I was watching television news and a professor at UC Davis was saying the electric plug in vehicles can be compared directly to gasoline prices as running at about 70 cents a gallon equivalent cost. M

Plug-in hybrids promise more power, greater efficiency
By Jim Downing - jdowning@sacbee.com
Published 5:55 am PDT Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Go to this link to read the entire story:
Business - Plug-in hybrids promise more power, greater efficiency - sacbee.com

With a recent mandate that effectively requires major automakers to put at least 58,000 gas-electric vehicles on California roads by 2014, the state is prodding new technology forward.

After years in the prototype stage, auto industry giants and startup companies are investing, researching and building prototype vehicles that can be fueled either with gas or electricity from a wall socket.

General Motors and Toyota plan to launch versions by late 2010, while Honda and some smaller manufacturers are expected to follow.

"Plug-in hybrids are going to be the vehicle story of the next few years," said Joseph Romm, an energy policy expert with the Center for American Progress, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

Before they become as prevalent as a Prius, however, plug-ins must clear a few hurdles, mainly involving battery technology.

"The largest issues are battery cost, life and reliability," said Menahem Anderman, a Yuba County-based consultant who specializes in automotive battery technologies.

The 300-pound battery pack General Motors is building into its Chevrolet Volt plug-in, for instance, can't yet deliver its promised 40-mile range and the long-term durability needed for a mass-market car, according to a report by a hybrid technology research team at the University of California, Davis.

GM says the batteries are progressing, but many experts doubt they'll be road-ready in time for a scheduled 2010 launch.

The problem: Batteries tend to perform best, and last longest, when discharged gently. But ordinary driving – accelerating up a freeway onramp, say – demands big bursts of power. While a huge battery pack – several times what GM wants – can handle that load, smaller ones wear out quickly under the strain and have problems with overheating. Big battery packs also are more expensive.

That has battery manufacturers and entrepreneurs hustling to find a fix.

One of those is AFS Trinity, an energy technology company staffed primarily by former Lawrence Livermore Lab engineers who've developed the XH-150, a plug-in prototype.

Backed by $50 million in venture capital, AFS Trinity believes its patented design resolves some battery problems. The company claims it has created the only functioning plug-in hybrid with a 40-mile all-electric range.

AFS Trinity founder and CEO Ed Furia, an organizer of the first Earth Day in 1971 and former federal EPA administrator, is in Sacramento this week, meeting with state officials and showing off his prototypes – a pair of modified Saturn Vue Green Line hybrids.

They're designed to get around the battery problem by using ultracapacitors – a scaled-up version of the devices that allow a small camera battery to provide the burst of electricity needed to power a flash.

The car's instrument panel looks ordinary, save for two analog gauges on the dashboard. One shows the battery level, the other the capacitor charge.

While Furia's Vue is driving at a steady speed, the batteries charge up the capacitors. On a hard acceleration, the capacitor acts as a booster, giving the electric motor the juice it wants, and taking much of the load off the battery.

During a recent test drive, Furia pulled over to the shoulder of Interstate 5 just north of downtown to show how the capacitors work. What came next is clearly his favorite part of a test-drive.

"Anybody have any health problems?" he said, jokingly.

Then Furia stomped on the accelerator, and the car rocketed to 65 mph.

Conventional hybrids have a reputation for being gutless, yet Furia takes pride in his vehicle's power. "There's the perception that if you get an electric car, you give something up," he said.

Furia has filed a number of patents on the capacitor design and hopes to sell the idea to a major automaker. If mass produced, he estimates, the XH-150 would cost $8,700 more than the standard Saturn Vue Green Line.

Based on prototypes like the XH-150 now being tested on California roads, plug-ins promise to put the fuel economy of today's hybrids to shame.

Comparing dollars per mile, internal-combustion engines are not as efficient as electric motors. It costs around $1 for enough energy to drive the XH-150 40 miles on battery power. Since most drivers are on the road less than 40 miles most days, the potential savings are huge, especially with $4-a-gallon gas.

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National Debt =

Plug-in Hybrids are great for suburbs, not so great for the cities, where parking is on the street and very tight at times.

Never mind that when you plug it into your household outlet you're very likely using electricity that is made from pollution-producing power plants.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

That's weird, when GM already made the EV 1 which had long range and high speed, but they never sold any, only leased them, and then took them all back and destroyed them in 2003.



The drivers loved them. Wanted to buy them. GM refused. GM killed the electric car 5 years ago and now is saying they can't build another one at this time?



EV1 Club Home Page

Sony Pictures Classics Presents : Who Killed the Electric Car?

Yes, you'll be using electricity from "pollution-producing power plants", but the pollution that they produce is much less than a normal car engine for the same amount of power. So although it is still producing pollution, it is not producing as much.

Anyway, I'm saving up over the next several years to buy a completely electric car, no gas use at all.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

If the power plants switch to wind and solar, there will be 0 pollution running an electric car.

Check out ZAP, OE. I see ZAP cars all the time around here.

This one is under $12,000.



Xebra Electric Sedan Reservation $100 | ZAP Electric Cars | Green Electric Car | Ride The Future

But the amount of electricity they use from the power plants requires more pollution to make than a regular gasoline engine produces.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

I'm going to disagree. Oil power plants have a pollution rate of .367 tonnes per MWh (1 MWh will get about 3,000 miles of driving, which is about 120 gallons, at 25 mpg). Coal (the worse offender) gets .984 tonnes per MWh. The burning of 120 gallons of regular unleaded fuel will get you 1.089 tonnes.

So a car would need to get 27.65 mpg to compete with straight coal generated electrisity. But when compared to the US average (all electric generations), based just on pollution, the fueled car would need to get 49.2 mpg. And even then it will still cost more. 49.2 mpg (to go 3,000 miles) would be 61 gallons (@ $3.75 per gallon), that comes to $228.75, but the electric car would use 1,000 kWh which would cost around $110.00 (depending on how a kWh costs you, here it is $0.11 per kWh).

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

However, greater use of electricity requires greater production of electricity.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Yeah, and I'll pay about $110.00 per 3,000 miles in electricity (or about $55.00 per month, compared to my current gas bill of over $200.00 a month).

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides