As this article is firewalled I don't know if this is mentioned in the article, but I heard a Toyota exec (I think it was) once express the following theory for

As this article is firewalled I don't know if this is mentioned in the article, but I heard a Toyota exec (I think it was) once express the following theory for preferring plug-in hybrids to EVS: As most people drive under 30 miles/day most days, and batteries are a limited resource, by giving millions of people 10-40 miles (depending on the model) instead of a few hundred thousand people 300 miles that they almost never use, you end up saving way more energy. Of course this is merely aspirational; they haven't sold millions of plug-in hybrids, but they have sold millions of hybrids (6m+!), and the argument extends in slightly weaker form to their whole hybrid line, so it doesn't sound on-the-face-of-it stupid.