The rise of EVs also presents the opportunity for generally lighter, smaller, cheaper vehicles.<p>Already they are very popular in China: <a href="https://insideevs.com/news/340006/big-in-china-cheap-tiny-electric-cars/" rel="nofollow">https://insideevs.com/news/340006/big-in-china-cheap-tiny-el...</a><p>What would a Tesla Model 3 look like if it had half the range, no frunk, and much lower performance? (ie. limited to 120km/h) How light, cheap, and small could we take it without utterly abandoning safety?<p>Basically, the kind of vehicle designed just for inner-city commutes and picking up goods.<p>If these vehicles became more common we would see a 'peace dividend' in the car safety wars - the other vehicles on the road would be lighter, so crashes would be less dangerous (maybe combined with automatic crash avoidance as well) and breaking times shorter, so crumple zones and other big heavy features could be reduced.
The extra weight of a battery and electric drive train means at least part of the fuel efficiency is compensated, hybrids typically weigh 200 Kg more than their ICE counterparts.<p>There's another measure that would have saved everyone a lot of money and emissions: better aerodynamics. Car makers have been building terrible designs for decades because gasoline was cheap, but we know they could do much better. A car with good aerodynamics (like the Prius by the way, or the Hyundai Ioniq) saves enough fuel to not need a hybrid drive train.
I test drove the Nissan Serena e-power (series hybrid mini-van) and having all the torque available is a killer feature. It won't win any high speed medals but to be able to get up to 50kph (30mph) with no drama is useful. Combines the torque happy electric car with the range capabilities and infrastructure support of ICE.<p>You see this electric motor pattern in a variety of cars. The current gen Acura NSX has the front wheels driven by the electric motors, rears driven by an ICE engine. The Mitsubishi Outlander comes in a PHEV version, with about 50km of electric only range, switching over to ICE as needed.<p>While I ended up with the Nissan Leaf (battery electric vehicle, the plug in kind), currently about one year of owner ship, I do miss for long distance, at speed, travel of gasoline cars.
I drove a Tesla once for a day, and ever since, I've been longing for a car with that much bottom end torque. The moment Honda releases a hybrid or all-electric Odyssey I will throw money at them. Or if my kids grow out of their car seats before then, I'll just get whatever the best all electric sedan is at that point.
Unfortunately hybrids still use gas.<p>All-electric charging speeds are quite good now and getting better, and any numbers quoted today need to be rechecked a few months from now, especially with Teslas and the Supercharger v3 upgrades rolling out.<p>It’s simply irresponsible to continue pushing solutions that perpetuate our carbon based transportation system while the grid is steadily becoming more and more green.<p>Cost comparisons of vehicles should take total cost of ownership into account, not just the sticker price which can be offset by savings in other aspects of usage.
It's a shame to the author of the article or the poster that so many people comment without having actually read the article, based on the replies. The article is not about EV in general, not about Tesla in particular. It's about series hybrids which are the most economic way to design an EV, combining the capability of short time power spikes and long range.<p>Now my contribution to the article is that large mining vehicles have used this principle since quite some time. The largest slag trucks in the world are all operating according to this principle so it's not that new.<p>Would love to check out a car operating to that principle!
I dream of a hybrid or all-electric pickup truck. The geography+climate around my house, in combination with the types of hobby work I do (frequent hauling of logs and stone) make owning anything smaller than a crossover SUV foolish, and even those won't be able to get out of the driveway some days in winter. In short, a 4 wheel drive + good ground clearance is a must, and hauling capacity is a great bonus.<p>Alas, new pickup trucks that are worth owning for my needs are typically in the $45-60k+ range, and I don't have high hopes that hybrid or all-electric will be kind to the sticker price either.
This would have been great if the automakers got into this seriously about 20 to 10 years ago. Now whether or not they do this, they have to make serious effort to get to BEVs
Calling a 1.5L Prius engine "expensive" is a bit of a stretch, you can buy a lightly used engine for ~$500.<p>Compare with say Tesla where a single motor runs you over $3000 and they call it "cheap".