Last week, two top automotive journalists test
drove PHEV Priuses, and both of them came out
smiling and writing quotes that would sell lots
of tickets if they were movie/theater or book blurbs!

We start with the SF Chronicle story (the fourth
major story in San Francisco's leading paper in
the past few weeks--see CalCars-News).
Then we reproduce the Wall Street Journal story
(which appears only in the online edition). It's
by Joe White, the Journal's Pulitzer
Prize-winning Detroit Bureau Chief. It includes
a 3-minute video showing him plugging in,
unplugging, driving, and talking about the
implications of the car. We excerpt his final comment and include White's bio.

[NOTE: Felix Kramer will be mostly on vacation
August 6-13, so unless it's urgent, please send
email, and be patient about responses.]

Plug-in Prius turns heads -- Ferrari of hybrids
Michael Taylor, Chronicle Auto Editor
San Francisco Chronicle Monday, August 6, 2007
Page D - 1, the "Bay Area" Section of the
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/06/HYBRID.TMP

It looks pretty much like any other Toyota Prius,
sitting in its Redwood City garage, but there is
that telltale yellow industrial-strength power
cord coming out of its tail and snaking around to a 120-volt electrical outlet.

Yes, this is one of the nation's few plug-in
hybrids, and The Chronicle took a ride in it the
other day to see what the future might look like.

The future, if Toyota and a few other car makers
have anything to say about it, will see a lot
more of these cars. Technological hurdles on the
cost and efficiency of hybrid-car batteries will
have to be overcome, but in the past couple of
weeks, two major developments seemed to encourage
the possibility that these cars may actually get built and sold to the public.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and the
Electric Power Research Institute, an electrical
power industry group, said widespread use of
plug-in hybrids, which use little gasoline, would
help the environment and reduce oil consumption.

Hybrids at UC

Less than a week later, Toyota said it would
provide two factory-made Prius plug-in hybrids to
the University of California -- at campuses in
Berkeley and Irvine -- for a two-year test on U.S. roads.

The Chronicle's own test drive the other day
showed that the plug-in Prius is much like the
regular plugless one sold in Toyota showrooms,
but with a few tantalizing exceptions. By far,
the most arresting (or non-arresting) detail is
when you start out driving the plug-in. The car
is absolutely silent -- that's the electric motor
-- but when you move down the street, it
continues its silence (the regular Prius turns on
its engine soon after takeoff).

By now, however, you're not caring about
electric-this, gasoline-that. You are mesmerized
by a dashboard-mounted instrument whose digital
readout shows your gas mileage leaping from 54
mpg to 145 mpg to 421 mpg to 999 mpg, depending
on how much of a lead foot you are.

Normal hybrid cars -- if such a vehicle can be
called normal -- get down the road using a
combination of electric motor and gasoline
engine. In the Prius, the nation's most popular
hybrid, the electric motor is powered by nickel
metal hydride batteries. That car gets an average
of 46 mpg, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

In the plug-in hybrid owned by Felix Kramer, here
in Redwood City, those original batteries have
been replaced by some 4,000 lithium-ion
batteries, which are twice as powerful as the old batteries.

Kramer's car is the showpiece of his homegrown
plug-in hybrid organization, the California Cars
Initiative, a 5-year-old nonprofit that extols
the virtues of plug-ins -- the car is emblazoned
with decals touting its 100-mpg-plus capabilities.

The car, a 2004 model, was converted by Energy
CS, in Monrovia (Los Angeles County) at a cost of
about $15,000. Energy CS is one of a handful of
firms in the United States and Canada converting Priuses in to plug-in hybrids.

Kramer loves to open the car's hatchback and show
visitors the bright red board covering the
batteries. Glued to the board are photos of
Kramer at various enviro events -- here with Bill Clinton, there with Al Gore.

Kramer is evangelical in his bid to get people to
know about these cars, and he has become well
known through his public appearances and his Web site.

While we were tootling along Alameda de las
Pulgas, Kramer's cell phone rang. He picked up,
listened and then said politely that to get a
full answer to the question, the caller should
consult Kramer's Web site (www.calcars.org).

"How do I get one?"

"Most of the phone calls are, 'How do I get a
plug-in hybrid?' " Kramer said. "The calls used
to be, 'What is it?' Now they're, 'How do I get
one?' or 'Why aren't the automakers making one?' "

In downtown Redwood City, the car, with its 100 mpg decals, gets noticed.

A man who gave his first name as Blake (no last
name, please) said of the Prius, "I think they're
great if you drive a lot. I pretty much ride a bicycle, walk, take Caltrain."

Blake's companion, Jim Zaccanti, from Darby,
Mont., when asked whether he would buy one of
these cars, said, "It's not worth it. I could buy
20 years' worth of gas for that."

Back at Kramer's house, he took a look at the
"control displacement unit" on the dashboard to
determine the car's overall mileage during our outing.

"A bit over 122 miles per gallon," he said with a
smile. Then he got out of the car and plugged it back into the wall.



   EYES ON THE ROAD
By JOSEPH B. WHITE
Plugging In to the Future
Getting 100 Miles Per Gallon While Driving to Work In a Modified Toyota Prius
August 6, 2007 Online Wall Street Journal • joseph.white@....
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118615445855287424.html?mod=hps_us_inside_to

I drove to work one day last week in a prototype
car that is either a harbinger of a far more
fuel-efficient future, or another in a long line
of technological insurgencies that will fail in
the end to crack the auto industry's century-old status quo.

The car was a Toyota Prius modified, by the
addition of a 72.5 kilogram (160 pound)
lithium-ion battery pack, into a so-called
plug-in hybrid capable of operating for as many
as 40 miles almost entirely on electric power
alone. The battery pack is a product of
Massachusetts-based A123 Systems
<http://www.a123systems.com> and its recently
acquired Hymotion Inc. subsidiary.

Here's how my drive to work went. I walked out of
the house to where the Prius was parked, close
enough to my garage so that I could run an
extension cord from the wall outlet to a
three-prong plug installed in the car's rear bumper.

I'd plugged in the car the night before, and by
morning the lithium-ion batteries installed in
the trunk were charged up. I stuck a plastic key
fob into a slot in the dash, hit the "Power"
button -- and then hit it again, because I
couldn't tell if the car was on. There was no engine noise.

Once I had the on-off business sorted out, I put
the car in drive and silently rolled out into the
street. And I continued to roll on electric
power. In a normal Prius, the gasoline engine
kicks in once you get past walking speed. In this
car, the extra batteries allowed me to keep
rolling in electric-only mode at highway speeds.
The company estimates the electricity cost of an
overnight charge to be around 75 cents for 50 extra miles.

As I dodged fellow citizens in their last-century
gas-only SUVs, I snuck glances at the Prius's
information screen, which displayed my fuel
consumption and the flow of power from the
batteries and the gasoline engine. For most of my
roughly 20-mile trip to the office, I appeared to
be on electric-only power. Accelerating to merge
with traffic, and avoid becoming a high-tech oil
spot under a semi, I engaged the gasoline motor.
But cruising was all-electric -- and according to
the Prius's on board fuel consumption computer, I
was cruising at 100 miles to the gallon. The only
awareness I had of the power generation hand-offs
between the gas engine and the lithium-ion
batteries, or the lithium-ion batteries and the
Prius's factory-installed nickel-metal hydride
battery system was the videogame display in the dashboard screen.

My reaction to this experience, drawing on 20
years of covering the auto business, was: "Wow! Who wouldn't want this?"

It's the questions that come next that have been
a problem for the auto industry: What does it
really cost? Is it reliable? What about the
warranty? (Toyota's stance on that last question
is that anyone who modifies the Prius into a plug-in voids the warranty.)

Not so long ago, it looked as though the
industry's big dogs weren't confident they had
good answers for those questions in the near
term. Electric cars have foundered since the
industry's earliest days on the rocks of cost,
reliability and range. Plug-ins have range, but
with current battery technology they didn't
appear to have mass-market levels of cost or reliability.

GM earlier this year made a splash with a
prototype of a plug-in called the Chevrolet Volt
-- but stressed that the batteries to make the
Volt real hadn't been invented yet. Skeptics, me
included, wondered where was the beef?

Lithium-ion battery technology can handle the
cycles of charging and discharging required for a
plug-in better than nickel-metal hydride
batteries. It's used now in small power tools and
laptops. But lithium-ion battery also has what's
referred to as "heat management" issues. That
means fire, Scarecrow. The recent spate of
publicity about lithium-ion laptop batteries
bursting into flame has only made resolving this issue more urgent.

The A123 Prius conversion kit is just one sign of
the increasing optimism within the automotive and
enviro-tech communities that the battery
technology required to deliver a reliable plug-in
or electric vehicle could be ready sooner than
once thought. Last week, about 30 groups entered
the Automotive X Prize competition, which plans
to offer a multimillion dollar reward to entrants
who can build a marketable, 100 mile-per-gallon
car and compete in races scheduled for 2009.
Meanwhile, several companies, such as Tesla
Motors of California, are drumming up interest in electric vehicles.

Tony Posawatz, the vehicle line director for GM's
plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt and other vehicles
using GM's E-Flex electric-vehicle technology,
says he expects to get battery packs by the end
of this year from suppliers who believe they have
what it takes to meet GM's criteria for a safe,
reliable and cost-effective plug-in hybrid. A123
is part of one group along with Continental AG.
Another involves big Korean battery maker LG Chem.

"We are encouraged," Mr. Posawatz says of the
developments in battery technology. GM is still
aiming to have a production version of the Volt
ready to roll by late 2010, provided the
batteries are ready, too, he says. GM has also
said it wants to make a plug-in version of its Saturn VUE compact SUV.

Mr. Posawatz won't say the Volt by 2010 is now a
sure thing, but with a telephonic wink to the
naysayers, he says developments such as the A123
Prius conversion system are "indicators telling
you that from a technological perspective it's not that far off."

Toyota, meanwhile, earlier this month took
another step closer to the plug-in camp by
announcing it will start offering prototype
plug-in Priuses for testing in the U.S. and Japan.

Plug-in advocates will say, we told you so. While
GM and Toyota ramp up their rival plug-in
programs, consumers will get a chance to vote
with their wallets on whether plug-in technology makes sense.

Ric Fulop, an A123 founder and vice president of
marketing and business development, says his
company is on track to offer by early next year
lithium-ion plug-in conversion systems similar to
the one I tested to Toyota Prius owners and
hybrid Ford Escape owners. Initial numbers will
be relatively low, he said. "If we sold 1,000 next year that's a big start."

Prices aren't set yet, but it's likely a system
that can extend the electric-only range of a
Prius by 40 miles will cost about $10,000. A
20-mile system will cost about half that, he
says. The company is working to get tax breaks to
offset those costs, and Mr. Fulop says A123 is
trying to convince Toyota to ease the hostile
stand on warranty coverage. (A Toyota spokeswoman
says she's unaware of any discussions on the issue.)

As for the Volt, Mr. Fulop says, "it totally can happen."

JOIN THE DISCUSSION
[Eyes on the Road forum]
http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php?t=675 (We submitted comments)
Readers, over to you....Share your opinions.

CAPTION TO 2:43 MINUTE VIDEO: WSJ's Joe White
tests a Toyota Prius modified by a lithium-ion
battery pack, to see if it can operate for 40
miles almost entirely on electric power.
The text of the video concludes:
Over the next couple of years, it's pretty likely
you're going to see manufacturers, particularly
GM and Toyota, start to put plug-in hybrids on
the road. Final thought for the carmakers would
be that whoever gets there first can probably
score a lot of points in the industry's
technology image war, and that could be worth
billions to the car company that gets it right.

Joe White writes Eyes on the Road every Monday
for the Online Journal. His column offers readers
insight into the top consumer issues in the
automotive industry, ranging from car pricing to safety to the latest gadgets.
Joe is the Detroit bureau chief for The Wall
Street Journal, and has worked for the Journal
since 1987. For most of that time, he has covered
the auto industry from Detroit. In 1993, Joe and
then-Detroit Bureau Chief Paul Ingrassia shared a
Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting for their
coverage of management turmoil at General Motors.
Paul and Joe co-authored a 1994 book about the
American auto industry in the 1980s and 1990s,
"Comeback: The Fall and Rise of the American
Automobile Industry." Joe also contributes
new-car reviews to Smart Money magazine. A
graduate of Harvard University, he lives with his
family outside Detroit and commutes in a 2004 Subaru WRX.

NOTE: One point that often comes up: CalCars'
signs promoting 100+MPG get everyone's attention.
When we can explain at length, to journalists or
on handouts, we point out the asterisk: "plus
electricity--a penny or two a mile." It's a bit
subtle. Of course, PHEVs driving locally use less
gas because they mainly use electric motors
instead of gasoline engines. But their biggest
benefit goes beyond "efficient gasoline cars"
because they DISPLACE gasoline with cheaper, cleaner, domestic electricity.

For those interested in the real number behind
100+MPG, we calculate that if you combine the two
energy sources, you get around 85 "MPGE
(miles-per-gallon-equivalent). In the future, by
using other technologies to use stronger but
lighter weight composite materials, both the
100+MPG and the 85 MPGE numbers can both increase much further.

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

Toyota has outdone itself -- this time, advancing
the discussion within the auto industry on the
future of V2G. The company's reservations are
less significant than the fact that it is paying
very serious attention to the subject.

Background: On July 26, Toyota's VP Irv Miller
posted a video and description of Toyota's
objectives for its pilot program -- see it at
<http://blogs.toyota.com/2007/07/readers-of-this.html>.
We commented about Mr. Miller's favorable words
about conversions at
<http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/804.html>.
The other big news from that blog posting turns
out to be an opening to the topic of V2G. Below
is Toyota's latest post, followed by a joint
response from CalCars and Prof. Willett Kempton,
who is probaby more responsible than any other
individual for gestating and developing the V2G
concept. (We did not include several other
comments that preceded ours that were interesting but off--topic.)


IRV'S SHEET: The Prius Plug-in as Energy Supplier
~ Contributed by Irv Miller, Group Vice President – Corporate Communications
July 27, 2007 Posted at 04:11 PM
<http://blogs.toyota.com/2007/07/irvs-sheet-the-.html>

We were very interested to read a question posted
here by Jon Wellinghoff, a commissioner with the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Mr.
Wellinghoff asks, basically, about plans to equip
a production version of the Prius Plug-in
Electric Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV), the topic of a
previous blog posting here on Open Road, for
what’s called Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) applications.

As you probably know, the V2G concept means that
consumers would plug their PHEVs in overnight to
get them fully charged, then drive to their
destination for the day, plug them in again and
allow the PHEV to feed its stored electrical power back into the energy grid.

First of all, we’re very grateful for Mr.
Wellinghoff’s interest in Toyota's continuing
development of our plug-in hybrid technology, and
in the ways in which the Prius PHEV may fit into ideas about V2G applications.

However, we think it’s important to keep in mind
that Toyota’s first priority is to continue
developing its PHEV technology and then, when the
technology is ready, get PHEVs into the hands of
our customers. Secondly, our expertise is in
building motor vehicles. It’s not in power
generation. That’s something that we would prefer
to leave to those best equipped to do it.

That said, as you're no doubt aware, Toyota is
one of several auto makers who are developing
PHEV technology. While our various approaches to
solving the many challenges may differ, there is
broad agreement on this: Before market-ready
PHEVs can be developed, we need to develop
advanced batteries that can meet the customer's
expectations for performance, durability and
cost.  Prior to any meaningful exploration of V2G
concepts, we must first resolve the very basic
battery and product issues that we're addressing today.

Beyond the challenges of developing PHEV
technology, electric-energy experts tell us that
the hurdles for V2G concepts are significant:

- Battery performance must be 10 times higher than today's best batteries.

- PHEVs are intended to be charged from home,
using existing circuitry.  The grid contribution
from a single car therefore is insignificant when
compared to the massive size of regional
grids.  This means that meaningful V2G
contributions will depend upon hundreds of
thousands of vehicles plugged into an existing
grid, all contributing grid services in some
yet-to-be-defined coordinated method.

- We are unaware of any discussions concerning
how to pay for the necessary infrastructure to
collect the 120 VAC current from each PHEV and
step it up to transmission and/or distribution voltage.

- We are also unaware of any concrete plan for
insuring the safety of utility workers in light
of such a massively distributed system.

- And while there are many concepts for vehicle
and account identification and communication,
none of these concepts are thoroughly developed.

There’s another important question, as well: In
light of the uncertainty of gas prices and
perhaps even future gasoline availability, will
motorists want to sacrifice overall MPG by
trading away their PHEV’s reserve battery power?

The automobile business is changing and will, we
feel sure, require strategies, partnerships and
alliances we might not even have thought of yet.
We don’t even know, for sure, if PHEVs will come
to market in the way in which we think they will.
Indeed, that’s the point of at least some of the
research now being done, using Prius PHEVs, at UC
Irvine and UC Berkeley. UC Irvine, with its
expertise in the technical side of these issues,
is studying that, while researchers at Berkeley
take a long, hard look at the human side of the
equation from the point of view of the PHEV consumer.

Finally, when we discuss various pricing schemes
to make the idea of V2G interesting to consumers,
we must make every effort to avoid unintended
consequences.  We can all learn from the recent
problems with the California solar roof program,
where, in some cases, time-of-day rates actually
increased the overall utility bills of
participating customers.  This had the
consequence of severely reducing program
participation by California consumers – the very
opposite of the program’s intent.

So while the potential for V2G is another
intriguing aspect of hybrid technology, we must
not become sidetracked so that we lose sight of
the immediate goal. That goal is to produce an
affordable, reliable PHEV that can be sold in
large quantities, that can be serviced at any
dealership, and that will meet the needs of the American motorist.

I assure you, that’s a big enough task.


RESPONSE BY WILLETT KEMPTON & FELIX KRAMER
Posted by: Felix Kramer | August 03, 2007 at 12:32 PM:

After Toyota's decision to begin building PHEVs,
motivated by what Irv Miller sums up as "that
goal is to produce an affordable, reliable PHEV
that can be sold in large quantities, that can be
serviced at any dealership, and that will meet
the needs of the American motorist," almost
nothing could make us happier than to have Toyota
begin to engage a Federal Energy Regulatory
Commissioner who calls PHEVS "cash-back hybrids"
on the potential and obstacles of vehicle-to-grid (V2G)!

As two people working every day to promote
plug-in hybrids generally and the integration of
the power generation and transportation sectors,
we're thrilled that it took only 23 hours for
Toyota's VP Irv Miller to respond to Commissioner
Jon Wellinghoff's question. That tells us that
the question didn't catch Toyota by surprise:
people in the company are thinking deeply about this subject.

We'd like to respond on three levels to the
issues raised, and point to some ways to move forward.

PRECONCEPTIONS
Just as it took a few years to persuade people
that the grid had enough night-time power to
charge cars, and that plugging in will provide
significant greenhouse gas reduction even while
the national power grid moves away from high-CO2,
it's important to begin to communicate that:
* Today's batteries can easily demonstrate the
benefits of V2G, many of which don't require high energy transfers.
* No car-owner will ever have to lose money
making the battery available to the utility. On
any day when a driver's battery is ever drained
significantly, the payments will always
substantially exceed the cost of driving home using gasoline.
* The technology exists today to implement V2G.
The big challenge is to carefully develop
protocols and standards for safety,
interconnections, data management and
communication, control, aggregation and accounting.

THE VALUE OF DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS
* Design, testing and evaluation programs
involving a few hundred cars can provide a
demonstration on a scale comparable to a
full-sized power plant, providing important
information for planning in terms of technology,
integration and business models.
* Here's the evolutionary path: Even a few
thousand cars can provide significant benefits in
improving the efficiency and reliability of a
utility's power generation and distribution
system. Then hundreds of thousands of cars can
turn intermittent renewable energy sources like
night-time wind power into reliable 24/7 energy
sources. And further in the future, tens of
millions of V2G cars can help provide homes,
businesses and communities with affordable
back-up power, reducing the consequences of power
failures. None of this is dependent on a
brand-new redesigned power grid: it can be added incrementally.

