So the result will be:
(range on full battery + range on one gallon of gasoline)/one gallon

That seems reasonable. If GM is correct on the 40 miles on a fully charges battery, your method would yield at least 40 mpg, and throw in the heretofore unknown range on "one gallon of gasoline."

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And it's terrible idea because it wouldn't be an accurate number.

If the battery is at full charge the mpg will still wind up with a ridiculously high mpg because 40 of the miles(plus that 10 miles of generating enough power to not drain the battery) would still make the misleading number we currently have.

If the battery has no charge then the test would be misleading as well because it completely misses the point of the volt.

The problem is GM can't market the most accurate figure of 40 miles in ev mode and 40/50mpg after that because it requires people to actually sit down and think about the figure for a second. People will inevitably just focus on the mpg figure and then write the car off as no better than a prius(just look at the comments here when it was first announced).

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What about vehicles without range extenders like the Volt? The Leaf doesn't have a gas tank but using Big Molas formula it would get 367 mpg?

The EPA is facing a very difficult task in trying to create an accurate system that applies to cars that aren't even on the road yet.

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City or highway? Using the "gas" EPA protocol or a more realistic one?

Either way, this is what happens when you have an ad agency staffed with people who don't know or care how a car actually works. It's also what happens when they don't understand just how jaded and cynical a brand's customer-base has become as a result of their history of wildly hyperbolic claims.

GM has had Campbell-Ewald's advertising dragging them down for almost 100 years (seriously). Anyone think it's time to get some fresh ideas in there?

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Danimal: What you just described my friend, is what we call a GAME CHANGER.

Nissan & Ford needs to shut up. Ford has nothing even close to this, and NISSAN's ugly duckling will be dead on the roadside, once the charge is depleted. You will be able to drive your Volt coast to coast, stopping every 12 to 15 HUNDRED miles for fuel.

Don't think this will work? Well, just look at all the diesel-electric freight trains that cris-cross the US and Canada. Still the most efficient way to move freight. Now it will be moving people.

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rating it as putting 1 gallon in is plain retarded. thats will get you close to the 230 rating that is well, retarded. Do this, like any other gasoline car done for the last 90 years. Fill up the tank, drive until the tank is empty, do simple math, you have your mpg.

Do the same thing w/ the volt; but instead top off not just the tank, but the battery. drive till it no longer moves. Do simple math. and for the sake of argument do it twice. Once driving strictly around the city, a second time driving strictly on the highway.

Argument over

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Simbadogg:
That is not how mpg has been calculated by the EPA since, well, ever. They don't even measure the fuel in, they measure the combustion emissions per mile at the exhaust and then do math.

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Mr. Oak, you clearly don't know what you're talking about. Ford has had many advanced fuel vehicles (not production ready of course, but neither is the Volt at this point) for years. They have a fleet of hydrogen Focuses from 8 or 9 years ago, a hydrogen fuel cell Edge, and they've had a couple of plug-in Escape Hybrids for years. However, unlike Chevy (that is rushing to shove out an EV and making unclear mileage claims and causing confusion), Ford is waiting until they can develop their plug in hybrid to meet their goals for mileage, performance, and they are working with power companies to learn how they work with the grid before they throw them out there.

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Oak, where the hell did you get the 1200 miles figure? Under the ideal condition, the Volt will travel 40 miles on batteries, and then 500 miles on gas (10 gal x 50MPG). In comparison, Fusion Hybrid owners (average person, not hypermilers) will nearly twice as much distance.

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I too prefer the diesels, but the 335d misses the mark in my opinion. It is-- dare I say it-- too powerful. If I was looking for gas mileage, I'd prefer a smaller, less powerful, more frugal diesel under the hood. I'd like to see BMW make the 318d wagon and/or 316d sedan available in the USA. And unless it's offered with a true manual tranny, then don't bother. The fact that the 335d is only available with an automatic is a true shame.

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*fuel mileage, not "gas mileage". WTH am I thinking?

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Yeah, like you could get a 335d with $40k...

Besides, it's apples and oranges. One gets great mileage, the other doesn't use oil at all unless you're going on a long trip.

In five years, everyone's going to be gob-smacked by the price of oil and in 10, there'll be no market for cars like we have today. The Volt is for a very different energy scenario than we have today. Even a 335d will be worthless in such a situation.

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But then how are you going to combine it with the mpg for one figure?

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That's the thing, it does not have to be converted to MPG. It's a new technology, new mode of transforming energy into mechanical energy we're talking about. Miles per Gallon does not make sense for all electric cars.

MPG unit gives an idea about the conversion efficiency of the machine.

For electric cards, the energy is in a different form, so the unit would have to be different. Miles per hour of charge makes sense because it's easy to understand on the user side and it'll be easy to convert to technical information on the other side. Also, once electric car charging process has been standardized, an hour of charging would mean a fixed amount of energy, a unit measure of the amount of electric energy. Kinda similar to what 1 gallon of gas means a fixed amount of energy as well.

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