Uh-Oh: Chevrolet Volt Electric Range in the Low- to Mid-Thirties - Gearlog

With Chevrolet Volts in the hands of the media this week for preview drives, it looks like range in electric-only mode is on the order of 30 to 35 miles before the gasoline "range extender" engine kicks in. Previously, GM talked about ranges of 40 miles, forty-ish miles, and most recently a range of 25-50 miles. It also turns out that gasoline fuel economy isn't so special, either.
...
Popular Mechanics charged the Volt three different times and put the Volt in the hands of three drivers. The first time, the EV range meter read 48 miles, it dropped to 43 miles after a quarter-mile, the tester then switched off the air conditioning (not a problem with the temperature in the mid-fifties), and the car made it 31 miles of country driving before the gasoline engine fired up. A second try, on city streets where battery regeneration works better, raised the distance to 35 miles. The third try, highway-only with cruise control set to 78 mph, netted 33 miles. So, three tests, 33 miles average range.

PM calculated gasoline-engine economy as 32 mpg city, 36 mpg highway, and also calculated it factoring in the miles driven on electric power, reporting city and highway numbers of 38 mpg for each. GM calculates overall fuel economy at 230 mpg.
...
GM this week also owned up to something it denied or skirted around before: Under some circumstances, like when the battery is dead, the Volt drives the wheels directly from the gasoline engine. And at higher speeds, say at 70 mph on a freeway or going up a mountain pass, the gasoline engine may run in parallel with the electric motor.
...
Tech-savvy auto writers are also miffed that GM told some of them there was no way to drive the front wheels directly; rather it would be through a generator and electric motor. GM now says this, ah, misstatement of reality was to throw off the competition and to protect patents that had been filed but not made public.