A New Kind of Hybrid Car Is About to Hit America's Streets

theatlantic.com

8 points·JumpCrisscross··8 comments

Range extenders are not new. The BMW i3 could be equipped with one (which was loud and didn’t do much).

Yep, the Chevy Volt ran for almost 10 years up until 2019. In 2011 it was Motor Trend's Car of the Year. More than 150,000 were sold over the entire production, which isn't hugely successful for a GM vehicle but they were well liked by owners.

Framing EREVs as a new kind of hybrid that the US hasn't seen before is just incorrect.

I wonder how humans regressed to mosquito-levels of long-term memory.

In this case, I honestly wonder if the piece was actually written first from the perspective of being an ad for the new Dodge Ram EREV. It sure feels that way with the omission of the Volt, or other actually useful information on the topic, such as the success of EREVs in China or the viability of gas and oil alternatives that are not EVs.

The author says, regarding EREV trucks, "these trucks are likely to be still burning fossil fuels deep into the 2040s," which just completely ignores possible shifts to biofuels, which are already used in ICE cars today with no modifications whatsoever. See https://sustain-fuels.com/education/what-are-sustainable-fue...

Hybrid cars are great if you want the worst of both ICE and EV worlds.

But also if you want the best of those worlds. Specifically: instant acceleration of the EV drivetrain and increased range provided by ICE.

A Dodge Ram hybrid might not be the best example, but do watch some reviews of Chinese EREVs that aren't available in the US. The gap is striking.

Is an external range extender feasible? Especially for a tuck, a tank and generator running on the flatbed would seem cheaper and more efficient than an integrated unit.

https://archive.ph/z7v5R

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