[fr0sty]

I'd love to find a good number on the daily mileage of the median passenger car in the US. The average looks to be around 30-35mi/day but the median is probably a small fraction of that. Why would you want your battery pack to be 10x oversized for your typical day?

I think a more efficient solution would be series-hybrids with small onboard generators for range extension. Minimize weight/cost of the battery pack while maintaining the ability to drive cross-country without frequent charging stops.

[deelowe]

My understanding is that hybrids are more costly than simply putting in a larger pack. It's certainly an order of magnitude more complex.

[fr0sty]

PHEVs are certainly more complex, but a series hybrid like the BMW i3 only involves finding space for a small genset and some additional control software/electronics. I'm having trouble finding good numbers but this[0] article says the option added only ~$4k to the price.

[0] https://insideevs.com/news/317236/first-bmw-i3-electric-car-...

[lastLinkedList]

One of the economies of battery scale is durability, no? What you gain in cost savings up front you lose by needing to replace the batteries more frequently than N times the larger battery pack size.