Yes, this is true for 2011-2012, and I suspect all model years. While a bit counterintuitive, having Climate set to comfort often allows the resistive heating to maintain the coolant temperature necessary to keep the engine from coming back on after its first run.
I'm obviously not in a position to test, but last year we had a bunch of 2013 owners coming back to say it didn't seem to matter on their cars and the electric heat never came on during ERDTT.
I'm not certain, but I believe that the changes to ERDTT and the HVAC made for the 2013+ models prevent this workaround from working on those cars.
Just to clarify, the article when translated by Chrome, said 40-80 km, not 40 miles.
As far as I know GM targeted 40 miles AER, but never claimed the car could do that. They claimed an average of 35 mi in 2011 -2012, then it was raised to 38 mi for 2013 - 2014.
They will lose because this is an average over the entire year and there is TONS of data showing that the car does EXCEED these values for the vast majority of owners.
By the way ALL cars lose efficiency (MPG) in Quebec in the winter.
Those 35 and 38 numbers for the two halves of the first generation aren't averages - they are EPA test results (the only number GM is allowed to advertise - and not something you can sue a manufacturer for not meeting unless you can demonstrate flawed/falsified testing by the manufacturer.)
Because of the way the EPA tests, they do fall somewhere between typical summer and winter performance; if I had to guess a unweighted annual average, I'd put it on the high side of the EPA number (but it'd be a guess, and YMMV of course.)
GM did say 40 miles - back in the prototype days before they had real Volts. Since they started production, the official line has been "25-50 miles" - which is 40-80 km. (This number didn't change with the increased battery for whatever reason - possibly because it is nice round numbers.)
Trying it in a 2026 Volt would be rather difficult... Either you have a time machine, or there's a typo somewhere...
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