You’ve probably seen the latest hype coming from General Motors (GM) touting their revolutionary Volt automobile available for sale next year, the greenest hybrid car yet because it’s expected to average 230 miles per gallon during city driving. Of course, I was shocked and rightfully so after further research revealed a few unreported facts.

It seems the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers some fairly wide latitude in the way automakers can calculate miles per gallon averages prior to the actual sale of a newly designed vehicle. They’re also fumbling for a formula that accurately calculates mileage for hybrid vehicles. For example, with a gas-electric such as the Volt, GM used a creative method to measure mileage that averaged overall distance covered by combining the two sources of power—electricity and gasoline. Add to that the glossed over driving restrictions the automaker employed to come up with their triple digit calculation and the noteworthy avoidance of mentioning that the EPA hasn’t actually tested the car. By now you’re beginning to get a glimpse of the blurry picture of this costly little transportation marvel that will hit the showrooms with a sticker price of around $40,000. You can buy a very nice used car and a lot of gas for the amount of money.

The Volt’s battery pack is a lithium-ion offering a maximum driving range of about 40 miles that can be recharged in a typical 110v wall outlet. Also under the hood will be a little gasoline engine that assumes the power needs of the car, with substantial limitations such as Interstate highway speeds and steep hills, while concurrently powering a generator that creates electricity and recharges the battery on the roll. GM’s marketing hype states that drivers could travel for days without ever using a drop of gas. That’s nice, but how many people travel less than 40 miles on a perfectly flat road at 20 miles per hour getting back and forth from work, grocery shopping, doctor visits, and various other around-town treks?

Within hours of GM’s announcement Nissan Motor Company served up its plan to roll out the Leaf next year, an electric 110v plug-in rechargeable hatchback car that will get an estimated 367 miles per gallon using the same broad latitude from the EPA’s new draft guidelines. However, unlike the Volt, this model doesn’t have a built-in generator for recharging on the fly; drivers would have to stop and plug it into an outlet after approximately 100 miles of around town driving—even less at higher speeds and if rolling terrain is involved in the trip.

As you may have anticipated, the Feds are already planning to offer the first suckers, excuse me, eco-friendly buyers, a $7,500 tax credit, but that still leaves a hefty balance of twenty-two grand for the Volt. The price of the Leaf will likely be in the same range. But by the time these things hit the streets their marketing mileage estimates could be 500 miles per gallon.

Another interesting conundrum, Americans aren’t getting any smaller, but the automakers seem to be focused on downsizing their vehicle offerings. I recently sat in one of the first scaled down models to hit the streets, the Smart Car. I’m not a big guy according to the height and weight chart hanging on my doctors’ exam room wall, but I felt like a National Basketball Association center while sitting in that thing. And claustrophobia surprisingly emerged within seconds after closing the door. My mind conjured up a collision with a monster vehicle such as a Honda Civic or Toyota Prius. To add additional anxiety, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an independent, non-profit, scientific, and educational organization, hasn’t been kind in their crash test ratings for these high mileage shrunken cars. In fact, the stats are downright frightening because the odds of having a collision with another comparatively sized car are miniscule. That alone should raise the fear factor for potential buyers. My suggestion before taking the plunge into triple digit fuel territory is to check with you insurance company prior to signing the bottom line of a car purchase contract. Get their opinion of the mini-model and actual coverage costs compared to other vehicles getting mileage in the more realistic 30+ range, those having enough power to make it over a modestly steep hill more than once, and ones with realistic driving distance estimates per charge and tank of gas.

A plausible option is one of the oncoming modern diesel engine models that are offered in full sized cars and get about 30% greater fuel economy than typical gasoline engines. Not only are the new diesels quieter and cleaner emitting approximately 20% less carbon dioxide, the European refineries have also removed most of the other pollutants from their fuel. Another huge plus is that you don’t need crude oil to produce diesel fuel; it can be made from plain old coal, plant matter or common cooking oil. Seriously, a fairly large restaurant could ship much of their garbage to a modern refinery and have it turned into perfectly good diesel. Here’s another shocker; India has recently successfully turned cow patties, or cow dung if you prefer, into an energy source that has powered a diesel engine car. Talking about stepping in it, they may have done exactly that and come out smelling like freshly printed money.

It gets better yet, there’s a hybrid diesel on the horizon as well. A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study concluded that a combination hybrid-diesel engine could far outperform the lithium battery and hydrogen fuel cell engines on both mileage and carbon emissions, and it could become a reality within the next decade. In essence, the GM revolution may lose its charge before it gets a profitable number of cars on the road.

The critical key to success in the modern diesel technology engine will be the company that manages to come up with the cleanest burning version while maintain the power to comfortably propel a full sized vehicle at highway speeds for long distances. Here’s a hint: Pay attention to tail pipe technology and clean coal in the coming years as these will likely be the keys to success for the currently obscure fuel and engine technology.

One final prediction; crude oil is going to rise rapidly and unexpectedly and reports of availability and new oil field discoveries have been blown out of proportion, and in many cases may not exist at all. This can lead to only one thing—much higher gas prices, levels that make the almost forgotten $4 a gallon seem modest.

For now, I’m staying the course in my current five year old clunker that uses regular gas and gets a mere upper twenty something miles per gallon. My insurance company loves it because it’s loaded with safety features so my premiums are reasonable when compared to those of my neighbors who’ve already jumped ship for the higher mileage mini models. Possibly the most attractive feature about my current car is the fact that I didn’t have to get permission from the government to buy it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.