For the past week, an unexplained logo has been popping up all over the place. It's on billboards, websites and magazine ads - a green background, and in white, the number 230, with a smiling electrical outlet in place of the zero.
Today, we've learned what it means.
The Detroit Free Press reports, "The electric-drive Chevrolet Volt is expected to get a rating of at least 230 miles per gallon in city driving, General Motors Co. announced this morning." GM CEO Fritz Henderson made the announcement at a briefing outlining GM's planned product portfolio.
The Wall Street Journal comments, "At that rating, the Volt would dwarf any offering from a mass-market brand, including Toyota Motor Corp.'s iconic Prius. It also could deliver a major boost to GM efforts to cultivate a green image, a key element of the company's restructuring efforts."
The number could also be critical to the economics of the Volt. GM has struggled to bring the car to market at a reasonable price, after investing heavily in the development of the novel technology that will drive the car. The Washington Post reports, "Initial prices for the car may be as much as $40,000," despite the fact that the Volt is the size of a $15,000 Chevy Cobalt economy car. With the 230 mpg number, the Post reports, "Assuming the average cost of electricity is approximately 11 cents per kilowatt-hour in the United States, a typical Volt driver would pay about $2.75 for electricity to travel 100 miles, or less than 3 cents per mile" in city driving.
And the Volt's highway mileage rating? That is a tricky question. The Volt is designed to operate as a purely electric car for up to 40 miles, after which a gasoline engine will start - but it won't drive the wheels. It's simply a generator to recharge the batteries. With the Volt, the Free Press notes, "In theory, some drivers would burn no gas for extended periods of time.
Fox News reports, "The EPA is currently developing a special methodology to calculate fuel efficiency for vehicles that work in this fashion which averages the results of test cycles run separately in electric and internal combustion modes." GM would not provide an estimate on the car's highway mileage rating, "but during the press conference, GM's C.E.O. Fritz Henderson said that that the combined figure would be in the triple digits, meaning at least 100 mpg."
If you're in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year's best cars as well as this month's best car deals.
