GM and Nissan Declare Tweetwar

General Motors announces that the Chevy Volt, coming in 2011, will get 230 mpg. Nissan takes to Twitter and claims 367 for the all-electric Leaf, coming sooner. Then Nissan gets nasty, saying that the Leaf will “be affordable too.” Well, OK, maybe the Leaf will cost less than the Volt (although in point of fact neither GM nor Nissan has released pricing for either vehicle yet). But this is a weird Twitter smackdown. Are the Leaf and the Volt really in the same market? The Leaf will get 100 miles on a charge; the Volt will only get 40 before it needs to use its small gas motor to provide more juice. But the Volt will serve up greater range overall. So the Leaf is for people who must have an EV that produces no emissions, while the Volt is for people who can live with some emissions, should they need more range, but who may very well spend most of their time producing no emissions.

So it’s sort of a funny, phony war. And besides, Nissan has no business dissing GM after what the General has been through.