I know this really is something Elon has constantly said is the wrong way to go but lets say the pure EV market really does stall and a certain amount of the population will only accept a PHEV at least for the foreseeable future. Does Tesla ignore that portion of the market or have a play there also? I mean if people charge them properly and the range is sufficient, they are still way better than a pure ICE car.
There's a rather large space at the back of the car for under boot storage. If they had to, a small range extender petrol engine might potentially fit there? I mean I'm thinking tiny like the i3's tiny little engine. It's at the back so exhaust is easy to put in, make the battery a somewhat smaller and put in a fuel tank. Doesn't power the wheels, just a generator for the car.
I'm not an engineer, maybe it won't fit but Tesla are masters of packaging, I think it could do. The cars are efficient, it doesn't need to generate a lot of power. I think on the i3's they actually were speed limited when using the range extender engine because it couldn't generate enough load for full acceleration but it was enough to happily keep driving without issue.
I highly doubt they'll do this of course, just wondering if that space at the back maybe was designed as a plan B, just incase.
There's a rather large space at the back of the car for under boot storage. If they had to, a small range extender petrol engine might potentially fit there? I mean I'm thinking tiny like the i3's tiny little engine. It's at the back so exhaust is easy to put in, make the battery a somewhat smaller and put in a fuel tank. Doesn't power the wheels, just a generator for the car.
I'm not an engineer, maybe it won't fit but Tesla are masters of packaging, I think it could do. The cars are efficient, it doesn't need to generate a lot of power. I think on the i3's they actually were speed limited when using the range extender engine because it couldn't generate enough load for full acceleration but it was enough to happily keep driving without issue.
I highly doubt they'll do this of course, just wondering if that space at the back maybe was designed as a plan B, just incase.