HOW DO WE GET THERE?
* We respectfully disagree with Mr. Miller's
suggestion that planning for V2G would sidetrack
carmakers from the immediate goal of
commercializing PHEVs. The stages we just
described provide benefits at every point. And
because V2G-capable cars (and batteries removed
in the future from plug-in cars for stationery
secondary use) can provide revenue streams, it
makes sense to give business planners (especially
in fleets) the information to take V2G into
account in projecting lifetime total cost of ownership of PHEVs.
* Because warranty and liability issues are so
critical, it may be that smaller companies will
pioneer in providing vehicles with high power
transfer capabilities for demonstration projects.
But it will be immensely beneficially for the
large carmakers to watch and participate in
discussions at every step along the way.
* As Mr. Miller said so well, carmakers'
expertise is in designing and building vehicles.
That's why it's appropriate that the utility
sector is taking the lead here. Meanwhile, other
carmakers are announcing research partnerships
with utilities. We encourage Toyota to do so as
well, either with an individual utility or one or
more of the organizations developing V2G technologies.
* Ideally, we would have the federal government
take the lead, so that all the intellectual
property would be public and designs would be
optimized for national security, electric
reliability and CO2 reduction. However, we don't
know when we'll get that level of commitment from Washington, DC,
* Mr. Miller suggested we're all in unexplored
territory that may bring us to "strategies,
partnerships and alliances we might not even have
thought of yet." Toyota would earn all our thanks
if it took the lead in organizing a consortium of
automobile companies, each contributing funds to
sponsor a large-scale demonstration program once
the first pilot programs are underway.

Once again, we thank the company and Mr. Miller
for its responsiveness and openness to new ideas!

-- Felix Kramer, Founder, The California Cars Initiative www.CalCars.org

-- Prof. Willett Kempton, Senior Policy
Scientist, V2G Research Group, University of Delaware www.udel.edu/V2G


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

You know you've arrived when they write the books. There are now at
least eight volumes about or at least with multiple pages on PHEVs.
So we made a new page at Calcars.org called "Books that Focus on or
Discuss Plug-In Hybrids (PHEVs)"
<http://www.calcars.org/books.html>

At the moment it includes eight books (including two that haven't yet
been published), most recent first:

Apollo's Fire by Rep. Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks , Oct 2007
Freedom From Oil by David Sandalow, Sep 2007
Clean Tech Revolution by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder, Jun 2007
Future Energy by Bill Paul, Feb 2007
Hell and High Water by Joseph Romm, Dec 2006
Plug-in Hybrids by Sherry Boschert, Dec 2006
Plan B 2.0 by Lester Brown, Jan 2006
War Footing by Frank J. Gaffney Jr., Nov 2005

We provide descriptions of each book and two ways to get them: first
a link to ways to find an independent bookstore, and second, an easy
way to find the selling price at Amazon.com and order or pre-order.

If you do it that way, CalCars will get a small referral fee for your
entire Amazon order -- at no additional cost to you. (This isn't to
say you shouldn't also consider giving us much-needed contributions,
which you can do with a credit card or PayPal at
<http://www.calcars.org/sponsor.html>.)

In the case of Sherry Boschert's book (if you're on this list and
haven't read it, you've missed an entertaining and informative
experience), we also provide links to order it from her or from Plug
In America (they have a nifty package deals with the Who Killed the
Electric Car DVD and autographed versions.

ON THAT PAGE, WE ALSO RECOMMEND (AND LINK TO):
Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braumgart
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Winning the Oil Endgame by Amory Lovins, et al.
Worldchanging by Alex Steffen



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

Coal is at the heart of two intertwined issues important to PHEV advocates:
* Can we develop a transitional strategy to power vehicles (and many
other human activities) with renewable fuels?
* How clean will our power grid become and how can we reduce
greenhouse gases from energy production?


COAL SEQUESTRATION
During this long presidential campaign season, some candidates are
saying "no new coal plants that aren't capable of capturing CO2."
That way, if it ever becomes feasible to "sequester" CO2 underground,
presumably we'll have power plants that are ready. Others say
sequestration will never be practical or affordable, and we should
simply say "no new coal plants, period. Let's invest our research and
incentives in renewables that don't emit CO2 rather than hope we can
capture and store it. It's a critical discussion, because coal plants
operate for 50 years or longer. (Our view is very straightforward: if
the entire world woke up and were willing to make the huge adjustment
in being willing to pay something less than twice as much for our
energy than we now pay, we could make the most rapid transformation
ever seen and avoid the worst consequences of global warming.) Here
are some resources and the subject:


COAL-TO-LIQUID
Many Presidential candidates favor coal-to-liquid for fuel, which is
twice as bad in CO2 emissions as petroleum, and even if carbon
sequestration ever becomes possible, is still worse than petroleum.
(See the extraordinary chart from the Environmental Protection Agency
reproduced by The New York Times at
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/business/29coal.html> in an
article that surveys the candidates' views. If you can't access that
story, see the chart at
Treehugger  <http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/america_to_the.php>.


CLIMATE & ENERGY OVERVIEW
CalTech Chemistry Professor Nathan Lewis is doing extraordinary
research. See a photo of him with our car last June at
<http://www.calcars.org/photos-people>. He also presents the
scientific issues in global warming in very broad and useful ways.
"Powering the Planet" (12 pages in Engineering & Science Magazine is
a good overview. He's doubtful on how much carbon sequestration is
possible. Though he tends to favor liquid fuels over batteries, he is
open to the discussion....It's a 10MB PDF at
<http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX2/lewis-web.pdf>.


HEROIC JAMES HANSEN
Joseph Rom (author of one of the books above) writes Climate
Progress, a great blog. He posted this entry on July 27, 2007,
writtne by NASA's James Hansen, director of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration Goddard Institute for Space Studies our "top
climate scientist" (for more about Hansen, see
<http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/282.html> from February 2006. At
that time, Hansen said,""The plug-in hybrid approach, as being
pursued by CalCars, seems to be our best bet for controlling vehicle
CO2 emissions in the near-term." See also
<http://www.calcars.org/endorsements.html>.)

Hansen on "Who Killed the Electric Car?"
http://climateprogress.org/2007/07/27/hansen-on-who-killed-the-electric-car

California had a regulation that would have required automobile
manufacturers to produce a small percentage of cars without emissions
by such-and-such date, and a larger percentage later. Automakers
despised this rule, and decided that they had enough clout to ignore
it, arguing that it was impractical. Environmentalists seemed to
conclude that they were overmatched. Rather than go to the mat, they
decided to play ball with the automakers, to try to work with them,
accepting promises that the automakers would do everything that they
could to improve vehicle efficiencies and reduce emissions.

The glee with which the automakers tracked down the trial electric
cars that they had produced, and crushed the cars into small cubes,
must have been palpable. Profit margins on large SUVs were much
bigger. Automakers soon forgot their promises about better gas
mileage, instead using technical efficiency improvements to make
vehicles bigger and accelerate faster.

So who killed the electric car? The automakers? Government officials?
All of us who let them get away with it? That vehicle story
continues, as plug-in hybrid-electric cars are perhaps the best bet
for a path toward a vehicle fleet with sustainable fuel requirements.

However, my reason for bringing up the electric car story is some
similarities to the coal story, which is even much more important.

Coal interests are at least as powerful as the automakers. If coal
interests have their way, the damage to the planet from coal will
greatly exceed that caused by automakers. Their approach is similar
to that of the automakers. They have bought influence with law-makers
in Washington. They have convinced energy experts, even those with an
environmental bent, that they, the coal interests, will win if the
parties "go to the mat".

Specifically, they want to continue to make more coal-fired power
plants, claiming that the technology to capture and store CO2 will be
ready in a decade or so, and promising that when it is ready they
will convert the power plants to capture and sequester CO2. This
would require not only technology to capture this enormous stream of
CO2, but also a pipeline carrying the CO2 to a place where it is
safely stored. If you are willing to accept their promise to do that,
I have a bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn that I will sell to
you for a very good price. Even if you believed them, in the
meantime, for a decade or likely longer they would be pouring out CO2
into the air at a rate that would destroy the effect of other efforts
to slow climate change.

If we want to save the planet, creation, with all of its creatures,
somebody is going to have to go to the mat with the coal interests.

   Do not let anyone tell you that there is no viable alternative to
increased coal use. If the rules for utilities were changed such that
they made bigger profits by selling us less energy by helping users
improve efficiencies, rather than bigger profits by selling us more
energy, that alone could avoid need for more power plants for the
time needed to develop CO2 sequestration technology. Not to mention
the potential for renewable energies to contribute, or the potential
via changed building codes, lighting and appliance standards, etc.

Of course it is sensible to allow a trial power plant to be built of
the sort intended to eventually include carbon capture and
sequestration. But there is no way that anything more than a trial
should be allowed. These plants are gargantuan. There is no guarantee
that they will even make sense, once carbon is properly priced.
Scandinavia provides a good example (B.E. Johansen, The Progressive,
July 2007): Denmark, e.g., has remade its energy infrastructure.
While in the 1980s it had 15 large power plants, it now has several
hundred smaller ones, thus closer to homes and offices with reduced
power loss during transmission. Much of the energy is renewable.
Energy efficiency has been promoted, so the average Dane uses less
than half the electricity used in the U.S. In the process, their
economy has become strong.


MICHAEL HOEXTER'S HOUGHTFUL BLOG ON ENERGY
We recommend you read the multi-part presentations by Michael Hoexter
on what he calls "The Renewable Electron Economy."
http://terraverde.wordpress.com/


EVs/PHEVs/V2G AND CLEAN ENERGY
You'll find EVs and PHEVs and V2G (vehicle-to-grid technology)
included in this executive summary of a new book due out this fall --
called Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy
Policy. It's produced by the Institute for Energy and Environmental
Research and the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, and the executive
summary is available now at <http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree>. Here's
the July 30 press release

Landmark Energy Policy Study Points the Way to U.S. Energy Future
without Fossil Fuels or Nuclear Power
Protecting Climate Will Require Essentially Complete Elimination of
U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions by 2050

Takoma Park, MD - At the G-8 summit in Germany in June 2007,
President Bush promised to "consider seriously" the European Union
goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to limit global
temperature rise to about 4 degrees Fahrenheit. A new study concludes
that the United States could eliminate almost all of its carbon
dioxide emissions by the year 2050. It also concludes that it is
possible to do so without the use of nuclear power. The landmark
study, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy
Policy, was produced as a joint project of the Nuclear Policy
Research Institute and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.

"A technological revolution has been brewing in the last few years,
so it won't cost an arm and a leg to eliminate both CO2 emissions and
nuclear power," said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, author of the study and
president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. "We
can solve the problems of oil imports, nuclear proliferation as it is
linked to nuclear power, and carbon dioxide emissions simultaneously
if we are bold enough."

The "Roadmap" concludes that the United States can achieve a zero-CO2
economy without increasing the fraction of Gross Domestic Product
devoted to lighting, heating, cooling, transportation, and all the
other things for which we use energy. The fraction was about 8
percent in 2005. Net U.S. oil imports can be eliminated in about
twenty-five years or less, the study estimated.

"The climate crisis has put the earth in the intensive care unit,"
said Dr. Helen Caldicott, President of NPRI and a physician who has
long advocated elimination of nuclear weapons and nuclear power. "We
must respond to this acute clinical crisis and act today to save the
planet, without resorting to nuclear power, which will aggravate our
problems. Dr. Makhijani's report is essential reading for all who
care about our future."

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that a
global reduction of 50 to 85 percent in CO2 emissions is needed to
limit the temperature rise to less than about 4 degrees Fahrenheit.
If emissions are allocated equitably, in view of the greater
historical and present emissions of the United States and other
Western countries, the Roadmap estimates that the United States will
have to eliminate 88 to 96 percent of its CO2 emissions. The United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty that the
United States has ratified, places a greater responsibility on
developed countries to reduce their emissions in view of historical
and present inequities.

According to the Roadmap, North Dakota, Texas, Kansas, South Dakota,
Montana, and Nebraska each have wind energy potential greater than
the electricity produced by all 103 U.S. commercial nuclear power
plants. Solar energy is even more abundant - solar cells installed on
rooftops and over parking lots can provide most of the U.S.
electricity supply. Recent advances in lithium-ion batteries are
likely to make plug-in hybrid cars economical in the next few years.

"Plug-in hybrids should become the standard-issue car for governments
and corporations in the next five years. That demand will make prices
come down to the point that it can become the standard car design in
the next decade," said S. David Freeman, President, Los Angeles Board
of Harbor Commissioners and former chairman of the Tennessee Valley
Authority. "The health benefits of eliminating fossil fuels and
greatly reducing urban air pollution will be immense. Dr. Makhijani's
study also shines a light on how we can liberate our foreign policy
from oil imports."

Mr. Freeman was the Director of the Energy Policy Project of the Ford
Foundation at the time of the Arab oil embargo in 1973. That
project's report (A Time to Choose: America's Energy Future), which
he, Dr. Makhijani, and others co-authored, became the foundation of
U.S. energy policy in the mid- to late-1970s.

"What is really innovative about this Roadmap is that it combines
technologies to show how to create a reliable electricity and energy
system entirely from renewable sources of energy," said Dr. Hisham
Zerriffi, Ivan Head South/North Chair at the University of British
Columbia and an expert on distributed electricity grids. "The United
States must take action now in order to lead and this Roadmap lays
out specific steps that it should take. The study is also remarkable
in that it provides backup plans and recommends redundancies that are
important for avoiding major missteps on the road to an economy
without zero-CO2 emissions."

The study recommends an elimination of subsidies for nuclear power
and fossil fuels, and also for biofuels like ethanol when they are
made from food crops.

"Ethanol from corn is inefficient and, at best, has only a marginal
effect on reducing greenhouse gas emissions" said Dr. Makhijani.
"Even at current production levels it is causing inflation in food
prices in the United States and hardship for the poor in Mexico and
other countries. Biofuels can be made much more efficiently, for
instance from microalgae, on land not useful for food."

The study recommends a "hard cap" on CO2 emissions by large fossil
fuel users (more than 100 billion Btu per year). The cap would be
reduced each year until it reaches zero in 30 to 50 years. There
would be no free emissions allowances, no international trade of
allowances, and no offsets that would allow corporations to emit CO2
by investing in outside projects to reduce emissions. The emissions
of smaller users would be reduced by efficiency standards for
appliances, cars, homes, and commercial buildings.

Copies of the 23-page executive summary of the report are available
at <http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree>. The full study will be available
for download in August 2007. It will be published as a book by RDR
Books in the fall of 2007.

Available for download: Executive Summary of Carbon-Free and
Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy [PDF 450kB]


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

The race to transform the automotive industry is happening on many
levels. Now the Automotive X-Prize has announced the names of 31
initial teams that have signed "letters of intent to compete" to
build 100+MPG equivalent cars. They're from five countries, and many
more are expected. Many of the competitors incorporate variants on
PHEV or all-electric soutions, as well as combinations with
lightweight materials. (We last wrote some comments and perspective
on the Prize in April at <http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/738.html>.)

Read the X-Prize announcement at
<http://auto.xprize.org/news/8_1_07.html>. There you can find a team
list; below is the list enhanced by MSNBC science editor Alan Boyle
at Cosmiclog
<http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/01/300979.aspx>; at a
report/interview at that URL you can also read more about the
hoped-for schedule, sponsors, and comments from X Prize Executive
Director Donald Foley on prospects that large automakers will join
in. And you can go to either URL to find the original live links to
the teams' websites.

* Aptera Motors, California. Plug-in electric.
* Commuter Cars Corp., Washington state. Plug-in electric.
* Cornell University, New York. Hybrid.
* DEHyds, Washington state. Danzer-cycle internal combustion /
hydraulic hybrid.
* Delta Motorsport, Britain. Lightweight fuel-cell / electric hybrid.
* Desert Fuel, Arizona. Biodiesel / electric hybrid, with steam and solar.
* Disruptech, California.
* Dragonfly Technology, Britain.
* Fuel Vapor Technologies, British Columbia, Canada. Gasoline vapor fuel.
* GreenIt!, Oregon. Plug-in electric.
* Herf Duo, Berlin, Germany.
* HyKinesis, California. Hybrid.
* Kinetic Vehicles, Oregon. Lightweight cyclecar kits.
* Kuttner Doran Inventions, Virginia. Diesel-electric hybrid (see comments).
* Loremo AG, Munich, Germany. Diesel-powered lightweight.
* Maine Automotive X, Maine. Gasoline-powered lightweight.
* MDI and Zero Pollution Motors, New York. Electric / compressed air.
* Michigan Vision, Michigan.
* MotoTron Corp., Wisconsin. Hybrid.
* Phoenix Motorcars, California. Plug-in electric.
* Prometheus Systems, Arizona. Solar-electric.
* Porteon Electric Vehicles, Oregon. Electric.
* Psycho-Active, Georgia. Internal combustion with drive-train innovations.
* Roane Inventions, Texas. Electric-road-rail hybrid.
* Society for Sustainable Mobility, California. Hybrid.
* Spirit One, Alberta, Canada.
* Tesla Motors, California. Plug-in electric.
* Valentin Technologies, Wisconsin. Internal combustion engine with
hydrostatic power train.
* Velozzi, California. Plug-in electric.
* X Tracer, Winterthur, Switzerland.
* ZAP Motors, California. Electric or gasoline-powered lightweight.

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

A Prius owner in Seattle, Dave had his car converted by Hybrids-Plus
in Boulder, Colorado two months ago. (He's car #45 on our list at
<http://www.calcars.org/where-phevs-are.html>, and, while he loves
his PHEV, he's not seeking the media spotlight.

He has maintained a video journal, linked from the Hybrids-Plus car
list at <http://hybrids-plus.com/pmwiki/index.php?n=Ext.Vehicles> to
<http://hybrids-plus.com/pmwiki/index.php?n=Ext.Conversion3>. His
latest is a one-minute video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poKzDZ1-Qx0>.

HERE'S HIS COMMENT ON YOUTUBE:
It has been over two months since I got my PHEV Prius. I drive most
weekdays over 60 miles round trip to work. A month ago I filled the
gas tank and today I had to fill up for the first time since then.
Total miles on this tank of gas was 1,307 miles. The tank took 9.578
gals to fill. This works out to 136.45mpg.

HIS MESSAGE TO FRIENDS:
I had to fill up the tank this morning.  This time I went 1,307 miles
on one tank of gas.  It took 9.578 gallons to fill up. This works out
to 136.45mpg.  I did not do anything special to get these numbers.  I
am still doing my 60 mile round trip daily commute and an additional
5-20 miles a day local driving in the evening and on the weekend.  I
find that my mileage goes up dramatically when I encounter frequent
backups on the freeway.

HIS EXPLANATION TO US WHILE DRIVING HIS FIRST TANKFUL:
My commute is perfect for this kind of high mileage experience.  I
drive 60 miles in my commute.  20 miles of that is under 35mph and I
am able to do much of that in electric mode.  The remaining 40 miles
is on the freeway during Seattle rush hour and I am usually able to
do about half of that in electric mode as well.  Since I have the
large battery and my one way commute is 30 miles I never have seen my
battery go below 50% on the charge.  Charging up at work really makes
it all work out great to get the real high mileage.  If I was only
doing short drives at speeds over 42mph I would be seeing a lot lower
number for my overall mpg.

OUR OBSERVATIONS:

* He filled up when he got the low fuel warning message. The Prius's
official capacity is 11.9 gallons (inside the metal tank is a
"bladder" that reduces evaporative emissions, preventing the tank
from being filled entirely). But at his rate at that point, if he'd
held out and put in 11.5 gallons, he could have gotten over 1,500 miles.

* Dave's drive cycle is typical of many urban commuters in congested
areas. (Since Toyota announced its pilot project for a PHEV with
under nine miles of electric-only range, we've seen online comments
both from many people who say that's enough for them to be
gasoline-free, and from others who say they need more. Dave's Prius
has a 9kWh pack (batteries from A123Systems) giving up to 30-miles in
electric-only mode.)

