Despite a parade of electric vehicles that can travel more than 300 miles (about 483 kilometers) on a single charge, range anxiety remains a major hurdle to widespread adoption particularly in the U.S.

There is, however, a "no-duh” antidote to allay fears of being stranded mid-trip: put a charger on the car. While traditional hybrid vehicles use gas to turn the wheels, a new crop of cars are burning it exclusively to charge a large onboard battery. It’s a strategy one might expect from an 8-year-old’s brainstorm, and it’s not a particularly efficient solution or a cheap one. But in an age of janky charging infrastructure and fraught, polarizing politics, electric motors juiced by an onboard, gas-sipping generator could be a killer EV app.

"It’s giving the customer the functionality they want but still using electricity for most of your daily driving,” said John Krzeminski, an engineer whose Detroit-based Strange Development builds and tests powertrains for major car companies. Krzeminski expects a rash of range-extending hybrids to hit the road in the next few years, as auto executives try to engineer a solution for drivers who are both EV aspirational and skeptical.