Chevy Volt / Vauxhall Ampera: MUCH better than it seemed. Possibly.

The Vauxhall Ampera / Chevy Volt - it's all confusing

The Chevy Volt Brouhaha rumbles on, with Motor Trend pitching in their opinion after a drive. But they’re being either disingenuous or gullible. We’re not sure which.

The brouhaha online this week has centred around GM’s revelation that the Chevy Volt / Vauxhall Ampera is actually not a true Range Extender EV but a hybrid. A different sort of hybrid, granted, but a hybrid nonetheless.

Much of the criticisms levelled at GM is unfair but it is – certainly to some degree – self inflicted. Because when reports circulated a few months back that the range-extending engine in the Volt could actually drive the wheels GM were categoric in their rebuttal. And then it turns out it does.

But the ICE actually only blends a little direct power through the gearbox under certain circumstances. Circumstances that mainly revolve around going over 70mph. And, GM claim, only then to aid economy and not because the ICE can’t actually charge the batteries quickly enough.

Which we should probably take at face value, at least until we get sent one to play with. We should also, in the interest of balance, report what Motor Trend – who have spent some driving time with the Volt – have to say. Because they were impressed. Although a little gullible, we have to say. Or disingenuous.

Motor Trend had the use of the Chevy Volt for a couple of weeks, and are citing a couple of economy illustrations on their site (ChevyVolt Motor Trend Story). They did a run with a fully charged Volt through LA streets and backwards and forwards from home to office. They averaged 127mpg.

Interestingly, they don’t say over how many days or how many recharges that figure was taken (or we didn’t read the story properly). So we’ll take it with a pinch of salt. They also did a run out from LAX in to the mountains and up to Mojave. They were as cautious as possible at first to see how far the Volt would go on batteries only. It did 36 miles.

After 36 miles the range extender kicked in and the total journey was 120 miles. They say they got 74mpg. But they excluded the mountain part of the trip because they didn’t drive sensibly. So apparently it wouldn’t be fair to count that. For some reason. Should they not then also ignore the first bit because they drove like Saints?

The simple fact is that everyone is trying to prove the Volt is good or bad. That GM lied or they didn’t. Frankly, if you’re going any sort of hybrid route the most elegant solution is the range extender. But it’s all just smoke and mirrors. Because a car like the BMW 320d EfficientDynamics will do all the mpg the Volt can – and regular hybrids too – but offer great performance and a great drive in to the bargain.

And until people start quoting mpg figures which take in to account the energy value of the electricity used, it’s all meaningless. Somehow the electric charge element is treated as a free ride. It’s not.

And as soon as they can, Governments will start taxing electricity just as they do petrol and diesel.