, punching, and drilling to produce, I could turn out about $20,000 worth of product per month from a small shop using about $50 worth of electricity in the process. Electricity is the best bargain in the industrialized world, and anybody who thinks their bill is too high isn’t even attempting to limit their usage.

    As another commenter pointed out, any dramatic rise in electric car usage will fry the grid in no time — we are in no way prepared as a nation to replace the daily energy use total represented by gas and diesel fuel with electricity. Anyone advocating more nuclear power after Fukushima needs their head examined. Thirty years ago I went to a lecture on wind energy by Whole Earth Review’s tool editor J. Baldwin, an early advocate of various alternative energy systems. During the lecture he admitted crunching the numbers for a popular small home wind energy system and discovered that if the unit ran full-blast for twenty years, it would generate enough electricity to smelt the copper for its windings. Pretty depressing. At least he was wise, and honest, enough to recognize that the mantra must be “energy return on energy invested” (EROEI) unlike most greenies who feel we can magically move forward by spending more energy to manufacture and install something than we will ever get out of it.

  22. Oh, it’s not just that; the impression I get is that the only reason that sort of cack even seems remotely comparable is because petrol is heavily taxed and unreliable inefficient hippiemobiles are heavily subsidised.

    That’s just what I’ve heard, though.
    So best taken with a big pinch of salt.

    Still, I wouldn’t be surprised.

  23. And yes, there’s the infrastructure as well. Over here we’ve got some stories of people running cars on fish-and-chip shop waste oil, and it sounds like a brilliant idea – until the other shoe drops, and it occurs that while half a dozen people can run their cars on waste oil in a town with twenty or so fast food shops, you’ll have a bloody hard time running every vehicle in the place on the stuff.

    Not to mention, by that point the government would’ve put a tax on the stuff just on principle.

  24. Coconut- Good points too, and the whole waste oil thing NEVER tells about the problems with clogging injectors or fuel lines or any ‘other’ little problems… Much less having every dog in three counties chasing one down the road… 🙂

    • A bit like combat, then; ‘saving the planet’* is definitely glamourous, but no-one wants to hear about disemboweling your car and pouring evil, gaia-poisoning solvents through the pipes because running a petrol car on non-petrol combustibles isn’t a great idea.

      Though I hear you can run a diesel on pretty much anything that won’t curdle in the fuel tank.

      Similarly, fighting is heroic- except when you’re fighting the wrong sort of wogs, the kind that mysteriously transformed from savage barbarians into oppressed noble savages living in harmony with nature while you were traveling over to shoot them -but most people seem to leave out all the shaking and vomiting and sudden trips to the portaloo afterwards.

      I suppose there’s a reason for it though; when you spend your day job wading waist-deep in waste, you don’t want to hear of someone doing something very similar somewhere very different, you want to hear tales of daring and adventure.

      *Seems to me there’s some interesting theological implications in the idea that humans have the ability to both doom and save the world, but I don’t think this is the right venue for them.

  26. The battery for these death traps cost $32,000 or more to replace.
    They last approx.100,000 miles give or take

    • Yup.. not really good for cold weather… but the technology will be used in future cars that use fuel cells.

  29. “So the Government wants us to pay 3 times as much, for a car that costs more than 7 times as much to run, and takes 3 times longer to drive across the country…..”

    Exactly how did “the government” enter this article? I am unaware of any program to market Volts to US citizens, did I miss something?

  30. Living in the frozen tundra state of Wisconsin, where winter seems to last 6+ months out of the year, I’ll stick to my Jeep.
    It’s paid for, has 4-wheel drive, and I can laugh as I pass the lesser vehicles stuck in major drifts.
    I’ll think about an electric car when:
    1. They last 200 miles on a single charge.
    2. They cost less than a year’s wages.
    3. They come in 4-wheel drive.
    4. They can run just as efficiently in sub-zero weather.

