An electric vehicle is a vehicle that is powered entirely or partially by electricity using an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine. EVs store power in a battery that can be charged from an external power source using a plug.
There are two types of EVs:
- An all-electric vehicle (sometimes called a battery-electric vehicle or BEV) is powered solely by electricity.
- A plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) can run solely on electricity stored in a battery up to a point. Once the battery runs out of power, a gasoline engine provides power to run the vehicle.
Sometimes, people get confused and think that a hybrid vehicle is an electric vehicle, but it is simply a more efficient form of a gas vehicle. These hybrids are typically called “traditional hybrid vehicles.” You can distinguish a hybrid from a plug-in hybrid by whether the vehicle can be plugged in.
