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To all manufacturers: More plug-in hybrids, please! A smaller battery with a range of 40-100 miles would allow most people to do their daily driving strictly o

To all manufacturers: More plug-in hybrids, please! A smaller battery with a range of 40-100 miles would allow most people to do their daily driving strictly on battery. Beyond that, a gas/diesel generator should kick in for range extension (or for towing).

Kirby64 2y ago
PHEV's have all the downsides of maintaining a gas vehicle, as well as much of the associated cost (and upcharge) of a BEV at this point. It's not as much maintainence as a dedicated gas vehicle, but it's still there. Realistically, I think it makes a lot more sense to have a dedicated BEV with whatever range you feel appropriate, and a dedicated gas vehicle (if needed) for road trips and longer jaunts. For the vast majority of people, renting a vehicle makes a lot more sense for those occasions. Generally, I think the populous seems to highly overvalue the ability to take a road trip on a moments notice and undervalue the ease of just being able to rent a vehicle.
- michaelt 2y ago
  I don't own a car, so I've rented vehicles from time to time - and my experience is that (in my country at least) the vehicle rental experience is absolute trash. Would you believe that on three separate occasions I turned up to collect my (reserved and paid for) vehicle on a Friday, ready to go on a road trip, and they simply didn't have a vehicle for me?
  - esel2k 2y ago
    On vehicle rental beeing trash is a solvable problem. Especially here in Europe where we have many apartments. I would welcome that every new build gets a garage with accessible EV for rental and in such a case I would totally opt out to not own my car anymore. Book in advance, do short trips with the EV in the garage or in front of the house. All doable.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
pornel 2y ago
The downside with plugin hybrids is that they require having a charger at home. Otherwise they're annoying enough that people give up on charging them. This is because smaller batteries take a long time to charge (usually AC only), and small capacity means they need to be charged frequently (often daily). BEVs can have batteries 10x larger, which also allows them to charge at a 10x faster rate. The larger battery can last a whole week on a single charge. Quick infrequent charging makes them tolerable even without having a charger at home. BEVs also don't cycle whole batteries that much, because driving 30 miles daily will use 10% of the battery, not 100%.
defterGoose 2y ago
The i3 I've been driving around has been a complete revelation. It's an older model with a worn-out small battery. It usually claims to have 52mi range when it's topped up in the morning. Realistically, I can only use about 40-45 of that before I worry about it shutting off the contactors to protect the cells. But it has a range extender. That transforms it from essentially a dedicated grocery-getter to a daily driver that can commute all over Socal. Barely over 2 gallons of gas will give you an extra 70mi (at about 65mph) Granted, it's more a technology demonstrator than a blueprint for an affordable mass-market EV, but it's a huge step in the right direction if you ask me. Much more similar to what the average person in a city needs in a car than, say, the 600hp model 3 I was driving around for awhile.

Kirby64 2y ago

PHEV's have all the downsides of maintaining a gas vehicle, as well as much of the associated cost (and upcharge) of a BEV at this point. It's not as much maintainence as a dedicated gas vehicle, but it's still there. Realistically, I think it makes a lot more sense to have a dedicated BEV with whatever range you feel appropriate, and a dedicated gas vehicle (if needed) for road trips and longer jaunts. For the vast majority of people, renting a vehicle makes a lot more sense for those occasions. Generally, I think the populous seems to highly overvalue the ability to take a road trip on a moments notice and undervalue the ease of just being able to rent a vehicle.

michaelt 2y ago
I don't own a car, so I've rented vehicles from time to time - and my experience is that (in my country at least) the vehicle rental experience is absolute trash. Would you believe that on three separate occasions I turned up to collect my (reserved and paid for) vehicle on a Friday, ready to go on a road trip, and they simply didn't have a vehicle for me?
- esel2k 2y ago
  On vehicle rental beeing trash is a solvable problem. Especially here in Europe where we have many apartments. I would welcome that every new build gets a garage with accessible EV for rental and in such a case I would totally opt out to not own my car anymore. Book in advance, do short trips with the EV in the garage or in front of the house. All doable.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

pornel 2y ago

The downside with plugin hybrids is that they require having a charger at home. Otherwise they're annoying enough that people give up on charging them. This is because smaller batteries take a long time to charge (usually AC only), and small capacity means they need to be charged frequently (often daily). BEVs can have batteries 10x larger, which also allows them to charge at a 10x faster rate. The larger battery can last a whole week on a single charge. Quick infrequent charging makes them tolerable even without having a charger at home. BEVs also don't cycle whole batteries that much, because driving 30 miles daily will use 10% of the battery, not 100%.

defterGoose 2y ago

The i3 I've been driving around has been a complete revelation. It's an older model with a worn-out small battery. It usually claims to have 52mi range when it's topped up in the morning. Realistically, I can only use about 40-45 of that before I worry about it shutting off the contactors to protect the cells. But it has a range extender. That transforms it from essentially a dedicated grocery-getter to a daily driver that can commute all over Socal. Barely over 2 gallons of gas will give you an extra 70mi (at about 65mph) Granted, it's more a technology demonstrator than a blueprint for an affordable mass-market EV, but it's a huge step in the right direction if you ask me. Much more similar to what the average person in a city needs in a car than, say, the 600hp model 3 I was driving around for awhile.