I have read a lot of different things about the range extenders. Some people are claiming that the vehicle will run as long as your put gas in them, and you don't have to ever plug them in. I'm not sure whether to believe that or not.
I keep seeing this coming up and wonder why anyone would buy one of these if you don’t plan on plugging it in. The only reason to get one of these over a full ICE car is if you plug it in and use the battery to power your short daily drives and commutes thereby benefitting from lower per mile driving costs of charging at home. If you never plug it in you’d be better off just getting a full ICE car which will get better mileage and weigh a lot less than the Scout, and won’t have two power plants to maintain. We don’t have specs of course, but it’s highly likely the Scout will get worse mileage while the harvester is running than would a comparable ICE SUV since there are multiple inefficiencies in translating gasoline energy into movement through two systems with all the added weight and complication. I suppose if all you care about is the torque of an EV, or just have to have a Scout, and don’t care about efficiency or cost, then sure, it makes sense.
You answered a lot of your own questions about why someone might want a hybrid. Some people likely want this specific vehicle for other features it is expected to have, or nostalgia and not be ready for full EV but willing to do hybrid to get it specifically.
obviously impossible to prove the point one way or another, but the information on the Ram Charger indicates its mileage while using the generator is not going to be stellar. Like was pointed out above, the only reason for a generator is for convenience. It probably won’t even extend range once the battery is down because the generator will only provide another 350 miles of range, same as the EV. It’s really about avoiding charging time, and the penalty will be in efficiency. If you really want efficiency and convenience, diesel is still the way to go especially for towing.
