Very cool. Thanks for sharing the tool publicly! Works great in iOS and Mac OS versions of Safari, although you might consider adding a "viewport" meta tag so users don't have to zoom in on the small text.

On a related note, I'd be really interested to know why this measurement exists. Is it meant to be more approachable for those who are used to calculating gas mileage? Or for trying to compare to the gas mileage of a traditional car? It seems like miles per kWh would be much more useful, but maybe I'm missing something.

 

The problem I see with MPGe and kWh per mile is that the two energy sources involved being so different in terms of cost and efficiency. I think cars should be rated like appliances are, with a cost/distance rating.

 

Oh and thanks for the tip on the viewport tag. I looked it up, added it, and it works great! I am not a web person. Just an IT dude with enough scripting/programming experience to be useful/dangerous.

 

Regarding the "why" in regards to MPGe, from Wikipedia: "As part of the research and redesign process, EPA conducted focus groups where participants were presented with several options to express the consumption of electricity for plug-in electric vehicles. The research showed that participants did not understand the concept of a kilowatt hour as a measure of electric energy use despite the use of this unit in their monthly electric bills. Instead, participants favored a miles per gallon equivalent, MPGe, as the metric to compare with the familiar miles per gallon used for gasoline vehicles. "

 

I updated it with energy and cost calculations.

 

I wanted a quick MPGe calculator that I could plug my "current charge" numbers from the Volt. I'm not sure if something like this already exists, but I could not find one with a quick check of the Google, so I made one myself. It works on mobile browsers.

I've updated it with energy and cost calculations.


http://mpgecalc.toadlife.net/

Thanks for your good work. Two dumb questions: How does one know the kWh used? I have no way to measure that, and MyVolt.com does not provide that information. Under options, what does CARB mean? thanks

 

kWh used is on the screen that shows that statistics for your current charge. At least it is in my 2014. As for CARB, it stands for California Air Resources Board. They have their own calculation for kWh per gallon of gasoline. California gas has special additives added for air quality purposes. Apparently they sap the performance a bit.

 

Here is a fun exercise if you replaced an ICE car with your Volt (like I did). My previous car was a 2004 Hyundai Sonata. It was extremely reliable car for me and I have nothing bad to say about it, but when I plug in my daily commute to work (39 miles one way, up hill slightly) and compare it to my Volt, it looks like this:

My 2014 Volt:
MPGe: 89.16
MPGcs: 47
$0.0506 per Mile
0.4157 kWh per Mile

Sonata (typical mileage I used to get):
~MPG: 24
~$0.125 per Mile
~1.34 kWh per Mile

 

Thanks for the updated version and the MPGe explanation! (I still think miles/kWh makes more sense and would bet that's the number they'll settle on long-term.) Your updated version looks much nicer on a phone.

Thinking like an end user, the only thing that would confuse me is needing to enter a mileage total when I'd only traveled on electricity. Maybe you could auto-calculate a total?

If you really wanted to be fancy, you could add an "input mode" and "pattern" declaration to your form inputs so the keyboard defaults to numerals on mobile devices! (Something like this sample.)

 

Thanks for the updated version and the MPGe explanation! (I still think miles/kWh makes more sense and would bet that's the number they'll settle on long-term.) Your updated version looks much nicer on a phone.

Thinking like an end user, the only thing that would confuse me is needing to enter a mileage total when I'd only traveled on electricity. Maybe you could auto-calculate a total?

Good idea. I will do that.

If you really wanted to be fancy, you could add an "input mode" and "pattern" declaration to your form inputs so the keyboard defaults to numerals on mobile devices! (Something like this sample.)

Thanks for the tip. I always wondered how they instructed the phone to use the num pad. Done!

 

FYI, here's another calculator I just wrote last week: MPGe Cost Dot Com (my post count still isn't high enough to post links)

It's similar, in that it takes your current gas and electric prices and the number of miles driven as input, but it doesn't require kwh or gallons of gas used as input, so maybe it's easier to use/understand?