Popular Mechanics (http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/alternative-fuel/electric/chevy-volt-range-tests) says only 33 miles per charge

Popular Mechanics says only 33 miles per charge

Quote from the first paragraph:
The dash display said we had 48 miles of EV range, which dropped to 43 after the first quarter mile. It must have known of our usual lead-foot nature.

Uh, yeah... Ya think?

The PM numbers were somewhat "debunked" over a month ago. Where ya been? ;)
PM wasnt disclosing their actual charge times for good reason. Often the car wasnt on the charger long enough for a full charge cycle to complete.

Since PM was publishing the EV range values displayed on the Volt's center stack, this number was affected and factored by a statistical baseline over the last x number of recharge cycles. If those cyles were not FULL charges, the resulting displayed average suffers. (something that the CAB members have also been observing over their first couple of charge cycles as they "flush" the statistical averages of the GM Engineering team that put the first 600-1200 miles on the car)

Rest assured, when driven in a regular fashion (not hot-rodding like Motortrend) in moderate environmental conditions, the Volt WILL consistantly get OVER 40 miles AER on a full charge. In fact most other "real world" tester have been getting much better than that if they put some concious effort into it .

WopOnTour

P.M. has, like most media in the country, degenerated towards a tabloid mentality. Rather that taking something at its intended purpose they will twist it around to make a negative report. To give a meaniful comparison P.M. should have taken an equivalent size and weight ICE car with a 28-29 EPA rating and run it along side the Volt. That 29 mpg EPA would have turned out to more like 18 mpg (Cruise set at 78??). Rather than keeping the green ball in the center they want to slam it against both ends and state how disappoint they are at the EV range. So far Lyle has proven that driven in a typical days commute the Volt will deliver on its promises. I can't wait to see what mine will do in hypermileing.

Maybe for forced economy we will start seeing signs, like for construction zones, that say "FINES WILL BE DOUBLED FOR EV's"

The PM numbers were somewhat "debunked" over a month ago. Where ya been? ;)
PM wasnt disclosing their actual charge times for good reason. Often the car wasnt on the charger long enough for a full charge cycle to complete.

Since PM was publishing the EV range values displayed on the Volt's center stack, this number was affected and factored by a statistical baseline over the last x number of recharge cycles. If those cyles were not FULL charges, the resulting displayed average suffers. (something that the CAB members have also been observing over their first couple of charge cycles as they "flush" the statistical averages of the GM Engineering team that put the first 600-1200 miles on the car)

Rest assured, when driven in a regular fashion (not hot-rodding like Motortrend) in moderate environmental conditions, the Volt WILL consistantly get OVER 40 miles AER on a full charge. In fact most other "real world" tester have been getting much better than that if they put some concious effort into it .

WopOnTour

I've been following Lyle's reports but didn't pay much attention to the displayed range numbers. I did take note of his actual achieved mileage. It seems like he is getting about 38 miles/full charge. His reported driving condition is pretty normal. 38 miles is a respectable number but with the expanded SOC window of @10kwh I was expecting a little more AER.

There has been some conflicting info on the actual SOC window. Is it 9.6 or 10.4? Am I missing something with Lyle's results, perhaps the lower values are attributable to econo heating in 40 degree temps?

I've been following Lyle's reports but didn't pay much attention to the displayed range numbers. I did take note of his actual achieved mileage. It seems like he is getting about 38 miles/full charge.

From todays blog it seemed he could get ~42.4 EV miles and the EV range when he started estimated 36.

http://gm-volt.com/2010/11/14/inaugural-northeast-chevy-volt-meet-up/

In terms of my personal driving driving experience that day, I left home with 36 miles of EV range on the dash, and arrived at the restaurant after 37.4 miles, with 5 miles of EV range remaining. This was a warm 62 degree day at 65-70 MPH highway speeds.

Current Driving log - http://gm-volt.com/chevrolet-volt-driving-log/