[wainair]

My commute is 57km(roughly 35miles) each way so I use all of my battery range. If I'm lucky enough to be able to charge at work(only some managers are onboard with letting me use company power) I don't use gas at all. Those day's I can't I get around 120mpg combined(gas and electric). Like you say most people's commute is less than 25miles and those lucky folks drive gas free all the time. But if they want to drive to a friend cottage on the weekend they can and they don't have to worry about range.(they just feel guilty about using gas! LOL)

I haven't crunched the numbers myself but there was a study being quoted a lot a while back that was saying that the people who did the study compared the cost of purchase and ownership of a Chevy Cruze Eco at $19000, against the cost of a Volt at $41000. They based they're numbers on the average American commute, projected maintenance costs, fuel consumption costs at $3/gallon and purchase price, over 5 years. After 5 years the Volt cost $1500 more to own than the Cruze. I live in Ontario Canada. We currently have an EV Incentive program the Provincial Government offers if you buy an EV. The Volt qualifies so I also got a $8250 payment after I bought the car from the government! If you factor that in I'd be ahead $6751 after 5 years! I hope to own the car for 7-10 years so I will come out on the plus side in a few years.