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The Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) has become the fastest-growing automotive powertrain in China. Sales of EREVs have more than doubled in the country over the past year and now account for 30 percent of plug-in hybrid sales in the country, according to research firm BNEF. They will arrive in the U.S. next year when Stellantis rolls out the Ramcharger, an EREV version of its Ram 1500 pickup truck that it says will have a driving range of 690 miles (1,110 km). The company says the Ramcharger is “being built to attract a very skeptical demographic” to the electric vehicle era.

As automakers around the world struggle to convince electric car buyers, EREVs appear to offer a solution to the two biggest barriers to electric vehicle adoption: price and range anxiety. Bloomberg explains that an EREV can be charged by plugging it in, just like a conventional EV, but it also has a small gasoline engine that charges the battery while driving, significantly increasing the distance it can travel. Instead of driving the wheels as in a conventional car or hybrid, the EREV’s gasoline engine only acts as an on-board generator.

As a result, an EREV requires only a battery that is about half the size of a traditional electric car. A smaller battery means a lower retail price — typically about $4,000 less, according to Bloomberg. Because the engine automatically charges the battery, long trips don’t have to be interrupted by stops to charge along the way. “It has a smaller battery, 95 percent of the trips will be all-electric, and then you don’t have range anxiety,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in late May after returning from a trip to China. “We’re very happy with that solution,” added Marin Gjaja, chief operating officer of Model e, Ford’s EV unit. “You can charge when you want, not when you have to, and that’s a big, big unlock.”

Because EREVs run on battery power most of the time, they are more environmentally friendly than conventional hybrids, such as the Prius that Toyota has sold for more than a quarter century. Conventional hybrids are powered by a gasoline engine supplemented by a small electric motor that draws its charge from the car’s electrical system and kinetic energy captured as the car coasts. EREVs emit less global warming carbon dioxide because their gas engines run only periodically to charge the battery. The battery in an EREV is smaller than that in a fully electric vehicle, but larger than that in a conventional hybrid. That makes an EREV more expensive than a conventional hybrid, but cheaper than an electric car.

Auto experts tell Bloomberg that EREV technology could be ideal for powering the models Americans love most: SUVs and pickup trucks. Because a longer-range vehicle requires a smaller battery, the most expensive component in an EV, both the weight and price of the vehicle can be reduced while extending its drive time. And the technology doesn’t require any breakthroughs in the battery. An EREV relies on existing technology that automakers already have.

“It just makes so much sense for the U.S. market because we like big vehicles and we like to drive long distances at high speeds,” said Michael Dunne, a former General Motors Co. executive in Asia and now a consultant specializing in the Chinese market. “It’s a lifeline for Detroit. They could bring in a practical powertrain, lower costs, increase range and keep their customers happy in their core segments: SUVs and trucks. We’ve had a reset, driven by customers who think pragmatism trumps idealism. We rushed into electric cars before the charging infrastructure was ready. EREVs would be a natural fit,” he said.

Not everyone is ready to jump on the EREV bandwagon. Because a gasoline engine is used to extend the range of an EREV, it is considered a hybrid, which many argue is not a “green” technology. For example, “EREVs can be a harmful distraction that could slow the momentum in the crucial transition to zero-emission vehicles,” says Katherine Garcia, clean transportation director for the Sierra Club.

It’s unclear how U.S. regulators will classify EREV models. Will they qualify for the $7,500 federal tax deduction? Bloomberg doesn’t seem sure of the answer, but the criteria at the moment are as follows:

• Have a battery capacity of at least 7 kilowatt hours.
• Have a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 14,000 pounds.
• Are made by a qualified manufacturer.
• Final assembly takes place in North America.
• Meeting critical requirements for minerals and battery components (as of April 18, 2023)
• The maximum sales price is $55,000 for a sedan or station wagon and $70,000 for an SUV or light truck.

The “big decision for us as an industry and for regulators — ‘Is that an EV or not?’” Farley said in late May at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York. “Customers vote; they like these in-betweens. We have a lot of work to do with regulators, because there are none.” It seems unlikely that any manufacturer would offer an EREV with a battery under 7 kWh. Farley must know something we don’t.

GM in the wrong place at the wrong time — again

GM pioneered EREV technology 14 years ago with the Chevrolet Volt, which ran on electric power supplemented by a gasoline engine. The original Volt had an electric range of just 40 miles, later extended to 55 miles. GM pulled the plug on the Volt in 2019. “The technology in the Volt was really good for its time,” said Mark Wakefield of AlixPartner Bloomberg. “But it was also terribly expensive, and they put it in an economy car. The classic strategy would have been to start at the top, put it in a Cadillac, and then scale it down over time as the price comes down and the capacity goes up.”

