That's right Charles. Remember, that is pure electric range. You don't use any gasoline. For myself, that would work well. There are many days where I drive less than 20 miles. On those days I would not have to use any gasoline. On the other hand, if I had to go somewhere further, the gasoline engine would just kick in. I also assume that like a regular hybrid, the system would "harvest" energy (breaking, for example) while driving in hybrid mode. This is not a Nissan Leaf or Tesla system.
Seems strange that it took this long to add a built-in battery charger to a hybrid. This finally seems like a real starting point for electric cars, all problems solved. No gasoline for short everyday trips, but not having to buy another car when road trips come up. Standard hybrids were a small gain in efficiency due to all the power still deriving from gasoline.
I just hope they got the sticker price right as well, make it affordable so that the extra cost ROI is less than 5 years.
The all electric range is a little short, but the total range is quite good. I guess the next question is the cost of ownership. It seems that the pricetag has been pretty hefty these days, and 20 miles is just a little short to keep the cost down. I also wonder of the 20 miles is with all the lights, heat, wipers and everything off, so as soon as it's cold and raining at night the range drops to 5 miles.
The designer was proud of teh fact teh LED taillaights were distinctive. They are, but. I would like to see a more practical and imaginative use of LEDs. Replace all light bulbs with LEDs. No more burnt out bulbs and Ford TSB. This would be a real customer-engineer related advantage.
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From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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