#Used chevy volt generator
#Used chevy volt drivers
#Used chevy volt full

Talk about hamstringing an otherwise brilliant vehicle on a technicality. Because there are different, silly rules if you want to call something “Extended Range EV” vs “Plug-In Hybrid,” in which the available gasoline range cannot exceed the available EV range, the i3 came with a comically small 2.4-gallon fuel tank.

#Used chevy volt generator

The BMW i3, on its way to the grave as we speak, was marketed as an “Extended Range EV” with a small onboard generator to supplement its electric range. It was categorized “Plug-In Hybrid,” which is very technically true, but didn’t help sell Volts. The absolutely wonderful Chevrolet Volt got very close for about 1/3 of the money, although its “range extender” gasoline engine would only power the car once the battery ran out it wouldn’t add power back into the battery at the same time. You don’t need a $150,000 Porsche SUV to get this experience, either. When driving on gasoline, you can make your engine pull double duty to charge up the battery while moving down the road, which is also very efficient. And even if you drive, say, 80 miles a day, (ideally, the least efficient) half of that driving is electric, saving you money at the pump. This isn’t a hypothetical - this is exactly how I used the Cayenne e-Hybrid when I had it.īecause the battery pack is roughly 1/6th the size of a luxury EV battery, you get eight cars built for the same amount of rare earth metals it takes to build one long-range EV.

Hate the public charging network? Never need it. Never take a road trip? Barely use a drop. Need to take a road trip? No problem, gasoline will let you drive indefinitely. Now, at the other end of your freeway trip, you exit to surface streets, click back over to EV, and that’s it. One more button activates “charge” mode, and, imperceptibly to the driver, the car boosts up its own battery pack, adding miles of EV range as you motor along. If you were to drain some of that battery power getting to the freeway, just click one button, and flick the car over to gasoline power. Many drives, especially for folks living in semi-urban areas, are under 40 miles per day, meaning for all intents and purposes you have a full-time EV.

#Used chevy volt full

Let’s say you can start each day with a full charge, because you have a plug at home. It has 35 miles of electric-only range from a 17.9 kWh battery pack which can be replenished either by plugging in, or with the gasoline-powered engine it already has. But it is literally the vehicle the commenter asked for. This is an incredibly fast, monstrously impressive touring machine whose own name sucks the wind right out of its spinnaker. The impossibility of perpetual motion machines aside, I then thought about the excellent Porsche Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid I drove recently. It read, “I would like EVs so much more if they were lighter, had more range, and charged themselves.” At the time I laughed it off, but it got me thinking. In fact, I got a comment the other day saying this specific thing about the Ford Lightning I drove recently. Let’s reframe it in a way that combines today’s cool thing with something that people know they want.

#Used chevy volt drivers

For the environment.” Then, in 2012, an American-made EV that looked like an Aston and went like stink gave the Hollywood elite new, more comfortable ways to show green love, and no celeb has been seen in a hybrid since.Įven the bonkers, hairy-chested McLaren P1 and the Starship Enterprise Porsche 918 Spyder couldn’t bring the term hybrid back from exile in the land of Uber drivers and University of Vermont professors.īut I have a suggestion for the OEM’s who still recognize that, objectively, a hybrid is a better solution for the needs of most consumers than almost any gasoline or EV car on the market today: stop using the H word.

Jay Leno famously remarked about rich celebrities per formatively driving the Prius, “Look at this terrible egg I’m driving. Before Tesla came along and made EV’s the cool thing to have, the Prius came along and made hybrids particularly un-cool, an uncool from which they have never recovered.

This is a failure of marketing as well as a failure of positioning. They just aren’t cool enough for consumers. We have long-range, dragstrip-ready EVs, and we have gas cars. They solve so many of the issues facing both pure internal combustion and pure electric vehicles: efficiency, range anxiety, public charging network woes, and urban air quality all stand to be improved with hybrids.