Completely agree about the Volt. PHEVs are ideal, and best for the environment. Who cares if you have to use gas a couple times a month for longer ranges if you don't need to mine so much lithium and cobalt for the battery?
Cutting gas usage by 80% should be considered essentially equivalent to 100%. And the lower electric range of PHEVs is likely offset by lack of range anxiety and potentially greater adoption.
No complicated drive train either. The Prius drivetrain is an engineering marvel, but looks complicated to me. It seems to be reliable, which is incredible.
Sure you need to carry the extra weight, but maintenance is (supposedly) much simpler.
The I3 is an even better example. It's marketed with the 'range extender' as an option. Only issue is that it had a teeny tiny fuel tank that only added a pitiful range(I suspect some incentives were in play), but it demonstrates the concept. Maybe this could even be optional.