GM has said it will add plug-in hybrids to its lineup by 2027, but declined to say whether that will include longer-range electric vehicles. “The challenge with PHEVs and EREV (models) is that they’re complicated and expensive because you’re designing two propulsion systems and you still have tailpipe emissions,” said Jim Cain, a GM spokesman. That’s all very interesting, but the fact remains that GM has ceded the EREV market to the Chinese, much as America ceded battery technology.

So far, GM has squandered any first-mover advantage it might have had when it scuttled the EV1. It tossed the Voltec powertrain developed for the Chevy Volt in the trash and never used it in any other vehicle, and it scrapped the Chevy Bolt just after sales began to take off and before its replacement was ready. To an outsider, it might look like the company is living off government bailout after government bailout while its marketing department churns out happy talk about its electric-car ambitions, like ExxonMobil greenwashing itself with press releases about algae research.

Somehow, the Chinese are able to produce EREV models profitably. Li Auto is the leader in the EREV market in China. Sales rose nearly 47 percent in June to 47,774 units, driven by demand for its cheapest EREV, the L6 SUV, which starts at $34,500. Li Auto’s vehicle sales more than doubled last year, helping it earn a full-year gross profit of $3.9 billion (27.5 billion yuan). “Li Auto is targeting family car buyers,” said Siyi Mi, an EV analyst at BNEF. “The EREV products not only offer an electric driving experience without range concerns, but also infotainment and advanced driver assistance systems tailored to this customer.”

EREV News from Hyundai

Tariffs on cars made in China mean that Americans won’t be seeing any EREV models from China in American showrooms for a while. But if there’s one company that has its finger on the pulse of the market, it’s Hyundai. According to Korea Economic DailyHyundai Motor Group is developing an EREV powertrain for its pickup trucks and SUVs as the industry sees the current slowdown in electric vehicle sales continuing. The most common range extenders are internal combustion engines, but fuel cells or other engine types could also be used.

An EREV is similar to a hybrid car in that it has an internal combustion engine and a battery. However, they are often considered EVs because the internal combustion engine is only used to charge the battery, while a motor drives the wheels. In hybrids and many plug-in hybrids, the gasoline engine is connected to the drive wheels and does much of the responsibility for moving the car, with help from a relatively small electric motor. “Global automakers will enter a period of suffering starting in the second half of this year, which will last at least two to three years,” a senior Hyundai Motor official said. “Hybrids and EREVs are our weapons to fight this battle.”

Sources told KED that Hyundai has started working on EREVs because it believes that relatively short driving ranges and a lack of charging infrastructure are among the biggest barriers to rapid EV adoption. Growing fears about EVs catching fire have also prompted Hyundai to focus on developing EREVs before fully transitioning to pure electric vehicles, they said. (Oddly enough, plug-in hybrids have the highest incidence of vehicle fires among all electrified vehicles.) “It will be years before we see an affordable EV equipped with batteries that can travel 1,000 km on a single charge. EREVs will be competitive for at least 10 years before the EV era dawns,” an industry official said.

Sources told KED that Hyundai Motor Group will likely apply its EREV system to its flagship Santa Fe SUV and the Genesis GV70 in two to three years. The group’s next-generation pickup trucks — codenamed TE by Hyundai Motor and TV by Kia — will also be equipped with EREV powertrains and roll off production lines in 2028 or 2029, they said. The new pickups will have a range of more than 530 km (330 miles) with a payload of more than 4,535 kg (10,000 lb), sources said, which should appeal to U.S. buyers.

The takeaway meal

If you take all this talk about EREV models literally, you could conclude that the EV revolution is over. We here at CleanTechnica I would rather see it as a breathing space before the next phase of growth. I had a Chevy Volt for a week in 2017 and absolutely loved it. I never understood why GM wouldn’t use that technology, but I’m probably not as smart as Mary Barra. It just seems like plain old stubbornness.

The idea of ​​EREVs makes sense, especially for hard-to-electrify market segments like large SUVs and pickup trucks. Reducing emissions from those behemoths is a noble goal, even if EREVs aren’t the ideal solution. For all we know (and that’s not much), EREVs might be what was bandied about in discussions between automakers and the Biden administration, resulting in a relaxation of proposed tailpipe emissions regulations set to take effect in 2027. Maybe the auto industry said, “Let’s do the EREV part now and promise to have the battery-electric piece of the puzzle in place by 2032.” Stranger things have happened.