As EVs stumble, automakers are bringing back a kind of hybrid that promises long range
Volkswagen is planning to begin production of an EREV pickup truck and SUV under the Scout brand name starting in 2027.
Volkswagen
Major automakers are set to resurrect a type of hybrid vehicle that seemed dead in the U.S. just a few years ago to meet a changing consumer demand landscape.
Extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) are a form of plug-in hybrid that falls midway between traditional hybrids and full EVs. EREV cars and trucks rely on battery powered motors for propulsion (like an EV) but also have a relatively small gas engine to use as a generator to keep the batteries charged up (like a typical hybrid). A key difference between EREVs and other hybrids is the relative size of their batteries and gas engines.
Mainstream hybrids and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) like the Toyota Prius still rely on combustion engines as their main means of propulsion. Thus, they have proportionately smaller batteries, but substantial gas engines that are directly connected to their drivetrains to help move the car. EREVs are much more focused on the electric side of the equation, so they tend to have bigger batteries than other hybrids, but comparatively small gas engines that solely function as generators to top off the batteries when needed.
Earlier examples of this type of vehicle – the Chevy Volt and Fisker Karma – were introduced to the U.S market in 2011. These were followed by the BMW i3 and Cadillac ELR in 2014. But EREVs (also known as Range Extended Electric Vehicles, or REEVs), never attracted much interest from American consumers. The Volt was the most popular EREV by far, with GM selling 157,000 over nine years, until it ended production in 2019. That may seem impressive, but it’s a blip in the overall U.S. new vehicle market, which saw about 16 million sales each year in that timeframe.
The last EREV sold domestically was the i3, which BMW discontinued in 2022. While there are no new EREVs for sale in the U.S., several are in the pipeline.
This includes an upcoming version of the Ram 1500 pickup truck, set to come to market in early 2026. A Ram spokesman noted that it will have the longest driving range the company has ever offered in a light-duty truck, up to 690 total miles between its gas engine and battery power. An EREV version of the Jeep Grand Wagoneer is also under development, according to the company. Volkswagen is planning to begin production of an EREV pickup truck and SUV under the Scout brand name starting in 2027.
Ram 1500 extended range hybrid pickup, set to come to market in early 2026, will have the longest driving range the company has ever offered in a light-duty truck, up to 690 total miles between its gas engine and battery power.
Ram | Stellantis
Hyundai Motors plans to introduce EREV versions of its mid-sized SUVs by the end of 2026, according to a spokesman. The vehicles are expected to have more than 560 miles of range, and be sold under the Hyundai and Genesis brands. In addition, a Nissan spokesman confirmed that the company is considering offering EREV options in its mid-size and larger SUVs. “They do offer advantages versus 100% EVs when it comes to hauling and towing,” he said, “allowing greater driving range without the need for a large capacity battery, as well as faster refueling.”
James Martin, the director of consulting services at S&P Global Mobility, says one reason manufacturers are turning to EREVs is lower production costs. EREV use of smaller and less expensive batteries than full EVs allows manufacturers to keep their expenses down. EREVs are also less complex than plug-in hybrids, Martin said. PHEVs have two functioning propulsion systems and sophisticated controls to allow them to communicate with each other. Most EREVs, by contrast, are solely propelled by their electric motors.
Range anxiety, and cost, still big factors in EV adoption
But one of the biggest advantages of EREVs is range. In China, where EREVs are gaining in popularity, the manufacturer BYD offers mid-sized sedans with more than 1,300 miles of claimed range. EREVs also alleviate range anxiety due to the ubiquity of gas stations. Consumers can just fill up with gasoline to charge the battery if a charging port is unavailable. The new EREVs can travel more than 100 miles on batteries alone, then hundreds more using gasoline.
“Range anxiety is still a factor when it comes to choosing an electric vehicle over an internal combustion vehicle,” said K. Venkatesh Prasad, senior vice president of research and chief innovation officer at the Center for Automotive Research. “EREVs, allay the range anxiety concern,” he said.
These hybrids may especially appeal to consumers who frequently travel long distances, and getting more consumers used to plugging in their vehicles might also appeal to manufacturers. “The actual charging experience of EREVs is very similar to that of BEVs,” Prasad said. “So, the market adoption of EREVs is likely to be seen as a good ramp to future BEV purchase considerations,” he added.
Charging infrastructure is still lagging in many areas of the U.S., according to iSeeCars.com executive analyst Karl Brauer, which can make a full EV impractical for consumers. EREVs avoid that issue and may also be attractive to consumers who live in apartments or houses that lack charging stations.
A recent report from McKinsey noted that EREVs could also combat cost concerns among consumers, noting that the smaller batteries can shave off as much as $6,000 in powertrain production costs, compared to BEVs. Another factor, according to McKinsey, is that both domestic and European manufacturers have seen how EREVs have gained sales momentum in China, a sign the technology may help to increase electrification adoption in their own marketplaces.
“We expect all levels of hybridization to increase production in North America throughout the decade,” said Eric Anderson, the associate director of Americas light vehicle powertrain forecasting for S&P Global Mobility. Hybrids, including EREVs, are a “relatively affordable way for consumers to move up the electrification ladder without a significant monthly payment increase, he said.
