> People care about the price so in practice you end up with a car that has both gimped (cheaper) gas engine and gimped (cheaper) battery and a government subsi

> People care about the price so in practice you end up with a car that has both gimped (cheaper) gas engine and gimped (cheaper) battery and a government subsidy to make it sense financially (for buyer). On the other hand this makes sense, because the vast majority of trips are short, so the gimped battery works just fine. But for the long trips the gas engine can fill in. It means one can own one car instead of two.