Chevy Volt blasts out the Toyota Prius with official 230 MPG

We’ve known for a long time that the Chevy Volt will travel 40 miles in electric-only mode, but comparing efficiencies between vehicles is most easily done in terms of miles per gallon. That in mind, GM just announced that the Chevy Volt has received an EPA rating of 230 miles per gallon when driving in the city.

That’s a tough pill to swallow for someone like Toyota, who recently has been toting the efficiencies of its 2010 Prius, which slides in at 51 miles per gallon in the city. Of course, the difference between the Volt and Prius is proximity to an electrical outlet. The Chevy Volt’s newly announced mpg rating is dependent on plugging it in on a daily basis to recharge. And of course, that begs the question how much will it cost in electricity to charge the batteries?

GM has an answer for that too, in its press release the company highlights that the Volt will consume about 25 kilowatt hours of electricy per 100 miles of city driving. Right now electricity costs about $.11 per kilowatt hour, which means it’d cost $2.75 per 100 miles.

A challenge GM continues to face though, is how to help people without access to an electrical outlet where they park their cars. Apartment and condo dwellers come to mind immediately.

230 mpg is based on new standards the EPA is developing to measure the performance of plug-in electric vehicles. Other factors like weight of cargo, road conditions and how much the air conditioner will influence that number in a real life scenario.

There is no guarantee that electricity prices will stay the same, but with the current state of affairs this sort of efficiency gain could be a game changer. It merges good gas mileage with economics, especially if GM is ever able to bring the price down and forgo government subsidies.

Toyota isn’t far behind, it plans to release a plug-in version of the Prius later this year even, but those will only be available to commercial customers initially. If GM can manufacture a high quality Volt that lives up to its claims then the competitive landscape will become a lot more interesting.