Chevy Cruze - a competitor to the Ford Focus Electric

[california]

This article talks about a professional hyper-miling crew from Australia that drove the Chevy Cruze Eco through all the 48 connected states, and averaged 64.42 MPG!

The Chevy Cruze was completely unmodified, and a new one can be bought for a base sticker price of $19,999. The EPA puts an automatic Cruze Eco at 26 mpg city and 37 mpg highway and a manual at 28 mpg city and 42 mpg highway.

Of course, they're professionals, so our own results would probably only be 42 MPG or something similar :lol:

Interestingly enough, the Chevy Volt sales seem to have slowed down (some even say slumped) while the Cruz and Cruz Eco sales are soaring. The Nissan Leaf is also outselling the Chevy Volt.

 

[scottf200]

Interestingly enough, the Chevy Volt sales seem to have slowed down (some even say slumped) while the Cruz and Cruz Eco sales are soaring. The Nissan Leaf is also outselling the Chevy Volt.

To your point - from webchat on 7Oct11: Britta Gross director of electric vehicle infrastructure and commercialization at General Motors. We're on target to deliver 10,000 units to dealers for retail sales. However, our first priority was delivering demo units to the 2,600 Chevy dealers around the U.S. before the retail units arrive. We expect to be nationwide by the end of the year: we're currently in 27 states. The product pipeline is filling up and our dealerships just now are receiving vehicles to sell. We're looking at continually growing sales from this point forward.

 

[rfruth]

I would think the Spark EV http://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...k-fully-electric-car-20111012,0,3031391.story is closer than the Cruse is.

 

[dreamer]

I agree that the Spark is a closer competitor to the Ford Focus Electric Forum than the Chevy Cruze is - but I think the point is that if a cheap little car like the Chevy Cruze can be driven with that sort of fuel economy, then there will be a lot less people looking to buy the Ford Focus Electric vehicle. Electric vehicles are still a better option, but there are people out there that think it isn't worth the trouble, so if they can buy a Chevy Cruze for half the price of the Ford Focus electric and save a bunch of money then they probably will.

In the future, as gasoline cars get more efficient, I think electric vehicle manufacturers will have an even harder time selling vehicles like the Ford Focus Electric, unless fuel prices go up to continue offering the saving we can look forward to these days.