## 51 How manufacturers try to circumvent standards

Electric cars aren't selling as well as expected. So automakers are falling back on hybrids... But they're still finding ways to maximize profits, even if it means legally circumventing standards.

I've already talked about plug-in hybrids and the false good idea they represent for many drivers who can't/won't recharge their vehicle. Plug-in hybrids only have an advantage if you can maximize the vehicle's electric use, and if the hybrid part is used in a minority, since it's heavier than in a non-plug-in hybrid. But it's not as efficient in electric mode as a pure electric car, also because of the extra weight. The worst of both worlds? Not necessarily, since some automakers have brought a prehistoric solution out of mothballs: EREV (Extended Range Electric Vehicle). The idea is to add a combustion engine that acts as a generator. When I say “prehistoric”, it's because a French company did this on a Kangoo base in the 2000s, before reverting to a more conventional system. It was Cléanova, with the Dassault group and Heuliez (RIP...) behind it via SVE. A flop... And then BMW offered this option in its first i3s, which showed how little confidence they had in their own design, which was remarkable b
ut spoiled by marketing and styling choices. At the time, 9 liters of petrol were promised for an extra 180 km of range, i.e. a very theoretical 5l/100 km according to the old NEDC standards. Of course, the larger Prius did much better in pure hybrid form. Fortunately, owners of the i3 REX made little use of this system, which was more there to reassure, but weighed its weight, if the spritmonitor.de website is to be believed.

After this page of history, let's see how to make money with these two solutions, when you're a manufacturer: 

#### A plug-in hybrid

Knowing that the latest WLTP standard measures over a known distance, the trick to displaying correct consumption is to size the vehicle's battery for this distance. As a result, we've seen rechargeable hybrid batteries, notably from German manufacturers, reach over 20 kWh, which in an electric vehicle is enough to cover 100 km. The downside is that it's heavy, adds considerable cost for the customer, and will consume more than an electric car for the same purpose, and more than a gasoline-only car, because there's another problem. The initial aim of hybridization was to provide the best of both worlds, i.e. to compensate for the energy-hungry phases of combustion by the contribution of electricity, and vice versa. To put it more simply, the combustion engine is favored for high, steady speeds (freeways), while the electric engine is favored for low, dynamic speeds (city driving). So there's an engine strategy to define in what's known as mapping, and it takes time, and therefore money. If you size the batte
ry to pass the standard (which is definitely a VW corporate culture...), you don't need to spend too much time on specific engine mapping, you just use the same as before, or barely so. So I've seen these big 200hp SUVs at over 55,000 euros officially display 0.5l/100km according to the standard (zero, that would have looked fishy...), but be closer to 7l/100km in real life after emptying the battery with a weight of 1900kg. Some customers will find it easier to use, but will have spent 10,000 euros too much compared with a better-designed, more economical vehicle. What was a special case when [I wrote about it](https://www.cheziceman.fr/2021/pluginhybrid/) has become symptomatic of German industry in all its decadence.

#### EREVs for the masses or for the dumb? 

I was curious about the Mazda MX30 with range extender. They'd gone so far as to make prototypes with their famous (!?) rotary engine, but I didn't believe in a production version. But yes, they've put one in there, under the hood, to provide 75hp to recharge the batteries... Imagine this excessive power that doesn't go to the wheels. Only 85km range for the electric part and a normal 50l tank to supply their generator. All in all, a disaster, since the real thing is between 8 and 10l/100km, and it's as noisy as can be. A real engineer's folly. Well, as you can imagine, the Chinese thought they'd take up the concept too, without the rotary, but to fit it into their big electric SUVs. And go ahead, I'll tell you 1000 km of range on vehicles weighing 2.6 tons. The thing is, this also circumvents standards, because on the one hand, range is measured by completely discharging the battery, and the combustion engine is bound to help. On the other hand, the standard measures emissions over a distance where the comb
ustion engine doesn't kick in. Brilliant! Why doesn't it work as hoped (I'd forgotten about GM's Opel Ampera / Chevrolet Volt fiasco too)? Quite simply because the internal combustion engine has to do the job without taking into account its own area of expertise. It will even be called upon in bursts, resulting in energy-hungry phases when it could be dispensed with in a series-parallel strategy seen at Toyota or Hyundai-Kia and even Renault.

At the moment, there are very few of these EREVs on the European market, and that's a good thing. But I'm afraid that won't last very long, especially in the commercial vehicle market, which is opening up to new brands. Given the difficulties faced by some unscrupulous manufacturers, they may see this inexpensive technology as a good opportunity. In China, it's mainly neo-builders who are doing this, but I've also seen BYD propose it as a way of quickly countering competing offers. This multitude of players is waging a veritable war on the domestic market, leaving only crumbs for Western, Japanese and Korean manufacturers. Marketing will do the rest to make people think that bladders are lanterns. The solution could come from a change in the WLTP rules, which are already poorly written in some areas. Measuring emissions or fuel consumption over the entire range, for example, would be a plus, but also a considerable cost at a time when manufacturers are trying to limit their test times.

At a time of global warming and the industry's difficulties in making the transition, it would be welcome for the leaders to think in terms of efficiency, sobriety and, above all, accessibility. In this respect, the solutions already exist, and all we need to do is optimize them rather than create monsters like the dinosaurs... which disappeared precisely after climate change.

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