They ought to know better

[Nik]

A thread for EV misinformation and FUD published by those who ought to know better.

I'll open up with this post on The Green Car Website. Whilst reporting that the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera will soon be available as a rental car in many European countries, they manage to claim "The Ampera actually consumes less than 147mpg and emits less than 40g/km of CO2 according to preliminary data."

 

[GSP]

What's wrong with that? With the Volt you can make any mpg claim you want, from less than 20 mpgUS at a constant 100 mph, to infinite mpg if you keep the gas tank empty. Likewise for CO2, just pick an appropriately clean, or dirty, source to back up your claim.

We have been accustomed to measuring a vehicle's environmental impact as a function of its design. With PHEVs and EVs it now is more a function of how the vehicle is fueled.

GSP

 

[Nik]

What's wrong with that? With the Volt you can make any mpg claim you want, from less than 20 mpgUS at a constant 100 mph, to infinite mpg if you keep the gas tank empty. Likewise for CO2, just pick an appropriately clean, or dirty, source to back up your claim.

We have been accustomed to measuring a vehicle's environmental impact as a function of its design. With PHEVs and EVs it now is more a function of how the vehicle is fueled.

GSP

I think that my point is that there is a difference between what one might expect from a source such as a mainstream newspaper or TV station and from a specialist web site. I expect specialist sources to include either detail or context along with their data, rather than to quote a couple of irrelevant data points as if they were useful information.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I'll open up with this post on The Green Car Website. Whilst reporting that the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera will soon be available as a rental car in many European countries, they manage to claim "The Ampera actually consumes less than 147mpg and emits less than 40g/km of CO2 according to preliminary data."

Looks like those number are from an official government rating:

According to the ECE R101 regulation for measuring fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, the Ampera consumes less than 1.6 L/100 km (147 mpg US) and emits less than 40 g/km CO2 (preliminary data)

http://www.greencarcongress.com/201...nge-ev-as-a-rental-car-throughout-europe.html

If that is the case, you can only blame the government for a bad rating system, but you can't really blame the automaker or journalists for using it.

I don't really know the details of the euro rating system or how they will deal with plug-in hybrids (do they ignore electricity usage completely?)