* Dave makes the other main point: he charges up twice daily on
weekdays. When we have a society with hundreds of thousands or
millions of cars, during the summer months, we'll need price signals
that provide a strong disincentive to do this until we have have such
a large solar and other renewable energy portfolio that cars won't
increase peak demand problems.

WHAT ARE CURRENT RECORDS?

* As far as we know, the most miles per tank record for any Prius was
set in August 2005 by a dedicated group of self-described
"middle-aged hypermilers," Dan Kroushl of McCandless, PA Bassage of
Walton, W.Va.,, Wayne Gerdes of Chicago, Rick Reece of Greenville,
S.C., and Bob Barlow from Fredericksburg, Va., who drove 1,397 miles
at around 110MPG in a continuous 47-hour "rally" (see
<http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05220/550484.stm>. While amazing,
impressive and inspiring, this is not comparable. It was not
"real-world" driving: they used "pulse-and-glide" techniques over a
15-mile rural route, using a stock Prius.

* My own humble record is 1,034 miles with 9.667 gallons for a
calculated 107MPG.

* We haven't asked the owners/drivers of the 57 cars on our list for
their experiences. But we'll let you know when anyone exceeds the
1,397 mile record!

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

In this four-minute video, with judicious use of the Pause button,
you can see several aspects of the new Toyota Plug-in HV display
screen, including breakouts of the amount of driving in EV mode and
summaries of kiloWatt-hours used.

Two versions of this video: AutoblogGreen shows a larger-screen YouTube version
<http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/07/31/video-toyotas-plug-in-prius-test-drive-\
in-japan/>
and the original from Diginfo is smaller but slightly better quality:
http://movie.diginfo.tv/2007/07/25/07-0210-r.php

The Diginfo narrator appears to be summarizing information presented
by Toyota at its New Powertrain Conference, including a report
promoting PHEVs because they require smaller batteries, emphasizing
their CO2 benefits (see Japanese-language charts), and stating that
running costs for Japanese drivers decrease between 8% (daytime
charging) to 41% (charging late at night).

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

While it's often not true that "no news is good
news;" it may be true that "any publicity is good
publicity." Under that principle, we're glad to
see that the large national environmental group
Environmental Defense has for the first time
addressed the potential of and the challenges of
PHEVs. (We've been big fans of ED's very moving
and effective tv/radio public service ads on
global warming <http://fightglobalwarming.com/>.)

On transportation, ED has long said "we don't
pick winners" and "technology is not the answer"
to oil dependency. But recently ED started a new
blog, Climate 411, and after writing very
hopefully (yet with no discussion of economics or
thermodynamics) about  "air cars," the blog is
turning a critical eye to PHEVs. We welcome ED to
the discussion and hope it will go further -- and
we're looking forward to seeing if ED applies the
same analytic criteria to hydrogen and ethanol in
parts two and three, as Co-op America did so well
recently in its survey of "Fuels for the Future"
<http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/799.html>.
Here's the original post and our response. (We
didn't try to address every point; others can join in!)


Climate 411
Blogging the science and policy of global warming
Plug-in Cars: The Lowdown July 30, 2007
http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/climate411/2007/07/30/plug-in_cars/
The author of today's post, Sheryl Canter, is an
Online Writer and Editor Manager at Environmental Defense.

This is Part 1 of a three-part series on Vehicle Fuels and Technology.
1. Plug-in Cars: The Lowdown
2. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles
3. Guide to Alternative Fuels

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, or PHEVs, have
been in the news a lot lately. It's an appealing
idea - virtually no emissions, just plug in your
car at night and go. Plus the batteries that
drive them could store electricity for homes and
offices. When cars are parked and plugged in, the
electric utility could draw on stored battery
power during times of peak demand (with compensation to the car owner).

But will plug-in cars really be ready for widespread use by 2010?

Reading the news, you might think that PHEVs are
just around the corner. Toyota just displayed a
plug-in version of its Prius. A recent study by
the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and
the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) says
that if plug-in cars are in widespread use from
2010 to 2050, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions could be dramatic.

Certainly people are trying to make it happen,
spurred by inventor/advocates such as Felix
Kramer of CalCars.org and others. The Austin City
Council has launched a $1 million campaign to
promote plug-ins. Google's philanthropic arm is
donating $10 million towards the development of
the technology. General Motors made a splash with
its Chevy Volt concept in January. Ford has
joined the party with a plug-in prototype of its Edge SUV.

But as our automotive expert John DeCicco points
out, there are some daunting technical issues. In
a briefing [PDF] before the U.S. Senate, Advanced
Automotive Batteries president Menahem Anderman
estimated that plug-ins won't be generally
available for another 10 years. Honda manager
John German, also in Senate testimony [PDF], said
that the problems with plug-ins were so difficult
that Honda wasn't even going to try.

So what's going on? Are plug-ins around the
corner, 10 years away, or not realistic at all?

The bugaboo is the battery. Here's a summary of
the problems, based on Anderman's analysis:

     1. The plug-in battery will be about 3 to 5
times the size of today's non-plug-in hybrid
batteries, essentially filling the cargo space of an average sedan.
     2. The weight of this battery will add 200 to
300 lbs. to that of the car, putting a drag on performance and efficiency.
     3. The lithium batteries needed to provide
adequate performance for plug-ins raise a serious
concern about hazardous failure, such as a fire
in a home garage, because they need much deeper,
full charging than the smaller batteries of
today's hybrids, which are always kept at an intermediate state of charge.
     4. The cost of this plug-in battery (at pack
level) to carmakers, using present technology,
will be 3 to 5 times the average cost of today's
hybrid batteries, i.e. around $5,000 to $7,000 per pack.
     5. The life of any battery technology,
lithium or otherwise, when used in a plug-in car
is not known. There's a good chance that battery
life will be short, meaning costly replacements over the life of a vehicle.

John German points to market problems, as well.
He says that unless battery prices drop
considerably, the vehicles will be too expensive
for broad acceptance. So Honda has instead chosen
to focus on hydrogen fuel cell technology (the
subject of Part 2 in this series).

German closes his statement with some good advice
about how the government can help:

      It is impossible to predict the pace of
technology development and when breakthroughs
will or will not occur. Accordingly,
technology-specific mandates cannot get us where
we need to go. In fact, previous attempts to
mandate specific technologies have a poor track
record, such as the attempts in the 1990s to
promote methanol and the California electric
vehicle mandate. The primary effect of
technology-specific mandates is to divert
precious resources from other development
programs that likely are more promising. If there
are to be mandates, they should be stated in
terms of performance requirements, with
incentives and supported by research and development.

So will plug-in hybrids eventually become
mainstream? Possibly, but only with sufficient
investment in the development of battery
technology. Since we can't know for sure which
technologies will work out, it's best to push
ahead on all fronts - including making better use
of the technologies already at hand - and not put
all our eggs in the plug-in basket.

One Response
Comment from felixkramer
July 30th, 2007 at 4:28 pm

Thanks for opening up a discussion about PHEVs on
ED's website! Of course, the starting point has
to be to use what's already at hand. That
includes energy conservation, both by reducing
miles traveled and increasing the MPG of current engines.

But it also includes taking advantage of existing
solutions using today's technology and needing no
new infrastructure. Plug-in hybrids and
all-electric vehicles bring the benefit of not
simply reducing gasoline use, but of DISPLACING
oil with electricity that comes from increasingly
renewable sources. Now that the EPRI-NRDC study
has demonstrated across-the-board greenhouse gas
benefits from switching to electricity under many
scenarios, and now that the Pacific National Lab
has proven we have enough off-peak power, the
huge benefits of PHEVs run by cleaner, cheaper,
domestic electricity become apparent. We can even
start to get a glimpse of the potential of
"vehicle-to-grid" solutions to turn intermittent
renewable energy sources into reliable 24/7
sources — for instance, by storing night-time wind-power in car batteries.

Some battery experts tend to play catch-up with
technologies — a few years ago they said PHEVs
would never happen. Now they're saying 5-10
years. Soon carmakers may be ahead of them!
Testimony at the California Air Resource Board's
Zero Emission Vehicle Symposium a few months ago
led the ARB to conclude that PHEVs are the most promising immediate solution.

Toyota's RAV4EV shows nickel-metal hydride
batteries can last over 100,000 miles. Tesla
Motors shows lithium-ion batteries can survive
crash tests. Many batteries under development
have phosphate and other additives that vastly
improve safety. I drive a 30-mile range
conversion with lithium batteries that fit
entirely under the deck of my Prius, not reducing
everyday storage, and add only 150 pounds to the
car. My Valence batteries have already lasted
30,000 miles and have a long way to go. Many
batterymakers working with automakers and
national labs (A123Systems/Cobasys, Compact
Power/LG Chem, Johnson Controls/Saft,
Altairnanosystems and others) expect their
batteries will last the lifetime of the car.
(Then instead of recycling, utilities now say
they'll buy batteries that are at say 80%
strength to use for stationery storage.)

The remaining issue is the cost of batteries.
Many people can't wait to pay thousands of
dollars more all the time for leather seats or
sunroofs, without worrying about "payback." Now
analysts estimate millions of car buyers will pay
more for the "environmental feature."

At the same time, with electric miles at under
$1/gallon, the economics are very favorable. The
high first cost is addressed by Google, Bank of
America and others showing the way forward by
offering $3,000-$5,000 employee benefits for
buying standard high-mileage hybrids, by federal
and state legislation proposing major incentives
to carmakers and carbuyers, and by the potential
of vehicle-to-grid payments by utilities to car
owners for "renting their batteries" — what
Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner calls the
"Cash-Back Hybrid." Wait until we get to mass
production: studies project PHEVs could SELL for
$3-$5,000 more than all gasoline hybrids.

The key as far as Environmental Defense goes is
the last paragraph. No one knows what
technologies will work. PHEVs have just started
to get a few million dollars in support, while
hydrogen (via the FreedomCar program etc.) has
been supported with billions of dollars in R&D
funds. Ethanol is another years-away solution
requiring a new infrastructure, and its
implementation using corn is clearly a disaster.
If we put a few PHEV eggs in the basket FOR THE
FIRS TIME, we can start powering local miles
electrically, and watch what happens among all
the contenders for liquid "range extension" fuel.
We can work for a level playing field, with a
priority to solutions than can help today, not decades in the future.

– Felix Kramer, Founder, The California Cars Initiative (CalCars.org)

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

We're working to catch up on media coverage, so
this report doesn't include the past few days of
news and analyses. But some of these, including
multiple stories in the San Francisco Bay Area, are worth checking out!

BELOW:
Toyota Video | Toyota Display |
Slashdot/Engadget/Jalopnik/Daily Green | San
Francisco Chronicle | San Jose Mercury News |
Industry Week | Southern CA Public Radio | Wall
Street Journal | Denmark TV | A correction by
Prof. Andy Frank to a previous posting

See Toyota's under two-minute video showing its
Plug-in HV at
<http://toyota.pod.tv/jp/tech/environment/phv/conference/driving_300.wmv>


UK Battery Vehicle Society's "Toyota Have Finally
Done It" has a good close-up photo of the Toyota
display showing the car plugging in.
<http://batteryvehiclesociety.org.uk/wordpress/?p=216&sid=>

BLOGS
Slashdot, the Open Source cornucopia, generated
over 500 comments from Friday night to Monday
morning for a posting, "Toyota Unveils Plug-in Hybrid Prius"
<<http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/27/2312257>http://slashdot.org/articl\
e.pl?sid=07/07/27/2312257>
Engadget, the popular blog, reports "Toyota set
to test new plug-in hybrid vehicle"
<http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/25/toyota-set-to-test-new-plug-in-hybrid-vehicl\
e>
Jalopnik reports, "It's Electric!  It's Official,
Toyota Testing Plug-In Hybrid In Japan
<http://jalopnik.com/search/plug-in%20hybrid>

Daily Green, "the consumer's guide to the green
revolution" is a new website from Hearst Media.
Jim Motavalli, veteran auto columnist and editor
of e/The Environmental Magazine, launches his
blog, "Driving Directions: Getting There Green,"
with " Plugging in the Future With New Hybrid Cars"
<http://www.thedailygreen.com/2007/07/26/plugging-in-the-future/4273>


LOCAL SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA COVERAGE:

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE ran one page one report,
followed by two stories on page one of the B (local) section.

CLEANER FUTURE? PLUG IN - Electric hybrid cars
hold promise of slashing greenhouse gases, by
Zachary Coile, San Francisco Chronicle, 07/20/07
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/20/MNGT7R3OH81.DTL>
This long story, the day after the EPRI-NRDC
study was released, included large PHEV graphics
on the Friday paper's front page, photos of Felix
Kramer with his car and Ron Gremban working on a battery pack.
Quotes included:
* "The studies finally give an environmental
stamp of approval" to plug-in vehicles, said
Felix Kramer, founder of CalCars.org, which
promotes electric hybrids. "Scientist have
confirmed that unlike gasoline cars, plug-ins
will get cleaner as they get older -- because our
power grid is getting cleaner."
* "It shows the next generation of hybrid vehicle
technology will reduce both global warming
pollution and conventional air pollution in most
parts of the United States ... particularly if we
are conscientiously taking steps to clean up the
power grid," said Dan Lashof, science director at
the Natural Resources Defense Council's climate center.
* John Bryson, chairman and CEO of Edison
International, parent company of Southern
California Edison... said he sees huge
environmental benefits from plug-in hybrids,
especially in California, where 40 percent of
greenhouse gases are emitted by cars and trucks.
"What we are talking about here is potentially a
very, very, large effect" on emissions, Bryson said.
* GM's Tony Posawatz, who heads the vehicle line
for the Chevy Volt and attended the announcement
of the study, said his bosses are committed to
producing the Volt and other electric hybrids on
a mass scale. But he would not commit to a firm
date or say how much the car would cost. "We
believe that this is the future," he said. "The
potential for plug-ins is tremendous."

<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/21/BAG08R4M7E1.DTL>
PLUG-IN HYBRIDS - Making green cars greener costs
a bundle - With $24,000 add-on, plug-in Toyota
Prius is mostly for rich, Michael Taylor, San Francisco Chronicle, 07/21/07.
The follow-up story the next day on the front
page of the B section highlights Hybrids-Plus of
Colorado, currently the only after-market company
selling not just to fleets but to individuals (at
$24-$32K to convert the car the individual
provides). It quotes Sven Thesen, a supervisor in
the Clean Transportation Program at Pacific Gas
and Electric Co., about the experience driving
"Sparky," PG&E's converted Prius.
And the story says,
At the California Air Resources Board, they're
just as cautious about plug-ins as they are at
Toyota. "We think there's a definite role in the
future for plug-in hybrids, but there are still
some hurdles to overcome in developing a battery
that will last the life of the vehicle," said
board spokeswoman Karen Caesar. "Today they are
still considered experimental. We are not
encouraging people to disassemble their Priuses to turn them into plug-ins."

<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/26/BAGJPR75VB1.DTL&hw=\
calcars&sn=003&sc=395>
CALIFORNIA - UC to street-test 2 plug-in hybrid
Toyota Priuses, by  Michael Taylor, San Francisco Chronicle, 07/26/07
The following Thursday, the Chronicle reported on
Toyota's plans to start a small pilot PHEV Prius program.  The story includes:
* "This is absolutely the first step of a major
manufacturer in putting plug-ins on the road,"
said Felix Kramer, founder of the California Cars
Initiative, a Bay Area plug-in hybrid advocacy
group. "It forces every single carmaker to figure
out what it's going to do. It means the race is really on."
* Susan Shaheen, a research director at UC
Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies,
will supervise the testing of one of the plug-in
Priuses. Institute staffers, faculty members and
students, along with employees of some local
businesses, will take the altered Prius through
its paces to see how it performs in the everyday
world -- the trip to the grocery store, the run
down to San Jose for a business meeting...."I'll
look at the response of users to plug-in
technology, see how they (deal with) refueling
and charging, to get a sense of how different
this is from (using) a traditional internal
combustion engine car or a gas-hybrid vehicle,"
Shaheen said. "And I will definitely get to drive this car, I hope."
The second and third stories both point to
CalCars.org for more information, and both include reader comments.

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

Toyota working with University of California on plug-in hybrids
By Matt Nauman, Mercury News, 07/25/2007
<http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_6459228>

* The prototypes, based on the current generation
of the gas-electric Prius hybrid but with bigger
battery packs, will go to UC-Berkeley's Institute
of Transportation and UC-Irvine's Advanced Power
and Energy Program. "I think it's significant
because this is the first automaker plug-in
hybrid" to be studied, said Susan Shaheen, a
Berkeley researcher. "It's not a conversion." In
Berkeley, Shaheen is one of two researchers who
will use the vehicle, plus a $750,000 grant from
the California Air Resources Board and the
state's Energy Commission, to study plug-in hybrids.
* CalCars, a Palo Alto-based backer of the
technology, says its converted plug-in Prius
models achieve the equivalent of more than 100
miles per gallon. "For people looking for the
most effective way to end our addiction to oil,
PHEVs have made sense because carmakers can build
them now, with today's technology and using
today's infrastructure," said Felix Kramer, CalCars' founder.
* "We see this pilot project as a significant
step in the advancement of the technology," said
Dave Illingworth, Toyota Motor Sales senior vice
president, said in a statement.

Every Car I Drive, blog by Matt Nauman
Plug-in hybrid race gets early kick
<http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/nauman/2007/07/25/toyota-california-universities\
-will-study-plug-in-hybrids>
Toyota: California Universities Will Study Plug-In Hybrids
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
* Susan Shaheen, a UC-Berkeley researcher, said
she’s still figuring out the methodology for the
studies into how people react to PHEVs, but that
she anticipates using travel diaries, logs,
surveys and other tools. It’s likely, she said,
that this means real people will get some seat
time — “exactly who, I don’t know,” she said. Her
2-year, $750,000 grant will be shared with Tim
Lipman, who will study more technological issues
including energy usage and impact upon the environment.
* Jaycie Chitwood, a Toyota senior strategic
planner, told me that the company will have a few
of the prototype plug-in hybrids, too, here in
the U.S. in addition to those going to Berkeley
and Irvine. In Japan, they’ll have eight others.
The vehicles are being built in Japan, too.
Finally, I asked her if talking about this stage
of the research puts more pressure on Toyota to
deliver the vehicles sooner. “There’s a little
bit more pressure the more visible we are, but we
do need this real-world data. It’s little bit of catch 22,'’ she said.

Nauman also filed a report that the Prius is now
the top-selling car in the 11-county San
Francisco Bay Area, with 5.4% of total sales,
surpassing the Toyota Camry, Honda Civic and
Accord and Toyota Corolla:
<http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6420656>. The Bay
Area joins five states in the Pacific Northwest
where the Prius is now the top-sellig car (see
our report at <http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/762.html>).


The influential magazine Industry Week reports on the EPRI-NRDC report
<http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=14647>


SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RADIO
KPCC ran a good report on PHEVs -- excerpts below:
"California Provides Outlet for Plug-in Hybrids,"
by Molly Peterson, July 26, 2007
<http://www.scpr.org/news/stories/2007/07/26/00_plugin_hybrids_07260.html>

Molly Peterson: A couple of weeks ago, Southern
California Edison president John Bryson stood
proudly before a gaggle of reporters, waving what
he said may be the next big car accessory: a thick orange extension cord.
John Bryson: The future needs to be as simple as
this plug. Someday we believe millions of
Americans will fill up their vehicles at the plug
instead of the pump saving money and protecting the environment.
Peterson: Bryson announced a plan with Ford to
develop 20 hybrid electric cars that'll charge up
in standard 120 volt outlets. The utility's
recruiting Southland consumers as test pilots.

Peterson: Then last week a new study came out,
sponsored by environmental and electric
nonprofits. The result: even with a mix of power
sources, and even if only 20 percent of Americans
drove plug-in hybrids, greenhouse gas emissions
would drop by at least 163 million tons a year.
These developments were music to the ears of...
James Woolsey: ...the tree-huggers, the
do-gooders, the sod-busters, the cheap hawks, and the evangelicals...

