All I can say is that Rick makes a vey good argument for my position that plug-in hybrids are a 'class of their own' separate from and easily argued to be better than either EVs and ICEs.
But they are hybrids not EVs. The fact they have an on-board ice inherently means charging infrastructure is less important (a selling feature for all the reasons you mention). Some of the plug in hybrids come closer to being and EV while some are closer to plug in marketing gimmicks (the Prius comes to mind). The point I was trying to get across is that if you are interested in tracking EV sales you should only count vehicles that don't have an ICE, and that Bruce's desire to use PIH as a category is appropriate and I would argue necessary. John On Jul 21, 2013, at 12:04 AM, Rick Beebe <[email protected]> wrote: > On 7/20/2013 1:28 PM, John O'COnnor wrote: >> This brings back the semantics issue of calling the Volt an EV. "The >> People" will never figure out what an EV is unless the industry and >> media stop calling the Volt and other hybrid drive and hybrid >> (onboard) fuel systems vehicles EVs! > > Does it matter? Regular hybrids, I agree with you. Really they're just gas > cars that get very good mileage. But if I can plug it into the wall and drive > reasonably significant distances on electricity then why sweat that it's not > a pure EV to the people? > > I own a Ford C-Max Energi (plug-in hybrid). I can go about 25 miles on a > charge before it reverts to being a standard hybrid. It will stay in EV mode > up to 85 mph. I've driven it 3200 miles and all but 380 were in EV mode. > Perhaps 50 of that 380 were because 25 miles wasn't enough range for the > day's driving. The rest were long trips that would have been beyond the range > of any EV for sale today except maybe a Tesla model S. I say if I can unplug > my car in the morning, drive to work, do my errands, and drive home without > using any gas...then I'm driving an EV. > > The car was sort of an epiphany for me. The standard answer we give everyone > when asked about range anxiety is "well you have your second gas car for long > trips." Or worse "rent a car for long trips." But I think cars like the > Energi and Volt offer an even better answer for many people because they > don't HAVE to pay for and maintain a second car. They may get more people > interested in trying the EV world because it solves the range anxiety > problem. I know from experience that MANY people when given the "second car" > answer will simply choose not to buy an EV. > > But back to the question you were responding to, I think that people buying > Volts and Energis are indicative of an interest in EVs and also of upcoming > use of EV infrastructure so it is correct to count them in EV sales figures > (of course pulled out into a plug-in category). > > BTW, my second car is a Ford Ranger EV conversion. > > --Rick > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA > (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
