Here's the press release announcing that CalCars will convert a car
in Austin, Texas next month. We're getting ever-closer to having an
accessible "do-it-yourself with technical help" solution for any
2004+ Prius owner who wants to spend somewhere around $6K. And since
it looks like Toyota is pushing back any plans for mass-producing
PHEVs, and we're not hearing much from Ford about the Escape, we
expect to see significant demand for these kits and for conversions
from after-market companies.

Below the press release is conversion news from several after-market
companies. And the news that one of the few individual owners of a
PHEV, Dave in Seattle, whose daily drive cycle is pretty well matched
to a PHEV, may have set a record in refueling after getting 1,620
miles on a single tank, averaging 171 MPG for that time!


Texas's First Public Conversion of a Plug-In Hybrid: Austin October 20-21, 2007

Sept 26, 2007: The California Cars Initiative (Calcars.org) will
sponsor a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) "Conversion
Demonstration" in Austin, TX on October 20-21 at the first Maker
Faire to be held outside of California. PHEV conversions to Toyota
Prius hybrids add an additional battery pack that can be plugged in
at night so that the electric energy is used to displace gasoline to
get over 100 miles per gallon of gasoline plus about $.02/mile of
electricity. This conversion will provide this performance for the
first 20 miles of daily driving. (Others, using more costly batteries
can provide up to 50 miles a day of PHEV driving.) After the energy
in the second pack is depleted, the converted vehicle seamlessly
operates as a standard hybrid vehicle. Batteries for this
conversion are being supplied by CleanPower Battery Technologies, Inc.

THE CALIFORNIA CARS INITIATIVE http://www.calcars.org
CalCars is a nonprofit group of entrepreneurs, engineers,
environmentalists, drivers and consumers promoting plug-in hybrid
cars through advocacy and demonstration projects. CalCars sponsors
the EAA-PHEV project that has designed this conversion. The project
is "Open-Source"-style, meaning that the developers offer their plans
and information free, with no private intellectual property ownership.

THE MAKER FAIRE http://makerfaire.com
Here's how O'Reilly Media, its organizers, describes it: "Maker
Faire: two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates arts, crafts,
engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY)
mindset. It's for creative, resourceful folks who like to tinker and
love to make things. We call them Makers."
When: October 20-21, 2007
Were: Travis County Expo Center, 7311 Decker Lane, Austin, Texas
Hours: Saturday 10am-6pm and Sunday 10am-5pm
Tickets: Adult $25/Day or $50/Weekend Pass - Student $15/Day or
$30/Weekend Pass - Youth ages 4-12 $10/Day or $20/Weekend Pass.
Children 3 and under are free - Save $5/ticket by buying tickets in
advance online at http://makerfaire.com

THE CAR AND DARREN OVERBY, OWNER
We'll be starting with a stock 2005 Prius and adding lead-acid
batteries, our latest versions of the control electronics, cooling
and charging systems. Car owner Darren Overby will be part of the
conversion team. Darren, who operates an International Hostel in San
Francisco, says "I see our environment as a global issue and I am
continually encouraged to hear from my international guests about
their countries' proactive environmental policies. I believe
electric vehicles represent a way to provide carbon neutral
transportation and I would like to see the United States take the
forefront in implementing this technology. I see plug-ins as the only
technology that is both sustainable and scalable to meet the clean
transportation need of the entire world."

THE PROJECT MANAGER, JIM PHILIPPI http://www.hybridplugs.com
CalCars volunteer Jim Philippi from Houston has spent the last two
years working on PHEV conversions using various battery chemistries.
His car was converted in April 2007 at the previous Maker Faire. Now
he has created Hybrid Plugs, a new company to offer parts, kits and
PHEV conversion services in Houston. He says, "I've always been
interested in energy efficiency and green technology. I've driven a
PHEV in Houston for about five months and I've gotten up to 160
m.p.g., for a trip from downtown to home. I buy wind power from my
local utility and I recharge my car every night for about $.60. That
gets me about twelve miles of electric range each day. I'm not doing
the Maker Faire or starting this company to get rich. My goal is to
put as many PHEV on the road as quickly as possible. I gave nothing
up and I commute to work without polluting my neighborhood or
downtown Houston. Driving a PHEV just makes sense!"

DOCUMENTATION on the EAA-PHEV open source project can be found at
http://www.priusplus.org

CONTACT James Philippi HybridPlugs@...


OTHER CONVERSION NEWS

NEW SUPPLIERS
The Austin project also reflects new entities coming into the market:
http://www.pluginsupply.com providing the tilt-up battery box and
http://www.hybridplugs.com providing wiring harnesses and other
parts. We'll have more to say about them in the future. (And after
our car returns from Boston, we'll have a report on the Embedded
Systems Conference conversion.)

HYBRIDS-PLUS REPORTS:
Our client in Seattle has just broken his own record by achieving a
new fuel economy record: 171 mpg and 1620 miles on a Prius tank.
http://hybrids-plus.com/ht/about.html
http://hybrids-plus.com/pmwiki/index.php?n=Ext.Conversion3
Here is his video of the fill-up at the end of this record.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5WmcnSkUTw

Hybrids-Plus recently delivered its Ford Escape conversion to New
York State under its development contract (Hymotion and Electrovaya
have also delivered Escapes). At the same time, the company's Davide
Andrea has posted a tremendous amount of technical information on the
Escape to the EAA-PHEV website, including photos of the opened-up
original battery and electronics.
http://www.eaa-phev.org/wiki/Escape_PHEV_TechInfo#Component_locations


VIDEO OF ENERGYCS PHEV CONVERSION
Jackson EMC, an electric coop in Georgia, part of the Cooperative
Research Networkm has made a 5:30 video about its PHEV conversion by EnergyCS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy2Ciagwrgk


STEP-BY-STEP PHOTOS OF A HYMOTION CONVERSION
GreenCar.com, one of the websites/magazines that's been convering
advanced technology and alternative fuel cars the longest, has an
article with photos showing the conversion by Hymotion of a PHEV
owned by Wisconsin Public Power Inc. (WPPI)
http://www.greencar.com/index.cfm?content=build_plugin_hybrid


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