I would expect that with these increases in EPA ratings, private owners will find even better figures in terms of the all-electric range, overall range and fuel economy. Mind you, when driving the Volt to get an average over 8 days of 109mpg, I drove the car just as I would my personal vehicles which included highway drives with speeds over 70mph…showing that you don’t need to baby the Volt to get great fuel economy. Volt owners have repeatedly proven that the EPA mileage estimates are just that – estimates – and in the real world figures may be better with reasonable driving. I should point out that in my time spent behind the wheel of a 2012 Chevrolet Volt, I got between 38 and 43 miles on all-electric power while also averaging a very impressive 109 miles per gallon. “This attention to detail will allow our customers to experience more pure EV range, which is the true benefit of owning a Volt.” We’ve done some work at the cell level to modify the ‘ingredients’ to make a better end result,” said Bill Wallace, GM director of Global Battery Systems Engineering. Sometimes if you use more sugar and less vanilla you get a better tasting cake. “The best way to explain what we’ve done at the cell level is to compare it to a cake batter recipe. The only downside to the 2013 Chevrolet Volt is that here is a slight increase in charge time of a half hour when charging via a 120V port and 15 minutes when connected to a 240V line. Finally, the overall EPA range when starting when a charged battery and full tank of gas is 380 miles, a small increase of 1 miles over the previous year but a small increase is better than no increase. Next, the MPGe (mile per gallon equivalent) has increased from the figure of 94 miles per gallon for the 2012 model year to 98 MPGe for the 2013 Volt. The 2012 Chevy Volt offered an EPA electric range of 35 miles so for 2012, there is an increase of 3 miles range for the new model year. Well, the 2013 Chevrolet Volt offers 38 miles of all-electric range, according to the official EPA ratings that will appear on the window sticker. These figures are all well and good but what do these increases equate to in real world figures? This 10.8 kWh window is there to prevent the battery from being drained too far as, when a battery is drained empty over and over – it decreases the life of the battery. What does this all mean? It means that the battery of the 2013 Chevy Volt can hold more juice and the Voltec drivetrain can use more of that available energy before the range-extending gasoline engine kicks in. First of all, the 2013 Chevrolet Volt features an increased battery power capacity, up to 16.5 kWh from 16.0 kWH in the 2012 Volt while the available usage of battery energy has expanded from 10.3 kWh to 10.8 kWh.
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