EPA threatening to hide the actual MPG for the Volt?

Motortrend is reporting that the EPA and GM are at odds over the method to be used to measure MPG in the upcoming electric/hybrid car the Chevrolet Volt.

Since the Volt can run 40+ miles on battery power with NO gas, it does very well on the standard EPA city cycle, scoring a rating of over 100 mpg.  So what’s the problem?  The EPA wants to change the test, so that an electric car is required to finish the test with a full battery.    That means the test would become ONLY a measure of how fuel efficient an electric/hybrid car is while running ONLY on the gas engine.    It would NOT reflect the city MPG the Volt will ACTUALLY get once it is on the road.

Why do I care?  Because people shop and compare vehicles based on the EPA’s published MPG.  They TRUST that the EPA MPG is predictive of what they would actually get in mpg while driving the car.  I feel that it is important for the EPA to test hybrid/electric cars on the same standard they use for gas cars.  If the electric/hybrid can finish the whole city cycle while using NO gas then it should receive an appropriate rating that indicates this fuel economy.

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