2013 MPGe

[montgom626]

Montgom, I think DonC is right, the mpge is drawn from the amount of kWh's needed to go 100 miles, so the extra half kWh wouldn't account for the change,

I agree. Someone find the answer! I love the Volt and want to know how GM did it, if only to satisfy my curiosity.

[jsmay311]

Okay, math is always the answer.

10 KWH (not 16 KWH or 16.5 KWH) is what is used in EV mode. Add .5 KWH to the 10 KWH. Increase of 5%. All this is an approximation. But 5% is a lot of improvement in the automotive world.

Again... Increasing the battery capacity (how many kwh's it holds) does not increase the car's efficiency (how many miles you can travel per kwh). That would be like saying you could increase the MPGs of a gasoline car by making the gas tank larger. It doesn't make any sense.

The EPA MPGe rating shown in the Monroney label is based on the consumption of the on-board energy content stored in the fuel tank or in the vehicle's battery, or any other energy source, and only represents the tank-to-wheel energy consumption.

No. That's not right. The EPA MPGe figures DO account for charging losses.

The MY2012 and MY2013 EPA stickers make no mention of the total amount of energy required for a full charge of the battery, but the original format used for the MY2011 clearly shows that a full charge requires 12.9 kwh (in the "Charging Routines" table), which differs from the ~10.3 kwh that we know the MY2011 uses from the battery.



Also, math. We know that the MY2011 and MY2012 are rated at 36 kwh per 100 miles and 35 miles per charge. Multiply these two figures together and you get 12.6 kwh/charge -- close enough to 12.9 kwh to account for with rounding errors. So it's not only factoring battery-to-wheel energy.

And charging efficiency improvements could not explain the MY2013 MPGe increase because only the City MPGe changed. If charging efficiency was the root cause, the Highway MPGe would have increase proportionally as well.

[montgom626]

And charging efficiency improvements could not explain the MY2013 MPGe increase because only the City MPGe changed. If charging efficiency was the root cause, the Highway MPGe would have increase proportionally as well.

I agree, your logic is impeccable. Now I must know the why in the increased MPGe! Anyone know yet?????