General Motors’ Volt electric car may be too expensive to buy and operate to displace Toyota’s Prius hybrid as the industry benchmark for cutting fuel use and carbon exhaust.
A rechargeable auto with the Volt’s target range of 40 miles on electricity is “not cost-effective,” a study by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh found. Plug-in cars with smaller batteries may be a better value, according to the study, which doesn’t cite the Volt by name.
“Forty miles might be a sweet spot for making sure a lot of people get to work without using gasoline, but you’re doing it at a cost that will never be repaid in fuel savings,” said Jeremy Michalek, an engineering professor who led the study.
The study is an attempt to test how prices and driving habits may shape consumer choices among current hybrids and new models able to be recharged at a household outlet.
