Even as we get closer to new mass-produced PHEVs, those converting
vehicles continue work that shows future possibilities and has a
strong impacat on important decisionmakers. Who would have ever
expected to see a PHEV Hummer? Who'd have guessed the leading state
government air quality regulatory agency would find a way to
accommodate conversions? Who'd have predicted independent engineers
would invent a way to get a Prius driving all-electrically at 70 MPH?
For this and other conversion stories, read on...

(Shortly after it goes out on email, this posting will also be
viewable at http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html -- there you can
add CalCars-News to your RSS feed.)

CALCARS' BROAD PERSPECTIVE ON CONVERSIONS: Since we announced our
first conversion of a Prius (and before that as we spotlighted Dr.
Andy Frank's conversions of multiple vehicles), we've always seen
their value as primarily strategic, helping to build awareness and
support for mass-produced plug-in cars. But as our understanding has
grown that new plug-ins won't contribute significantly to overall
petroleum use for 10-15 years, we're now emphasizing the potential of
the companies building businesses around conversions to go beyond hybrids.

The small aftermarket companies offer previews of a giant new
industry to convert millions of internal combustion engine (ICE)
vehicles to plug in. We're working to make the case for broad
government and corporate support of that approach as a second path to
achieving all the benefits of electrifying transportation. For these
retrofits, our goal is tested, validated, warranted designs, ideally
done in partnership with carmakers. In April CalCars released an
eight-page White Paper on the subject. Now we have a new 21-slide
presentation, downloadable
at http://www.calcars.org/calcars-beyond-new-plug-ins.pdf that
includes slides on some of the small ICE-conversion companies that we
hope will emerge as players in this far larger opportunity. Links to
both are also at the top of the CalCars home page.

HUMMER: THE ULTIMATE COUNTER-INTUITIVE CONVERSION: When we said, "the
bigger the vehicle the more the benefit in switching to electricity,"
we weren't thinking of Hummers, which may go down as one of the
follies of the first decade of this century. Yet now Raser
Technologies has taken an H3 (the smallest Hummer) and turned it into
a series PHEV with a 40-mile all-electric range. The most significant
aspect of this vehicle may be that GM cooperated with Raser and
integrator FEV, making available design information that helped them
in the conversion and an efficient EcoTec engine for range extension.
We hope this is a preview of automakers recognizing that conversions
can provide them and their dealers with a revenue stream for cars
they've already sold!

See details at
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2009/05/plug-in-hummer-satisfies-americ\
as-need-for-large-vehicles-says-sen-hatch.html
and
http://www.gizmag.com/the-100-miles-per-gallon-plug-in-hybrid-hummer/11591
and an "open road" video at
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/05/22/americans-need-big-trucks-says-sen-hatch\
/
This Utah company, which promotes its efficient electric motor,
brought the car to Washington DC with the help of Senator Orrin
Hatch. Then Raser gave a drive to California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger (who was instrumental in encouraging AM General and GM
to bring the giant military Humvees to consumers). See report and
video of Sacramento press conference at
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2009/05/29/463397.html . Then the
vehicle, which gets 100MPG for 60 miles/charge, came to San Francisco
and San Jose. Now that the Hummer line is being sold to a Chinese
company, Siichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., at a time
when the Chinese government is promoting electrification of vehicles
and raising taxes on vehicles with large engines
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-06/05/content_8254577.htm ,
it's not clear whether this conversion may be a factor in Hummer's future.

50,000 PICK-UP TRUCK CONVERSIONS BY 2013? Electric Motors Corporation
and RV manufacturer Gulf Stream Coach have announced they are looking
for federal funds to build a company converting pickup
trucks.
http://www.trucktrend.com/features/news/2009/163_news090818_electric_motors_corp\
oration_light_duty_electric_pickup_trucks/index.html#They
showed the Hi-Pa Drive F-150 at the 2008 Specialty Equipment Market
Association (SEMA) show.
http://www.trucktrend.com/autoshows/coverage/163_2008_sema_coverage/2009_ford_f1\
50_by_hi_pa_drive.html
. They expect to have prototypes in September and look to invest $80
million and create 1,600 jobs by 2012 in hard-hit Elkhart County,
Indiana, the "RV Capital of the World."

