EV Advocates and Experts Cannot Even Agree On What an Electric Vehicle Is

Investigate electric vehicles for even a short time, and it won’t take long before you get a verbal hand slap for using basic terms around the electric vehicle discussion “incorrectly.” Experts cannot even agree on what “an EV” is. Nor can they agree on what an electric vehicle charger should be called. As you may have guessed, much of this verbal confusion stems from politics and the woke EV mentality that many EV advocates wish to force upon us all. We will do our best to illustrate the schism in the EV war of words as best we can using linked examples you can view yourself. 

Related: You’d Have To Be Crazy To Buy a Non-Tesla EV in 2024 - The Weird Reason Why

When Is An Electric Vehicle Not An Electric Vehicle? When You Speak To An Evangelist
An EVangelist is a person who identifies as an electric vehicle expert and who wishes to convince you that only the specific type of EV they prefer should be allowed to be built or driven. There are five basic types of electric vehicles, and in the mind of an EVangelist, only one qualifies as a “Real EV.”

The types of electric vehicles are as follows:
Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs)
These are EVs that only use batteries to power the vehicle. Only electric motors provide propulsion. Often referred to as BEVs, these are the “real EVs” that EVangelists wish for you to own and drive - regardless of your needs or preferences.

Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles - a.k.a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (HFCEVs)
These electric vehicles use a fuel cell to provide the electrons and power that drive the electric motors in the vehicle. They are pollution-free and only emit water as a by-product of their operation. These EVs are disliked for many reasons by EVangelists. Like all vehicle types, HFCEVs have downsides and also upsides. They drive exactly like BEVs since they use the same electric motor propulsion. 

Plug-in Hybrid-Electric Vehicles (PHEVs)
Plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles combine elements of battery-electric vehicles with some of the elements of hybrids. These EVs can travel for 40 miles or so using only electric power, more than what most American drivers cover in a typical day of driving. After which they are recharged or can continue driving uninterrupted as hybrids. EVangelists hate PHEVs because they do all the things BEVs do but without the public charging hassles. EVangelists see PHEVs as a threat because they work so well.

Extended Range Electric Vehicles - (EREVs)
Extended-range EVs are basically PHEVs, but their onboard liquid fuel engines only power the car’s internal battery, which then drives the wheels. The hugely popular Chevy Volt was an EREV, and BMW’s i3 had an EREV trim. The line between PHEVs and EREVs is a fine one. EVangelists don't like EREVs for the same reasons that they despise the PHEVs. They are too convenient of a solution, and that threatens their underlying agenda. 

Hybrid Electric Vehicles
A hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) can use many different designs. Some are optimized to offer significant fuel reductions compared to conventional liquid-fueled vehicles. Hybrids can operate using electric power for short distances at low speeds. The magic is in their ability to supplement starting power (torque, really) with electricity and recapture energy when braking, which is called regeneration. The Prius and RAV4 Hybrid are good examples. Other designs use the hybrid-electric system primarily to boost performance. The Ford F-150 Hybrid may be considered an example of this type of hybrid. When the word “hybrid” is used as a stand-alone noun, it means the vehicle never plugs in. 

Electrified vs. Electric
Over the past few years, EVangelists have made efforts to control the narrative around EVs. Part of doing so involves using terms they find helpful in their efforts to eliminate liquid-fuel vehicles from the mix via government mandates. One part of this is to define “EV” or "electric vehicle” narrowly, to mean only battery-electric. EVangelists will often tack on “Pure” or “Only” to the term. For example, “The Chevrolet Bolt is a pure electric vehicle which uses only electricity to operate.” They wish to differentiate and sideline fuel cell vehicles and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles by controlling the term EV.

The war of words may have started in a 2017 Green Car Reports story titled “Hey Media, Get It Straight: ‘Electricrified’ Is Not ‘Electric,’ and the Difference Matters.” The author stated that it is extremely important that the media use the terms as he wishes them to be defined, saying in part, “Applied to cars, the difference is absolutely crucial—and worth billions of dollars to the industry at large.” The author said that reporters who cover automotive news confuse the terms electric and electrified, and that the misuse of these very similar words may “..have gotten you in a world of hurt lately.” The author at that time included plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles as “electric vehicles.”

