Finally, plug-in hybrid aftermarket conversions are becoming
available to individuals, not just fleets -- in the San Francisco Bay
Area from GreenGears, Luscious Garage, OEMtek and Plug-In Supply; in
the San Diego region from Plug-In Conversions; in Boulder, Colorado
from Hybrids-Plus; with additional availability expected from
Hymotion in Ontario in the second quarter of 2008.

Until the carmakers mass-produce PHEVs for $3-$5,000 more than HEVs,
customers will be those buying the "environmental feature" at very
high prices. We've reorganized and updated our page describing the
options and providing links to the converters' websites at
http://www.calcars.org/howtoget.html . Below is news from some of
these companies, as well as the activities of the Calcars/Electric
Auto Assocation PHEV project.

We're gradually adding vehicles to our list at
http://www.calcars.org/where-phevs-are.html but we're still missing
at least 50 of the approximately 150 vehicles we know about, and the
map is even further behind.


THE CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO held a ceremony to receive three Prius
conversions destined for the Public Library, the Department of Public
Health and a third vehicle for public events by the Mayor's office,
the Department of Environment and Bay Area Air Quality Management
District. At the event were Mayor Gavin Newsom, Environment Director
Jared Blumenthal, BAAQMD Executive Officer Jack Broadbent and Pat
Cadam and Nick Rothman of GreenGears/Pat's Garage.
See the Mayor's press release and photos at
http://www.sfgov.org/site/mayor_index.asp?id=75691 , the story in the
San Francisco Chronicle at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/22/BAASV6L1O.DTL
, and at
<http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/53423>http://www.californiachronicl\
e.com/articles/53423
read about Mayor Newsom's plans to organize Bay Area leaders and the
US Conference of Mayors to encourage carmakers to build PHEVs.


OEMTEK, BASED IN MILPITAS, CA, announced its offering of conversions
using Valence lithium-phosphate batteries. See the story in the San
Jose Mercury News at http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8280588 .


FIRST CONVERSION IN AUSTRALIA: People from all over the world are
starting to use the EAA-PHEV open-source designs we've helped produce
to convert cars.

From the Open Source discussion group, a description of the work of
John Usher and Chriss Dunstan, from the University of Technology's
Institute of Sustainable Futures in Sidney, with Stan Baker of
Electrodata and Peter Szental:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/eaa-phev/message/2126
In a recent posting, John says "two weeks in Australia to do our
first one (most of which was talking about how to do the next step).
I think number 2 will be much faster!"
News report from the Sidney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/plugin-car-first-of-its-kind-in-australia\
/2008/01/31/1201714150496.html


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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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