Exactly - I would not have bought a Model S unless my Volt got me hooked on the electric experience. Even when the gasoline engine rarely operates, the car is still propelled by an electric motor.
Your reality required the ICE capabilities.
Most people would never buy a pure EV with less 150 mi of range. Tesla is the only option to fill the need to have more than 200 mi range. The Volt fills the void between vehicles that can't achieve 200 mi of range. I would have never bought my Model S if it had less than 200 mi of range. The Volt also fills the void for people that can't afford to pay more than $30 k for a car. The Volt fills the void for those who want to lease a vehicle. A high percentage of Volt owners rarely use the ICE; so, why rant about them or their failure to add an "ER" before "EV" when they talk about their car. There is no need to act superior to somebody that bought an EREV. This ranting is fueling animosity towards Tesla.
Aren't Volt owners included in "ICE people"?I would hate to see the green car movement devolve into a "pure EV's" camp vs "halfblood EV's". Life is too short and we need to stick together to gang up on the ICE people
How about this. My desktop computer has a tiny battery to store the settings and run the clock. Technically it could run my computer for a few fractional nanoseconds or whatever.
I'm not making a comment about whether it's right or wrong (as I mention, I personally prefer PHEV or plug-in), just observing that that's what people are doing here.
All cars produced in last hundred years happen to have a battery - intended to start the ICE but it can also move the car a few meters....
The difference is that the battery in a typical ICE car is not used for propulsion, but rather for accessory loads. When it IS used for propulsion however, that DOES make it a hybrid (for example: a micro-hybrid uses the 12V battery to move the car, but in most regards is identical for a typical ICE car). By the same reasoning, an EV that uses a fuel based heater (like some Volvos with ethanol heaters) are not technically hybrids.
The thing is before the Volt and GM marketing came along, "EV" when used colloquially without modifiers clearly refers to "electric car" (BEV). However, GM saw the need to invent a new term: "EREV" for marketing purposes (mainly as a response to the backlash about the EV1) and also take the EV term with it. They also call the Volt an "electric car" too. They had have some success in pushing this change through marketing, but there is still a large population that still use the same EV=electric car=BEV definition. That is why there's confusion when you use "EV" without enough context, since most people assume you are talking about BEV, not something with an ICE in it.