Shortly after the 2017 Green Car Reports story, Digital Trends published a similar piece hoping to control the expression electric vehicle. This story boots PHEVs and EREVs out of the definition of electric vehicle. The story was titled, “Electric car, or electrified car? We decode this obnoxious industry jargon.” In the story, the author, whose bio lists no engineering degree or work experience in the automotive manufacturing industry, says, “If a car has an exhaust, it’s not electric.” He also lists various sources within the auto industry to support his preferential use of the term EV to exclude a long list of EV types that contain the words “electric vehicle.” 

Car and Driver and Popular Science more recently joined the word Karens who want to ensure you Newspeak properly about electric cars and never dare to include PHEVs as electric cars, despite the fact that E stands for electric and the V for vehicle. 

The Big Tent EV Resistance
So, which experts take a different path and use a “big tent” definition of the term electric vehicle? One notable group is the United States Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. These are the same folks who bring you all the government facts, figures, and propaganda around vehicles of all types. In their 2021 Consumer Guide to Electric Vehicles, the group includes plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in its definition of what an EV may be. The guide’s very first sentence is, “EVs, by definition, include battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which are all-electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).” 

If you’d like an example of an international group who are deeply involved in EV advocacy that use the big tent definition, look no further than IEA.org. The IEA says it works with governments and industry to shape a secure and sustainable energy future for all. In its Trends in Light Duty Electric Vehicles, IEA says, “Electric car sales – including battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs)...” Again, an agency promoting electric vehicles sees more than one type included in the term’s definition. 

Another EV group that includes both BEVs and PHEVs in its definition of electric is EV-Volumes.com. Who says of themselves, “We forecast global EV sales, comprising battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).”

So what about respected media groups who use the term electric vehicle and include plug-in hybrids? One perfect example is Elektrek. In an article published this very week titled “The révolution is on: France has record year in EV sales,” the author includes both BEVs and PHEVs in support of the title, saying, “It was a very good year in France for electric cars, for all kinds of reasons – among them, new cheaper cars entering the market supported by generous government subsidies. In 2023, 26% of new cars sold in France were battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, a huge 47% jump from 2022.” 

Inside EVs has for the most part, started to differentiate between types of EVs. However, for the better part of a decade, the company listed all “plug-in” model sales on one chart. The publication still covers plug-in hybrids in its work, though we are not claiming they speak of PHEVs as “electric vehicles.” Our point is that if PHEVs are not EVs, then why discuss them at all in a publication called Inside EVs?

As you can see, there is no single definition of what an electric vehicle is. This argument over what an EV can be called is sort of like trying to insist that only ice cream made in a certain way is “ice cream.” By calling soft serve, gelato, sherbet, or even conventional ice cream with fun mix-ins “ice cream,” the world as we know it will end. 

What Is an EV Charger?
Ask EVangelist wordsmiths what an “EV charger” is, and you may get a longer answer than you expect. You see, when writing about EV chargers, meaning the thing you plug into your EV so it will charge, it is not uncommon for the woke EV crowd to pepper the comments section saying, “An EV charger isn’t an EV charger. An EV charger is an EVSE. The actual charger is inside the vehicle.” Does this seem a bit petty to you? After all, Tesla doesn’t call the machines that charge its cars “SuperEVSEs” and “Destination EVSEs.” Rather, Tesla calls them Superchargers and Destination Chargers. The leading public charger company on the planet is not named “EVSEPoint,” but rather ChargePoint. Maybe these folks are just mad that their efforts to tell us all that cell phone chargers are not actually cell phone chargers never went anywhere.

EVSE stands for electric vehicle supply equipment. And indeed, the device that converts the current flow to stored battery power is located inside the EV. Who cares? Everyone on the EV spectrum from from Elon Musk to Joe Biden knows what an EV charger is in context. Just as they know that a vehicle that can drive you to and from work using only electricity is an electric vehicle. 

Image of Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle by John Goreham.

John Goreham is an experienced New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can follow John on Twitter, and connect with him at Linkedin.