What would one consider to be a practical EV driving range for hybrid cars? EV meaning electric vehicle or in the case of the hybrids driving in pure electric mode. Many car makers now have hybrids but some offer EV driving range of 30km while others can go as far as 60km. What would be considered a usable electric mode driving range. The Japanese makers like Toyota who are the pioneers in this technology use it more to improve fuel efficiency but the driving range in pure electric mode rarely exceeds 40km. BMW on the other hand like to use the hybrid system as a performance boost to allow the car to accelerate faster and offer greater driving performance.
Having a longer driving range will mean a larger battery which adds a lot more weight to the car and usually results in having a small trunk since a lot of the car companies like to place the battery at the back of the car. Bigger battery also makes it harder for the designers to package the vehicle's usable interior space. In some cases the large battery pack raises the floor reducing leg room for the rear occupants and in the case of Mercedes and Ford the rear trunk ends up having a strange kink which makes it very difficult to load cargo.
Having tried several hybrid cars from different auto makers the best trade off between EV range and compromise in terms of usable interior space, the Toyota Prius is still the best. The car's battery despite being very old tech in the present era it still works very well. The old fashioned nickel metal hydride battery is not as good as the new lithium-ion batteries but it is very reliable and stable. Toyota managed to package it well that it doesn't look out of place compare to other car models. Toyota designed the car as a hybrid from day 1 compared to other car companies that design their models as a regular fossil fuel powered car and try to squeeze some space for the battery to incorporate a hybrid setup.
A purpose designed hybrid car will always work better than a car that is designed to add on a hybrid model. The new Prius is quite ugly to say the least but the interior space is well planned and the performance from the engine + electric motors work seamlessly. Unlike the system in the Mercedes E300 diesel hybrid, the Prius's transition from combustion engine to electric mode feels seamless and you often don't realise that the car is running on electric mode. The Mercedes system is quite intrusive with the car body shaking when the diesel engine or petrol engine starts. Toyota got it right and the smooth transition in modes really is impressive. Having the car shake when the engine starts up is very annoying. This is the same for BMW hybrids.
In my opinion having an electric power driving range of up to 70km will be the best. Most city driving trips often do not go beyond 30km and with a 70km range one is able to go to the destination and back on electric mode. The battery recharging during braking and off throttle cruising will of course help with the range. Using as little fossil fuel is the aim of the game here.
I believe the newer hybrid models will soon reverse the usage of fossil fuels vs electric power meaning that the main power source that drives the wheels of the car will be electric power and the fossil fuel motor is there as a range extender. BMW have already started this with the i3 model and same for the Chevy Volt which uses a petrol engine as a range extender. I think this concept is very practical and will offer much better fuel economy than the current typical hybrid setup.
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