  32. Well, full disclosure requires me to state that I hate the Volt. However, I don’t think I’m biased so much as informed. The Volt would not have been conceived without the “generous” contributions by our wise leaders in D.C. The car should have been called the “Bailout”, but nobody seems to call anything what it is any longer. That said, I feel compelled to make a few corrections. The actual electrical energy consumed to charge the battery is not likely 16 KWh. I understand a substantial charge remains to protect the battery from excessive discharge which is dangerous for this kind of battery. I believe a proper figure is on the order of 10 KWh. So, that corresponds to more like 12 KWh of electricity consumed to travel the 25 miles (12 because there are losses in the battery charger and battery during charging). Doing the math shows that one will travel that 25 miles for less than when using gasoline – but at what cost elsewhere? That’s why I hate the Volt. Now, just to show that I’m NOT some “right wing” zealot, I’ll say that I do like the new compact vehicle soon to be released by Elio Motors. That’s something that actually makes sense for both my wallet AND the aching consciences of all the misguided chicken little greenie hippies out there who want to save use all from ManBearPig.

    • Marcos, it appears you’ve never even been up close with a Volt, let alone drive one.

      You twisted your ‘facts’ to fit your agenda of bashing this amazing vehicle.

      Don’t like the Volt.. fine… don’t buy one!

      But why the need to lie about it to make it look bad?

      Why would you defend big oil?

      The Volt saves you tons of money in the long run… oil changes,maintenance, gas… all save money with a Volt.

      Certainly the range on battery power needs to increase, but even as it is I know people that average over 250 MPG with their Volt… over a years time. Sometimes the MPG can peak over 400 mpg. One friend only filled his tank 4 times last year.

      The Elio has been ‘supposed to come out this year’ for at least 10 years now.

      Hate the Volt as you will, the technology developed in the Volt will pave the way for all future cars… in particular fuel cell vehicles that you can fill and drive 100% on electric for hundreds of miles.

      But I’m sure you’ll find some way to hate those too.

      Why do you hate clean air so much?

  33. As a Volt owner for over a year let me sayu this article is complete rubbish. Either the author did not operate the car properly or simply lied, one of the two. I achieve 40 miles per charge every time and my average MPG when on gas is 42. My total range with a full tank and a full charge is 387 miles. My lifetime MPGe is 131 combined. So I call BS on this blatent anti-Volt bit of propganda and shame on the author for spreading FUD.

  34. I own a 2014 Chevy Volt and I think it’s a great car. As someone who commutes under 40 miles per day, my Volt gets me to and from work, with plenty of charge left to run errands. I’ve got close to 5000 miles on it, of which 4825 are electric. I bought a level 2 (240V) charger for my home and installed it myself, cutting charging times to less than 4 hours.

    In Michigan I pay 13 cents per kWh for electricity. I was spending about $100/month on gas for my Ford Fusion hybrid, which I traded in. Because of the record cold winter, the engine ran quite a bit, necessitating a single fill-up of gas at a cost of $22. My electric bill increased by about $22/month, but my gasoline bill dropped to $3.67/month ($22 divided by 6 months of ownership), for a net savings of $74.33 per month. After dealer incentives, my almost-fully-loaded Volt (I passed on the Bose sound system and navigation system) was a hair over $31K out the door. I passed on the $7500 tax credit as well. Our government deficit is big enough, and I didn’t need the handout.

    Back in 2008, I was working on the GM account as an EDS employee. There was an “all hands” call down in the cafeteria, and it was GM’s announcement that it was going to begin production of the Volt, rather than letting it be another concept to die a quiet death. George W. Bush was still the president, and Obama had yet to receive the Democratic nod for presidential candidate. It should further be noted that Bush authorized the first GM bailout in late 2008/early 2009, before Obama assumed office. So while GM’s bankruptcy and second bailout were on Obama’s watch, the first bailout came on Bush’s watch. And thus to call the Volt the “Obama car” is a bit of misnomer.

    Rick Street said the battery for these “death traps” costs $32K to replace. Not true. The replacement cost is about 9% of that, and the Volt gets solid 5-star crash ratings. To date, not one person has died in a Volt. In fact, here’s a story of a young lady who was driving a Volt when blasted by a drunk driver. She walked away from the accident with a some bruises and stitches. No permanent injury. http://www.hybridcars.com/young-woman-in-chevy-volt-survives-severe-drunk-driver-crash/

    There are also plenty of Volts on the road approaching 150,000 miles with little or no loss in battery capacity.

    Another handy feature of the Volt is a small cubby in front of the gear shifter that very conveniently fits a Glock 19.

