There are three types of electric vehicles
Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV)
Powered only by electricity and known
as a ‘pure’ or 100% electric car,
This vehicle is charged at home or at
a charging point. It doesn’t have any tailpipe emissions.
As examples, the Nissan Leaf,
Vauxhall Corsa e, Renault Zoe, and Tesla Model 3 electric vehicles can run
100–300 km on a single charge.
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV)
This is a vehicle that has a battery, an electric drive motor, and an internal combustion engine (ICE). It can be driven using the ICE, the electric drive motor, or both, and can be recharged from an external power source.
Typical PHEVs will have a
pure-electric range of up to 50 miles. Once the electric battery is depleted,
journeys can continue in hybrid mode, meaning that there is no range
limitation.
PHEVs are only efficient if they are
charged regularly; otherwise, they can be more expensive to run than a
conventional petrol or diesel vehicle.
The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, BMW
330e, and VW Golf GTE are all examples of PHEVs.
Extended Range Electric Vehicles (E-REV)
These are versions of plug-in
hybrids. An E-REV combines a battery, an electric drive motor, and a small
petrol or diesel generator. The electric motor always drives the wheels, with
the ICE acting as a generator when the battery is depleted.
The range of these vehicles can be
between 150 and 300 miles. An example of an E-REV was the BMW i3 range-extender
(no longer available).