[kbenson]

> Pure EV purists dislike PHEVs because they have the complexity of an ICE car + an EV car, but I think there's some serious advantages.

I would imagine most the complaints are for when the ICE actually powers a drivetrain. If it's essentially a generator to keep the batteries from depleting too far, that's not much extra complexity it all. Have a problem with the generator? Just swap it out with a new or rebuilt one from some vendor (if designed well such that you can do so). I'm seeing that a Tesla uses about 300 Watts a mile @ 55 Mph.[1] Honda seems to have generators much more than capable of supplying that need for under $1000.[2] I'm not familiar enough with electric systems to know how accurate that assessment is (whether the voltage requirements complicate it, for example), but that seems promising. Then again, I imagine if it was really that easy, Tesla would have put a generator charge hookup and exhaust ventilation capabilities in the trunk already.

Edit: Hmm, I'm definitely missing something, since the $1000 generator says it can go 8.1 hours on a gallon of gas, and it doesn't seem likely for that to translate into powering a Tesla for 8 hours of travel.

1: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/average-wattage-for-...

2: https://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/selecting-a-gene...

[fnj]

> a Tesla uses about 300 Watts a mile @ 55 Mph

This is nonsense. The dimensions are wrong. Watts are instantaneous power. To be meaningful, you would have to give either kWh/h or kWh per mile or km.

Besides that 300 W is only 0.4 hp. Sorry, but that is just not credible.

[madengr]

Just for reference, I average about 4.5 mile/kWh in my Leaf.

[aunty_helen]

Not to dispute your claim that it's low, but the physics checks out. The cited link saves me explaining it: >Reports are 300 W/mile at 55 mph. If you do the product of these two numbers (300 * 55) all units but W will cancell eachother out so the answer is 16500 W = 16.5kW

The time component being on the mph allows the conversion.

[sokoloff]

No. 300 Watts / mile * 55 mile / hour leaves you with 16500 Watts / hour, which is a non-sensical unit.

On the other hand, using the correct units (300Wh/mile):

300 Watt * hour / mile * 55 mile / hour = 16500 Watts [a sensible unit] (or about 22 horsepower which is reasonable for a steady 55mph cruise).

Do that for an hour, and you get 16.5kWh of energy consumption and cover 55 miles, for an energy efficiency of 3.33 miles/kWh, which is in the ballpark (albeit low) for what my LEAF delivers (averaging a bit over 4 miles/kWh at average speeds somewhat lower than 55 mph)

[averagewall]

That's not obvious. Why @ means *? And what does W/mile mean?

[timerol]

The units in the linked thread are slightly wrong, which was corrected later in the thread. 300 Wh/mi * 55 mph = 16.5 kW.

The most powerful generator I see on Honda's site is 10 kW for $5400.

[chipsa]

Yeah. I expect the unit being used is 300 Watt-hours. IOW: (300 Wh/mi 55mi/h) =16500 W, or 16.5 kW. Which actually sounds about reasonable, being 22 horsepower.