Automakers Are Hot for Extended-Range EVs. They Hope Buyers Like Them Too

EREVs have some manufacturing advantages, too, says Steven Ewing, who directs editorial content at Edmunds [1]. Specifics on Scout production are scant, but at least the Ramcharger is using components and technology that Stellantis already puts in other cars. "You're not introducing this giant new propulsion system," Ewing says. On the EREV (and PHEV) con side: It's always going to be expensive to put two powertrains into one vehicle.

An Emissions Win?

Some climate advocates, who hope the world transitions quickly to battery electric vehicles to stave off the worst of climate change, say EREVs could be part of a cleaner transportation system, even if the design still uses gasoline.

"The future is fully electric," says Kathy Harris, who directs the clean vehicles policy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council [2], an environmental advocacy group. "But many drivers are worried about going fully electric.

While the country continues to build out a robust charging network, EREVs can be a good choice for some of them."

EREVs might prove less emissions-intensive than their PHEV cousins because drivers cannot simply choose to skip charging and drive on gasoline alone, a phenomenon that some researchers worry is degrading the real-life emissions output of many plug-ins.

Other researchers are less convinced by automakers' "bridge technology" arguments but say EREVs might be helpful anyway. EREVs are showing up on heavy vehicles like trucks and SUVs because those need more battery power to move, especially when they're hauling or towing. The tech might obviate the complaints of, say, some Ford F-150 Lightning [3] owners, who say they want to use their all-electric trucks to do work and charge tools but can't get enough done on one charge.

Full battery electric might never be a fit for every person.

"For those drivers who live in rural areas or who have driving patterns where they go long distances every day, a range extender with a very efficient generator may be a great technology," says Gil Tal, who directs the Electric Vehicle Research Center [4] at UC Davis. "I think that will be the way we get to 100 percent electric."

Older Tech, New Interest

Technically, the Chevrolet Volt [5], which in 2010 represented General Motors' first modern foray into EV tech, was an EREV, though it was marketed as a PHEV. Jaguar intended a 2010 concept car, the C-X75, to go into limited production in 2013 but canceled the project amidt the Great Recession. (A C-X75 appeared in the James Bond film Spectre, and a design firm turned out a gas-powered conversion [6], but otherwise the car never saw the light of day). A few years later, the BMW i3 EV came with a range-extender option, with a very small generator giving drivers a few extra miles to get to a charger, stat.

But that choice didn't prove popular with buyers, according to Edmunds data.

The EREV story began to change in China. The Chinese automaker Li Auto [7] was a global outlier in 2019 when it unveiled its first model, the Li One, a range-extended SUV. That year, EREVs accounted for 1 percent of all PHEV sales, according to the research firm BloombergNEF.

But by 2023, Li Auto had led EREVs to a 28 percent share of PHEV sales--accounting for 9 percent of all electric vehicle sales in China.

That's not a huge share, but the tech has "been transformative in a pretty short amount of time," says Corey Cantor, an analyst with BloombergNEF who covers electric vehicles.

The world might be learning from that experience.

References

^ Edmunds (www.edmunds.com)
^ Natural Resources Defense Council (www.nrdc.org)
^ Ford F-150 Lightning (www.wired.com)
^ Electric Vehicle Research Center (ev.ucdavis.edu)
^ Chevrolet Volt (www.wired.com)
^ gas-powered conversion (www.caranddriver.com)
^ Li Auto (ir.lixiang.com)