Peterson: Kramer heads an advocacy group called
CalCars.org, and so he got a Southern California
company to take out the standard issue
self-charging battery in his Prius and install a
bunch of lithium ion ones ­ the same kind computers use.
Kramer: Conceptually, people have been tinkering
with cars in California especially for a long
time, and we think that what we're doing is green tuning.

Peterson: Charging a seven kilowatt battery pack
overnight can cost $.50 in L.A., and can yield
more than 100 miles per gallon. Miguel Pulido,
the mayor of Santa Ana, loves that about his
plug-in; that and the usual hybrid amenities.
Miguel Pulido: See how silent it is? Nobody knows
when I'm leaving 'cause I just float away.
Peterson: Pulido, who studied mechanical
engineering, also sits on the board of the South
Coast Air Quality Management District. Regional
air boards like his can't regulate auto
emissions, he said, but severe air pollution makes them part of the debate.
Pulido: We at the air district are very
frustrated because we think we have solutions,
certainly things that ought to be tried, that
ought to be supported, that ought to be
attempted, so even if we're wrong, we can address
that learning curve and try to move things forward.

Peterson: South Coast has been demonstrating
plug-ins and electric cars for years. Pulido said
that shows the state air board what's possible.
The state air board overhauled its Zero Emission
Vehicle program four years ago under fire from
the auto industry. Now, as technology has
evolved, the state agency will review its
regulations again. The Zero Emission program's
manager, Tony Andreoni, said caution is the watchword.
Tony Andreoni: In our workings we try to really
stay more neutral and say, "The technologies are
going to be there, they're going to be used;
let's see when they can actually take advantage
of really reducing the emissions."

Peterson: The air board will take on regulations
under a hotter public glare than during the
1970s, when California got a waiver from federal
law to install smog-cutting catalytic converters
in cars first. Jack Rosebro of the Green Car
Congress said the buzz around plug-ins makes this
state's consumers a strong market force.
Jack Rosebro: When catalytic converters were
proposed, we're talking about one small
component. And if I remember right, car companies
went to Congress and said, we will go out of
business if this is put in. Now we're talking
about a much bigger change. So we have to have much bigger pressures.

Peterson: Automakers exert pressure of their own.
Like lobbying the Energy Department to kick in
for battery research and development. The federal
government's still working out how much of that
to do. General Motors and Toyota do say they'll
race to plug in to the market. But most other
manufacturers ­ even the ones trying to develop
the cars, like Ford ­ are still holding out on
commitment. Ford Motor's Sue Cischke:
Sue Cischke: There isn't any one answer, and so
we're betting on all these technologies with the
idea that whatever we can drive down and make
affordable to the consumer, that will win.

Peterson: The odds of the bet keep changing. Just
this week, Toyota announced plans to test
manufactured plug-in hybrids on the road in Japan
and start leasing them there soon.


THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, which missed the Google
RechargeIT launch, the Southern California
Edison-Ford announcement and the EPRI-NRDC report
(except for passing mention in its Energy Roundup
BlogRoll), ran a brief story, Toyota to Test
Plug-in Electric Hybrids, By YOSHIO TAKAHASHI, July 26, 2007, including:
When the company will be able to market the
vehicle "depends on when we can succeed in
developing batteries" that are smaller and more
efficient than current ones, said Masatami
Takimoto, an executive vice president with Toyota.
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118538875541177827.html?mod=googlenews_wsj>


DENMARK Thanks to Pia Jacobsen in Copenhagen for
translating ""50 kilometers a Liter!," a story
that appeared on DR TV, in video and online
reports on one of the two largest national TV
stations in Denmark.
<http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Penge/2007/07/18/20070718103215.htm>.
Here are some excerpts [50KM/Liter is actually about 117 MPG]:

- Cars could be so much better than they are now,
I think. The drivers do want better and more
energy efficient cars, so why can't we have them?
If we show the way, we can go to the car industry
and say build them for us!, Felix Kramer told DR.
- Twice the range a Liter: In faster or longer
fares, the electric motor and the gas motor
cooperate. This results in a gas economy of more
than 43 km/l, twice as  far as a standard Prius.
Felix Kramer himself drives around 50 km/l in his
daily car routine, and as most other people he
seldom drives more than a daily 40 kilometers.
- The electricity bill will of course rise, as
the battery is recharged by the regular
electricity network, but even with the low
American gas prices it costs Felix Kramer less
than a third to drive on electricity.
- Cars can store electricity: Apart from the
wonderful mileage a liter the plug-in hybrids
can, if they become popular, reshape the
consumption pattern of electricity. As cars are
parked 20 hours a day, they can become
decentralized electricity storage for the
electricity networks. For example all the wind
power can be produced and stored by night in car
batteries and used during the day, when the
consumption is at its highest, says  Felix Kramer.

Finally, a correction, from Prof. Andy Frank, to
our July 20 posting "Report: PHEV from Toyota
Within a Month? More Unclear Specifics..."
<http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/800.html>,
where we said, "Three years earlier, in 2003,
Toyota flew an SUV, the Ford Explorer PHEV built
by UC Davis students and Prof. Andy Frank, to its
research HQ for a look." Andy clarifies:
The car was a Mercury sable that was flown to
Europe then to Japan.  The car got 58 mpg on
gasoline only and over 200 mpg if calculated like
the current PHEV Priuses.  Also it has 60 miles
AER [all-electric range] on the EPA driving city cycle.

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

We've had a good bit of technical discussion about the new "Toyota
Plug-in HV"  over at <http://www.eaa-phev.org> the Electric Auto
Association Plug-in Hybrid Project, where our Open Source conversions
programs are developed and discussed. We thought we'd share some
preliminary findings with others besides the few hundred subscribers
to that list. (The email archive is most easily viewable at
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eaa-phev>. To sign up to post to the
list, go to <http://www.eaa-phev.org/wiki/Maillist>

Here's CalCars Technology Lead Ron Gremban analyzing the system
(which of course he's not seen). (We've added only explanations for
acronyms; even if you don't have an engineering background, you can
still benefit by skimming this!) Disclaimer/caution: Ron is not
trying to draw conclusions, or predict what Toyota will eventually
build. Clearly this was in the tradition of the conversions: what
could the company do quickly, with its existing components and few
modifications of the software.


Below are my specific comments about the Prius-based Toyota test
PHEVs.  We at CalCars believe that, although auto companies parrot
the line that only Li-ion is capable and it's not ready, both NiMH
and Li-ion are excellent chemistries for PHEVs, along with several
other candidates (e.g. Firefly carbon-foam-PbA) that may become
commercially available in the near future.  There are CalCars-style
PHEV conversions running on two different brands of NiMH batteries --
Electro Energy and Nilar -- and we expect battery availability and
DIY plans for one or both of them in the next few months.

Looking at the specs, it appears that they are using a Prius (same
physical/mechanical specs, now confirmed) with a second Prius battery
pack.  I think they are probably adding the second battery pack with
its own copy of the existing Battery Engine Control Unit (ECU), then
tweaking the hybrid control software (which nobody else can do) to
allow more EV mode speed, power, and other relaxed limitations.

Another experimenter calculated that at 62 mph (100 kph, the stated
top EV speed) and the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) stopped, Motor
Generator 1 (MG1) would be turning at essentially 10,000 rpm, its
rated top speed, which makes sense of that raised limitation.  My
calculations are as follows:

My driving tests (city driving up to 33 mph, 3-4 stops/mile) in EV
mode indicate a usage of 200-210 W-hr/mile from the battery.  Highway
mileage, due to a lack of starts and stops, is likely to be similar.

* I assume 15% (not 30%) of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)
battery capacity normally available to a normal Prius for EV
mode:  from around 60% State of Charge (SOC) that the battery is
normally kept at (not the 80% maximum, which is seldom available) to
the 45% that causes a forceful exit to EV mode.  This provides 1.3
kWh * 0.15 = 195 W-hr, or enough for just less than one mile, which
matches empirical data.

* 8 miles at 200 W-hr/mi = 1.6 kWh required = just over 60% of the
2.6 kWh capacity of two OEM Prius batteries, a reasonable amount to
use.  This means that the two batteries could be charged up to 100%,
then discharged to 40% SOC (60% Depth of Discharge (DOD)), or they
could be charged to only 90% (thus avoiding end-of-charge issues) and
discharged to 30% SOC.  In either case, the limits necessary to reach
8 miles of EV range using a pair of OEM Prius batteries are only
slightly wider than those already used for production Prii.  This
could be what Toyota meant by their reference to "two oversize packs
of nickel-metal hydride batteries".

* However, once the full EV range is used, I would expect the system
to drift the SOC back up to a value higher than 30% or 40% instead of
continuing charge-sustaining operations at that minimum SOC.  Doing
so would use gasoline-produced energy, thus defeating part of the
value of the (already short) EV range!

I see the real value of such a minimum-range Prius-based PHEV from
Toyota, if it should ever be released to the public, as three-fold:

1. It could be the first PHEV ever from a major auto manufacturer,
thus further validating the concept, allowing consumers to speak with
their pocketbooks, and hopefully starting a race.

2. It would furthermore validate the fact that useful PHEVs can be
produced with today's batteries and with NiMH batteries.

3. Because it would have EV mode enabled up to 62 mph and,
presumably, up to MG2's full 50 kW -- two things that Prius
converters have been unable to do, because it would entail reverse
engineering Toyota's whole hybrid control code -- it would be a much
better platform for PHEV enhancements via the addition of a larger
battery pack.  Presumably Toyota will have relaxed or removed several
other EV mode limitations the current Prius has, too.

By the way, if you haven't yet read about it, it is worth checking
out A123's exciting, game-changing proposal to the California Air
Resources Board to encourage PHEV conversions by giving the original
manufacturer clean air credits for certified aftermarket conversions
of their vehicles <http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/803.html>.

/ron


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

Do we spot a trend?

Reporters are increasingly using "plug-ins" to encompass plug-in
hybrids and all-electric vehicles. Plug In America emphasizes a
single campaign for both vehicle types, and much of the legislation
under consideration in Washington combines both vehicle types. As
plug-in cars proliferate, we're expecting to see an evolving balance
for both primary household cars and second family cars.

GENERAL MOTORS
GM prefers to call the Volt, which is undeniably a series plug-in
hybrid, "an electric car with a range extension engine."

VISIONARY VEHICLES
Others working on plug-in hybrids are also looking at ways to get to
PHEVs quicker. Entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin <http://www.vvcars.com
talks in a 6-minute video
<http://www.autoblog.com/2007/07/24/video-gullwings-aplenty-2007-bricklin-owners\
-meet-and-a-chat>
about his ideas about building a "series-parallel hybrid."


On the all-electric side, we've seen two new examples of companies
that are considering PHEVs in an effort to reach as broad as possible
an audience.

THINK GLOBAL:
Dan Davids, a RAV4 EV owner from Seattle, reports that Norway's Think
City is on the cover of the August issue of Business 2.0 magazine, on
newsstands shortly. The Norwegian company, owned for a while by Ford,
is the subject of the lead article in "The 29 Best Business Ideas in
the World." (Think Global recently raised $60 million and will be
spending $43 million on batteries from Tesla. Batteries will be leased.)

Davids reports that the story says that "Dean Kamen (Segway inventor)
is an investor; he's experimenting with an onboard Stirling engine
that makes the car a grid-connectable hybrid." We've also talked with
Kamen about this approach. The efficient, clean Stirling engine is a
good match-up with an EV or PHEV, because it takes some time to warm up.

TESLA MOTORS
Tesla continues to progress, as reported by San Jose Mercury News
auto columnist Matt Nauman,  in "Tesla: 500 Roadsters And Counting"
<http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/nauman/2007/07/23/tesla-500-roadsters-and-counti\
ng>:
560 sold, 800 available for 2008; anyone who deposits $50K now can be
sure to have a car within a year.

The Tesla PHEV news comes from a report in Business Week. In the July
30 issue, we see that Lotus Design Studio and Tesla Motors are Gold
winners in the magazine's 2007 International Design Excellence
Awards.  In the same issue of the magazine, a two-page article
<http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_31/b4044419.htm>,
"Tesla: A Carmaker With Silicon Valley Spark" looks ahead to the
company's plans for "White Star," its second-generation five
passenger sedan now in development, with an expected price of
$55-$68,000, and "Blue Star,' a $30,000 sedan that could be five
years away. The article says, 'If necessary, the company would be
willing to use a small gas engine to boost Blue Star's range and
broaden its appeal."

By the way, for a very enjoyable and surprising article on Tesla by
Jay Leno, see "The most fun you can have without fuel" in the London
Sunday Times:
<http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/new_car_reviews/art\
icle2036260.ece>.
(Leno wants one.)


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

It's nice to be appreciated...especially by
people whose cars we've green-tuned without
permission in order to show how to make good cars
better! Here, on the Toyota Open Road Blog, Irv
Miller, Toyota Motor Sales Group Vice President -
Corporate Communications, conveys the company's
positive views about conversions. And after you
read what he says, you can see that this
moderated blog graciously accepted its first
public comments from Jon Wellinghoff about
vehicle-to-grid, and from us about the broader implications of conversions.

TOYOTA OPEN ROAD BLOG
July 26, 2007
IRV'S SHEET: Toyota Plug-in Hybrid Testing Comes to the U.S.A.
<http://blogs.toyota.com/2007/07/readers-of-this.html>

Readers of this blog no doubt will be interested
to note Toyota’s announcement Tuesday that it
will put Toyota plug-in hybrid electric vehicle
(PHEV) prototypes into testing here in the U.S.

That’s both good, and not at all surprising.

It’s good because it further demonstrates the
company’s engineering depth and its eagerness to
experiment with, and to continue developing, this important technology.

It’s not surprising because the plug-in hybrid
seems like such a natural avenue of research for
Toyota, an extension of Toyota’s now decade-long
commitment to the concept of the gas-electric
hybrid, more widely known as Hybrid Synergy Drive.

If you happen to live near California’s East Bay
area, or in Orange County, keep your eyes peeled.
That’s where these interesting new cars will be
found beginning later this year, when researchers
at the Advanced Power and Energy Program at the
University of California, Irvine (UCI) and the
Institute of Transportation Studies at the
University of California, Berkeley (UCB) will
begin their assessment of PHEV technology.

Unfortunately, these are the only places they’ll
be found. Toyota’s plug-in hybrids will not be
available to the public until a great deal of
additional research has been done.

There are several elements of the upcoming
research that will be done. One of them will
involve the overall carbon footprint of the
plug-in hybrid. This is of interest because of
the potential impact on the nation’s power grid of a PHEV fleet.

One of the primary selling points of the Prius,
and other Toyotas with Hybrid Synergy drive, is
that its battery package is kept charged by a
combination of the vehicle’s efficient gasoline
engine and its regenerative braking system. This
flexible system will operate in full electric
mode, full gasoline mode or in a combination of
both modes, taking full advantage of the benefits
of the parallel hybrid concept, which unlike a
series hybrid builds on the strengths of both types of power sources.

The fact that the vehicle’s battery never has to
be plugged in is a major selling point, one that
the driving public appears to have embraced, as
witnessed by sales of more than 604,000 Toyota
hybrids in the U.S. since 2000, including a
projected 175,000 in sales of Toyota hybrids this year.

The Toyota PHEV prototypes, which are based on
the Prius, work somewhat differently. In addition
to the expected gas engine, PHEV prototypes also
will carry oversized packs of
nickel-metal-hydride (NmH) batteries. These
battery packs are intended to simulate the level
of performance Toyota expects to achieve when it
develops more advanced, compact and powerful
battery systems – another area currently being researched.

This prototype PHEV system is designed to operate
much like the current Prius, switching from
pure-electric mode, to gas-engine mode to a combined gas-electric mode.

But the PHEV system has an interesting
difference: The PHEV’s NmH battery pack is
capable of storing significantly higher levels of
electricity - electricity that is brought on
board by plugging the vehicle into a standard
wall outlet for periodic charging sessions. With
significantly more electric power in reserve as a
result of these charging sessions, the PHEV is
capable of operating in pure electric mode for
longer periods of time, and at higher speeds,
than the current Prius. This will result in
substantial gains in fuel economy, and a major
reduction in total tailpipe emissions, over
current conventional hybrid systems.

It must be noted, however, that in electric-only
driving, PHEV range remains limited - something
like seven miles. That’s a reality check on the
capability of the batteries that are currently
available, and on the relative infancy of this
technology. But as an aside, we should also point
out that seven miles is also well within the
range of the weekend chores done in many
households. It means that even with this infant
technology, many Americans could accomplish
weekend shopping, soccer games, etc., without burning a drop of gasoline.

As good as the PHEV concept sounds, there is no
free lunch. The electricity that provides the
additional charge for the PHEV’s batteries must
be generated somewhere. If it’s not generated by
the PHEV’s gas engine, then it’s generated either
by a hydroelectric plant or by a generating plant
that burns coal, natural gas or some other fossil fuel.

We’re immensely gratified that some enthusiasts,
in a tacit endorsement of the hybrid concept,
are, on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis, converting
Toyota hybrids to plug-in technology. But doing
one-by-one conversions is a different kettle of
volts from making this technology viable for the
sale of hundreds of thousands of cars, at an
affordable price, with a reasonable reliability
expectations and reasonable warranty, serviceable
at any Toyota dealer anywhere.

That said, the interest in conversions continues
to validate hybrid technology as a core
technology that’s here to stay. And it should
come as no surprise that the further advancement
of hybrid technology is a top priority for
Toyota. We believe that it’s the way forward.

So, apparently, do many Americans. Despite
decreasing tax credits here in the U.S., demand
for vehicles with Hybrid Synergy Drive continues
to climb. In fact, a recent study by the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory says hybrids have
saved close to 215 million gallons of fuel in the
United States since their introduction in 1999.

Additionally, Toyota estimates that over the past
decade, hybrids worldwide have emitted
approximately 3.5 million fewer tons of CO2 than
gas-powered vehicles of the same class.

As research into this interesting and useful
technology by Toyota and its partners continues,
and is applied to production vehicles, those
figures can only improve. And that can only be
good. And, as noted earlier, it’s not at all surprising.



COMMENTS

What about vehicle-to-grid capability for the
Toyota PHEV? Is Toyota planning on incorporating
this "cashback" hybrid technology into the cars
they produce for testing? Studies have
demonstrated that PHEV with vehicle-to-grid
capability can realize annual payments from
electric grid operators of between $1,000 to
$3,000. These cashback payments could completely
offset the high cost of this technology. What is Toyota doing in this regard?

Jon Wellinghoff
Commissioner
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission


Thanks to Toyota for going ahead with the first
Prius PHEV prototypes! This is a major step forward.

And it's very gratifying to CalCars.org (we did
the first Prius conversion) to hear Group VP
Miller say the company is "gratified" that we've
helped make their cars look better -- we've heard
much the same thing from representatives at auto
shows and from our dealers. We agree that
conversions "validate" hybrid technology and its
logical end-point: displacing most gasoline with
electricity from ever-cleaner sources. And of
course, Toyota can do it better than any garage
engineers or small aftermarket companies.

The future opportunity is two-fold: for Toyota to
mass-produce PHEVs and to find some way to
"electrify' some of the hundreds of thousands,
soon to be millions, of hybrids already on the
road. Toyota could sponsor this, for instance,
through Toyota Racing Development. And as we
report today in CalCars-News, one company,
A123Systems/Hymotion, has invited the California
Air Resources Board to award future ZEV credits
to the maker of the original car for conversions.
We hope this is an issue Toyota will explore.

-- Felix Kramer, Founder, The California Cars Initiative (CalCars.org)

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

The California Air Resources Board held a workshop on Tuesday in
Sacramento to get opinions about future directions for the state's
Zero Emissions Vehicle Mandate, the much-changed set of regulatins
established in the 1990s that are followed by 12 other states. Plug in
America's Co-Founder Marc Geller blogged about it today, prompting us
to take a few minutes out to join in noting a very important
development. Here is Marc's "Plugs and Cars" posting followed by our
expansion.


