"How GM 'Lied' About The Electric Car"

"The Chevy Volt  has been hailed as General Motors' electric savior. Now, as GM officially rolls out the Volt this week for public consumption, we're told the much-touted fuel economy was misstated and GM 'lied' about the car being all-electric.

In the past, and based on GM's claims, we've gone so far as to call the Volt GM's 'Jesus Car.' And why wouldn't we call it that? We were told the Volt would achieve 230 MPG fuel economy and would always use the electric drivetrain to motivate the wheels — only using the onboard gasoline engine as a 'range extender' for charging the batteries. It now turns out that not only were those fuel economy claims misleading, but the gasoline engine is actually used to motivate the wheels — making the Volt potentially nothing more than a very advanced hybrid car and pushing some automotive journalists like Scott Oldham at Edmunds.com to claim 'GM lied to the world' about it.

Ray Wert reports for Jalopnik October 11, 2010.

SEE ALSO:

"In Search Of Charging Stations For Electric Cars" (NPR)

"The Great Electric Car Race of 2010" (Christian Science Monitor)

"The Missing Link in Wider Adoption of Solar Power? Electricians" (ClimateWire)