Neutral:

There are actually a fair number of AWD PHEV SUVs/crossovers on or almost on the market right now with 20-30mi range. Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Volvo XC60/XC90, Range Rover P400e, Porsche Cayenne, Subaru Crosstrek PHEV, Ford Explorer/Escape PHEV.

I’m in a similar situation. My solution was to get an EREV (Clarity) and trickle charge it off a regular 120V outlet with a 10AWG extension cable. It takes about 5 hours to recharge from a 20-mile trip.

I say it comes down to a lack of availability.

Off the top of my head, the highest reviewed (“attractive”) EVs currently in production are: Tesla’s lineup, Audi E-Tron Quattro, Jaguar iPace, Hyundai Kona, Hyundai Ioniq, Kia e-Niro, Kia Soul, VW e-Golf, BMW i3/s, Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf. There are also about a dozen PHEVs that get high marks.

Short answer? We stop the EV tax credit when we remove fossil fuel subsidies.

Man, maybe it just pushes my nostalgia button, but in the early 2000s, Honda had some brilliantly understated designs. None of the unnecessary cutouts, creases, fake inlets, or jagged angles we see today. That’s the sort of style I want when showing up to a date or interview.

In case you need to hear it from someone who doesn’t leave near an ocean, I’m a born-and-raised rural Hoosier.

That’s so small compared to the power usage while driving that no meaningful amount of heat is going to be generated.

That’s also a fair point; I was only thinking about a few peak hours, not the whole day. Given a ≈1.3kW avg rate during a 12-hr day, that’s 15.6kWh or 26% SoC off a 60kWh battery @0.022C avg. That’s more significant than 10% off the top, but we’re still talking extremely gentle usage for a battery like that.

Alternative suggestion: live in your car.

Not all cycles are created equal. We’re not talking about a 100-0-100% SoC cycle at 1C , we’re talking about a shallower 90-80-90% cycle. The former will get you 500 cycles in a Panasonic 18650 cell. The latter will get you about 7000 cycles at 1C, or 14000 at 0.2C.

Now what about something like a sit down restaurant?

All very valid points, but the industry has seen this coming for a long time. They’ve known for 40 years that gasoline has an expiration date. They’ve known for 20 years that nickel EVs work, and lithium EVs have been mass-produced for 10 years.

Time for Concept Car Bingo!
✓ No mirrors

Most estimates which include tractor diesel, fertilizers, heating/processing, land use change, and distribution, US corn ethanol reduces CO₂/BTU by about 32% (±20% depending on producer). Brazilian cane ethanol reduces CO₂/BTU by about 61% (again, heavy variation), but that is largely predicated on heavy manual labor,…

Neutral:

That 46.7 is based on the 1973 standards, so it is artificially inflated. The actual number is much lower.

So what is the problem with “tiny range” PHEVs exactly? 

I don’t entirely disagree with the flexible architecture approach. If planned carefully, you can make it work — see the Niro for a good example. Also, building EREVs is a legitimate strategy for competing with BEVs if you’re bottlenecked on batteries.