Let My People Convert! - The A123 Challenge
<http://plugsandcars.blogspot.com>

Les Goldman wants you to convert (your hybrid.) Easy as 123. So he
proposed at the California Air Resources Board ZEV workshop on Tuesday.

An ARB ZEV meeting is ordinarily a predictable affair. What began as a
simple program requiring an ever increasing percentage of Zero
Emission vehicles (read electric cars), has become mired in cumbersome
bureaucratic complications. Acronymphia is not a sexual disease. (Look
it up.) ZEV, SULEV, PZEV, ATPZEV, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Type I, II,
III, and on and on. Tuesday's workshop was not so different. They are
contemplating Silver+ and Type IV ZEVs. Uggh.

Unfortunately, everyone recognizes that there is no coming down from
this byzantine construction. Simplify is the mantra, but unachievable.
Now, to add some further complication, everyone's got religion on
plug-in hybrids. Many, including electric advocates, some enviros and
ARB staff, (even some cars makers, it would seem) want to figure new
ways to use the regs to bring plug-in hybrids to market quickly due to
their near term benefits, commercialisability and pathways plug-ins
offer to true ZEV. (Add more batteries as they become cheaper and more
energy-dense, dump the engine; or, for the more fantasy-minded and
those receiving compensation, add hydrogen fuel cell and drop the engine.)

But PHEVs are inherently the most complicated of all options. A
plug-in hybrid, one could say, simply integrates electric drive into a
car with internal combustion. However, there are innumerable ways to
do it. Parallel, serial, blended, just for starters. Even the Prius
and Civic Hybrid are quite different. ARB could spend a year in
conversation with stakeholders to figure out regs and credits for new
OEM plug-in hybrid cars.

A123 has an idea to cut through the difficulty of getting OEMs to make
cars. Les Goldman, A123's lobbyist, presented the outline of a
proposal that could be a win-win-win and get cars on the road quickly.
They've been converting some cars back east, working out the kinks.
Lately Goldman has been driving one around DC, meeting with policy
makers and pushing for consumer incentives for hybrid conversions.
(See my 7/12 post Plug-in Hybrid Bills in Congress Scare Auto Makers)
With the addition of the A123 battery module, a Prius gets between 125
and 175 mpg. They are beginning to do crash testing, and will meet
emission requirements, in pursuit of a fully legal, compliant vehicle.
Throw the ZEV mandate into the mix, and maybe we've got something.

     * Use the existing and growing base of hybrids, offer kits to
authorized installers, and give ZEV credit to the original
manufacturer in exchange for not killing the car's warranty.
     * Hybrid drivers in California could finally actually get their
hybrid converted.
     * ARB could finally take some credit for cars with true ZEV miles
once again on the road without depending on the ever-resistant,
crusher-happy automakers.
     * A123 gets to sell a lot of batteries without having to wait for
the automakers to place orders of the magnitude they promise "once the
batteries are ready."

The few automakers in the room remained poker-faced, but it must be an
intriguing proposition. They get credits (and credit) and don't have
to do much of anything but watch their hybrid improve on someone
else's dime. Now that Toyota's got it's own 6 mile all-electric range
NiMH Prius being openly test in Japan, and soon here in California,
(see Toyota's Plug-in Prius: Out of the Pod, Into the Podcast) and
virtually every auto maker making noise about eventually coming out
with some sort of PHEV, this proposal could prime the pump, test the
waters, prove the pudding. Or not. Let the people convert!

1 Comment: felixkramer said...

     Thanks, Marc, for pointing to this important development. To me
(unable to attend, watching parts of the streaming video of the
afternoon workshop), A123's presentation and very broad offer was by
far the most stunning new idea to emerge at the workshop.

     Les Goldman spoke extemporaneously and I haven't been able to get
an official version of his remarks. Here's a paraphrase reconstructed
from my notes, with some key amplifications of your points.

     * By the middle of the next decade, there will be 10-15 million
hybrids on the road. [Implication is that many will be non-PHEVs.]
     * A123 has been in discussions with Volvo and BMW about use of its
batteries.
     * Modules fit in the spare tire well of hybrids and are
installable in an hour by a certified mechanic.
     * The modules will be fully NHTSA safety tested, will comply with
CARB and EPA regulations, have a 10-year, 300,000-mile lifetime, based
on Argonne testing showing a 7-10,000 cycle life [a PHEV needs about
4,000].
     * The method is not optimized -- it simply makes more electricity
available to the onboard computer. But Argonne tests show 150 MPG of
gasoline use.
     * Conversions of three-to-four million vehicles could move up the
objectives of the Zero Emissions Vehicle program within a much tighter
timeframe.
     * A123 wants to discuss what combination of arrangements work, and
offers backup and support.
     * A123 proposes giving the resulting ZEV credits to the original
manufacturers whose cars the batteries go into, thereby incentivizing
them to participate instead of resisting and thereby educating the the
public sooner.
     * A123 aims to have the product in mass production by the first
quarter of 2008.
     * Meanwhile, having made no announcements, A123 is getting 500
unsolicited calls a week from people who want to be on a waiting ist.
[My advice: email to info@..., don't call!]

     Felix Kramer, Founder, The California Cars Initiative (CalCars.org)

     July 26, 2007 2:25:00 PM PDT
--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --
       Felix Kramer  fkramer@...
      Founder  California Cars Initiative
             http://www.calcars.org
       http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --

We based our initial comments on news reports that the vehicles would
be tested both in Japan and the U.S., but this official announcement
says the company will start in Japan, with "plans to conduct public
road tests in the U.S. and Europe." We'll get clarifications and, we
hope, further technical details, over the next few days!

Japan Certifies Toyota Plug-in Hybrid for Public-road Tests
Japan Corporate Newswire
http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=14929

Tokyo, Japan, July 25, 2007 - (JCN Newswire) - TOYOTA MOTOR
CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that it has developed a plug-in
hybrid vehicle and become the first manufacturer to have such a
vehicle certified for use on public roads in Japan.

The TOYOTA Plug-in HV-certified for public road-use by Japan's
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport-uses, like earlier
TMC-developed hybrid vehicles, both a gasoline-powered internal
combustion engine and an electric motor. But increased battery
capacity gives it a longer electric-motor-only cruising range and a
battery-charging device allows users to replenish the batteries using
household electricity. These features enable the vehicle to run more
often in gasoline-free, electric-only mode, such as on short trips in
city driving. The resulting fuel efficiency improvements mean lower
CO2 emissions and less fossil fuel consumption and, therefore, less
pollution. Also, charging the battery with less-expensive nighttime
electricity lowers total running costs, providing an economic benefit
to owners.

Although challenges still exist in the development of pure electric
vehicles such as a limited cruising range and issues related to cost,
TMC still views plug-in hybrid vehicles as a promising technology for
allowing electricity to serve as a viable power source for
automobiles and is committed to their continued development as a key
environmental technology.

TMC plans to conduct public-road tests in Japan with eight units of
the TOYOTA Plug-in HV to verify electric-motor-only cruising ranges
and optimal battery capacity. While doing so, it plans to provide the
government with data for formulating testing methods for emissions
and fuel efficiency and to consider TMC's measures for promoting
plug-in hybrids and the use of electricity. There are also plans to
conduct public-road tests of the TOYOTA Plug-in HV in the United
States and in Europe.

--- Main Specifications of Toyota Plug-in HV ------------
Vehicle
    Name: TOYOTA Plug-in HV
    Length/Width/Height: 4,445/1,725/1,490mm
    Weight: 1,360kg
    Seating capacity: 5 persons
Performance in electric vehicle mode
    Cruising range: 13km in the 10-15 Japanese test cycle
    Maximum vehicle speed: 100km/h
Engine
    Displacement: 1,496cc
    Maximum output: 56kW(76PS)/5,000rpm
    Maximum torque: 110N-m (11.2kg-m)/4,000rpm
Motor
    Type: AC synchronous motor
    Maximum output: 50kW(68PS)/1,200-1,540rpm
    Maximum torque: 400N-m(40.8kg-m)/0-1,200rpm
Secondary battery
    Type: Nickel-metal hydride
    Capacity: 13Ah (6.5Ah x 2)
    Rated voltage: 202V
Overall system
    Maximum output*: 100kW (136PS)
    Voltage: 202-500V
Battery charging
    Power source: Household electrical power
    Charging time: 1-1.5hrs (200V), 3-4hrs (100V)

Based on TMC calculations; output that the system can achieve using
engine power and electric motor power (electric motor power is
dependent on battery power)

About Toyota Motor Corporation

Toyota Motor Corporation (TSE: 7203; NYSE: TM), established in 1937,
is one of the world's representative automobile manufacturers,
producing vehicles in 26 countries and regions and marketing vehicles
in more than 170 countries and regions. In fiscal 2006, Toyota
provided nearly eight million vehicles on a consolidated basis to
customers around the world under the Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino
brands. Toyota had more than 280,000 employees at the end of fiscal
2006. The company is headquartered in Aichi, Japan. For more
information, please visit www.toyota.co.jp/en/index.html .

Contact:
Toyota Motor Corporation
Corporate Communications Department
Public Affairs Division
Tel: +81-3-3817-9150
URL: http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/

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

CALCARS REACTION:
Toyota's announcement confirms we can have
plug-in hybrids now, with today's technology and
today's infrastructure. We've been working for
this moment since 2002. This milestone validates
PHEVs as the best next step -- soon to become mass-produced and affordable.

Finally, hybrids green-tuned by CalCars.org and
others will be joined by ones from the world's
largest carmaker, with the resources to build
better PHEVs than volunteer engineers!

The world's car industry is watching this
momentous transition -- as is every advocate of
solutions to global warming and oil addiction.
Now plug-in advocates will work to get other
carmakers into the race to get PHEVs on the road.
CalCars.org, other advocates and government will
roll out a green carpet for every company that wants to compete with Toyota.

[We'll be in meetings much of Wednesday and reachable best by email.]

THE NEWS:
Toyota will be first out of the starting gate
with what we've suggested was the way to begin:
with a Version 1.0 PHEV with "good enough"
nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries.

Key points: the "Toyota Plug-in HV" will have an
eight-mile all-electric cruising range, using
"oversize' Ni-MH batteries. (Toyota has postponed
introducing lithium-ion batteries for its
next-generation Prius.) What it calls a "pilot
program" of eight vehicles in the U.S. and Japan
will begin to find out what customers want.
Locations announced include the University of
California at Irvine and Berkeley and unspecified locations in Japan.


ASSOCIATED PRESS & NY TIMES REPORTS FOLLOW

Associated Press
Toyota Develops Plug-In Hybrid Car
By YURI KAGEYAMA 07.25.07, 1:04 AM ET
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/25/ap3948470.html

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it has
developed a plug-in hybrid vehicle for public
road tests in Japan and plans tests for the U.S. and Europe.

Other major automakers, including General Motors
Corp. and Ford Motor Co. of the U.S., are
developing plug-in hybrids, a key technology that
reduces the gases causing global warming.

Plug-in hybrids, including Toyota's, generally
have batteries that power an electric motor, with
an internal combustion engine for use when the
batteries run low. The batteries can be recharged
by plugging them into a standard wall outlet.

The plug-ins run longer on electricity,
especially for shorter distances, than the more
common hybrids on the roads such as Toyota's Prius.

Toyota is the first manufacturer to receive
government approval to conduct tests for a
plug-in hybrid on Japanese public roads, it said,
and will collect information about the tests from
eight plug-in vehicles for the government about emissions and fuel efficiency.

The Toyota executive in charge of technology,
Masatami Takimoto, said the approval came Wednesday morning.

Takimoto declined to say when Toyota will bring a
plug-in hybrid to market. Innovation in battery technology is needed, he said.

"We still need some time," he said.

The vehicle, called Toyota Plug-in HV, displayed
Wednesday runs on the same nickel metal hydride
battery as the Prius and has a cruising range of
13 kilometers (8 miles) on electricity. Takimoto
said tests will help in deciding the range consumers want.

Mass production of plug-ins is so far being held
back by costs and battery technology that limit
the vehicles' range. Manufacturers are racing to
bring the technology to market as consumers seek
alternatives to traditional engines and high gasoline prices.

Although most automakers are working on hybrids,
Toyota has the advantage of 10 years of
experience in selling the technology. And it has
10 years of feedback from drivers on which to
base improvements, rather than relying on information from labs.

Toyota has placed a large emphasis on hybrid
technology: It offers several hybrid models
besides the Prius, including the hybrid Camry and
hybrid Lexus models. It has set a target of
selling a million hybrids a year somtime after 2010.

The more common hybrids such as the Prius switch
between an electric motor and gas engine to
deliver better mileage. They don't need to be
plugged in to recharge because they recharge the
motor as they run, converting energy from the wheels and braking.

Toyota said in June its cumulative sales of
hybrids passed 1 million vehicles, a landmark for
the automaker. Toyota started selling the Prius a
decade ago and now dominates the hybrid market.

Details of its plug-in hybrid tests for the U.S.
and Europe are still undecided, Takimoto said.

General Motors is developing the Chevrolet Volt
plug-in hybrid, and says it hopes its plug-ins can reach showrooms by 2010.

Earlier this month, Ford announced a partnership
with Southern California Edison (amex: SCE.PR.B -
news - people ) to test rechargeable hybrid
vehicles and hasten mass production of plug-in
hybrids. Ford has been testing plug-in hybrids
based on the Escape sport-utility vehicle, for
one, but has not said when it plans to start mass producing them.


Toyota to Test Plug-In Hybrid, Rivaling G.M.
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
The New York Times July 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/business/25toyota.html

DETROIT, July 24 — Toyota Motor Company said
Tuesday that it was testing hybrid vehicles with
rechargeable batteries in the United States and
Japan, setting up a direct challenge with General
Motors to develop the industry’s first plug-in hybrids.

Toyota’s announcement is its first formal
confirmation that it is ready to test plug-in
hybrid vehicles, which environmentalists say may
prove to be cleaner and more fuel-efficient than current hybrids.

In recent months, Toyota executives have said the
company had plug-in hybrids under development, but would not give more details.

Toyota already is the world’s biggest producer of
conventional hybrid-electric vehicles, which run
off a gasoline motor and a battery. Indeed, for
years, executives had played down the prospects
for plug-in hybrids, saying consumers preferred
the convenience of vehicles that did not need to be recharged.

It has sold more than 1 million hybrid vehicles
worldwide, including 750,000 Prius cars, since
the Prius went on sale in Japan in 1998. Prius
became available in the United States, its largest market, in the year 2000.

Industry experts say plug-in hybrid vehicles,
known as PHEVs, may provide a longer battery life
and prove more environmentally friendly than current hybrids.

Toyota said it would provide prototype versions
of plug-in hybrid vehicles to researchers at the
University of California, Irvine, and the
University of California, Berkeley. It also said
that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and
Transport in Japan had approved the testing of
plug-in hybrid vehicles on public roads in Japan.

Toyota is the only Japanese auto company thus far
that has requested permission to test plug-in hybrids in Japan.

“The Toyota Prius convinced mainstream consumers
on the merits of hybrids,” J. Davis Illingworth,
a senior vice president with Toyota Motor Sales
U.S.A., said in a statement. “Although there is
much work to be done with plug-ins, we see this
pilot program as a significant step in the advancement of the technology.”

The prototype plug-in hybrids will be powered by
two oversize packs of nickel-metal hydride
batteries that are meant to simulate the kind of
power Toyota expects future versions of the
batteries to yield. The packs are capable of
storing significantly more energy than the kind
of battery found on the Prius, Toyota said.

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

Here's an much-clearer, official English-language variant of the
article we posted to CalCars-News yesterday. It's already gotten lots
of attention, but if you read it closely, you can see that it's still
only citing sources about preparations for TESTING that is a step
forward, but we can't evaluate its significance. Maybe car magazines
will to lie in wait on Japanese roads for what they call "spy photos."

We follow the Asahi bulletin with a story from a very careful
reporter at the Christian Science Monitor with a provocative
headline; "Toyota moves to corner the 'plug-in' market" and lead
sentences citing "Toyota's revelation Tuesday" -- but when we read
the story, it looks like the same "will develop" and "being looked
at" language we've heard from Toyota for exactly one year and one day
(see <http://www.calcars.org/carmakers.html>. It's too late on Friday
afternoon to determine what's new here.

But the report is excellent, and it spills the beans on something
many people don't know: CalCars' Prius was NOT the first PHEV to grow
wings. (We brought one to Washington DC in May 2006 -- at
<http://www.calcars.org/phevs-in-dc.html> see photos of the
CalCars-SetAmericaFree events that marked the first time Members of
Congress saw and drove PHEVs). Three years earlier, in 2003, Toyota
flew an SUV, the Ford Explorer PHEV built by UC Davis students and
Prof. Andy Frank, to its research HQ for a look. (Andy's other cars
have been seen by GM and other automakers over the years as part of
the FutureCar, FutureTruck and Challenge-X Programs.)


Toyota's plug-in car ready to hit the road
IHT/Asahi: July 20,2007
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
<http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200707200126.html>

A prototype hybrid car that can be recharged using an ordinary home
electric outlet could be on streets as early as this month, sources
said Wednesday.

Toyota Motor Corp. is likely to get the green light from the Ministry
of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to make test-runs of the
vehicle on public roads, the sources said.

The company will be the first Japanese carmaker to win approval from
the ministry for plug-in hybrid tests, giving it a jump-start on
other manufacturers eager to get ahead in the burgeoning hybrid market.

Toyota will use the tests to collect practical data on the car's
performance as a step toward putting the revolutionary vehicles on sale.

The plug-in hybrid vehicle will be more environmentally friendly than
existing hybrid cars.

The new car has been designed to capitalize on technology already
developed by Toyota in the manufacture of previous models of hybrids.

The plug-in has been developed based on the enormously successful Prius hybrid.

Current hybrid models are fitted with nickel-hydrogen batteries.

In order to make large-capacity charging necessary for the plug-in
possible, Toyota switched to lithium-ion batteries.

Toyota is the only car manufacturer in Japan that has applied to the
transport minister for approval of plug-in hybrid vehicles as
experimental cars.

Once the car is ready to be sold commercially, Toyota intends to
lease the vehicles to government agencies as a first stage in marketing.

Conventional hybrid vehicles run on a combination of gasoline engines
and electric motors constantly recharged by an onboard engine.

Plug-in hybrids use less gasoline than conventional hybrids. They can
be recharged at home and can run entirely on electricity for as long
as the power lasts.

Electric vehicles that run only on electricity are said to be more
environmentally friendly than hybrid vehicles because they have no
emissions and do not use gasoline.

However, the cars can run only short distances before they run out of juice.

Toyota says plug-in hybrids offer the best of both kinds of vehicles.


Toyota moves to corner the 'plug-in' market
Reversing course, the Japanese automaker reveals it will make hybrid
cars that can go even farther on electricity.
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0720/p02s01-ussc.html

CAPTION: ELECTRIFYING: Some Toyota Prius owners tinker with the
hybrids to give them more juice. Ron Gremban of Corte Madera, Calif.,
added electric bicycle batteries to his car.

The plug-ins are coming.

Toyota's revelation Tuesday that it will develop a new "plug-in
hybrid" - which uses a wall socket at night to charge and relies on
an electric motor to go many miles before sipping any gasoline -
could presage a major shift in automotive technology, some industry
analysts say.

Detroit's Big Three have each said the technology is being looked at
- after years of outright dismissal. But Toyota's announcement was
more significant because the company is presumed to have the
technology to actually bring such cars to market, they say.

Toyota itself had steadfastly denied any interest in plug-in
technology. A senior Toyota engineer told the Monitor early last year
the company had little interest.

But gasoline prices have since soared to more than $3 a gallon. On
Tuesday, the president of Toyota's North American subsidiary, Jim
Press, said the company is looking at developing a plug-in vehicle
that can "travel greater distances without using its gas engine." The
technology would "conserve more oil and slice smog and greenhouse
gases to nearly imperceptible levels".

