Quote:
Originally Posted by M3_WC
Reports from new owners have been really positive. I remember reading an article where an owner after four months of ownership was still on his first tank of gas that was in the car when he purchased it.
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Right, but how much has he spent on the electricity needed to charge it? Insideline has discussed the volt on detail, and it basically comes down to how expensive utilities are wherever you live. If electricity is cheap on your area, the volt will make a lot of sense. If electricity is expensive, then you'll actually be paying more per mile than if you just filled it up with gasoline.
The other problem with the volt is that when the gasoline engine is running it isn't especially efficient. Roughly 30-35 mpg. So if you decide not to plug it in and instead use the gasoline engine to charge the electric motor, you're still getting shafted on fuel economy. I'll never understand why they didn't use a small diesel instead; after all, the engine is only used to power the electric motor, never to actually drive the wheels, so a diesel would have been much better suited to the task than a gasser.