An Electric Car For Urban Life

Dodd Harris is unimpressed by the Chevy Volt's EPA ratings:

The woefully limited 35-mile range on battery and mere 37 MPG on gas leaves one wondering what all that hype was really about.

Drum rebuts:

No car is designed to appeal to every single person, and the Volt is no exception. It's designed mostly to appeal to a specific kind of driver: someone who does the great bulk of their driving around town, maybe 20 or 30 miles a day at most, but occasionally needs to drive further and doesn't want to buy a second car just for those occasions. There are lots of people like that, and for them the Volt is great. They'll spend 98% of their time running solely on battery power and recharging at night when rates are low, and 2% of their time getting 37 mpg which is actually pretty damn good.

Or if they don't have kids, they could get a, you know, bike. In DC, we're currently experiencing a boom in cycling. Low carbon, high exercize, greater mobility in many instances than a car: what's not to like?

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