But if you only have the cash for one car, and let’s say you want to drive the 300 miles to go see your family for Thanksgiving this week

Because it takes 60 seconds to top up the range extender, and 60 minutes* to top up the battery?

Nobody wants to swap their nice new battery pack that is the most expensive part of their car for some used pack with unknown mileage, provenance, and history. I don’t see battery swapping ever taking the place of charging.

...and the fact that DC fast chargers are far from 100% reliable. At least where I live, where on motorway journeys there are only 1 DC charger per station and they’re at least 20 miles apart, often over 30 miles apart do you want to risk arriving at a charging station with less than 10% charge left and not be able to…

Tesla has caused a lot of these automakers (including GM!) to immediately declare that all-electric BEVs are the only kind of EV that needs to be produced. Meanwhile Toyota, who has been resolutely opposed to BEVs from the beginning, is getting ready to release a PHEV RAV4 Prime with 39 miles of electric range (i.e.…

Today is the perfect example of why it is premature to say no need, hilly 200 mile round trip, second time this week and we make often as well as usually run errands once there, no charging stations along the way and only a regular outlet to charge with at the destination. EPA ranges sound doable but real world ranges…

I'd be much more comfortable with an on-board extender with an EV, especially in winter where I may not always have the option to plug-in and precondition the battery. 

Let’s not also forget the fact that if you even think of changing brands, you have to think about a completely different infrastructure, because god forbid anyone mandate a charging plug standard.

The Volt remains the only GM vehicle I've seriously considered buying. I would throw money at a Colorado with a Voltec powertrain, and I think a lot of other people and businesses would as well.

It’s okay to get rid of *this* range extender because it served its purpose as a way for BMW to dip its toes into electrification. It looks like bmw has decided phev is the way to move forward in the immediate future because we can get 3/5/7 and x1/x3/x5 series as PHEV with ~30 mile battery range. Thats twice the…

“But a second argument in favor of doing such a thing is the inherent versatility of a range-extender.”
^This. I’m a little worried the auto industry pendulum is swinging too hard towards all-electric. The Volt powertrain isn’t obsolete, it was just in the wrong kind of chassis for today’s tastes. Put the Volt…

Things have changed, though. With the build-up of DC fast-charging infrastructure from Ionity in Europe, Electrify America in the U.S., and others, “there’s really no need to be afraid,” Freimann added.

I will believe in both santa and jesus if that happens.

Please let him die on Christmas Day.

Built in a partnership with Dremel, I assume.

That half-percent is a friggin’ nark! Shut your hole and let us eat our slightly-cheaper Whoppers in peace.

Briefly?

Yes and we all know what happened to her. 

Seconding this. Knock on wood, I’ve never had an ECM or BCM fail. They’re pretty hardy, and key difference here, written to a handful of times in their service life. And short of oddball one-offs, are comparatively inexpensive. If you know what you’re doing and have the tools to program it, you can get used ones for a…