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 do, but then they are called hybrids.
When I worked for Eon I had a Ford Escape hybrid as my company car. It could run electric, gas or both. Since 90% of my commute was highway it was mostly running IC only.
Something like a Tesla uses regen braking to recover some power back, but it's not the same.
