autospotters.com

According to the USA Today, in May 2011, the combined sales of the Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro beat the total number of hybrids sold in American in the same period.

American muscle cars outselling fuel-thrifty hybrids despite $4 gas

At a time when gasoline topped $4 a gallon in many cities, it’s hard to imagine that road-eating big American muscle cars would top hybrids when it comes to sales. But that was the case last month.

The combined sales of Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro — all American-made, midsize, fun cars — topped the total of environment-loving hybrids. Americans scarfed up 19,476 of the pony cars, Autodata figures show, compared with 17,852 hybrids, as totaled by Edmunds.com.
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autospotters.com

Five hundred and twenty miles, eight hours of driving, one hour and twenty minutes in line at a drive through, all for a three dollar cheeseburger and we only used fifteen gallons of gasoline.

In our week with the Chevrolet Volt, we discovered that most people do not know how the Volt operates. About half thought it was an all electric car and the other half thought it was a traditional hybrid that splits operations between a gas engine and an electric motor. The Volt does have a gas engine and an electric motor; however the gas engine is only a generator and does not directly power the car’s drive wheels or electronics. The electricity produced by the gas engine does several things, such as power the car’s electronics and power the electric motors that turn the wheels. At times, such as braking or going downhill, when 100% of the electricity is not needed to drive the car, the remaining electricity is used to charge a lithium-ion battery pack. Once the battery pack has reached a certain charge, the gas generator shuts off, to preserve fuel, and the car operates completely on stored electricity.

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