Written by an automotive blogging enthusiast (reprinted with permission):

Regarding a discussion evaluating the new MPG-E metric for EV's and Plug-in Hybrids...

This discussion is ridiculous. If you are NOT using a liquid fuel you are NOT getting miles per gallon!

Auto purchases boil down to resource allocation. If you have lots of resources you get what you want. If your resources are scarce you buy what you need.

It is insane to purchase a Volt for $45,000, even if it gets 60-80 whatever fuzzy MPG-E rating when you can buy a new VW TDI that really does get 45 to 50 miles per gallon for $25,000. For the $20,000 difference, I can buy about 6,666 gallons of diesel fuel which will allow me to drive over 300,000 miles with a single tank range of over 600 miles whenever and wherever I desire. So while that Chevy Volt is crushed in a recycling center after about 100,000 miles because no sane person will own a vehicle beyond the battery warranty when the battery replacement cost is $9,500, I will still be breaking in my VW as diesel engines have a historic track record of getting over 300,000 miles with very little maintenance and repair.

20,000/$3.00 = 6,666 gallons x 45mpg = 300,000 miles

And please to not argue that I can get such and such incentives from the US Federal Government against the purchase of the Chevy Volt. The US Federal Government is broke and programs to support EV's just motivate the Fed to print more paper money which further devalues the USD. I and other consumers will allocate our resources as we see fit. The Volt is a useless science experiment ignoring economic realities. Like most GM engineering and promises, it will fail to be of practical use to most people.