I've often thought these cars should have a small gas generator you could use to charge the car if there's no outlet available.
It could still be used as a supplement while driving to extend the range. If the battery was fully discharged, you'd have to wait.
It would be like leaving a vehicle idling when you park it. Noisy, polluting, and potentially deadly.
I use a generator frequently. I leave it outside, unattended. So do the neighbors (when the power goes out). I never leave an idling car unattended because I worry about it. It's a much bigger deal than a little gas engine.
> It would be like leaving a vehicle idling when you park it. Noisy, polluting, and potentially deadly.
It certainly is a bad idea to run any sort of combustion engine in a poorly ventilated area. Perhaps I presume too much that people will have some common sense.
As for the noise, that's a design issue. ICE car engines are pretty quiet these days. There's no particular reason why a small ICE has to be loud like a chainsaw.
Not exactly, Prius uses two drive trains and some fancy gearing to be able to use both engines. The gas engine actually propels the vehicle (either alone or together with the electric)
Some 'hybrids' like the Volt only have EV drivetrains. The gas engine is just a generator and does not turn any wheels. Which also means that it can be much simpler – no transmission to worry about, you can run at whatever the ideal RPM is. And so on.
Yes, the gas engine can turn the wheels.