How Should the EPA Rate Plug-in and Electric Vehicles?

The federal government and private sector manufacturers are debating the best way to rate the fuel efficiency of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, which will hit the U.S. market in larger numbers over the coming years.

The current mpg system’s problem is that electric vehicles obviously do not use gallons of anything for power, and range-extended plug-ins only use gas-powered generators after the battery charge runs out.

Israeli company ETV Motors recently sent a letter to the EPA asking that the U.S. adopt a multipronged standard for these vehicles. This standard would include three numbers: one will say how far the car can go on a single battery charge, another to show how energy intensive the battery is and a final number that says how much gas the car will consume to drive its generator after the battery charge is depleted.

Why does an Israeli company care what the U.S. agency decides? Whatever standard the EPA adopts will likely become the world benchmark.

The current MPG system was exposed as a flawed method of calculation when GM and Nissan got into a spitting contest about the mpg ratings on their upcoming Chevy Volt and Leaf vehicles. GM used an EPA draft proposal to calculate that the Volt would get 230 mpg; Nissan used numbers from the U.S. Department of Energy to find that the all-electric Leaf would get the equivalent of 367 mpg.

Whatever the new method, the EPA will also have to address measuring the carbon emissions of these vehicles. This will further complicating the process because it will have to estimate the emissions of the power plants used to produce the energy.

Debate Begins About Fuel Ratings on Electric Cars (USA Today)

Comments

kilowatts/miles (as in the amount of electricity from the grid to average range)

The EPA should seize the opportunity of changing vehicle technology to transition out of the ratings business. Think of all the many private reviewers that could just as easily measure fuel economy... and do already! Cars.com is one of them. The EPA should not rate them at all.