PRIUS CONVERSIONS NOW WITH LARGE NICKEL-METAL HYDRIDE BATTERIES: We
(and those who've driven Toyota RAV4-EVs for over 100,000 miles) have
long felt that NiMH's day was not over: like advanced lead-acid
solutions, this proven technology still has life (as well as proven
safety and durability records). Now Plug-In Conversions Corp. (PICC).
of Poway, CA, which recently received an investment from large
international battery maker Gold Peak, has a solution that replaces
the original Prius battery. Its $12,500 conversion may be the design
with the longest EV range. PICC has tested its system at Argonne
National Labs with positive results including SULEV-level emissions,
and intends to fully crash-test and validate its designs. PICC
announced its new offering this week at the Advanced Battery
Conference; its press release is reprinted at
http://evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=21189 , and see an EVWorld
interview with company founder Kim Adelman at
http://evworld.com/blogs/index.cfm?authorid=12&blogid=753&archive=1 .

This and other retrofits are likely to be eligible for up to 10%
federal tax credits, but we have not yet heard of anyone getting one
for a conversion. We've partially updated our "How to Get a PHEV"
page http://www.calcars.org/howtoget.html to reflect these new designs.

SPEED BREAKTHROUGH ON PRIUS CONVERSIONS: Several aftermarket
converters have found ways to circumvent the Prius limitation that
starts the engine above 34 MPH, raising that number above 50MPH. In
"forced stealth" mode. the car has to be turned off and restarted to
go at higher speeds--hardly simple or practical -- and there are
potential emissions complications. Now Chicago's Ewert Electroniics
has announced a proprietary electronic solution that enables some
converted Priuses to drive up to 70 MPH all-electrically, and in
general consistently exceed 100MPG at highways speeds during the
battery's range. (The company was co-founded by Chris Ewert, team
member for CalCars' second Maker Faire conversion in 2007 and key
member of the CalCars-co-sponsored Open SourcElectric Auto
Association PHEV Discussion Group.) Ewert has an exclusive
distribution agreement with PICC (above), in part because its
replacement battery can provide more energy to the system than do
add-on-battery conversions. News at the EVWorld URLs above and at
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2009/06/picc-20090610.html and at
messages 3623 and 3625 at the EAA-PHEV discussion list
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/eaa-phev/ , where you can also
see technical discussions.

CASH FOR CLUNKERS LEGISLATION: With compromises between Congressional
sponsors of multiple "scrappage" bills, successive versions of the
legislation are increasingly disappointing. The goal of boosting
demand for new vehicles has generally eclipsed the motivation of
improving fuel economy or cutting CO2 and other emissions. While our
White Paper, "Cash for Clunkers Paves the Way to Retrofit Gas
Guzzlers" http://www.calcars.org/scrap-or-retrofit.html shows a
replacement vehicle needs to have twice the MPG of the scrapped
vehicle to have a net energy benefit (including the embedded energy
in building the vehicle), the proposed legislation (House, Senate
bills and the provisions included in Markey Waxman) requires far
less. See an update, including a report on Senator Feinstein's role
and comments by environmentalists,
at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/04/BU9O1808JK.DTL
and an update on the measure that just passed in the House at
http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/09/news/economy/cash_for_clunkers/index.htm
. CalCars has suggested the measures expand to make the payments of
up to $4,500/vehicle available to converters as well as crushers, but
we regret that we haven't had the resources or staff to effectively
intervene in the discussions.

POSITIVE OUTCOME ON CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD REGULATION OF
CONVERSIONS: If you've been following this issue from past postings
at CalCars-News, you'll be glad to hear the relatively happy ending.
In late January the California Air Resources Board considered
proposed regulations for hybrid conversions. CalCars and others made
the case that these regulations were too early and would put small
innovative companies out of business. CARB then OKd a delay for some
months to allow for discussions with the aftermarket companies. At
its May 28 hearing, the Board reached a decision, a compromise
between its staff recommendations and the provisions proposed by
converters, that the companies say they can live with. First a look
at the testimony at the May hearing from auto industry
representatives that shows how far we've come, then some details on
the results.

See http://www.arb.ca.gov/lispub/comm/bccommlog.php?listname=phev09
which includes the testimony at both the January and the May
hearings. (Or see our a single file with all the May comments
combined to make them easier to read, plus links to several PDFs,
available at http://www.calcars.org/all-may-phev09-comments.html .)

