Chevy Volt Shock! Strike Three for GM PR?

Chevrolet's heavily-subsidized, hyped and re-hyped Volt finally comes to market in the next few weeks. But it's already run into another self-inflicted GM PR scandal. The Volt was supposed to be "all-electrically powered"—its gas engine would just be a "range extender" that produced juice for the electric motor when the battery ran down. It wouldn't drive the car's wheels directly, as in a mere "hybrid" Prius or Fusion. Or so we were led to believe. When you think about it, this is a slightly strange concept: Why use a gas engine to generate electric power that then runs an electric motor that then powers the wheels, with an efficiency loss each time mechanical energy is converted to electric energy and back again? Why not just have the gas engine power the damn wheels directly when necessary? Would the electric motor be offended?

The advantages of that shortcut made themselves felt in Volt design headquarters at some point, since it now turns out that, contrary to earlier misdirection, the Volt's engine does power the wheels when necessary, just as in a hybrid. Couple that with the Volt's distinctly unimpressive mileage when it's not running on its battery, and its failure in many real world circumstances to achieve its advertised 40 mile electric-only range, and you've set the stage for major hype deflation.

There's a talmudic blog debate currently underway on the question of whether GM directly "lied" or merely avoided the truth with evasive Clintonian language. You could say the Volt is still a cutting-edge electric car—now with the bonus of a gas engine that kicks in to spin the wheels at 70 m.p.h. speeds. Or you could say that GM failed to make its electric engine do everything it needed to do, and had to call in gas backup, just like a Prius.

What's clear is that GM's skilled auto engineers have been undercut by the company's incompetent PR engineers, who seem to feel the public doesn't have the patience for real world progress and has to be spoonfed a fantasy comeback story. This is now GM's third Big Fib, after all. ...

#1) Then-CEO Ed Whitacre trying to give the impression that GM had repaid the taxpayers "in full" for the 2009 bailout (when the company had only repaid a relatively small loan). 

#2) GM claiming that the Volt has a "230 mpg city EPA rating." (The EPA has not rated the car. Real world mileage seems to be in the 30s, though if you almost never drive it far enough to deplete the battery before recharging you'll get astronomical gas mileage.) . . .

#3) The idea that the Volt isn't another hybrid variation . . .

Even if the Volt is a good car—USA Today 's normally reliable James Healey likes it—and even if subsequent iterations are better still, the company's desperate, cynical PR strategy could hurt it over the medium term. What's the opposite of a "halo" effect? . . .

UPDATE: 'I did not have a mechanical connection with that drive wheel!' For an unconvincing pro-GM attempt to maintain the claim that the Volt isn't just another hybrid, see here. . . . A decidedly confusing official Chevy response says the gas engine's power is "fed through the drive unit and is balanced by the generator and traction motor," whatever that means. Somehow this supposedly acquits the gas unit of having a "direct mechanical connection" with the drive wheels. . . . 1:03 a.m.