Quote Originally Posted by Kitdy View Post
I am not so sure. If work and back is less than 35 miles, then you are paying 0 dollars for gas. If you have a 100 mile trip, then you can do 35 odd electric miles, and with relatively untame driving otherwise, 65 with the engine charging the battery.

So that'd be about 2 gallons per 100 miles (Jalopnik got 33 mpg non-electric only), or 50 mpg or 21 km/L or 4.7L/100 km.

I mean, the Volt cost 41k, and I think the US government is throwing in 7.5k -, you are paying 33.5k for this car. That isn't absolutely terrible... Is it?

I mean, someone could dominate a Volt with a light, small, cheap, aerodynamically efficient diesel, but even if this is the case, the Volt is kinda a car for the future.

I don't even know if it's meant to be the best - the Insight and the Prius were the first strike - this and the Leaf are the second.

Maybe you are right - maybe diesels still have it. But this is impressive according to the people I've read that have driven it.
In any case, if you want to be fuel efficient if you have an ICE inside it has to be a diesel. Even if you have a hybrid car or an extended-range EV diesel will always trump petrol when it comes to fuel consumption. And of course what Matra mentioned (electricity isn't "free") shoudl also be considered.

And then you have consider a conventional diesel still makes much more sense than those electricity-bound cars. We probably drive less in the city because we have quite good integrated public transport systems, and anyway there are no parking spaces in cities and you have to pay for them.

And out of the city our average speeds are on the hig-ish side, which higlights diesel advantages, and the other raods are usually twisty roads were you are quite demanding with the drivetrain of your car. The 101mph limited speed is laughable too. Finally, you can buy lots of excellent diesel cars for 33 grand.

So no, for us it's still diesel.