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by ninkendo 184 days ago
I guess you’d call my Chrysler Pacifica an “EREV” then.

It’s honestly perfect for us. 32 miles on a charge, we barely touch the gas except for the winter when it’s so cold out we need the engine to warm us up. Any other time and the battery is all we need, and it charges overnight on a simple 110V wall outlet. Long trips are still possible, you just drive. We go through maybe 8 tanks of gas per year with our occasional long trips (compared to having to stop at a charging station for an hour, I’ll take it.)
2 comments
rootusrootus 184 days ago
There have been no EREVs produced and sold yet AFAIK (though maybe BMW had a version of the i3 that did? I'm not sure). Dodge has one in the works. Ford has now announced one. The old Chevy Volt was philosophically wanting to be an EREV but was as a practical matter still a parallel hybrid.
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WorldMaker 183 days ago
The Volt was only "parallel" when running from gas. It was still serial in that when running from battery it only ran from battery, then switched to gas generating electricity, with some mechanical assisted torque in edge cases (usually only past highway speeds or "mountain climbing").

That was mostly because the electrical conversion from a gas generator is still so relatively inefficient and slow compared to a modern battery. The mechanical efficiency of gas engines is relatively better (which is why ICE has survived as a category for so long). Batteries are far more efficient at delivering high power on demand as needed for torque than a gas generator.

Any EREV is going to have that problem and experience those trade offs. It's a unfortunately defining part of the category. It's also why Chevy has said there's no real future in EREV power trains because they are a worst of both worlds situation with too many unfortunate trade offs to consider, such as needing to be parallel in gas-only operation edge cases to make torque requirements.

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Dylan16807 184 days ago
That version of the i3 definitely is one. Though the way it limits the gas tank and won't let you control it manually in the US for tax purposes sucks.
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panopticon 184 days ago
No. The ICE isn't connected to the drivetrain in an EREV; it's only used to provide power to the EV drive system.

The Pacifica is what you'd call a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) because the ICE is still connected to the drivetrain.

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