For what it's worth, my car's fuel gauge appears to do exactly this—no change from full for the first 60-100 miles, and about 2.5 gallons left on "empty." The f

For what it's worth, my car's fuel gauge appears to do exactly this—no change from full for the first 60-100 miles, and about 2.5 gallons left on "empty." The first quarter tank lasts a good deal longer than the third, at least according to the gauge. You'd think you wouldn't want to do this with a range estimation because the error's more obvious, but I'm also sure they don't want to sandbag its estimate from a full charge because people will be wondering why they're not seeing the advertised range. I'm sure they do want the car to be able to keep going a little past empty, though, and those spare miles have to come from somewhere.