It’s no coincidence that both Chrysler extended range vehicles (Town and Country and Wrangler) announced boast the same 40 mile electric only range that the Chevy Volt does.  According to studies 80% of americans drive 40 miles or less per day.  That means that the 40 miles of battery power allows most people that buy an extended range electric vehicle to not use gas on a daily basis.  However, GM has worked hard and made some compromises with the aerodynamics of the Volt to achieve the 40 mile range of the vehicle.  Both of Chrysler’s vehicles are not nearly as aerodynamic.

The answer is all in the batteries.  Battery storage capacity is measured in watt-hours, more or less the total amount of energy used over time.  A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is simply a thousand watt-hours and this is what’s used to measure big batteries, the kind used in modern hybrids.  The Chevy Volt uses a 16 kWh battery and only really functions within a range of 50-80% charge in order to extend battery life.

The Chrysler EV uses a 22 kWh lithium-ion battery which operates at 200 kW and up to 410 volts, it’s paired with an electric motor that produces 268 HP with a whopping 480 lb-ft of torque.  Together you get 40 miles of battery powered driving.

The Jeep EV uses a 27 kWh battery pack.  It has to be big since the Wrangler isn’t aerodynamic at all (brick) and it has to power all 4 wheels.  Interestingly it’s paired with the same motor as the Chrysler EV, which maintains the 268 HP but drops the torque down to 295.  The lower torque number is probably there to extend the range, though I’d like to see the crazy 480 lb-ft of torque that’s found in the Chrysler EV.

In both cases it comes down to larger battery packs.  Since the Volt is small it doesn’t have much space to store the batteries.  The Chrysler EV and the Jeep EV are considerably larger allowing for bigger batteries.  Allowing all three vehicles to achieve 40 miles on battery power.

Source: Jalopnik