You sound like your smart enough to understand this. But I always wondered why no one except Fisker has built an electric vehicle with a standard onboard small combustion engine that is only connected to a generator. The idea I've always held is that when going up a steep grade an ICE vehicle will consume more energy in fuel than an electric vehicle in electrons. And that such an electric vehicle could gain more from a small efficient ICE powered gen. Not to mention on the downhill it could use regen braking to capture more still. If you run out of charge you can easily throw some gas into it and start going right away. Just seems like a HIGE improvement from where we are now while simpler in the bigger picture than full EVs like Tesla. An example being the picture OP posted where you're stuck on the side of the road waiting for a generator to show up. I heard the Chevy Volt was initially intended to function as I described above, but at the very last step before going into production someone forced the change and it became a hybrid like the Prius.