So for short distances you’ve got all the benefits of driving an electric car without the drawback of having to worry about charging when you travel further afield. Once the battery runs out, the engine seamlessly kicks in and you’re back to driving a normal car again. It’s called a plug-in hybrid because you have to plug in a cable to charge the battery: this is what gives you a certain amount of zero-emissions range, for which you can drive around without using the engine and with nothing coming out of the tailpipe.
