Having a range extender in a hybrid electric car, means we can travel short distances without using the primary gasoline motor. However, an electric vehicle range extender is something completely different. That’s because it uses a gasoline generator to charge the primary battery to extend its driving range. But you can’t keep driving that way for long.
An Electric Vehicle Extender Only Supplements Driving Range
Baby boomers used to stress about running out of gasoline on country roads. Although they found an easy workaround, once there were filling stations in every town, and they could top up in a couple minutes.
However, electric vehicle charging stations have not yet reached that degree of saturation. Hence if we run out of battery power in a rural area, we may need a tow-in, and a stopover in a country hotel while we recharge the battery.
One attractive workaround that is gaining attention, takes the form of a secondary onboard power generator according to US News.Cars. This is a small ancillary gasoline motor, that tops up an electric car battery when the state of charge is low. However, this electric vehicle range extender is not for continuous use.
Why This Range Extender is Only for Occasional Use
It would defeat the object of the exercise to attempt to drive an electric car entirely on a petrol generator. That’s because – setting climate change to one side – the motor simply would not cope. Its sole purpose is to boost the main battery’s energy sufficiently to reach the next charging outlet, with all accessories turned off.
And so, if we had an electric vehicle with this range extender, we would only operate the tiny gasoline motor when our remaining battery capacity had fallen to a particular point that we were becoming concerned.
But, as Tesla reminds us, we could also use the range extender for several other purposes. We could, as they suggest, recharge another electric vehicle battery that has gone flat. Plus, with a little ingenuity, we could use it to light up our home when the utility grid was offline.
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Electric Vehicle Range – Auxiliary Factors
