Martin Sander, Head of Sales at Volkswagen: "The range-extender is ideal for those who want an electric car but are still anxious and aren't quite ready to take the plunge."

A range extender for your electric car? Yes, although it seemed that this technology was practically ruled out for the future of electromobility, reality remains stubborn. Some manufacturers, like Volkswagen , are already openly admitting that this system might not be such a bad idea in the transition toward a fleet of 100% electric cars . But what is an electric car extender ? In electric cars that have this system, the electric motor drives the wheels. However, the batteries can be charged on the go thanks to an additional gasoline engine that acts as a generator, thus increasing the final range .

At the recent Shanghai Motor Show, Volkswagen Sales Chief Martin Sander stated that "in China, we will have range extenders with an electric range of between 250 and 300 kilometers." But China is a long way from Europe, or is it? "We believe there will be room in Europe for a range extender on the path to a fully electric vehicle," Sander said in statements reported by the British media outlet Autoexpress .

The transition to fully electric is fraught with bumps , and Volkswagen is already clear that it won't arrive as quickly as previously thought : "I think we'll be seeing combustion engines in our vehicles for a long time," Sander confirmed in Shanghai. He went further: "We need to better understand exactly what 'hybrid' means now so we can make the right engineering decisions," the Volkswagen Sales chief concluded.

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Yes, this technology could be considered a kind of "hybridization," hence Sander's concern. For Volkswagen's head of technological development, Kai Grünitz, range extenders are similar to driving an electric car but with almost all the advantages of a gasoline-powered vehicle: "A range extender offers a driving experience similar to that of a fully electric vehicle. It's ideal for those who really want an electric car , but are still anxious and aren't quite ready to make the leap to a fully electric vehicle with batteries," he says.

Grünitz actually went further than Sander, stating that range extenders will be commonplace in Europe sooner than we think: “I think we'll have a range extender by the end of this decade. Demand in Europe will be considerable . We're already preparing something, and we'll see how the market grows,” the executive, also in Shanghai, told The Independent . Only time will tell.