Chevrolet Volt: one litre every 100 km

General Motors, despite having come close to bankruptcy and starting over with a new company, is still making waves with the Volt. GM has invested more than 750 million dollars in developing the Chevrolet Volt, a model that is a hybrid, but works somewhat differently from the rest of the hybrids.

It combines an electric motor that produces 150 CV in total and a 70 CV combustion engine that only wakes up to recharge the lithium-ion batteries that power the electric motor. The Volt in electric mode can travel about 64 km and in total (taking the combustion engine into account) has a range of 483 km.

According to GM’s calculations, and always under ideal conditions, the Volt would cover 230 miles per gallon of fuel, that is, one litre of fuel per 100 km (in urban mode). Whereas on combined consumption, it would need less than 2.35 l/100 km. We are talking about consumption under ideal conditions, so in practice it may deviate somewhat from the official figure (as most models do), but even so these are excellent numbers.

There is a curiosity in the Volt’s consumption: it consumes least during the first kilometres (hence the litre per 100 km in urban mode), because it is helped by its electric motor. But as we cover more kilometres, consumption rises a little. That makes sense, since hybrids will mostly be used in urban settings.

Source: GM