We draw your attention especially to comments #174 from Ford and 175
from Toyota and 178 from GM. We're especially happy with this from
posting #166 from the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers, the trade
association of 11 carmakers:

"With respect to plug-in vehicle conversions, the Alliance
understands the early interest in PHEVs and can support reasonable
methods for expanding the introduction of this relatively new
technology in the US vehicle market. Conversions as a mechanism can,
in general, have a place in our market to help promote the growth of
a technology and the infrastructure that supports it. However, it is
imperative for conversions to be achieved in an environmentally
responsible and safe manner."

In general, they are sympathetic to the impulse that leads people to
convert cars, while of course warning that any failures or negative
experiences with conversions could represent a setback for the
industry, and emphasizing that PHEVs are best coming from
mass-production with full engineering, testing and validation, and
all saying they plan to deliver plug-in vehicles.

Here's CalCars Technology Lead Ron Gremban's report on the event, as
posted at http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/eaa-phev/message/3605

History was made at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) hearing
last Thursday, May 28, 2009. The board adopted rules for the
certification and sale of plug-in conversions of hybrid vehicles,
thereby legitimatizing the physical process that we at CalCars
started five years ago and that eaa-phev.org has been all about. We
commend the CARB, along with the rest of California's government, for
being vigilant about continuing to clean our air while supporting and
legitimatizing the nascent plug-in vehicle conversion business that
could grow to become the most effective means for California,
national, and worldwide reductions in oil consumption and
transportation greenhouse gas emissions for the next two decades.

Though of course no one got everything they wanted, the board did
modify their staff's latest proposal in two ways very helpful to
conversion businesses before accepting it. I, along with several
conversion kit companies, testified. Two people from 3Prong Power
spoke, about the big picture and about how the pollution potential of
larger than staff-recommended numbers of Tier 1 and 2 conversions
could be minimized by retrofitting them to Tier 3 once the
manufacturer has received a Tier 3 certification.

A main point of my testimony was that HEV-to-PHEV conversions are
important not only for all the usual reasons, but also because they
presage the coming ICE-to-PHEV conversions that have the prospect of
ramping up to significantly reduce the oil consumption of the
nation's existing fleet of 250 million light vehicles far sooner than
we can possibly replace them with new plug-in vehicles.

John White of Hymotion responded, when asked, that they currently
have around 480 conversions in California, but that they have 3,800
more orders as well as potentially tens of thousands of more yet as
part of the stimulus package's 'Clean Cities' program, which requires
CARB to act immediately because those conversions must be certified
by California or the federal government, which doesn't yet have a
certification program at all. This forced the board's hand in acting
immediately.

Though the board acted directly only upon Hymotion's testimony to
decrease the warranty requirement for a supplemental conversion
battery from 10 to 5 years, I believe everyone's efforts were of
value. The other change the board made was to increase the number of
conversions that could be sold under the laxest Tier 1 rules from
just 10 to 50. Tier 2 is then vehicle #51-100, after which full
testing, warranty, and durability assurance requirements apply.

COMMENTS FROM COMPANIES we gathered since the ruling:

* LUSCIOUS GARAGE (hybrid service and PHEV installations) Carolyn
Coquillette wrote: Luscious Garage recognizes the Air Resources Board
for its participation in the plug-in hybrid movement, promoting the
technology's march from demonstration to production, and protecting
Californians against conventional criteria pollutants as well as
carbon dioxide.

* POULSEN HYBRID (ICE-to-PHEV conversion company) Frank Kuchinski
wrote: The plug-in hybrid conversion industry wants to be a part of
President Obama's goal of putting one million plug-in hybrids on the
road by 2015. In the future, regulations for ICE conversions need to
be balanced so that this goal is obtainable.

* 3PRONG POWER (aftermarket conversion company) excerpt from its
letter to its mailing list: After we testified, the CARB board voted
on our suggestion to increase the Tier I cap to 100 vehicles and
ended up with a split vote, 4 - 4, which meant the measure did not
pass. But then there was a second vote, on increasing the Tier I cap
to 50 vehicles. This one did pass, on a 6 - 2 vote in our favor.
Even though 50 is not all we asked for, it will allow us to continue
offering Plug In Hybrid conversions in California while we raise the
resources to complete the full laboratory emissions testing. It is
extremely rare for the Air Resources Board to grant this type of
concession; in fact, it might be the first time in history. We are
very pleased that the CARB board recognized the unique potential of
Plug In Hybrids and was willing to allow for unprecedented
flexibility in their certification process, to encourage small,
innovative California businesses such as ours.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Felix Kramer fkramer@...
Founder California Cars Initiative
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --