[twobitshifter]

Disagree. It’s the 80/20 rule, the PHEV will get you to 80% of your destinations on electricity. Paying $20,000 more for a battery for the added range to make those last 20% or trips isn’t worth it. (And with the state of charging, there are probably trips your EV can’t make that a PHEV can)

[sitkack]

I'd rather see those KWHr distributed to as many vehicles as possible, able to prevent 80% of the CO2 emissions that they would generate, then hoard that capacity in a single high end vehicle that won't even tap into it.

Hybrid gas engines should be sized to only operate the vehicle on flat ground at highway speeds, so around 10-15KW tops.

[hedgehog]

The gas engine should be able to handle a mountain pass in hot or cold weather, closer to 150KW. That avoids needing to carry enough battery for that use case.

[sitkack]

That is a ridiculous amount of power. You realize you just said that a car needs a 200Hp motor. A 1990 Toyota Corolla (as new) has a 100Hp motor.

Battery plus a 10KW ICE can get you over a mountain pass. Going slower is always an option.

[hedgehog]

Not ridiculous, I had a 130HP / 100KW car that could do it only with protest, and modern cars are heavier. To do the same drive mostly on battery you'd need something like 50KWh which is much more than any of the current plug in hybrids I'm aware of. There's not that much weight or cost penalty going from 100HP to 200HP but quite a bit going from 15KWh to 50.

[brnt]

I suppose it depends on what your pushing over that mountain. Fiat Pandas are awesome mountain cars that handle anything (in the car) at 50-80hp.

[hedgehog]

Those look fun. Figure a 2x heavier car and US freeway speeds (70 mph / 112 km/h) and I think you would end up wanting a lot more power. Even if the number seems high you only rely on about half given altitude effects and protecting engine reliability. Notably even on something as light as the i3 BMW tried using a tiny engine for their range extender and ended up switching to a larger 170HP unit.