The company is also developing flexible-fuel technology that could
use E85 ethanol. If the two technologies were combined in one
vehicle, it could help free the US from its oil dependence, some analysts say.

"When you combine plugging-in - which pushes fuel efficiency over 100
miles per gallon - with biofuels, then you're getting into multiple
hundreds of miles per gallon," says Bradley Berman, publisher of
hybridcars.com, a technology website. "It starts to look like a real
here-and-now solution to oil dependence, air quality, and climate change."

Not everyone's convinced. Walter McManus, an industry analyst at the
University of Michigan, says the technology may be too costly. "I
don't think there's a huge market for them," he says.

But if Toyota's announcement caught some by surprise, it was
certainly no surprise to Andy Frank.

Four years ago, the professor at the University of California at
Davis and a team of engineering students created a plug-in vehicle. A
typical hybrid has a big gasoline engine and a tiny electric motor.
The university students reversed the roles by combining a more
powerful electric motor that went 50 miles without using any gasoline.

No wimpy econo-box, the modified Ford Explorer was a 325 horsepower
"rocket" that still got the equivalent of 100-plus miles per gallon
even after a tiny gas engine kicked in, says Dr. Frank.

"The average person who drives 40 miles per day or less wouldn't use
any gasoline at all," he says. "The only time would be on weekend
trips and vacations across country."

The impact on America's dependence on foreign oil could be dramatic
if such technology were widespread, according to energy-security
hawks like former CIA director James Woolsey, who has cited the
technology as a key to cutting US reliance on Mideast oil. President
Bush also mentioned the technology in his State of the Union speech.

Frank's studies suggest a major impact on US oil dependence if most
vehicles were plug-ins. While an average person might fill the tank
with gasoline about 35 times a year, a plug-in would require perhaps six times.

A great idea? Perhaps. But when offered a detailed look at the
machine, each of Detroit's Big Three took a pass, Frank says.

Toyota, however, accepted his offer. It loaded up the students'
plug-in truck and flew it back to the company's research headquarters
in Japan. A few weeks later the truck was returned intact, many of
its technological secrets well digested.

Gas prices were probably the biggest factor in changing Toyota's
stance. But it also probably helped that Daimler-Chrysler has been
delivering its first plug-in hybrid vans to big companies.

That impetus, plus the other auto companies talking about it,
apparently pushed Toyota to go public. After all, it has established
a lead in hybrid technology with the Prius - and it wants to remain
out in front.

Another factor might have been the nudge from a group of tech guys
working in their garages, modifying a regular Prius into a plug-in
vehicle. Such changes voided the warranty, but CalCars founder Felix
Kramer says he's pleased if his group has goaded Toyota into making a
production plug-in - the group's goal all along.

"I'm the first consumer-owner of a Prius converted to a plug-in and
... I'm getting at least 100 miles per gallon equivalent. We're still
working on better versions, and it's catching on."

Battery technology remains a challenge. Deep discharges can wear out
ordinary and previous-generation batteries. But Mr. Kramer says
today's lithium ion batteries are up to the challenge.

In fact, since proving it could be done by making their own in a
garage, after- market conversion companies are now offering to
convert regular Priuses into plug-ins for about $10,000 to $12,000.

Despite some concerns that plugging in might stress the electric
grid, or actually increase carbon dioxide emissions by relying on
coal-fired power plants, Kramer is not worried. Most charging would
be done at night, tapping power at a low-demand time. And because
electric power is much more efficient per mile, the amount of
pollution and carbon dioxide sent skyward would still be far less
than an automobile engine, his analysis shows.

"What it gives you is the world's cleanest extended-range vehicle,"
he says. "If Toyota were to begin selling these tomorrow they could
sell as many as they could build."

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

Add to previous cover stories in the LA Times
Magazine, eMagazine and Popular Mechanics one
more; this time, it's a single-theme issue for
Co-op America Quarterly, the Summer 2007 Issue
#72. The editorial and all five feature articles
in the magazine are on "Fuels for the
Future."  And throughout, including in one survey
devoting a page each to eight options, PHEVs
repeatedly emerge as the best solution.

DOWNLOAD THE ISSUE: We encourage you to consider
pointing your friends and colleagues to the
entire issue for distribution as a very
up-to-date introduction to energy &
transportation. Co-op America has graciously made
the articles available in a single file (23
pages, 900K PDF) for download at
<http://www.calcars.org/downloads.html>. Or, if
you subscribe/join ($20) by calling Co-op America
Member Services at 202.872.5316 (800.58GREEN ext.
5316) you can also request a print copy of this issue.

ABOUT CO-OP AMERICA <http://www.coopamerica.org>.
It's a not-for-profit 60,000+ membership
organization founded in 1982. Its mission is to
harness economic power--the strength of
consumers, investors, businesses, and the
marketplace--to create a socially just and
environmentally sustainable society.  It's known
for its work to help socially and environmentally
responsible businesses emerge and thrive. Its
projects include publishing the  National Green
Page directory of green businesses coast to
coast. And it co-sponsors the highly visible
Green Festivals <http://www.greenfestivals.org>
in Washington, Chicago and San Francisco,

ONE ONLINE-ONLY ARTICLE: "Web Exclusive: Felix
Kramer and the First Plug-In Hybrids" is the only
element that's online at Co-op America's
website:
<http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/caq/articles/Spring2007pluginhybrids.cf


EXPANDED TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR DOWNLOADABLE FILE:
Here's a brief tour to give you an idea of the
scope of the issue. Signed articles are by Sarah
Tarver-Wahlquist, Tracy Fernandez Rysavy, Joelle
Novy and Alisa Gravitz. Download it at
<http://www.calcars.org/co-op-america-summer07-futurefuels.pdf>:

Cover: a photo of Felix Kramer and his car
converted by EnergyCS in front of a green forest.

p. 2  Full-page editorial "Making News and Making Waves: Fuels for the Future"
We report that hydrogen as a transportation fuel
makes no sense....As a thought leader, raise your
voice to insist that our country stop going down the corn ethanol
path. Most people simply don't know about the
problems of corn ethanol or the promise of the
plug-in electric vehicles. Once again, let's lead the way.

p. 8  Fuels for the Future: If we hope to prevent
a world climate crisis, we have to change the way
we think about cars—how much we use them, how
they're made, and what type of fuel we put in
them (Surprise—it shouldn't be corn ethanol).

Box: Co-op America’s 12-Step Plan to Curb Climate Change

Box: Drive Less, Save the Earth

p. 13  Fuels 101: The Road to Reason: Since
conventional gasoline isn't doing the trick when
it comes to curbing the climate crisis, which
fuels are the best choices for saving the planet?
We crunched the numbers, dug up the facts, and
determined which to get behind now ... and for the future.

* E85 Corn Ethanol:  Verdict: Stop the corn
ethanol industry. E85 corn ethanol is a climate,
food security, and national security disaster, not a climate solution.

* Hydrogen Fuel Cells:  Verdict: There’s no way
an energy-intensive hydrogen infrastructure can
be scaled up in time to stop a global warming
crisis. Other alternatives exist that can be ramped up much more quickly.

* Ultra-Low-Sulfur Diesel:  Verdict: There are
better fuels out there when it comes to clean air and cooling the planet.

* Natural Gas:  Verdict: While natural gas can be
a viable short-term emissions-reducing strategy,
especially for fleets, as we work toward
zero-emission cars, there are much better fuels
available now, in terms of environmental impact and personal convenience.

Box: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

* Cellulosic Ethanol:  Verdict: Great at
emissions reduction, but powerful
agri-corporations could keep the focus on
not-so-great corn ethanol. For more immediate
climate benefits, biodiesel is a better bet.

* Gas-Electric Hybrids:  Verdict: Top-mileage
hybrids are one of the best current options for
emissions reduction, as we wait for better technologies to become available.

* Biodiesel: Verdict:  Recommended as a
short-term strategy until zero-emission cars
powered by renewables become widely available. If
we can make biodiesel from waste, this fuel becomes a best option.

* Electricity/Plug-in Electric Hybrids:  Verdict:
When plugged into green energy, plug-ins are our
brightest hope for curbing global warming while
matching the performance of today’s cars.

p. 22  Efficiency: The Best Fuel:Cars that run on
less fuel seem like a no-brainer in terms of
curbing climate change and solving our dependence
on foreign oil. It’s time to start making them.

Box: TRUE TALES: How Robet and Barbara go far free -- with children.

p. 24  Corn Ethanol Isn't the Answer: A Co-op
America expose: "Anyone can see by looking at the
characteristics of the different biofuels that
corn ethanol isn't 'green,'" says Alisa Gravitz,
Co-op America’s executive director. "You don't
have to crunch numbers very long to conclude that
ethanol isn't a fuel solution for people or the
planet. As a country, we should be moving towards
driving less, improving fuel economy, and
advancing plug-in hybrids powered by electricity
from renewable, green sources."

Box: TRUE TALES: How Eric Henry helped form a
biodiesel cooperative to make this alternative
fuel easier to obtain where he lived.

p. 28  Plug-In Hybrids: Our Best Hope: To help
curb climate change, we need to make cars that
achieve 60 mpg by 2054. Today's plug-in hybrids
get 100+ mpg, and their emissions are lower than
those of any other vehicle on the road today.

Box: From Vehicle to Grid

BONUS: After all this if you are impelled to take
action, of course you can do so through
CalCars.org, PlugInPartners.org,
PlugInAmerica.org. And if you order the print
copy (see intro) you'll get what's stapled into
the middle of the issue: six pre-addressed
postcards with messages including: Tell
Ford/GM/your Representative/Senators: Ethanol is
NOT the answer! Tell GM to build the plug-in Volt
soon. Tell Ford to start producing plug-in
hybrids. Tell Ykitoshi (Yuki) Funo, Chairman and
CEO, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc: Encourage
Toyota to take significant steps to reduce their
emissions, improve efficiency, and start producing plug-in hybrids!


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

More indications that we might expect an announcement from Toyota this fall.
Green Car Congress has done us the favor of translating a story
appearing in the Japanese press, and a reader of the posting (who
posts under the name "Tokyo Joe" perhaps in homage to the Humphrey
Bogart film) has added additional translation he says is from the
story. The translation refers to a possible introduction at the
"Tokyo Motor Show in November" -- the show's official dates are
October 26th (Friday) through November 11th (Sunday)


Toyota to Obtain Permission for Public Road Test for Plug-in Prius in Japan
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/07/toyota-to-obtai.html
18 July 2007 Asahi.com
<http://www.asahi.com/business/update/0719/NGY200707180018.html>
(translation by Futoshi SATO)

Toyota Motor Co. will obtain permission from Japan's Ministry of
Land, Infrastructure and Transport by the end of July for the testing
of a prototype plug-in Prius on public roads.

Toyota will be the first car maker to obtain permission for a plug-in
hybrid test in Japan. After completing the road tests, Toyota will
start building a way to market the model by leasing them to public
(government and municipal) offices.

According to the report, Toyota is testing a lithium-ion battery pack
in the plug-in.

Earlier this year, Nikkei Business speculated that Toyota would
introduce the plug-in at the Tokyo Motor Show in November.

And one of over 30 readers who wrote comments said:
Posted by: TokyoJoe | Jul 18, 2007 11:51:09 PM

I read the Japanese article mentioned above and my interpretation is
slightly different.

The Ministry of Land and Transport permission is a formality. It just
means registration of a type of vehicle that is not currently
registered for use. Toyota will have no problems there.

Leasing to government offices in Aichi Prefecture (where Toyota HQ is
based) is to gather performance data and check safety of the vehicle
as a first step towards becoming the first commercial PHEV producer
in the world.

The article also quoted the President of Toyota (Mr Katsuaki
Watanabe) saying that among the many low pollution engine
developments, such as clean diesel etc, the Hybrid is Toyota's core
technology. Their strategy is to maintain Toyota's leading position
in Hybrid technology with the PHEV which has an even lower
environmental impact than existing hybrids.

Sounds to me like they will be giving it a serious push.

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

We just finished listening to a press conference in Washington, DC,
to announce the release of the long-awaited study that finally gives
conclusive answers to a big question:

What happens to the air quality of the United States (greenhouse
gases and other emissions) if we have a massive expansion of plug-in
hybrid and electric vehicles?

Here's CalCars' quick takeaway from the press conference:

"The EPRI-NRDC studies finally give an environmental stamp of
approval to PHEVs. Scientist have confirmed that unlike gasoline
cars, plug-ins will get cleaner as they get older -- because our
power grid is getting cleaner."

"For people looking for the most effective way to end our addiction
to oil, PHEVs have made sense because carmakers can build them now,
with today's technology and using today's infrastructure. But they've
needed definitive proof that PHEVs won't increase pollution. The main
study shows that under all nine scenarios for both rates of market
penetration of PHEVs and the evolving power grid's characteristics
(capacity/carbon intensity), PHEVs will vastly reduce greenhouse
gases for the next 40 years. In the second study, for the next 20
years, even if, worst-case, we still use lots of coal, nationwide air
quality for other emissions will also improve."

"Three more points: Both reports match up well with previous studies.
They reinforces the Pacific National Lab's January 2007 findings that
we won't have to build new power plants for cars that charge at
night. And we're gratified that General Motors recognizes sees this
study as validation of its decision to evolve to the electrification
of transportation."


Speakers at the event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC were:
* Steve Specker, President and CEO, Electric Power Research Institute
* John Bryson, Chairman, President and CEO, Edison International
* Dan Lashof, Science Director of Climate Center, Natural Resources
Defense Council
* Roger Duncan, Deputy General Manager, Austin Energy
* Tony Posawatz, Director Vehicle Line, General Motors
* Mark Duvall, Manager, Electric Transportation, Electric Power
Research Institute
PLUS a surprise guest: a prototype of what Posawatz described as the
"production-intent" Chevy Volt PHEV


You can download the report (multiple files) at
<http://www.epri-reports.org>. Warning: much of the report is highly
technical. Part 1 is one large file. Part 2 on criteria emissions is
two. If you want to spend an hour on this, read the press release
below, then get the Executive Summary for part 1 (9 pages, 8 charts &
tables) <http://www.epri-reports.org/PHEV-ExecSum-vol1.pdf> and the
Frequently Asked Questions that covers both reports
<http://www.epri-reports.org/Otherdocs/PHEV-FAQ.pdf> (7 pages, 24
questions). EPRI's two-page PHEV Technology Primer
<http://www.epri-reports.org/Otherdocs/PHEV-Primer.pdf> is also worth
reviewing. It displays the Daimler/Chrysler Sprinter Van and ends
with the prediction: "EPRI expects PHEVs to be available for
commercial van application by 2008 and in the mass consumer market by 2010."


We took notes on what the speakers said; we'll have more to say, but
we're also hoping for thoughtful analyses and reports from
GreenCarCongress.com, EvWorld.org and the mainstream media, many of
whom attended. To start, here's the press release:


EPRI-NRDC Report Finds Environmental Benefits of Deploying PHEVs

Analysis Cites Curb in Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Potential for
Improved Air Quality

PALO ALTO, Calif. - July 19, 2007 - The Electric Power Research
Institute (EPRI) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
today released a comprehensive assessment that finds that widespread
use of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in the United States
could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and potential for improve
ambient air quality.

The research measures the impact of increasing numbers of PHEVs
between 2010 and 2050, including the nationwide environmental impact
of potentially large fleets that would use electricity from the grid
as their primary fuel source.

Among study's key findings were:

* Widespread adoption of PHEVs can reduce GHG emissions from vehicles
by more than 450 million metric tons annually in 2050 -- equivalent
to removing 82.5 million passenger cars from the road

* There is an abundant supply of electricity for transportation; a 60
percent U.S. market share for PHEVs would use 7 percent to 8 percent
of grid-supplied electricity in 2050

* PHEVs can improve nationwide air quality and reduce petroleum
consumption by 3 million to 4 million barrels per day in 2050

The analysis is the first to combine detailed models of the U.S.
electric system and transportation sector with sophisticated
atmospheric air quality models -- accounting for the future evolution
of both sectors in technological advances, electricity load growth
and capacity expansion.

"This research accelerates our understanding of the interplay of
emissions from various sources," said Steve Specker, EPRI President
and Chief Executive Officer. "We now see that widespread use of PHEVs
could expand the fuel options in our transportation sector and at the
same time yield net benefits to our environment."

The EPRI-NRDC study represents the most comprehensive analysis of the
potential reductions of global warming and other emissions from
wide-scale introduction of PHEVs over time. The study addresses the
impact that lower-emitting electricity generation can have for
increasing these benefits.

"NRDC believes that a combination of more efficient vehicles,
improved battery technology, and a lower-emitting electric power
plant fleet can produce substantial reduction in global warming
pollution from both the electric power and the transportation
sectors, said David Hawkins, Director of NRDC's Climate Center. "Our
results show that PHEVs recharged from low- and non-emitting
electricity sources can decrease the carbon footprint in the nation's
transportation sector."

Several benefits result from the use of grid electricity as a
transportation fuel. PHEVs can reduce direct emissions at the vehicle
tailpipe and indirect emissions at the fuel source when they recharge
by electricity produced by a portfolio of efficient combustion,
non-emitting or renewable generation. It is this linkage to a cleaner
grid that could enable PHEVs to produce less GHG emissions than
conventional or hybrid vehicles.

Using electricity produced from diverse domestic resources, PHEVs can
reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil. The scale of the greenhouse
gas benefit from PHEVs will depend on the efficiency of the vehicles,
their range on a battery charge and the greenhouse gas emissions from
the electric generation fleet.

"The EPRI-NRDC study demonstrates that plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles can contribute significantly to the national effort to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said John E. Bryson, chairman and
CEO of Edison International. "With public support, it is likely that
someday millions of Americans will fill up their vehicles at the plug
instead of the pump, saving money and protecting the environment."

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles combine operational aspects of both
battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and power assist hybrid electric
vehicles (HEVs). A PHEV, like a BEV, can be recharged from the
electric grid, stores energy in an onboard battery and uses the
energy while depleting the battery during daily driving.

Unlike a BEV, a PHEV can use its internal combustion engine for
propulsion in highway driving or when the battery is depleted.
Because of this versatility, a PHEV can serve as a direct replacement
for a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle or HEV.

A joint EPRI-NRDC press conference will be held today at 10:30 a.m.
in the Holeman Lounge at the National Press Club. Reporters may also
dial into the conference by calling 1.800.926.9174. The entire PHEV
environmental assessment will be posted online at
www.epri-reports.org at 12 noon EDT, July 19, 2007.

About EPRI
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), with major locations in
Palo Alto, Calif., Charlotte, N.C., and Knoxville, Tenn., was
established in 1973 as an independent, nonprofit center for public
interest energy and environmental research. EPRI brings together
member organizations, the Institute's scientists and engineers, and
other leading experts to work collaboratively on solutions to the
challenges of electric power. These solutions span nearly every area
of power generation, delivery, and use, including health, safety, and
environment. EPRI's members represent over 90% of the electricity
generated in the United States. International participation
represents nearly 15% of EPRI's total R&D program.

About NRDC
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit
organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists
dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in
1970, NRDC has 1.2 million members and online activists, served from
offices in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco
and Beijing. More information on NRDC is available at its Web site:
www.nrdc.org.

Contacts: Heather Lynch Hansen hlhansen@...
Clay Perry Clperry@...

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

"Public conversions" are now becoming fashionable
-- one yesterday and one today in San Diego
captured three columns on the front page of the
San Diego Union Tribune today (story below). The
photo shows Pat Cadam, founder of Pat's Garage, a
hybrid-oriented repair facility in San Francisco,
and Nick Rothman, former Toyota technician and
veteran of many of CalCars' MakerFaire and other
conversions. The story quotes Hymotion's Ricardo
Bazzarella, formerly co-founder of Hymotion, now
director of engineering for batterymaker A123Systems.

