Yahoo Autos I'm not driving an electric car to California. Give me a plug-in hybrid
Next week I'm going to drive with my wife, nine-month-old son and two dogs from Portland, Ore., to Los Angeles. It's a journey that's nearly 1,000 miles and will take about 16 hours. There is no scenario in which I'd make the journey in an electric car or SUV.
Even with Tesla's widespread Supercharger network providing free electrons, we'd still be stuck sitting in the parking lot of a Chili's for some interminably long time waiting for the thing to recharge. And that's if a charger was even available. The situation with other cars and other charger networks is worse.
Now, could 800-volt fast charging improve the situation? Could more choices of charger locations make sitting around more appealing? Yes and yes, but that's not the situation right now.
However, I am not here to torpedo electric cars. I am also not here to recommend buying a Suburban for the two long-haul journeys you make every year and then needlessly burning vast amounts of gasoline 355 other days. There is already a smart solution, even if it's a stop-gap one, that isn't getting enough attention as a solution to reducing one's carbon footprint and not sentencing you to an hour waiting around in a parking lot while your baby cries and gas-powered cars zip off after a quick splash at Chevron.
I'm talking about plug-in hybrids. For the vast majority of daily driving, they operate as electric cars, recharged at night by your home's power supply. Even those with a paltry amount of electric range like the 18-mile Volvo XC90 Recharge would be enough to cover a typical commute, but it's really longer-range options like the 32-mile Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid and 42-mile Toyota RAV4 Prime that make the strongest cases for themselves. With that much juice available, you could go months without refueling. I know we would.
