EPA Fraud: Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf Actually Get Only 23, 25 MPG

Pajamas Media ^ | November 30, 2010 | Chris J Kobus

[jazusamo]

The MPG figure must be calculated where the energy is produced. Doesn't matter if that happens in the car's engine ... or in the coal plant, as with the Leaf and Volt.

You may have heard the mileage rating for the Nissan Leaf is 99 MPG (miles per gallon equivalent). Here’s what the sticker looks like (I highlighted the relevant portions that I will expand upon):

As Auto Blog says of the rating: “It looks good.” Of course it looks good. But there’s a whole lot more to the story. Note that the MPG rating is MPG equivalent. The MSM has been dropping the “equivalent,” making it seem to consumers that the vehicle is far more efficient than it truly is. Which is the intent, of course.

The ratings for the Chevy Volt have just been released as well. From the Detroit Free Press:

Chevy Volt to hit 93 m.p.g. in electric-only mode; battery-only Nissan Leaf to reach 99 m.p.g.

There is not a single instance of the word “equivalent” in the entire article. Nor is there any mention of last year’s claim that the Volt gets 230 miles per gallon (that was a different fraudulent number, based on a separate fraudulent scheme).

The current “miles per gallon equivalent” is a fraud perpetrated to hide the true environmental cost of these cars. One gallon of gas does have about 33.5 kilowatt-hours of chemical potential (depending on blend, additives, etc). And about that much energy is needed to get the Leaf to go 99 miles, and the Volt to go 93. But here’s where the fraud is perpetrated: the electricity for those vehicles is being generated by mostly coal power plants that are only about 33% efficient (minus transmission losses and losses from charging). Coal plants are off-site power generators (whereas car engines are on-board) and are totally ignored in the EPA rating.

Let me illustrate by example how this scheme works, and why it’s such a fraud.

Let’s say you took your gas-guzzling engine out of your car and hooked it up to a generator in your garage. The engine has a fuel efficiency of 15 MPG. That’s roughly 25% efficient (a 300 HP engine burns about 1000 HP of gas). You run the engine to generate electricity (let’s assume, just for kicks, that the generator hooked up to your car engine is 100% efficient) to charge your Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt. Guess what the mileage of that Leaf is? The EPA says you will still get 99 MPG overall. But you actually used four gallons, not one, to get that far, thanks to the charging engine’s 25% efficiency.

The real efficiency of the Leaf is dependent on the efficiency of the coal power plant: the Leaf gets 25 MPG, not 99. The Chevy Volt gets 23 MPG, not 93.

The EPA is purposely comparing apples to oranges, conveniently hiding the fact that you are simply displacing gasoline usage with coal. The fact that you don’t have to directly throw coal into your car doesn’t mean you aren’t using any. Indeed, the overall efficiency of electric vehicles charged on coal is no better than a car with a spark ignition engine.

And far short of the efficiencies achieved with diesel.

Just in case anyone out there is opining that we should therefore go with “renewable sources” (wind, solar etc.), that will make the available energy problem even worse.

Nature will always get its pound of flesh, and the EPA’s intentional misleading of consumers doesn’t change the fact that we will be no less dependent on fossil fuel at all — and may be more so in this case. As it is, without far more nuclear power plants, the combination of using coal with lithium — the mining of which is one of the dirtiest operations known to man — may well be environmentally worse than just burning gasoline, and is definitely worse than burning diesel.

The Obama administration should hand out a blue pill with each purchase of the Chevy Volt, so you can smugly drive around in ignorant bliss.

Chris Kobus is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Oakland University where he has worked since receiving his Ph.D. in 1998. He is the Director of the Clean Energy Research Center (CERC), and his research focus is in the broad field of energy transport and conversion.

[Lazlo in PA]

The EPA numbers are always bogus. The Prius got far less in actual driving than the sticker. Everyone rails on big cars being gas guzzlers. My Town Car gets between 20-24 in normal driving. I can carry 6 people and have a real trunk. Plus I don't look like a pansy heading down the road. EPA plays games to achieve an outcome they desire.

[Signalman]

Driving is Prius is gay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP-tyvBGla4&feature=related

[Westbrook]

Never saw a chevy volt on the road.

See a lot of Prius, though.

They look like a tuna fish can with shopping cart wheels. What a piece of junk. Despise them.

[jazusamo]

Agree...Obama & Co are trying their best to force electric cars on us, I’m not going for them at all.

