system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What are pros and cons of Hybrid cars vs electric cars with generators?

If electric cars can be very efficient for having less components, wouldn't attaching a simple generator gives the equivalent of a hybrid car? Would it work? If it wouldn't then why not?
gpt
Your idea is the main premise behind a Chevrolet Volt.  By connecting a gasoline engine that exclusively powers the battery, you've got what's called a series hybrid.  This is as opposed to a configuration where both the gasoline engine and the electric engine directly propel the car, which is a parallel hybrid (the Toyota Prius is the best example of this).  Note that the Chevrolet Volt uses the gasoline engine to directly propel the car at speeds over 70 MPH, so in that sense, it's technically a series hybrid that acts as a parallel hybrid under heavy load situations.

The key limitation to electric cars in general is the cost - currently, the Chevrolet Volt costs around $41,000, before government-issued rebates.  This means that while the idea is feasible, it is not sufficiently economical over the incumbent alternatives as of yet.  However, one of the key benefits of electric cars is that they can be powered by anything from coal to nuclear to geothermal energy, and everything in between.  By contrast, gasoline and diesel cars rely exclusively on petroleum and biodiesel, the latter of which cannot be produced economically in sufficient amounts to fully replace the former.  As oil supplies get increasingly expensive, expect the electric alternative to win out.