EPA Still Working on MPG For Plug-In Hybrids & Electric Cars

Few auto industry power players are satisfied with the calculations that award the Chevrolet Volt a stellar 230 miles a gallon (which is topped by the Nissan Leaf battery car at 367). Those numbers are based on a draft Environmental Protection Agency standard for plug-in hybrids and battery cars. But the agency says that work isn’t complete, and it is searching for meaningful ways to present the information to car buyers on the window sticker.

The E.P.A. and the Transportation Department issued their proposed rule-making for combined greenhouse gas and corporate average fuel economy standards on Sept. 15. The agency admitted that designing test procedures and calculations for advanced technology vehicles “can be very complicated” and that what it called “adjustment factors” needed to be weighed. There’s certainly no consensus on which approach will resonate with consumers, and many admit that the advantage of measurements in miles a gallon is sheer familiarity....
 

Joe_Limon - 10/2/2009 3:41:21 PM

+1 Boost

In my opinion. Go on a $ per $ rate. Calculate the cost of gas/electricity on several different cycles (say a 10, 25, 50 and 100mile commute), and weight them according to how often each cycle is seen in public use. For example with the volt, for the 10 and 25 mile commute's it would only use electricity, it's dollar for dollar electricity cost is about the equivalent of 120mpg. After weighting and averaging all the other commute's I would suspect the Volt's fuel economy to be somewhere in the ball park of 100-105mpg.

85bmw745i - 10/2/2009 4:24:54 PM

+1 Boost

Easy, figure out the amount of energy in gasoline equivalent to the required amount of electricity to make the car travel the given distance. convert the thermal energy of gasoline into the amount of energy required to produce that amount of electricity.

truckman - 10/5/2009 3:50:14 AM

+1 Boost

For highway ratings take the vehicle on a 1000 mile trip non stop and then calculate the highway mileage, and for city? have a few ratings, a 20 mile commute, 40 mile commute and a 100 mile commute city driving and round it together ... then get the average MPG, or should we say the electric equivalent.