I know I am just an old mechanical designer who knows close to nothing about electricity but why can't an electric vehicle charge itself? Gen sets can charge batteries, which most are just diesel engines turning a generator that produces electricity, seems as simple to me as hooking a generator to the rotating mass that the electric motors run? Is it that there is just no profit in it? Discuss...
They will as long as you are going down hill. I read about a guy who lived up a fairly big hill and he was having trouble with his EV since he fully charged it at night. Then the next day as he drove to work the car would overcharge itself and cause problems with the battery. He finally figured out that he only needed to charge it to 75% capacity and then it was okay heading down the hill in the morning.
My wife's mother lived up the hill from where we lived. First time my wife drove the Leaf over to her mom's house she was worried about the battery life. But by the time she got back home most of the charge had recovered. Going up hill in an EV really drains them but you get a lot of it back when you go down the other side.
