Are EREVs A Good Choice For The USA?

Assist CleanTechnica’s work by means of a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

Kyle Area visited Volvo Vehicles’ Charleston manufacturing facility this week for a nearer have a look at Volvo’s electrification progress, software program progress, and extra. In certainly one of his discussions with Volvo executives, a remark about Volvo introducing extended-range electrical autos for the US market jumped out at me. Prolonged-range electrical autos (EREVs) have been fairly well-liked in China previously few years, however they’ve been all however gone from the US marketplace for the previous a number of years.

I perceive the professionals & cons of an EREV, as I had an early model of 1. We had the BMW i3 REx. Nevertheless, that was a unique time, particularly in terms of EVs. That automotive had simply 71 miles of all-electric vary when new. With such little vary and in a market the place you couldn’t get an reasonably priced long-range electrical automotive, the gasoline vary extender was a really useful crutch. Electrical autos have far more vary now, and even EREVs have far more electrical vary than that BMW i3 REx had.

Even with our low-range BMW i3, although, we solely used the gasoline engine backup 2–3 instances very briefly in 9 months. We spent somewhat greater than $5 on fuel in that point, and a few of that was from the engine working itself each few months to maintain itself recent.

I additionally bear in mind Chevy Volt drivers from that point and earlier raving about their vehicles (which had about 40 miles of electrical vary) as a result of they might drive on electrical energy virtually on a regular basis however had a gasoline engine for backup in uncommon instances the place they wanted it.

However, yeah, that’s all about EREV leaders a number of years in the past. The query is whether or not now could be the time for an EREV revival in the US, or in China (the place it’s already alive and kicking), Europe (the place you even have EREVs in the marketplace), and different markets. It appears like that is the place a number of automakers are attempting to move, not solely Volvo. Listed here are some ideas I’ve on the professionals and cons of this concept and potential coming pattern, significantly for the US:

Professionals for EREVs:

• Naturally, for individuals who do drive a whole lot of miles a day (very unusual), an EREV may very well be an ideal option to cowl most of these miles in electrical mode after which. (However, actually, who matches into that situation?)
• For individuals who merely don’t really feel snug going absolutely electrical but, as a result of they’re scare of not having a fuel tank, an EREV might be a wonderful stepping stone to a full BEV.
• Placing in simply sufficient batteries to be satisfactory for electrical driving more often than not (in sure existence) whereas letting a fuel engine choose up the slack in a small minority of conditions is an effective approach to minimize down on the assets wanted to construct very massive batteries for long-range BEVs.

Cons for EREVs:

• The corporate is placing extra assets into creating each a BEV powertrain and an inner combustion engine (ICE) powertrain, and integrating them. That prices extra money, which suggests a higher-costing car.
• That additionally means there are extra elements that may break, want upkeep, and wish repaired or changed.
• With the quantity of battery capability going into an EREV, simply including somewhat extra is satisfactory for the overwhelming majority of drivers.
• Folks might purchase an EREV for different causes than the electrical powertrain (tech options, incentives, and so forth.) after which not cost or not cost usually, fueling up the fuel tank the vast majority of the time whereas lugging round heavy batteries.

In actuality, there are completely different conditions or existence the place a BEV, an EREV, or a plugin hybrid (with a smaller battery than an EREV) could also be perfect. I’m skeptical that there’s a big market that an EREV is genuinely perfect for, particularly within the US, however perhaps I’m fallacious. What do you suppose?

Humorous sufficient, whereas I used to be writing this text, I noticed fellow CleanTechnica author Paul Fosse put out simply the identical type of query and tag me in it. Right here’s his tweet:

What’s your take?