Why no ice/gen only cars?

imflyn said:

If the volt is predicted to get 50 mpg when operating in it's range extender mode, why don't we have more vehicles made like that without the battery aspect? Locomotives have been doing it for a long time. This is OLD technology, but was never implemented into cars. Why don't we have cars that are purely electric drive with an ice/gen combo to power the whole thing. Weight and cost would be reduced with no battery to muck around with. I wondered about this several years ago. Most hybrids use the engine as part of the drivetrain and a motor to suplement it, correct?

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A battery is required anyway to start the internal combustion engine, so it could have additional capacity to supply power for a burst of acceleration, but still be much smaller and lighter than the battery in the standard version of the Volt. The reduced weight would improve efficiency, and because the battery is smaller, the car should cost less. This may not work out too well in mountainous areas, where the battery would be drained long before the car reaches the summit, so it would just chug slowly up the mountain, but it would work great in the plains states. Maybe Chevy could name it the Voltette or the Voltaire.