While the EV vehicle market continued to grow last year, the pace of growth has slowed considerably. “The BEV market is in the process of shifting from early adopters to a more price-conscious buyer,” Anderson said.
Domestic sales of hybrids grew from 1,175,456 in 2023 to 1,609,035 in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, a 37% increase. Plug-in hybrids grew 10% in the same period — from 293,578 to 321,774. By comparison, fully electric EVs saw 7% growth, from 1,164,638 to 1,247,656. While overall sales of traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles continues to dominate, its market share has fallen every year since 2015, according to Edmunds. Last year, ICE vehicle sales fell to 80.8% of total U.S. sales, down from 84% in 2023.
Another attribute that might make EREVs popular with consumers is resale value. Hybrids – which includes EREVs and more common plug-in hybrids – depreciate less than EVs or traditional gas vehicles. Since depreciation is the most expensive part of car ownership, finding a vehicle that better retains its value can provide consumers with significant savings. By contrast, electric cars and trucks lose value faster than any other vehicle type – dropping by 58.8% after five years, compared to the overall vehicle depreciation average of 45.6% and only 40.7% for hybrids, according to research from iSeeCars.
“Electric vehicle sales have been slowing on both the new and used market, with EVs sitting on dealer lots longer despite falling prices,” Brauer said. “Consumers are showing increasing appreciation for hybrid vehicles, creating a friendly environment for automakers to introduce more plug-in hybrids as an intermediate step toward full electric vehicles.”
The French are saying “non, merci” to Tesla, as sales crashed to just 700 units in May – a level not seen in more than three years.
The Model Y changeover was clearly not the problem.
Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed that the company has “no demand problem” and that even though Europe is its weakest market, “everyone is struggling in Europe, there’s no exception.”
We have already produced a report to demonstrate that this is not true, but we are now receiving more data from May, which highlights Tesla’s growing problems in Europe.
France has just released its car registration data for May, confirming that the auto market is down 12%. However, Tesla’s sales were down even more than the rest of the market.
Tesla delivered only 721 vehicles in France in May – down 67% compared to the same period last year.
In Q1, Tesla blamed its poor performance on the lack of Model Y availability due to the design changeover, but it doesn’t have this excuse in Q2, which is now tracking below Q1 in Europe.
May was Tesla’s worst month of deliveries it has had in the last three years. It’s also even worse than any month of deliveries in the first quarter, despite the new Model Y now being in full production in Gigafactory Berlin and available in France.
Electrek’s Take
I’ll write a more comprehensive post about Tesla’s sales in Europe once we have data from more countries in May, but it’s not looking good.
Tesla blamed its terrible performance in Q1 on the Model Y changeover, but we are past that in Q2. Yet, April was worse than January, and now, it looks like May is going to be below February in the whole of Europe.
The only positive market so far is Norway, and that’s probably due to some of its large existing base of owners in the country updating to the new Model Y, but it will be interesting to see if it’s sustainable through out the rest of the year. I doubt it. Tesla benefited from the Model Y changeover, but I expect the brand damage will also be felt in the popular EV market.
This result in France in May is particularly interesting because it is even worse than April. I literally have to go back to Q2 2022 to find a quarter when Tesla had a worse second month of a quarter in France.
It is starting to look like demand collapse.
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Tesla still has no plan to make things right for millions of car owners with its ‘HW3’ system, more than four months after it finally admitted that the hardware won’t support self-driving.
At this point, the automaker is just hoping they buy new cars.
We are approaching the 10th anniversary of Tesla’s promise and sale of self-driving capability that still doesn’t exist.
The Tesla FSD Timeline
In 2016, Tesla announced that all vehicles produced thereafter would become capable of “Full Self-Driving” with future software updates.
At that time, Tesla was producing its vehicles with a new self-driving hardware suite called “HW2.5” – consisting of cameras, a radar, and a self-driving computer.
CEO Elon Musk warned at the time that the system might need an eventual computer upgrade to achieve full self-driving capability, which he said Tesla would provide for free.
In March 2019, Tesla began building cars with a new “HW3” computer and started upgrading HW2.5 cars to the new system.
In early 2023, Tesla still hadn’t delivered on its self-driving promises, but it started producing new cars with a new HW4 suite, which included a much more powerful computer and new cameras.
At the time, the automaker claimed that this new hardware suite would just enable Tesla to push self-driving capabilities further and that HW3 vehicles would still achieve “unsupervised self-driving capabilities” with upcoming software updates.
Tesla HW3 reaching its limit
A year later, we started to report that Tesla appeared to be reaching the limits of the HW3 computer.
It took almost another year before Musk finally admitted that HW3 will not be able to support full self-driving capabilities and that Tesla will need to upgrade the computers.
Musk said on January 29th:
I mean, I think the honest answer is that we’re going to have to upgrade people’s Hardware 3 computer for those that have bought full self-driving, and that is the honest answer and that’s going to be painful and difficult but we’ll get it done. Now I’m kind of glad that not that many people bought the FSD package.