This coming weekend's conversion at the
Hybridfest in Madison Wisconsin has been getting
attention online; the six PHEVs that will be
shown will be the largest assembly yet. (Press
release at
<http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-13-20\
07/0004625349&EDATE=>
and event website at <http://www.hybridfest.com>

We describe CalCars as a group of entrepreneurs,
engineers, environmentalists and citizens. We
remain surprised about the unfortunate slowness
of some mainstream environmental groups to
publicly acknowledge the practicality, benefits
and potential imminence of PHEVs. We've made
progress behind the scenes, but still have a ways
to go. The San Diego news report shows a national
organization that still doesn't "get" PHEVs.
Asked to comment, the Union of Concerned
Scientists spokesman parrots the "we don't pick
winners" apology that for years has let the
carmakers off the hook on electrifying cars. This
hampers public education and permits lobbyists
for hydrogen and corn ethanol -- both offering
more obstacles and fewer benefits than
electricity -- to control most research dollars and incentives.

UCS launched its elaborate and effective
HybridCenter.org website in February 2006, and it
illustrates how the group's "realism" about what
is possible in the auto industry skews its
position. List readers who are also UCS members
will be reassured that as a science-based group,
UCS's chart showing different hybrid options
ranks PHEVs at the top
<http://www.hybridcenter.org/hybrid-center-how-hybrid-cars-work-under-the-hood.h\
tml>.
(And we're gratified that, unlike one or two
other leading environmental groups, UCS has never
perpetuated the misconception that electric miles
aren't cleaner than gasoline miles!)

Yet the website's consumer guide says "isn't it
great you don't have to plug hybrids in."
Delivering this inexcusable message is Bill Nye,
the Science Guy -- who as a former owner of a GM
EV-1, to whom we introduced PHEVs in 2004, should
know better. At
<http://www.hybridcenter.org/owners/bill-nye-plugin.html>,
accompanied by a goofy photo, sounding like a
blithe car ad and hinting that electricity
magically appears, he says: "You might think that
since my hybrid has electric motors, I go home
and plug it in. Well, that’s not how this one
works. It’s a gas-powered car. I get the high
performance, low emissions, and great mileage
without getting electric energy from anywhere but
the car’s own built-in electrical system. That’s
what hybrids can do when automakers build, and
consumers choose, hybrids that help most at the
pump and with the planet..." (We've raised this
issue with UCS to no avail since the HybridCenter
launched. And PHEVs remain next-to-invisible at
UCS's hybrid blog
<http://hybridblog.typepad.com>. Any help
delivering the message within the organization will be appreciated!)

Plugged into public's push for cleaner world
San Diego Union Tribune - United States
<http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070718-9999-1n18electri1.html>
Electric cars are making a comeback as more
consumers are looking for better technology to help the environment
By Mike Lee
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 18, 2007

Maybe the electric car isn't dead after all.

Nearly four years after General Motors canceled
its pioneering EV-1 program, pilot projects and
commercial production of electric vehicles are
gearing up in San Diego County and beyond.

CAPTION: Pat Cadam (left) and Nick Rothman
installed a lithium ion battery pack in the trunk
of a Toyota Prius in San Diego yesterday to
convert the standard hybrid to a plug-in vehicle.

The latest electric cars plug into conventional
power outlets. Some of them ­ including two that
will be unveiled today in San Diego ­ can travel
farther than their ill-fated predecessors because
they have back-up gasoline engines.

Boosters said the cars, called plug-in vehicles,
can get 100 miles per gallon and recharge on
about the same amount of energy it takes to run a hair dryer for five hours.

They also note that the United States has more
than enough electricity to recharge the cars at
night, and utilities are responding by proposing
lower fees for that time period.

“When I was in junior high school, this was (the
kind of technology) that we talked about at the
lunch table. . . . This is yesterday's tomorrow,”
said Bill Hammons, president of the Electric Vehicle Association of San Diego.

Numerous businesses, from startup firms to major
automakers, aim to capitalize on the public's
growing appetite for environmentally friendly
technology. The companies also want to stay ahead
of regulations targeting greenhouse gas pollution.

CAPTION: Phoenix Motorcars, a vehicle
manufacturer in Ontario, plans to deliver fully
electric trucks to commercial customers this year.

In San Diego, for example, vehicle emissions
account for more than half of the city's output
of carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global warming.

“Everybody's attention is on this because they
finally see it as a viable option,” said Bryon
Bliss, vice president of marketing for Phoenix
Motorcars, a vehicle manufacturer in Ontario.

The company plans to deliver fully electric
trucks to commercial customers starting this
year. The retail cost will be about $45,000.

Yesterday, technicians working for San Diego Gas
& Electric Co. converted a Toyota Prius hybrid
into a plug-in car in front of fleet managers and hybrid enthusiasts.

This morning, the utility will showcase a pair of
plug-in vehicles to the public at the San Diego Regional Transportation Center.

“It's here. It's not something at a science fair
that you'll see in 20 years,” said Ricardo
Bazzarella, director of engineering for A123Systems of Massachusetts.

The company built the lithium ion battery packs
for SDG&E's cars. Each pack, which costs about
$12,500, takes a few hours to install in conventional Priuses.

Bazzarella wants to push that cost below $10,000
before his business sells the kits to the public early next year.

Electric vehicles remain too expensive for the
general public, but cheaper batteries would
change the dynamic. Another obstacle is that
plug-in hybrids are available only as after-market conversions.

On the upside, electricity is 50 percent to 75
percent cheaper than gasoline as a source of
vehicle power. In addition, energy experts said
electricity is typically far more environmentally friendly than gasoline.

A recent study for the U.S. Department of Energy
said the nation's electricity infrastructure is
underused most of the time. The study said the
existing power system could recharge about
three-quarters of all the cars, pickup trucks and SUVs now on the road.

The idea is that most people would plug in their
vehicles at night, when power use is lowest.

But some individuals are most excited about the
possibility that homeowners could use rooftop
solar panels to recharge their plug-in hybrids,
effectively powering their vehicles with sunlight.

“A lot of people (are) waking up and realizing
that our cars could be a lot better with existing
technology and existing infrastructure,” said
Felix Kramer, founder of The California Cars
Initiative, a Palo Alto-based group that promotes plug-in hybrids.

SDG&E's vehicles are part of a yearlong study to
determine the practicality of plug-in hybrids.

The utility will assess the gas mileage,
electricity use, driver's experiences, safety and
operating costs of the two cars. For comparison
purposes, it's gathered information on the
Priuses' performance under various driving conditions before they were altered.

“We want a real slice of life so that when we
release the data in early 2008, it will mean
something to the consumer,” said Joel Pointon,
manager of clean transportation services for SDG&E.

Despite all the sunny predictions, it remains
unclear what ecologically friendly fuel will
capture the American market. Hydrogen, ethanol
and electricity are among the potential ways to
reduce the country's dependence on oil.

“What past experience has really shown is that
it's difficult, if not impossible, to pick a
winner . . . because technology changes over
time,” said Don Anair, clean vehicles engineer
for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Berkeley.

Anair and others said plug-in hybrids have an
advantage because they seem to be a logical next step to conventional hybrids.

“We are in a plug-in society, . . . so to me it's
a natural thing to be able to plug in your car,” Bazzarella said.

Plug-in technology also appears to have piqued
interest among major automakers. Several of them
are developing electric models.

Last week, for instance, Ford pledged to work
with power company Edison International to
“unleash the potential of plug-in technology for
consumers,” the partners said in a joint statement.

Beyond the environmental benefits, there appear
to be good business reasons for automakers to
embrace more efficient vehicles, according to a
study released yesterday by the Consumer Federation of America.

“Great and growing concern about gasoline-related
issues helps explain the overwhelming public
support for automakers being required to make
more fuel-efficient vehicles,” said federation
spokesman Jack Gillis. “U.S. automakers can no
longer defend their lack of fuel economy progress
by (claiming) they just give consumers what they want.”

Union-Tribune librarian Denise Davidson contributed to this report.

Mike Lee: (619) 542-4570; mike.lee@...

On the Internet
Web sites related to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles:

www.calcars.org ­ The California Cars Initiative of Palo Alto
www.phoenixmotorcars.com ­ Phoenix Motorcars of Ontario
http://my.epri.com ­ Electric Power Research Institute
www.pluginpartners.com ­ grassroots Plug-In-Partners National Campaign
www.sdge.com/environmental/phev.shtml ­ Clean
Transportation Program for San Diego Gas & Electric


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

San Diego Gas & Electric joins Southern California Edison, Pacific
Gas & Electric and Sacramento Muncipal Utility District in having
PHEVs to evaluate and demonstrate to the public. And the San Diego
Regional Transportation Center - EcoCenter,
<http://www.sdecocenter.org> opens an exhibit on PHEVs. We hear there
will be a number of other conversions by electric utilities around
the country in the coming weeks.


San Diego Gas and Electric to Run Two Plug-In Hybrids
Green Car Congress 14 July 2007
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/07/san-diego-gas-a.html
by Jack Rosebro

As part of its Clean Transportation program, San Diego Gas and
Electric (SDG&E), a public utility that is part of Sempra Energy
Services, will publicly convert two Toyota Prius hybrids into plug-in
hybrids next week.

The two vehicles have been in operation at SDG&E for about six months
to collect real-world performance baseline data, which will be
compared to data collected in the future. Although the two hybrids
initially will not have vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability, SDG&E has
expressed interest in V2G, also referred to by company representative
Joel Pointon as "vehicle-to-coffeepot."

One conversion will take place on Tuesday, with the other occurring
on Wednesday. Each conversion will use a Hymotion conversion kit, and
will be expected to take about two hours.

Tuesday's conversion will give fleet managers an opportunity to view
PHEV technology up close, while Wednesday's conversion is open to the public.

The utility company will release data from the project in 2008.

* SDG&E plug-in hybrid page <http://www.sdge.com/environmental/phev.shtml>
* SDG&E PHEV flyer <http://www.sdge.com/environmental/5486HybridFS09Final.pdf>
* Public invitation to SDG&E's PHEV conversion, 18 July morning at
the San Diego Regional Transportation Center
<http://www.sdge.com/email/invitation/cleantrans/cleantransportation.html>
(RSVP requested)

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

We weren't sure if we should trouble our
listmembers with the news that Toyota may make
some news. But because Toyota is the technology
leader in hybrids, and could start building PHEVs
any time it wants to, using either nickel-metal
hydride or lithium-ion batteries, once again, we
cross our fingers -- our hope springs eternal.
First, we speculate about why Toyota is
pre-announcing, then the two news reports: one
says "soon," the other, "certainly before the end of the year."

What can we make of Toyota starting to put out
word that it will soon have news on PHEVs? In the
software industry, pre-announcements are called
"vaporware." Sometimes they're part of a
marketing strategy designed to spread "FUD"
(fear, uncertainty and doubt) among the
competition. That motive wouldn't make sense for
Toyota, since in this case it might energize
other carmakers. Nor would the other reason: to
persuade consumers to defer purchase decisions
for something far better is around the corner,
since the only alternative now is a handful of
high-priced aftermarket conversions.

Perhaps Toyota feels stung by the ever-growing
support for PHEVs and decided to ratchet up its
interest level, which has recently levelled off
at "pursuing," "consumer research and product
development," "seriously studying" and "no one
wants this more than us" (see <http://www.calcars.org/carmakers.html>).

This would make Toyota one more "me-tooer" --
increasingly necessary at a time when GM makes
news in the Detroit Free Press by simply giving
A123Systems battery engineers drive an early Volt
"rough prototype,"
<http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070715/BUSINESS01/707150589/1014>\
.
Here are some other examples:
* Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda says, "We also have
the only demonstration fleet of plug-in hybrids
in service ­ our Dodge Sprinter
vans.<http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/717.html>
* Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn says it will build EVs
or PHEVs by 2010
<http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/nissan_electric_car.php>.
* Ford CEO Alan Mulally makes a big splash with
PHEV plans to deliver 20 Escape PHEVs to Southern
California Edison within two-and-a-half years
(see our July 7-10 posts at
<http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html>) --
though we of course hope there's more.


The first story includes information about Toyota
reorganizing its PR efforts, in ways that could
downplay its advanced vehicles marketing, and
says Toyota will make an announcement soon about
PHEVs. The second, at Edmunds' AutoObserver,
along with a useful recap of the history of the
Prius, says "Toyota, like others, is also
investigating the merits of plug-in hybrid
technology and announcement on that is believed
to be imminent, certainly before the end of the
year." It's a blog, and includes a CalCars comment.


  From Bill Moore's EV Insider column at EVWorld.com (available to subscribers)
http://www.evworld.com/general.cfm?page=insider&nextedition=115

Toyota Reorganizes
According to Cindy Knight with Toyota, the
company has disbanded its advanced vehicles
marketing and PR arm that oversaw the promotion
of its hybrid and fuel cell vehicle programs.
Knight told me in an out-of-the-blue phone call
that in the case of its hybrid car platforms,
oversight of their public relations has now been
shifted to their respective mainstream divisions:
Prius to small cars, Highland Hybrid to the SUV
unit, and Camry Hybrid to the large car division.

She also reported that in the near future the
company will be making an important statement
about its plug-in hybrid initiative. Apparently,
the only thing that's stayed the same is my
friend and colleague, the irascible "Uncle Bill"
Reinert who remains as cantankerous as ever.


Toyota Prius: Chapter Three
<http://www.autoobserver.com/2007/07/toyota-prius-ch.html>
July 16, 2007
Posted By Michelle Krebs for Peter Nunn

Peter Nunn is a Tokyo-based automotive writer.
Originally from the U.K., moving to Japan in
1988, he reports on the Japanese auto industry
for media outlets in North America, Japan, Europe and Australia.

It’s still the best part of two years away.
Nevertheless, the world is already Prius_logo_210
watching and waiting on the next Toyota Prius.

Behind firmly closed doors in Toyota City, Japan,
Toyota engineers and designers are now working on
exactly this vehicle. What will it look like? How
will it be engineered? How will it move the
sector to enable Toyota to reach its goal of
selling 1 million hybrids per year by the early 2010s?

Toyota’s reported vision is for:
* a new, third-generation Prius, slightly bigger
than today’s model for debut in 2009;
* a trio of versions, including one smaller than
the Corolla and one larger than the current Prius
that resembles the Hybrid X concept shown at March’s Geneva Auto Salon;
* traditional nickel-metal hydride batteries, not lithium-ion ones;
* further progress in the Prius becoming leaner, meaner, greener and cheaper.

One thing is for sure: The current Prius is a
standard setter and global superstar. Its
successor in will have a lot to live up to.

A peek under Toyota’s tent

Despite the new Prius being nearly two years
away, the media, both business and
enthusiast-orientated, remains fixated on the the
gasoline-electric hybrid that today is one of the
hottest cars on the planet, a brand of its own
and the ultimate symbol of automotive green goodness.

Toyota’s reported vision is to offer a new,
third-generation Prius, slightly bigger than today’s model in 2009.

However, a separate bigger version, borrowing
some of the design cues and
Hybrid_x_exterior_213_2 vision of the Hybrid X
concept, shown at March’s Geneva Auto Salon, is also being readied.

Japan’s Nikkei reported in late June the “bigger
Prius” would have a 2.0- to 3.0-liter engine.
Toyota most likely will build this new model at
the Miyata plant of its affiliate, Toyota Motor
Kyushu, the paper said. Its likely launch date is
2010, backed by a global sales plan of 100,000 units per year.

The third new Prius variant will be smaller than
today’s car, positioned at the upper end of the
Corolla scale, according to sources. It would be unveiled in 2011.

It all adds up to a formidable investment, even
for Toyota, Japan’s richest automaker, which
recently posted record-breaking annual profits of $14 billion.

While doubts remain in some quarters whether
Toyota’s hybrids are genuinely profitable yet and
whether the technology is truly as green as it is
widely perceived to be, Toyota’s hybrid bandwagon continues to roll onwards.

Three Prius models instead of one, meantime, are
a massive R&D burden. On the other hand, Toyota
would be able to achieve significant economies of
scale by spreading R&D investment over a bigger range of models.

And the Prius, of course, is not the only
gas-electric hybrid from Toyota. The company now
sells eight different hybrids through its Toyota
and Lexus channels and has said that its hybrid
offerings “will double” by the early 2010s.

Just last week, Jim Press, Toyota’s top North
American official, reaffirmed the Japanese
automaker’s commitment to hybrids and predicted
hybrids, presumably Toyota’s, which now account
for three of every five hybrids sold in America,
will eventually dominate U.S. roads as fuel
prices continue to rise. "Eventually, everything
will be a hybrid," said Press, president of
Toyota Motor North America, told Bloomberg News in an interview.

Rivals and the industry in general can be in no
doubt then that Toyota is determined to be – that
is, remain -- the hybrid market leader, whatever it takes.

No lithium-ion batteries, for now

Japan’s media has also reported two other things
about the coming third generation Prius. First,
that the program has been delayed, from a late 2008 intro back to spring 2009.

Second, that Toyota has given up (for now at
least) on using lithium-ion batteries in the new
Prius and will stay with the current style of
nickel-metal hydride battery pack.

Toyota has a policy of not talking about future
model plans. However, neither story has been
denied, and both fit a pattern of Toyota wanting,
obviously, to bring the next Prius to market in
as smooth, glitch-free manner as possible.

Early demand for the next Prius is expected to be
substantial, so Toyota clearly wants to avoid any
supply restriction kinks in the system, through production or suppliers.

Quality is a priority

Toyota’s reputation has been damaged of late
through spiraling recalls and quality problems.
The company is now instituting major changes to
new model development to right the ship. More
time and money will now be spent at the prototype
stage, and more engineers hired, a complete
reversal of Toyota’s obsessively lean,
cost-cutting, speed-essential ways of the past few years.

Toyota engineers are also reportedly worried
about the quality and safety of the current
lithium-ion batteries. So it’s said that Toyota’s
decided to err on the side of caution and stick
with nickel-metal hydride pack: less advanced but far more of a known quantity.

Plug-in Prius in the works

Toyota, like others, is also investigating the
merits of plug-in hybrid technology and
announcement on that is believed to be imminent,
certainly before the end of the year.

Toyota also is working on the costs of hybrids.
Toyota admits that hybrids are still more
expensive than conventional models but is now
working extra hard to narrow that differentiation
down. The stated goal is to have margins
comparable with gas models by 2010, which will be no easy task.

Honda ups the hybrid ante

Not that the next Prius will necessarily get
everything its own way, of course. Honda will
unveil its new, dedicated global hybrid model in
2009, at a price lower than today’s Civic hybrid.
At the same time, European makers and Detroit are
also aggressively moving up hybrid plans.

Edmunds.com’s intelligence shows about the dozen
hybrids available to buyers today is expected to
double in the next couple of years.

The Prius’ most direct rival – Honda’s new
dedicated hybrid - will be built in Japan at the
planned rate of 200,000 units per year, with 50
percent of production earmarked for North
America. It will likely be previewed in fall
2008, perhaps at the Paris Auto Salon.

A source who has seen the car says it bears an
uncanny resemblance to the Prius. Honda is also
promising a dramatic cost reduction – from $4,000
down to $2,000 – in the price premium for a
hybrid versus a conventional gas model, news
which apparently rattled quite a few in Toyota City.

Diesels challenge hybrids

The coming new wave of clean diesels will also
threaten the Prius’ image as the ultimate four-wheeled green leader.

Two recent research reports show U.S. sales of
both diesels and hybrids will grow significantly
in the next five years but diesels will outpace hybrids.

A report from UBS and Ricardo predicts diesel and
hybrid sales will hit 2.7 million a year by 2012,
or about 15 percent of the U.S. light vehicle
market. Diesel will outstrip gasoline hybrids by
1.5 million versus 1.2 million. Diesels, the
report concludes, will gain preference because of
its cost advantage while hybrids’ substantial
manufacturing cost penalties are unlikely to be eroded even in mass production.

Another forecast by Siemens VDO Automotive Corp.,
published Monday, also showed diesels outpacing
hybrids, though the numbers for both were lower
than those in the Ricardo/UBS study.