    Disclosure: I am a 2014 Chevy Volt owner and NRA life member, but I do not own any securities in General Motors, nor do I have any plans to acquire any GM securities within the next 30 days.

  35. The only people who can afford plugin cars are those who can do math!

  36. I drive a volt and pay 0.09 cents per kW. I have gone 3000 miles and have used 8 gallons of gas. NO the volt is not for everyone but for me it works! And as far as charge times…. 3.6 hrs. Average for me to charge from 240v when at approx… 20% battery remaining. To the owners who commented they will keep driving their internal combustion powered cars/trucks that’s fine if it’s working for you but how’s it working out when you pull up to the pump once or twice a week and pump in 50, 60,70,80,90,100 bucks of fuel???? Just another blogger blogging BS oh wait it’s from a blogger so it must be true….bahahahahhhaaha gashole. Go here and see what the back story really is… https://www.facebook.com/groups/chevyvoltowners/

  37. Doin the Meth…
    This author must be on drugs. An analysis piece like this requires data, assumptions, and math. He got every single element wrong.

    Here is how the rest of us do math.
    The Volt has an EPA range of 38 miles on a charge. Real world it will go 25 to 50+ depending on driving conditions. In the almost full year since I have been driving a Volt, I almost always get 38-42+ miles on a charge for long trips. It gets worse in the city because I know I will make it between chargers and I therefore drive it like I stole it (its quite fun. I nearly always take all cars off the line. Sadly it is electronically limited to 101mph) so for his road trip comparison, I will use 38 miles on EV. Then the car switches to gas. The fuel tank is 9.3 gallons and on road trips I typically see 37-41mpg, though my current lifetime average over 9680 miles is 36.85 on the 1835 miles Ive used the gas engine for. Once can also see from this that I do 81% of my driving in EV mode and the remaining 19% using gas.
    The author then makes the very awkward assumption that once a Volt switches to gas, it cant refiull the tank again until the battery is charged. That makes just as much sense as saying he cant refill the gas tank on his Yukon until its empty. Weird. So first off, the total range of the volt at 60 mph is 40mpg x 9.3 gallons plus 40 miels electric is 412 miles, not 270. (wow, that’s bad math!) So, If I wanted to go 270 miles at 60 mph, first off it would take me just as long as any other car that was going 60 mph. I don’t ever “wait” to charge my battery. My battery charges while I sleep or sit at work so saying I have to add 10 hours on to my trip time is ridiculous at best. It is also inaccurate. The car charges in 8-12 hours (depending on the amp setting) from the portable 110V charger that comes with the car. It charges fully in 4 hours from a 220V charging station. (so many bad assumptions! Its hard to correct them all!)
    Next the author talks about the cost of operation. Wow, he really screwed this one up. My electricity is $0.09/ hour. His is probably $0.16, but not the $1.16 that he claimed. Hawaii, the most expensive power in the US is only around $0.50/kWh. The battery in the Volt IS in fact 16.2kWh, he got that MOSTLY correct. The problem is that he didn’t bother to learn anything about the Volt. The Volt maintains its 10year warrantee on its battery by oversizing the battery and only using a portion of its capacity. There are 10.6usable kWh in the battery. People with home chargers that track usage have reported that the charger consumes about 13.2kWh to put this 10.6kWh in to the battery. That’s roughly an 80% efficiency. So some simple (for some people anyway) math shows us that $0.09/kWh times 13.2 kWh divided by 38 miles per charge yields a cost of $0.031 per mile. When the car switches to gas, using my power rate and my lifetime average fuel economy, it costs $0.104/mi and that is using the recommended premium unleaded. Premium unleaded is recommended because people with these cars tend to have a tank of gas for 6 months or more and the premium has more fuel stabilizers in it. For a long road trip, regular could be used as well. The care also has a pressurized gas tank and a bi monthly automatic test run of the engine to make sure gas does not go stale. They thought of everything. This car is truly a technological marvel. Given my particulare mix of driving then, the Volt costs $0.045/mi to operate. On the other hand, the authors 2009 Yukon 6.2L get 12 city and 19 hwy. so on a long road trip it would cost $0.192/mi to operate. He claims my car costs 7x as much to run, but when you use REAL numbers and do REAL math (instead of meth), you realize HIS car cost 4.26x as much as mine to operate per mile (other maintenance is also lower on the Volt. 2 years between oil changes, regen braking reduces brake wear, etc). So its pretty clear that the Volt is cheaper to operate.
    The cost of the Volt was also misrepresented. The author claims that the Volt costs $46,000. A fully loaded 2013 Volt does cost about $46,000 before the $7500 federal tax credit (put in place by the Bush administration) . Mind you the base model was $39,185 and then there was the tax credit. In 2014 GM has reduced the price by $5k. The base model 2014 Volt is now $34,185 but after the tax credit (Thank you GW!) its only $26,685. The author claims to have “only” paid $44,000 for his Yukon. Gee, what a deal.
    As his parting shot, the author claims that he can go 350 miles on one tank in his Yukon at 85mph. The Volt can actually go farther than that. If charged and filled it will go 380 at that speed. If the battery is depleted it basically matches that range at 344miles. He also claims to be able to do 800 miles in one day. So can the Volt. It will need to fuel up once in between but I don’t know many places where gas stations are more than 370 miles apart so I don’t see that being a problem. The real problem is that if he were to go 800 miles in one day at 85mph, he will spend $243 on gas (assumes regular unleaded $3.65 which is current for my area) whereas the Volt would cost $85 (assumes using PREMIUM gas at $3.85). So while I think comparing how cars do on 800 mile road trips as opposed to comparing the typical commuting ranges of normal people is a cherry picked case to make his point, I’d personally rather drive the Volt and save $158 dollars on gas in ONE DAY.
    In short, the author got every single point wrong. He really should do (more?) research before spouting off on topics he knows nothing about.

