Kia plans on investing in extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) technology in the near future, according to Steve Center, Kia America’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President. After speaking with Center at a recent auto show, we picked his brain about the prospect of EREVs as a way to help consumers transition to full electrification.
EREVs are essentially all-electric vehicles (EVs). But instead of relying completely on a plug-in battery pack for recharging, EREVs come with an on-board internal combustion motor. That motor’s specific purpose is to solely act as an auxiliary power unit to charge the EV propulsion system’s battery and has no direct connection to driving the wheels. With EREVs, EVs can benefit from massive amounts of driving range while also eliminating the fears of range anxiety.
EREVs Eliminate Range Anxiety Because You Can Still Just Fill Up On Gas
EREVs aren’t new as several automakers attempted manufacturing and selling models in the past. Such examples include the original Chevrolet Volt, the BMW i3, and the Fisker Karma. All three utilized conventional electric vehicle propulsion systems, consisting of electric drive motors powered by heavy battery packs, which can be recharged via a conventional wall socket or an EV charging station.
But, because they came with gas-powered aux engines, it allowed drivers to simply fill up with gasoline. Not only do EREVs allow EVs to achieve greater driving ranges, they also completely eliminate range anxiety as drivers can fill up the gas tank for the auxiliary power units like they could with a conventional ICE-car.
Since that auxiliary power unit recharges the EV battery on the go, drivers can continue filling the tank up until they find a suitable time to recharge using a charging station or wall socket, should they be in a hurry or a pinch. EREVs may not fully satisfy hardcore environmentalists and their aspirations to eliminate tailpipe emissions. But EREVs will still emit far less CO2 per mile than a conventional ICE-powered vehicle.
“There’s increasingly credible technologies like EREV, we’re studying those as well. And I think those are going to be very interesting because you can really have a car with an enormous amount of range. And it turns out, to use the engine as a generator is quite fascinating. So, you can see some of those things in the future too,”
– Steve Center, Kia America’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President to TopSpeed
Center exclusively told us when asked about EREVs. He went on to elaborate on how automakers need to continue experimenting with technology such as EREVs. Although EVs do work, there’s still a lot of work to do to make them mainstream.
Charging Infrastructure Remains The Biggest Challenge, Not The EVs Themselves
“We are committed to being a sustainable mobility provider and with that, comes our electrified models and our full electric models. Our EV sales are up, and we’re going to continue to build out our line-up into new segments in the future, with EV4 and EV3. The challenge isn’t so much demand for EVs, it’s the infrastructure and the slowness of that coming around. It turns out that making cars and developing cars wasn’t the challenge. It’s the infrastructure,” Center elaborated on the current state of affairs with EVs and why EREVs are a promising prospect.
Center also noted that weak charging infrastructure is what’s been preventing Kia’s EVs from proliferating. He and his team also recognize that taking on an EV is risky for a lot of people. A large portion of the population, specifically those who live in denser urban areas, or those living in condos and apartments, don’t have the freedom to charge like those who own private homes with garages.
That’s Not Something That Is Under The Automaker’s Control Alone
“As we move from the top part of the market, people live in private homes and you know, have more income. They have an extra car if an EV needs to be charged. The middle-class folks that are living in condos, apartments, and rentals, or in denser urban areas, can’t enjoy EVs because of the [lack of] charging infrastructure. So that’s really the issue right now. I would say EVs aren’t interesting. It isn’t demand in our cars because the demand is there. But consumers make rational decisions, and this car is a big investment for them, and they can’t take the risk of not being able to charge. So that’s really our biggest challenge and, quite frankly, it isn’t entirely in our control.”
“I think what we have to do is kind of drop the extremism, of all of this, and say, at what point do we hit critical mass and make a huge improvement? That’s where products like EREVs come in. And ironically, EREV technology is very old. When GM introduced the Volt, people were saying: ‘oh, it’s like a locomotive.’ Because locomotives have diesel generators, and they’re just battery chargers,” Center explained. “I think we’ve got to, we’ve got to look at the whole world of technologies out there and play with them. And, we’re still at that. This is just the very, very beginning of electrification.”
Read the full article here
