Hyundai Is About To Sell The One Electric Car That’s Perfect For America

For far too long, Americans have been deprived of what I consider the greatest powertrain solution out there. It eschews many of the usability compromises associated with fully electric cars (imperfect infrastructure, charging times, high cost) and it offers significantly more reliability and lower running costs than a conventional gasoline hybrid. It’s called the EREV, and unlike a plug-in hybrid — which is a gas car first, offering a small amount of electric capability — an Extended Range Electric Vehicle is actually an electric car first with a small backup gas generator. Finally, for the first time ever, America is getting an ideal EREV.

As the proud owner of the only pure EREV ever sold in the U.S. — the BMW i3 — even I have to admit that the i3 wasn’t the best use of EREV technology. First, the best use of a small gasoline backup generator is in a large vehicle that would otherwise require a huge battery to offer the range customers want. The i3 is small, so the cost savings of offering a gas generator instead of extra battery capacity isn’t exactly monumental. Second, nobody wants a small $55,000 German hatchback.

What Americans do want is SUVs and trucks, which require more energy to go down the road and thus huge batteries to offer decent range. It’s for this reason that I’m delighted that Hyundai just announced an electric Santa Fe SUV with a gasoline backup generator. And it’s coming soon! From Hyundai’s Investor Day press release:

Hyundai Motor will launch or refresh over 100 models by 2030, including its first extended-range electric-vehicle (EREV) that combines the power and efficiency of a battery EV and the convenience of an onboard charger.

The new Santa Fe EREV will arrive in the first half of 2027, representing an uncompromising approach to electrification. The Santa Fe EREV is expected to deliver more than 600 miles of total range, combining an EV-like daily driving experience while addressing range and charging anxiety for customers. The vehicle will be built in the United States at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama.

Back at the 2024 Los Angeles Auto Show, I heard CEO José Muñoz tell an audience that EREVs are coming. “EREVs have the potential to lower cost and increase driving range,” he said. The idea is that, instead of carrying around an extra 1,000 pounds and $10,000 of battery capacity — like most people who drive 300+ mile electric cars do — an automaker can replace those superfluous battery modules that drivers rarely use on a day-to-day basis with a cheaper, smaller, lighter weight gas generator. The result is that, instead of a 300 mile EV that weighs three tons and costs $60,000, an automaker might be able to offer a lighter, cheaper, 600 mile EREV with 100 miles of electric-only range — more than enough for daily commutes.

Especially for people who can charge at home (the only people I recommend buying an electric car, anyway), this is a way to drive electric 99% of your trips (i.e. your commutes), while not having to worry about forgetting to charge, finding chargers along your route on road trips, long lines at the chargers, etc. (yes, these will seem to BEV proponents like silly edge cases, but I’ll get to that in a sec). And what’s more, it ideally offers significant weight and cost savings.  I’ve written all about the advantages of EREVs in my story The Future Of The Auto Industry Is Electric, With A Gasoline Backup, but here are some of the most important bits:

When batteries are as expensive and heavy as they are today, it just doesn’t make sense in all segments of the industry to use them for edge cases (a major battery improvement/price changes many elements of this whole article, of course). And those edge cases include your family’s annual road trip to Wally World, as well as your bi-annual boat-tow excursion. For those edge cases, it’s logical to save cost and weight and slap in a small range extender, especially while infrastructure remains suboptimal.

I think the “fully EV or nothing” crowd needs to relax and acknowledge that we’re all in this climate change fight together, and EREVs offer a humongous potential to reduce emissions in a way that even BEVs can’t, primarily because EREVs can likely convert more folks over from gas-guzzlers, but also because if the range extenders aren’t used much EREVs can actually be cleaner than BEVs due to their need for fewer battery resources. The marketing thing will also be tricky, and I’m hoping companies like Ram decide to price EREVs lower than BEVs. Carl Lally from Ram said the company is wondering if it should charge more for the Ramcharger than the all-electric Range due to the added utility of the former, or if it should charge less. I’m hoping that — due to EREVs’ theoretical ability to cost the manufacturer less to build than a high-range BEV — some of that savings will go to the consumer. And by golly I hope the Ramcharger reliable, because all eyes are on this truck. It won’t be as reliable as an EV, but a rarely-used gas engine initially developed for prolongued use humming along powering only a generator shouldn’t be that hard to make robust.

I’ve driven some of the greatest electric cars in the world. Teslas, Lucids, Rivians, Hyundais, and various Chinese cars. They are amazing, and in a world where people were 100% rational with their car purchases, BEVs would dominate and there would be no need for EREVs. But such a world does not exist and has never existed, as I mentioned in my article:

Far too many journalists say things like “People don’t need as much range as they think; they should just drive low-range EVs.” As an engineer, I totally support that. But the reality is that the average consumer’s range-lust is not the problem — in business, the consumer can never be seen as a problem, and in fact, people’s thirst for high-range even though they likely don’t need it is fairly typical consumer behavior.

Consumers have historically purchased cars for what they are capable of, regardless of how consumers actually use those vehicles. How many Ford F-150 owners need to be able to frequently tow 10,000 pounds? How many Porsche owners need the ability to snap off an insanely quick Nürburgring time? How many Jeep Wrangler owners need to be able to make it through the Rubicon Trail? Very few, but consumers buy cars based on the thought: “But if I wanted to, I could.” This is normal. This is capitalism.

The issue is that, anytime you’re using something for only a small fraction of its capability, it leads to compromise. The Wrangler rides like crap, the F-150 is a beast to drive around town, and a Porsche 911 can barely fit a pair of golf clubs, and none of those are particularly efficient. But compared to these examples, a typical 350-mile electric vehicle (especially a large one) driven by someone who really only needs 50 miles daily yields way, way worse compromises. That consumer has to carry around an extra 1,500 pounds, and they might have to pay an extra $10+ grand, all for a capability they rarely use. It’s a hideous compromise, and it’s just not worth it to many Americans. EREVs have the potential to mitigate this.

So take it from me — someone who daily drives a BMW i3S REX (BMW used “REX” as “range extender”) — when I say EREV technology is deeply compelling and will win over many Americans if the carmakers can get the execution right. Just look at the Scout brand; when it showed off its new SUV, the vast majority of the reservations were for the EREV variant and not the BEV. 

But getting the execution is no small task. The marketing side of things will be tough, as EREV is jargony and confusing. And then there’s the pricing/battery capacity; I don’t think 60 miles of electric only range is enough. 100-120ish should be perfect, but on a smaller, slipperier SUV there may not be lots of a cost delta between the batteries needed to offer 200 miles more range and a gas powertrain and all the ancillaries that come with it. Still, even if it costs the same as an equivalent 300 mi BEV, I still think an EREV has more market potential given what we’re seeing in the BEV space (again, see Scout preorders), though it all depends on the particular product. Still, pricing has to be somewhat reasonable, and automakers have got to convince folks to pay extra over a gas car for the added performance, reliability, and running cost savings.

It’s tricky for automakers to get this right, but as a nerd who lives the EREV thing daily, I find it to be an excellent solution for getting more imperfect, irrational humans daily-driving electric.