Archive for the ‘miles per gallon’ Category

Like that old gray mare the kids keep talking about, fuel economy standards ain't what they used to be. We've seen this recently with General Motors' announcement of a 230 mpg rating for the Chevrolet Volt. We've also seen it with the Fisker Karma sedan, which announced a much more modest fuel economy of 67 mpg. In the context of conventional, combustion-engined cars, those figures are pretty eye-popping -- but of course, they're not quite what they seem. The EPA is working to fix that.

The problem with the Chevy Volt, the Fisker Karma, Jaguar's "Limo Green" concept, and other new-tech vehicles is their drivetrains, which center around...

Upstart automaker Fisker doesn't grab as many headlines as the brasher, snazzier Tesla, to which it is frequently compared. But that may change with the release of efficiency stats for the 2010 Fisker Karma: an impressive 67 miles per gallon, with CO2 emissions around 83g/km (134g/mile).

That sounds great for a luxury four-door sedan, although the numbers aren't quite as clear-cut as they seem. The Karma is a hybrid -- or as people often call it, a range-extended electric vehicle. Like the Chevy Volt, the Fisker Karma is powered by an electric motor, and the batteries drive that motor get recharged in one of two ways: via plug-in when...