Gadgetory

okay this is a Prius plugin differs from the standard Prius the household name of hybrid cars in three important ways first of all it's got a much bigger electric storage battery than a standard Prius hybrid second it's got a charging port over here you can hook it up to a charge or even a fast charger to get power off the grid not just by driving third it's got software that says utilize that additional battery power to run on electric longer up to 13 miles and faster up to 62 miles per hour all much higher numbers than a standard Prius hybrid but of course this car still has a gas engine that is involved in most of its driving in a blended mode with that electric motor certainly if you drive more than just 12 or 13 miles between charges if you want to go more electrified than a plug-in hybrid then you go to a range extender now the macdaddy of range extenders these days is clearly this car the Fisker Karma let's start with what it has in common with that Toyota Prius plug-in first of all they both have very large capacity batteries in this car it's most of what's lying under the belly here like a Prius plug-in it's got that charging port over there so you can plug this guy in and get your first head start on pure electric driving in this case 50 miles on that charge but then things get different under the hood a range extender like this only runs on electricity yes it's got a gas engine but that never drives the road wheels all that does is turn a generator that either powers the battery or can also send current directly to the electric motors that move this thing but never is it moving by the power of the gas engine directly that's a key distinction now the reason you put a gas engine here at all is because you're able to run it at very controlled rpms and loads in its sweet spot so it's just sips gas while generating a lot of electricity on by the way it's got a solar roof as well all that comes together to give this guy 50 miles of pure electric driving before it has to then augment it with power generated on the fly as long as you have gas you have electricity it's kind of this weird thing about range extenders but very handy range anxiety