[Personal Responsibility]

With apologies to whoever wrote Star Trekking Across the Universe:

Ye....can nae break the laws of physics,
laws of physics,
laws of physics.
Ye can nae break the laws of physics, Captain.

[Arthur McGowan]

My 1993 Taurus gets a solid 31 on the highway, going 55.

[steelyourfaith]

EPA: An unelected, flunky bureaucracy populated with radical, no-growth, Marxist, environmental nut-jobs wielding rogue powers based in junk science. A cancer on the private sector. Ultimately, the EPA is not about the environment. It is about legislating from the Executive Branch in Soviet Agency style. It has the convenient unconstitutional feature of allowing the Obama Administration to pursue an extreme global warming agenda, to make energy prices necessarily sky-rocket, and gain sweeping regulatory control over the US economy without a politically difficult vote in congress.

... and the EPA also lies.

[jazusamo]

Well said! The new House needs to defund the EPA as much as possible.

[princess leah]

back in Oct 2001 when 9/11 had all but shut down spending and NO new auto dealerships were getting out cars, GM actually did somehing smart - they brought on 0% financing for new cars. I worked for GMAC Commercial and we bought a 2002 SR1 Saturn 3 door. 9 Years later, we have just over 100,000 miles on it and it has gotten up to 40 mpg on the highway and OVER 30 mpg in the city. When Obama refused to let Penske buy the Saturn brand because he limited their profit margin to less than 14% and Penske backed out, this showed me just how stupid and uncaring Obama is towards what is best for America’s economy!

[luckystarmom]

We’ve had 2 priuses. 1 got more than the sticker and the newer one gets sticker.

My husband can get the newer one to get over sticker if he doesn’t use the A/C or the heater and drives mainly on the freeway. However, he really doesn’t care to get over sticker so he doesn’t drive that way.

[Brett66]

may well be environmentally worse than just burning gasoline, and is definitely worse than burning diesel.

Cars that have diesel engines always seem to be the best in terms of gas mileage, I don't understand why there wasn't a big push to go this route instead of loading up with an extra system to make it inherently more inefficient than a single-system car.

[Baynative]

The Prius' debris on the road after a snow storm is indicative of another problem. When the wheels spin the car shuts down. When our roads get slick they can be seen abandoned all over the place waiting for the sun to free them.

Most people I know of who own the things either go nowhere when roads are slick or have another "real" vehicle to drive.

Still, they are big money makers for Toyota. Many people seem to drive them to make a statement.

[MulberryDraw]

If I’m reading this correctly, the electric coal plant is 33% efficient and it will take the Volt in full electric mode the equivalent of 3 gallons of gas to go 93 miles. That’s equivalent to 31 mpg which is slightly less than my 96 Saturn gets.

[Lazlo in PA]

You must live in the flat lands. Eastern PA is nothing but hills and curves and everyone I know with one griped that they couldn’t get sticker in normal driving. Their normal driving is 85 year old lady in comparison to me. I am pedal down all the time and I haven’t turned the climate control off since I bought it years ago.

[6ppc]

If I’m reading this correctly, the electric coal plant is 33% efficient

That's before line losses. Not sure how much that is, but assuming (for example) it's 5% then actual efficienty is more like 28% rather than 33%. Line losses are probably much higher than that.

[jazusamo]

That’s about right the way I read it. I’m curious to know the maintenance cost and depreciation of these cars, like 5 to seven years down the road. I’d bet they won’t be close to gas powered ones.

[jazusamo]

I meant gas powered being a better value.

[paterfamilias]

“Lumpy”, our 1996 VW Passat TDI (turbodiesel) Wagon, just turned 309,000 miles this morning.

We get 39-41 MPG for mixed suburban-city driving, and 46-51 MPG for pure highway driving (cruising at 70-85 MPH).

Electric cars? We don’t need no stinkin’ electric cars.

[ExTxMarine]

My family is the nemesis of the enviro-weenies!

My family travels around in a Ford Excursion with a big-ole’ 7.3L Powerstroke Diesel engine! It is a 2001 and has just over 202,000 miles! We get 19-20 MPG at 70 MPH, but we can get 24-25 MPG at 60 MPH!

Best part, we can carry EIGHT people (VERY comfortably), 6-8 pieces of luggage, a large ice chest and it rides like a dream! Heck, if I wanted, I could add another 6-8 pieces of luggage on the roof-rack and tow just about anything with wheels (LOL)!

I plan on driving this thing for the rest of my life! I love it, my wife (all 5’ 2” of her) loves it and even my kids think it is great! They can stretch out and still be comfy!