"It's official," said Jamie Lendino in PC Magazine. General Motors' new Chevy Volt, which goes on sale next year as a 2011 model, "is expected to get 230 miles per gallon on the EPA's city fuel economy test." That's because on short trips the GM Volt will be able to operate only on battery power, and even when using gas power on longer trips, it will end up squeezing out more miles per gallon than Toyota's current mileage king, the Prius.
The Chevy Volt's 230 mpg would be "by far the highest fuel efficiency rating of any car now rated by the Environmental Protection Agency," said Martin Zimmerman in the Los Angeles Times. The Prius gets 50 mpg—and it's way ahead of most of the pack. The GM Volt's trick is that it is "designed to run on electric power only for about 40 miles, after which a small gasoline engine kicks in to re-charge the battery."
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