I had to read that twice...a range of 40km? I've got to say that seems...disappointing. You'd think a bunch of university kids could make an EV car that would do 40km on a charge...as a class project.
Yup. Sure you could get university kids to do better but a few will likely freeze to death in the process. And the car will likely look more like a science project than the simply awsome car the Volt is.
I knew full well going in that the range will fluctuate (as with any EV). Overall I will still likely average 60 to 70km's of range over the whole year. It's only on bad days where I need heavy defrost use were I may hit the low 40's. My commute to and from work is 42km's so on the worst days I might use a tiny bit of gas. Plus on the days where the temperature is below -10C which thankfully in Kitchener is usually not too many days (probably 30 to 40 days a year).
In the whole month of November I used 2L of gas and drove ~1800km's. And I'm no hypermiler.
My commute is almost about 36Km each way (72Km daily) and I recharge my Volt at work.
I have had twice this summer the EMM (Engine Maintenance Mode) because I did not burn any gas during 6 weeks (42days)
Nov 17th, my Volt reach 10,000Km and has burned 68.4L to date, this include (3) 500 km one day trip.
Last week, I used some gas due to the -10/-20C temperature and longer trip than usual.
Dec 5th, total gas used is 74.9L for 11,067 Km (0.676/100Km) because I used 6.5L on my last 1,067Km and 3L were burnt the same day as picture below.