green1
Active Member
But there's no guarantee that those plug in vehicles WILL be powered by electricity, they can just as easily power 100% based on oil.No, I explained why the class is important. The point is to be able to fuel vehicles by alternative energy sources. That is what drives the definition of the class and it is not some arbitrary distinction like whether a 99% identical i3 has a motorcycle engine in the back or not that may or may not be used. As Elon Musk said, a planet driving 100% Priuses is a planet still 100% addicted to oil. That is not true for any plugin vehicle.
Regardless though, that is not at all how the classes are defined, they are defined by what the vehicle IS, not by what one user or another does with it. "Plugin" is a useless term because it could be a ICE vehicle with a battery that won't make it to the end of the driveway without the motor firing up, or a BEV that can drive across the state, it tells you nothing. That's why the official class of "plugin" doesn't exist, it's why they call these things by what they actually are, "BEV" or "PHEV"
The difference is important, because every time people buy one of these, it validates the decision to pair tiny batteries with an ICE instead of big batteries without one. It perpetuates the use of oil where it's not needed.