    Some other interesting facts about the Volt and GM that electric car haters seems to get wrong:
    The Volt debuted at cars shows in 2007, Obama took office in 2009. You cant really call it an Obamamobile now can you? Perhaps a Bushmobile? R&D for the Volt was not directed or underwritten or anything by the US government. The Volt technology was built upon the GM EV-1 of “Who killed the electric car?” fame that drove our streets from 1996 to 1999 in response to favorable public response to the GM “Impact” electric vehicle prototype in 1990. (so it’s the George HW BushSeniorMobile?)
    The GM bailout sucked. The left and the right both hated it. Just like the banking bail outs. That’s on GM to prove they were worth saving, and I think they are starting to show us they were. Of the $50billion spent on the bailout over $40 billion has been recovered by the US taxpayer and the US government has sold ALL shares of GM at this point. Repeat, the company no longer has ANY government ownership. In the process of saving an American car company, we did help to maintain manufacturing jobs in the US, something that we all know is important for our economy to be stable. So, if you want to buy American, consider a Chevy Volt, you’ll help maintain energy independence, keep Americans working, and in the long run, save money driving a car that you will enjoy (Chevy Volt is ranked #1 in customer satisfaction).

  38. Your ‘math’ perfectly illustrates what you tools are letting the right wing do to the educational system in this country.
    1. There is more than enough power on the grid (no matter how it’s generated), as energy consumption from inefficient light sources and appliances is phased out. (Yeah, I know…what about your ‘freedom’ to consume as much energy as you want, even though it belongs to all of us.)
    2. Your basic premise is entirely wrong….wrong…wrong. The car gets 40 miles on a charge. It would have to be close to 0 degrees to take that down to 25, unless you don’t know how to drive.
    With all the low end torque of that electric motor, I can leave your pickup in the dust, either from a stop, or on the highway.
    I hate to tell you, but no matter what you do, it’s going to go in this direction. Spreading falsehoods and showing your own bias and ignorance, notwithstanding.

  39. I drive a Volt. You are wrong on many points. The shortest range I have ever seen -9F temperature was 28 miles. The furthest I have traveled on a single charge is 63 miles. I put both numbers there because they both occurr just as often. In the 20,000 miles I have driven this car 15467miles are all electric. My electric costs $0.05/kWh. The car only uses 10.5kwh of the 16kwh battery. It takes 13kwh to charge it if fully depleted. This car is so much better than any other car I have owned. I’ve had BMWs, Toyotas, Saabs, Fords, Pontiacs, etc. The volt can be driven without ever plugging it in. If you do charge it the time varies from 10hours on 110V or 4hours on 240V. This car is the future and the future is looking good!

