FAQ #1: What Kind of Mileage do you get?

This is not a myth per se, but it is something I get asked a lot.

Usually the first question is something to confirm it is a Volt, "Is that the space ship car?" "Is that electric?" or something like that..

And once they established that the car is what they thought it was, the second question is always, "what kind of gas mileage do you get?"

Which you would think is a straight forward question, but it has a complex answer that has two parts, that is hard to convey over the top of a gas pump, or at a traffic light out the window.

Here is my best attempt to explain it after many tries.

I get over 40 miles per charge, usually about 45 miles. and once I switch to gas, I get about 45MPG and so a typical day I get over 100MPG. 

That is the short answer.. the longer answer continues something like this..

Now keep in mind for me a typical day is like 80 miles round trip. 38 miles to a client site, and the maybe a little over lunch, or a detour because of traffic. and 38 miles back.

My old commute was much smaller than that, say 16-20 miles each way. Which meant commuting to my last job I NEVER USED GAS. 40 miles a day, no gas at all. MPG in that scenario = infinity. In fact the first tank of gas I wondered if I would need to change out the gas or the engine oil first, assuming the first oil change was due at 3000 miles, it would have been close.

with my double the size commute, I can get 900-1200 miles on an 8 gallon tank assuming I can avoid dipping into the gas on the weekend, and can find a charge every once in a while when I am out.

 To make this easy, I have created a spreadsheet, where you can put in your commute, and it will tell you rough annual fuel costs for a VOLT vs a Prius vs a decent 30+ MPG sedan.

[Update] I converted the core logic from that spreadsheet to Javascript, and it is on the tab at the top of the page. Have fun, and feel free to share.