We are now more than four months after this statement, and Tesla has yet to reveal a plan to make things right for HW3 owners, some of whom paid up to $15,000 for the FSD package, and some purchased it as long as nine years ago.
As we previously reported, the HW4 computer, as it exists, can’t be installed in HW3 vehicles. It doesn’t have the same camera connectors and overall format.
Tesla has previously talked about a new HW5 computer to be used in the Cybercab unveiled in October 2024, but it’s unclear if that new computer will be able to be retrofitted inside HW3 vehicles.
Electrek’s Take
I think that if Tesla had deployed FSD without selling it as “full self-driving” and promising capabilities, it would be a celebrated leading ADAS system.
Instead, it’s becoming one of the most significant liabilities ever.
Tesla has delivered millions of vehicles with HW3, which it said would all be capable of self-driving, and hundreds of thousands of those vehicle owners bought the FSD package.
Musk claims that Tesla only needs to replace the computers in the vehicles of those who bought FSD. That’s not true as Tesla promised that all vehicles delivered since 2016 would be capable of achieving full self-driving, and now that this is not true, it negatively affects the value.
Either way, even for those who bought FSD, Tesla has no plan for the retrofit yet. It’s a mess.
There are already several lawsuits related to Tesla’s self-driving claims that now include this situation with HW3, in addition to lawsuits specifically about the issue.
I think we are going to see billions of dollars in settlements over this, but it is going to take years. In the meantime, I doubt we can count on Tesla to do the right thing.
HW3 vehicles are barely getting any FSD updates now, and the current version is light years away from what was promised: unsupervised self-driving. Making things right should be Tesla’s top priority, but instead, Tesla is shifting its focus from delivering its promised capabilities in consumer vehicles to an internal fleet providing a ride-hailing service in a geo-fenced area with teleoperation support.
At this point, it is becoming ridiculous to believe that Tesla will deliver self-driving capabilities in almost 10-year-old vehicles, with or without hardware retrofit. It appears that Tesla is hoping that HW3 owners will change vehicles.
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Zhengzhou Nissan has launched a new, plug-in pickup in the Chinese market called the Z9. It’s the same size as the Nissan Frontier Pro, offers over 35 miles of all-electric range, and pricing starts at just $16,600.
* in China.
Positioned as the electrified sibling of the domestically-built Nissan Frontier Pro, the Zhengzhou Nissan Z9 is essentially a Chinese-market version the Frontier Pro, and it’s spec’ed and priced accordingly, with the as-yet undisclosed price of the Frontier Pro expected to come in a bit higher than the Z9.
That’s less interesting. What’s more interesting is that the Z9 offers 35 miles (60 km) of range on the base, 17 kWh battery, at a price that significantly undercuts even the Slate EV’s $28,000 pre-$7,500 incentive price tag – and that incentive is far from a sure thing.
What’s more, if you feel like spending a bit more, you can get a Zhengzhou Nissan Z9 equipped with a 32.85 kWh battery that’s good for almost 85 miles (135 km) of all-electric range. And even that extended-range model, at ¥168,900 (about $23,400) is still price-competitive with the Jeff Bezos-backed Slate EV.
In short, it’s bound to be a winner.
It’ll sell, but it won’t sell here
With excitement surrounding the Kia Tasman, Slate, and other, similarly affordable light-duty pickups building on the success of the Ford Maverick hybrid, it should come as no surprise that Nissan has international ambitions for its newest electrified pickup.
“In alignment with our ‘In China, For China, Toward the World’ strategy for electrification and smart transformation, Nissan will fully support ZNA’s ‘off-road strategy,’” explained Stephen Ma, Chairman of Nissan (China) Management Committee and President of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. “We are working to strengthen our research and manufacturing capabilities, further advancing our presence in the core markets of pickups and off-road vehicles, with the ultimate goal of achieving global expansion.”
It’s exciting stuff, but with all the recent troubles it’s been experiencing, it’s doubtful that Nissan will bring either of its new, Chinese-built mid-size pickups to the US (electrified or otherwise).
“The mission of the new generation of Chinese automotive professionals is clear – to ensure that made-in-China cars are driven across the world. ZNA will utilize its dual-brand and dual-channel advantages to expand its global footprint,” Mr. Mao Limin, Executive Vice President of ZNA, at the Z9’s launch. “We aim to be one of the top exporters of pickups within three years and to reach a sales milestone of 100,000 units.”
That said, Nissan Hardbody fans shouldn’t lose hope quite yet. If Nissan is able to find a new savior in Toyota, a Taco-based BEV pickup with a new LEAF/Ariya-type front fascia might make more sense than you think.
Electrek’s Take
I’ve already written out my own comeback plans for Nissan, and this new Chinese truck doesn’t really fit into them. Like many of you, I’m of the belief that a PHEV isn’t an EV – but I do see their value as “lilypad” cars, and the two Lightning owners I know? Their last F-150s were hybrids.
SOURCES: Zhengzhou Nissan; side-by-side image via Carscoops.
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