I like the fine print at the bottom that emphasizes for the EPA-estimated 238 mile range, "your actual range may vary based on several factors including temperature, terrain, and driving technique." More salesmen need to make that clear to a new owner.
Why? They don't do that for other fuels.
I’m talking about at the dealership, not in the advertising...
For many of us, the Volt was the first vehicle we drove whose primary fuel tank held the equivalent of one gallon’s worth of driving distance. Few of us have ever driven a car where the driver’s display told us how far we’d probably go on the first gallon of gas we used that day.
When the amount of gas in the tank was enough to drive our car for a couple of weeks or more, what heed would we have given to a car salesman’s warning that the distance we might drive on a gallon of gas is dependent on annual weather cycles? If you buy your Volt in the summer, it’s disconcerting to see that range estimate plunge in the winter when you haven’t been forewarned of why it will happen, that "nothing has gone wrong with your battery," and that it will go back up as spring arrives.
BEVs have larger batteries, but in terms of range, we could say the Bolt has, perhaps, a "5 gallons’ worth of fuel" tank. It seems to me many owners who are new to the electric car world think of the EPA ev mile ratings as GM-determined hard numbers, not estimates, and are puzzled when not achieved. Bolt owners who buy in the summer will face similar range drop issues when winter arrives. For this reason, the salesman’s task should include making the nature of the range estimate numbers clear at the time the car is purchased, and that the cyclical nature of the environment and driving techniques (including how you choose to use heat and a/c) will impact the full charge range estimate that is displayed when you get into the car at the start of the day.