    No one drives this car on a trip under only electricity. You leave the house on battery and after 40 miles the engine kicks in and you get closer to 40mpg than 30mpg like this author thinks. Then when you need gas you fill it up and continue on your way. You wouldn’t sit there for 10hours waiting for it to charge! That just dumb to think someone would or that it’s required. There are many 240V charging stations around the country. There’s apps on ohones to find them. Many are free! Businesses put them in to attract buyers. It’s a small cost for them to offer free charging.

    The Government did not subsidize the design of this car. Republicans seem to think this is the Obama car. It is not. The car was designed under Bush. Bush was the one who passed the law that gives the tax credit to people who buy an electric car. That doesn’t mean that the government is paying you to buy it. It means you get back some of the money you already paid towards your tax liability.

    The hardest part about helping peolle understand why these cars are so good involves math. Your fuzzy math doesn’t help anyone. Next time please do everyone a favor and collect all the facts before you go spouting off about a car you clearly don’t understand.

  40. We’ll, I have a GMC Yukon as well as a Volt, and what I can’t figure out is how you obtained those numbers.
    You say you only got 25miles/charge? Was it like 20 degrees outside? If it’s over 50degrees I always get well over 30 (35-42) and the hotter it is the more I get. In the 60’s I get over 40 for sure. I’ve only had the car since October so haven’t driven the car when it is over 70, but the experience of most volt owners is high 40’s…sometimes in the 50’s.
    Than your comment of getting 30mpg w/ the engine running? Was that in “mountain mode”? The car gets 35-40mpg, and on the fwy if you are traveling 60mpg like you said you were you will get over 40mpg (unless you in mountain mode – which you shouldn’t be)

    Based on the numbers you shared I know you are untruthful.

    I happen to be a conservative, w/ conservative opinions, but I am able to form my own opinions and don’t need to invent information to get my point across. As far as the Volt, it is an incredible vehicle! I have put about 4500 since I have bought it and only about 200 of that did I use gas. It handles great, it’s solid (very well made), has good acceleration, and is nicely equipped. After the incentive the car cost me $27k plus T&L.

    A potential buyer needs to look at their driving situation to determine if the Volt is the right car for them. Be sure to look at the actual facts, not none sense “reviews”

  41. I’ve had the Volt for nearly one year.
    I’m @ 7930 miles and have only filled the tank 2x.

    I rarely drive over 40 miles a day, so I hardly use gas at all anymore unless I go on a long trip.

    Using a Level II charger at home and haven’t noticed any significant increase on our electric bill. $2000 rebate from the DWP for installation.

    This car was developed under the Bush administration.
    Even FOX news has gotten onboard.
    It’s a smooth, fast ride.

    http://video.foxnews.com/v/1529856944001/can-the-chevy-volt-help-win-the-war-on-terror/#sp=show-clips

    It’s an amazing, AMERICAN made car.
    Test drive one and decide for yourself.

  42. What a bunch of garbage. Electric is the future! Sorry to rain on your bashing. The Volt is a GREAT car. It can go 30-60 miles on a charge. Add in gas generator the range is extended up to 380 miles. It cost me $1.10 to fully charge. 95% of the time I drive less then 40 miles a day. The other 5% are 400 mile trips. So 95% of the time I never need gas, plug in and recharge over night 240v takes 3.5 hours. When I take long trips, I get 40MPG. Price of a brand new fully loaded Volt will cost you under $30k. In some state you can get them even less. Its also a very reliable car. Last year I drove 12,000 miles in my Volt. How much gas did I purchase? 12 Gallons!!! That is a FACT.

    I just love pulling up next to those SUVs and gas guzzlers. Listening to their money getting burned each press of the accelerator.

    Big Oil doesn’t want electric cars, they want you going to the gas pumps. Once you go electric you won’t go back.

    Another Fact: Electric cars WILL be getting cheaper and their range longer. Its called Technology. Duh!

  43. All- Thank you for the comments, it is obvious there are ‘lovers’ and ‘haters’ out there. Before this degenerates into name calling and flame wars I’m going to shut this down.