GM: Chevy Volt Owners Averaging 1,000 Miles Between Gas Stops

07/22/2011

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One owner has averaged 547 mpg by relying more on the battery pack for propulsion

One of the vehicles that has made one of the biggest splashes in the hybrid and EV market is the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt is an extended range electric vehicle which uses the gasoline motor to charge the battery inside the car for longer range once it can’t go on electric power alone.

One of the things that Chevrolet has been a bit quiet on is exactly how far the vehicle can drive on a tank full of fuel when the batteries go dead on their own. To show just how far the Volt can drive on a tank of fuel, GM has called on some owners of the Chevy Volt to tell just how long they have been driving on a tank and it's a long way.
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Prius, other hybrids lose California carpool lane access today

07/07/2011

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Back in line with the unwashed masses, you Prius folks. You, too, Honda Insight drivers. In fact, all you yellow-stickered, solo-driving, HOV-using people are just like everybody else on California highways, starting today.

After years of smugly wheeling down the high-occupancy vehicle (carpool) lanes all by your lonesomes, while other users had to have a passenger or two, you hybrid pilots lose the perk.

The California DMV says, "On July 1, 2011, hybrid vehicles carrying the yellow sticker will no longer be allowed to operate in an HOV/carpool lane unless the minimum passenger requirements are met. This expiration date will not be extended."

That yellow sticker allowing traffic-jam-skirting solo passage in the HOV lanes was a big draw. In fact, once California quit issuing stickers, the prices of older Priuses, Insights, Escape hybrids and the like that had the stickers rose higher than new versions of those hybrids, whose owners no longer could get the stickers.
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