What's Missing?

Passion84Autos@flickr

GM is making big news on the plug-in hybrid called the Chevy Volt they promise to make someday. None of the splashy stories (read press release touch-ups) today mention when it is supposed to go into production but they all have the same laser like focus on the 230 miles per gallon GM claims the Volt will achieve. The car will go 40 miles on the batteries, has a 300 mile range and gets 230 miles on a gallon of gas. 230+40= roughly a one gallon fuel tank? Both of the vessels in this picture look like they hold a few gallons so why isn't the range even more? If there were ten gallons of gas on board wouldn't the car have a range of 2300 miles or more? I'm guessing the engine doesn't do the job of an overnight charge. Hey, who am I to ask?

Good on GM if they really pull it off. Let's hope they have more going on than press releases. Otherwise, we'll never get that money back. Then again, if they can't make money selling cars they already have a foot in the door with the government. They could probably work out a deal to sell these things to the defense department for 30 million each. It works for fighter jets.