Hello, please change the title to "hmmm". Thank you.
E: Oh, it's gen ai. Fuck...
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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hmmm
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This is basically what every EREV is. The generator is just integrated into the car, otherwise it's essentially the same thing.
At the same time, I've wondered if it would be helpful for EVs on some long-distance road trips to tow/stow a generator for overnight and emergency charging. Charging stations are popping up more and more, but if you're saddled with an obsolete or under-served charging port type (e.g. Nissan Leaf), having a generator would be valuable insurance.
damn, nissan leaf is under served? I guess that product placement in sim city whichever fucking year glass box was didn't pay off
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Every EV can just hook up with a (mostly) passive adapter to any outlet and get a charge. It won't be fast (especially if you are cursed with a 110V outlet), but even in the boonies an overnight trickle charge will get you to the nearest fast charger. Just get the relevant adapters for your car.
This is basically what your generator would do except you want to lug it around instead of leveraging the cables that we pulled within driving distance of everywhere but the most remote trails? The whole point of electricity is its versatility and ubiquity!
FYI using a wall plug to charge an EV is a perfectly normal thing to do. For a small(ish) commute, regular 220V@10A is way more than enough to get back to full overnight. It won't give you 500 km of range, but only freaks and truckers drive 500 km every day.
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I’m not sure about this, surely an EV wouldn’t allow charging while in motion as a safety measure against driving off while plugged in?
But then, there’s this photo right here unless I’ve been suckered into believing AI edits again.
Yeah, that's supposed to be impossible. Either they're not moving and it's a staged shot (unlikely, since they're in the middle of traffic and there appears to be motion blur), or they've fiddled with the car to make it think the charging door is closed, or it's an edit.
I'm suspicious of the motion blur, personally, because the traffic looks too tight to be moving much, so I suspect an edit
Giving the photo the benefit of the doubt, it's also possible that this Tesla owner had to bring a generator somewhere for unrelated reasons, and thought it would be "funny" to hook it up to the charge port on his car as a joke.
My point is that wouldn't work, unless the car was in park. A Tesla will simply refuse to move if a charger is connected
That's not a charger though. EVs can't take the direct power from a generator. It needs to communicate with a base. So that "cable" is impossible and is a joke.
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While EVs won't allow starting the car whilst charging, they will allow the charger to be open, and the cable is likely a dummy so wouldn't be registered as "plugged in". Thus allowing this joke outfit to drive around like this.
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Sus
Tesla won't you put it into drive if the cable is attached. Even if this is some hacked firmware, that tiny generator will give you like 4mi of range every hour. Definitely a meme.
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It's also entirely possible someone had to transport that generator and decided to have some fun with it and fuck with people.
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They're doing it wrong. They need a small wind turbine on the back. As they drive, the turbine spins, producing energy which charges the car, which is then used to drive, which further spins the turbines! There is no flaw to this logic! ~/s~
so out in the utah salt flats they're always trying new and ridiculous looking things. There was a vehicle i remember seeing similar to this one:
the turbine was in the back and the wind provided all the motive force for the vehicle. and it worked! And the blades were not contained so it could chop the fuck out of something that got too close, absolute deathtrap. but powered by wind alone so if you had the right geography, like you live in wyoming or something you got a free ride. pop class 2 electric hub motor on that for windless days, fix the deathtrap part and you have an ideal vehicle if you ask me.
I'm willing to bet it would've been more efficient (but less maneuverable/flexible in its direction of travel) with a sail, just because that would avoid the electric conversion losses.
there were no electric conversions. it just went fan to wheel. it was a really neat vehicle. i think the dude died because he fell backward into the fan. i can't remember, just that's what my anxiety told me was going to happen eventually. i think it could get up to 60mph. it could go faster than the wind and travel into the wind also.
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A couple manufacturers were showing off EREV at the big manufacturer auto show, basically EV with a small gas engine to extend the range. Less motor than a hybrid, but enough to get some pretty ridiculous range out of a single combined charge/tank. Basically what this image is implying.
Seems like a decent idea for people that use their vehicle for longer distances.
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Now I want to see a fuel line running to the generator from a 2nd tanker trailer.
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Except every EV I’ve been in will refuse to shift out of park if the charging cable is plugged in. Otherwise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtS4h2az9Jo&t=48
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Its basically a hybrid now
Not buying it: How would you charge (generator) and discharge (motor) the car at the same time? The electronics and software is designed to only charge the battery when parked. My car won't even shift into gear if it's plugged in.
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Hate to be that guy, but... Refaccionaria. AI sloppity slop 😔
I mean, I'm not going to say that it's or not an artificially made picture, but "refaccionaria" is a perfectly cromulent word in Spanish: Refaccionaria at the Diccionario de la Lengua Española.
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Germany during WWII did something kind of like this. They modified some of their cars to run on wood gas and they would tow a wood stove on a trailer that generated the gas, with an attached hose that would feed it into the engine. A sensible plan when your only source of oil is Romania and all of your horses have been requisitioned by the army for its "blitzkrieg".
You don't need a trailer for that. It just attaches to the car. Doesn't weigh so much as to need a vehicle of it's own.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator
Here's a Dodge V10 with one.
And here's one from WWII so ppl don't think they were much bigger back then
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Refraccionera = repair shop, mexican dialect
Sign with E in red cancel mark is No Estiocionar = No parking
Oxxo = Convience store common in Latin america
Street sign says Avenida Sur = South Avenue
It's probably not AI, güey. No mames
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That generator does not look like it's secured properly.
As funny as this is... Dodge released a fully electric truck that contains a V6 generator. Goes 690 miles one trip and can pull 14,000lbs.
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That’s actually a pretty creative solution if you’re far from a charging station.
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I've seen a few pictures like this before. The fun fact part is, this is could actually be pretty damn efficient if done well. Gas powered generators are designed to run efficiently and deliver power at a specific RPM. An gas car's engine has to run and deliver power at a wide range of RPMs, so is generally not running at it's most efficent speed.
Gas powered generators are designed to run efficiently for small shitty motors. Gas generators are not efficient. Especially if you care about emissions since they usually lack catalytic converters.
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Making electricity this way, storing it in the battery and using it to drive a vehicle have their own efficiencies, all less than 100%. Also, these smaller types of generators aren't that efficient to begin with. So I doubt it.
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A plug-in hybrid.
Edit: removed the opinionated and likely wrong part.
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"I bought this Tesla, but there's no place to charge it, do you want it?"
"Sure."
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