And a report released by J. D. Power and
Associates Monday showed hybrid consideration
dipping as consumers become more realistic about
the fuel-efficiency capabilities of hybrids.

To that end, a number of automakers, including
Honda, have announced plans for diesels in the
U.S. Last week, GM announced diesels for Saturns and Cadillacs.

Stunning Prius history

Remarkably, it was 10 years ago that the Prius
first came on the scene. 1998_prius_hybrid_217

Originally sold only in Japan, this dumpy-looking
sedan achieved the market breakthrough Toyota
craved, but at spectacular cost. It only really
took off when it became the darling of Hollywood
A-listers, like Leonardo di Caprio.

The current Prius, launched in 2003, is a vastly
superior car in every respect. Bigger, better
looking with, of course, much improved gas-electric hybrid technology.

Toyota sold 127,570 units of the Mk 1 Prius. But
today’s Mk II is already up to Toyota_prius_210
630,000-plus units and still in big demand. In
North America alone, Toyota executives have said
they expect to sell at least 175,000 Prius
hybrids, up from about 109,000 in 2006.

And it’s America that’s truly taken the Prius to
its heart. Toyota has sold 368,000 units of the
current shape Prius in North America, according
to the latest available figures. Japan, in
contrast, has taken 190,000 units. Prius sales in Europe stand at 64,000 units
with the rest of the world making up the remaining 8000 units.

Prius Sales Volume: Jan 2002 to Present

Those numbers are set to rocket, however, when
the third-generation, new and improved Prius
launches beginning in 2009 with its three versions.

Toyota’s Press likened the Prius to the Ford
Model T when he was interviewed by Bloomberg
News.  “The Prius is the forerunner," he said.
"It's going to be like the Model T when you look back."

Hyperbole? Only time will tell.


Comments

One of Wikipedia's examples of HYPERBOLE is
interesting--"In show business, hyperbole (known
as hype or media hype) is the practice of
spending money on public relations in an attempt
to bolster public interest in (for example) a
movie, television show, or performing artist.
Often the entertainment value of the thing being hyped is exaggerated."

What the public/consumer generally doesn't know
is that Priuses were given to hand-picked
celebrities to drive to their red carpet
appearances. This was the marketing and
advertising "brain child" of one of Toyota's ad
agencies! Just one more example of Toyota
"buying" their image and, in this case, the green image.
Posted by: xcargrl | July 16, 2007 at 6:40 PM


In defense of Toyota and in response to xcargrl,
the early Oscar "red carpet" events were
organized by GlobalGreen (an international
environmental group), with help from Toyota. Many
of those movie stars then bought Priuses -- along
with hundreds of thousands of other drivers who
appreciated its high-mpg, advanced technology and
practicality. Nothing wrong or hyped about any of that.

More interesting, perhaps, was that the first
18,000 Priuses sold in the US went to a group
called "Pioneers," who bought them online,
sight-unseen, because they had heard hybrids would be high-MPG cars.

Of greatest interest to advocates of plug-in
hybrids is the report that "Toyota, like others,
is also investigating the merits of plug-in
hybrid technology and announcement on that is
believed to be imminent, certainly before the end
of the year." The company has already said much
about PHEVS, including we're "pursuing" PHEVs, no
one wants this more than us, and we intend to be
first --for details, see
<www.calcars.org/carmakers.html> where we track
the statements of carmakers. The most meaningful
announcement it could make would be an actual
production timetable -- we're holding our breath.

-- Felix Kramer, Founder, The California Cars Initiative
Posted by: Felix Kramer | July 16, 2007 at 7:14 PM

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

When you see a Detroit Free Press story
headlined, "House talk on plug-in cars erupts,"
you know the plug-in coalition is having an
impact. US automakers who are asked to improve
their vehicles by a few MPG over a period of
years always answer, "you're asking too much."
These companies and their legislative defenders
always insist they're protecting US a threatened
industry. They imply that it's the high-MPG
advocate who are betraying autoworkers.

What happens when they hear eloquent statements
about the cars we need? How do they respond to to
the undeniable reality of conversions,which with
all their limitations imply they could build
PHEVs that could more than double the gasoline MPG? "You're killing us."

We think it's the companies that have downsized
repeatedly for years as foreign competitors beat
them -- not only on price but on quality, design
and innovation -- who are too busy fighting fires
to see the future. (Until recently, they've also
been too narrow-minded to support suggestions
about changing health and pension benefit
structures.)  If US carmakers are ever to have
the chance to sell their cars to a
carbon-constrained world, they have evolve.
(Increasingly, US cars don't meet China's MPG
requirements!) If you missed it, see our posting
from last Sunday, "Detroit Free Press: New
Technologies Save Some Auto Parts Suppliers,"
<http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/787.html>,
which included a listing of high-MPG cars the
Detroit 3's foreign affiliates manage to build in Europe.


Here's the link to the testimony by Frank Gaffney
of Set America Free
<http://www.setamericafree.org/gaffney071207.pdf>
cited about PHEVs from China (this is not about
Malcolm Bricklin's Visionary Vehicles, who are also moving ahead):
Mr. Chairman, let me end where I began, with a
threat from the Peoples Republic of China. It
appears that Communist China will shortly be
introducing to the U.S. and other export markets
the Chery ­ a car that could sell for as little
as $10,000. Some believe the Chinese intend to
translate their competitive advantage in battery
technology to offer a plug-in hybrid electric
variant of their vehicle at a price to consumers of $13,000-$15,000.


Read the Detroit News story below and add your
two cents to the lively responses posted at the paper's website.

House talk on plug-in cars erupts
Mich. lawmaker warns of demise of U.S. auto industry
July 13, 2007 BY JUSTIN HYDE FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF
Contact JUSTIN HYDE at 202-906-8204 or jhyde@....
<http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070713/BUSINESS01/707130384>

WASHINGTON -- A debate over the survival of
Detroit's automakers broke out during a
congressional hearing Thursday on the future of
plug-in hybrid vehicles, as advocates pressed for
more action and a Detroit defender warned the
industry was on the brink of collapse.

The hearing was a mix of sympathy, castigation
and bluster that has become typical of any debate
about the auto industry on Capitol Hill. While
General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler
are building prototype plug-in hybrid vehicles,
none was invited to the hearing of the House
Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

That is the panel overseen by Rep. Ed Markey, the
Massachusetts Democrat who has proposed a fuel
economy standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2018
for new vehicles and pledged to add it to the
energy bill the House likely will consider later this month.

Markey said it was a lack of will, rather than
any bugs in new technology, that was keeping plug-in hybrids from U.S. roads.

"Innovations such as the plug-in hybrid should
not have been sitting on the shelf for so long,"
said Markey. "After all, this isn't rocket science; it is auto mechanics."

But Michigan Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison
Township, said Markey and supporters of tougher
fuel-economy standards would force higher costs
on Detroit without accounting for the advantages
foreign automakers enjoy, such as government-paid
health care for workers in their countries. She
added that the Senate's recent vote for tougher
fuel-economy standards would bankrupt Chrysler,
whose reliance on trucks poses the toughest
efficiency challenge for Detroit automakers.

"Congress seems to be making a conscious decision
to bankrupt Detroit," Miller said.

Miller said after the hearing that Markey had
enough votes to put his fuel-economy proposal on
the House energy bill, but had declined her
requests to hold a hearing in Detroit on new
technologies or invite auto executives to his panel.

Automakers and the Michigan delegation support a
less-stringent fuel-economy plan in the House,
and have warned that the Senate and Markey bills
threaten thousands of U.S. jobs.

"I told him, 'Why you keep insisting on cramming
higher fuel-economy standards down our throat is
beyond me,' " Miller said. "I think what happened
in the Senate will happen in the House."

Witnesses at the panel -- including actor Rob
Lowe -- urged Congress to back the nascent
plug-in hybrid industry, citing the 150-m.p.g.
efficiency that prototypes can achieve in city
driving because of their use of nightly
recharging and driving up to 40 miles on electricity alone.

The head of A123 Systems, the battery company
working with GM and other automakers, noted his
company had to make its lithium-ion batteries in
China because there was no U.S. alternative. A123
plans to sell plug-in hybrid conversion kits for
$7,000 to $10,000 and has pushed for a tax credit
that would offset some of those costs.

Some testified about the risks of inaction. Frank
Gaffney, head of the Center for Security Policy
and a former Defense Department official in the
Reagan Administration, warned that Chinese
automaker Chery could build a plug-in hybrid for as little as $12,000.

"I dare say that will be the end of Detroit if
that vehicle is available in large numbers in
America in the near future," he said.

Lowe, who said he had driven a Toyota Prius
converted to a plug-in hybrid by A123, told the
panel that automakers should move toward plug-ins
with the same urgency that the nation geared up for World War II.

"Can't our amazing and powerful Detroit
automotive industry be given the message,
together with effective incentives, to speed up
their conversion to plug-in hybrids?" Lowe asked.


You can also read an update of yesterday's
Detroit News story (which we discussed in a posting at CalCars-News):
<http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070712/UPDATE/707120483/114\
8/AUTO01>

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

Continuing our international focus, we're happy to announce that our
home page and the summary section of the "What Carmakers Say" page is
now also in Spanish and Swedish, along with Japanese and German. (We
welcome volunteers to translate into other languages, and at the
bottom of the Carmakers pages in each language you'll see credits/thanks.)

Meanwhile, an official at Australia's national science agency, the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
has turned around on electrification of transportation. This heavily
coal-dependent country that is experiencing the worst drought in
either 100 or 1,000 years, setting off intense debates about
sustainability, population and climate change.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drought_in_Australia>

NOTE: In the journalist's report, we again see an off-handed mention
of the persistently-cited CNW study that said a Prius is more
polluting than a Hummer. For critiques, see
<http://blogs.toyota.com/2007/06/save_the_earth_.html> plus
<http://truthalyzer.com/?p=57> and links from there.


Researcher fuels hope in electric cars
By Ian Porter
July 11, 2007
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/researcher-fuels-hope-in-electric-cars/20\
07/07/10/1183833515989.html

CONCERNS over oil supplies will be a thing of the past when electric
cars are the norm, being recharged by solar panels or wind turbines
on house roofs, according to a leading automotive research scientist.

That means cars could be refuelled virtually for nothing and with no
emissions, said David Lamb of the CSIRO. First, though, cars will
have to progress through several stages of development, from
petrol-electric hybrids to plug-in hybrids and then full electric
cars, said Dr Lamb, leader of the CSIRO's low-emission transport group.

Dr Lamb's strong endorsement of electric cars has come as the current
crop of hybrids on the road start to attract criticism due to the
amount of energy consumed when making them, as opposed to when driving them.

A survey in the US showed hybrids used more energy over their life
cycle than many "less efficient" vehicles, altering the common image
of hybrids as the cars that will save the world.

Dr Lamb said current petrol-electric hybrids would evolve into cars
that would rely less on petrol and more on electricity.

"The next stage is the plug-in hybrid and that will save more
emissions again," he said.

Like a regular hybrid, the plug-in hybrid has an internal combustion
engine and an electric motor with batteries, but the batteries can be
recharged from the electricity grid.

This means the internal combustion engine would be used less often to
charge the batteries, further limiting emissions. "Ten years ago we
used to say plug-in hybrids only displaced the emissions from the
tailpipe to the power station where the electricity was generated,
and that it didn't save any emissions," Dr Lamb said.

"In fact, we got it wrong. We were very wrong."

Early analysis did not take into account the pattern of electricity
use across the grid, which sees consumption vary widely during the
day, he said.

"There is such a variation on the draw on the electricity grid that,
with clever metering, clever charging devices and clever batteries,
you will have the ability to suck the power from the grid at times
when it would not add to the load on the grid," he said.

"In other words, you could have, say, half the cars on the road
charging from the electricity grid without changing the emissions
profile from the power station."

"You can expect in a few years time a lot of houses will have solar
generation from panels on the roof and a little wind turbine on the
roof, maybe, and that opens up the door to charging the vehicle for
free, and absolutely emissions-free."

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

It's encouraging to see a companion bill in the House to the Senate
Freedom Act to encourage conversions of hybrids to PHEVs. (See
<http://www.calcars.orgInaccuracies In accuracies in the story need
clarification:
* The Senate proposal would provide $7,500 tax credits for purchase of
PHEVs, but up to only $2,000 for conversions (see
<http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/768.html>).
* And if Toyota's objections refer to nitrogen oxide, not of
greenhouse gases! (As we discussed in our response to Toyota's
critiques, the company's objections are largely mis-statements (see
<http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/780.html>).

Finally, we can only laugh at the outrage of the spokesman for the
Alliance of Auto Manufacturers, criticizing the involvement of a
Hollywood actor.
* It seems hypocritical  for the AAM to talk about the seriousness of
the issues of jobs and global warming and how policy should be made at
the same time as most of its members are suing California for trying
to do something about them.
* And of course, automakers take every opportunity to use media
extravaganzas to persuade us how much they care about the environment.
Recall, for example, the huge SUV bursting out of the mound of corn at
the auto show announcements of GM's "Live Green Go Yellow," whose
launch spanned the Superbowl and the Olympics.

Support builds for hybrid tax perk
Congress warms up to 35% tax break for turning cars into plug-ins,
though it nullifies the warranty.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070712/AUTO01/707120340/1022\
/POLITICS

WASHINGTON -- Support is growing in Congress for tax breaks for hybrid
owners who convert their vehicles to plug-ins, even though doing that
invalidates the manufacturer's warranty.

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., head of the House global warming
committee who's been pushing a 40 percent boost in vehicle mileage
standards by 2018, proposed his "Plug-in Hybrid Opportunity Act of
2007" on Wednesday. It would give gasoline-electric hybrid owners a 35
percent tax credit to defray the costs of converting their vehicle to
plug-ins.

Last month, similar legislation was proposed in the Senate.

Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Barack Obama,
D-Ill., want to offer consumers up to $7,500 in tax credits to convert
hybrids to plug-ins. Dubbed the "Fuel Reduction using Electrons to End
Dependence On the Mideast Act of 2007," or the FREEDOM Act, it also
would give automakers incentives to build plug-in vehicles.

The House Ways and Means Committee also is considering such tax
incentives.

Automakers have been critical of the effort. Converting a vehicle not
only invalidates the manufacturer's warranty, but also requires the
installation of several hundred pounds of batteries and often forces
the removal of the spare tire.

Toyota, which has sold 1 million hybrids worldwide, including 750,000
in the United States, over the last decade, said converting a hybrid
risks vehicle fires, and actually increases greenhouse gas emissions.

Charles Ing, Toyota's director of governmental affairs, told the
Senate that tests of two converted plug-in Toyota Prius vehicles show
they had significantly higher emissions of nitrogen oxide.

"This raises the question of whether the government should be paying
people to make their cars dirtier," Ing wrote.

But there are many ardent enthusiasts of conversion plug-ins.

Several battery manufacturers, including Watertown, Mass.-based A123,
are selling conversion kits for around $10,000.

Markey will hold a hearing and demonstration today with A123's
president and CEO, David Vieau. The hearing also will include the
mayor of Austin, Texas, and actor Rob Lowe, who supports hybrids.

A Markey spokesman, Eben Burnham-Snyder, said Lowe "had driven a
plug-in hybrid and is passionate about the issue."

Automakers were critical of the decision to include Lowe.

"This is a new low in policy making. This is a serious public policy
issue potentially impacting millions of jobs, not a Hollywood
production," said Charles Territo, spokesman for the Alliance of
Automobile Manufacturers, the trade group that represents the Detroit
Three, Toyota, and BMW, among other automakers.

Though automakers oppose converting existing hybrids to plug-ins, they
are working to develop plug-in technology for the future.
--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --
       Felix Kramer  fkramer@...
      Founder  California Cars Initiative
             http://www.calcars.org
       http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --

News overload?  Search for Ford Edison at Google News and get 340 stories.
Ford Southern California Edison plug" at Google
Blog Search brings 1360 postings.

We're making your life easier with excerpts from
leading sources about the Ford/Southern California Edison partnership:
CALSTART NewsNotes, USA Today, Reuters,
GreenCarCongress, EVWorld AP, the Addicted To Oil
Campaign, and photos from Edmunds and MotorTrend.
(Notably, the Wall Street Journal hasm't reported
on the story, and The New York Times has the
Reuters report on its website but not in print.)

Our excerpts begin with a summary of what's
important, then follow with unique elements or
quotes. And we've highlighted the Rashomon-like
phenomenon in which many people heard differently
when Ford would deliver its PHEVs to SCE.



WestStart/CALSTART NEWSNOTES
picked up that the 20 PHEVs will be produced not
at the start but by "close of 2009," and provided
details on what Ford is hoping for from partners.
http://www.calstart.org/dailynewsnotes/daily_nns_detail.php?id=9086
Ford and SoCal Edison Team Up to Develop PHEVs

2007-07-09  One converted Ford Escape Hybrid will
be delivered by year's end according to Mulally,
with 20 more ready for testing by the close of
2009. What makes this partnership unique is the
evaluation of the PHEV "systems as a whole
system...to investigate and figure out how to
commercialize PHEVs," said Mulally.... NewsNotes
spoke with Ford's vice president of
Sustainability, Environment and Safety, Susan M.
Chiscke about the policy barriers and she said,
"We're looking to the government and partners for
capital investments and incentives to get the
battery technologies and suppliers the resources
they need, especially lithium-ion battery
technologies, where they need to be to make this
affordable and safe for our customers." SoCal
Edison has the country's largest fleet of
battery-powered vehicles on the roads today, with
300 vehicles and 14 million road miles logged and
aims to put five million "smart" meters in homes for vehicles by 2012.



USA TODAY
confirmed that Ford sees PHEVs as high priority
for R&D, not production, and quotes Ford CEO
Mulally as saying the 5-10 year prediction is for
the industry, not Ford. The story includes a
provocative statement about PHEVs'
"inevitability" from a venerable auto industry
analyst weighing in, as far as we know, for the
first time. Jack Nerad, executive editorial
director and market analyst for Kelley Blue
Book’s website. Nerad often appears on the
History Channel's “AutoMania;”  he has co-hosted
for 10 years the most-listened-to auto-related
radio program in the country, “America on the
Road;” and he is motoring correspondent on ESPN’s
“Cold Pizza” program. The book cited is due for
publication August 7 (we don't know if it includes anything about PHEVs).

Ford wades its way into plug-in hybrids
By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY June 9, 2007
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/environment/2007-07-09-ford-plugin-hybrids_N\
.htm?csp=34

ROSEMEAD, Calif. — Ford Motor's (F) CEO said
Monday that the automaker is joining rivals who
are trying to develop plug-in vehicles.

CEO Alan Mulally said gas-electric hybrids that
can be plugged in to charge their batteries
overnight are a "high priority" for his research
and development staff....He predicted that the
industry will see plug-in hybrids, which combine
electric motors with gasoline engines, in
showrooms within five to 10 years. But he was
careful not to commit Ford to production of them
— only research for now — because the technology is in its early stage.

Ford's entry in the plug-in race was inevitable,
says Jack Nerad of automotive website KBB.com and
author of the coming Complete Idiot's Guide to
Hybrids and Alternative Fuel Vehicles. "Everyone
is moving that same direction," Nerad says.
"Nobody wants to be left at the bus stop."

Ford plans to give Edison 20 hybrid Escapes that
have been modified to be plugs-ins. The utility,
in turn, plans to place them with average
customers to monitor their performance being
charged at home for use in regular service.

John Bryson, CEO of the utility's parent, Edison
International(EIX), said he thinks a melding of
the automotive and electrical industries is
"very, very likely" because cheaper,
lower-pollution power is such a strong lure as
oil prices climb. Utilities need to become more
involved in fostering the conversion, he said.



REUTERS
implies that Ford CEO Mulally says the 5-10-year
timeline for selling PHEVs is about Ford
cars--with an escape hatch if the batteries
aren't good enough. The report includes a comment
from the Freedom From Oil campaign (by Rainfoest
Action Network and Global Exchange). Here's a bit
more from them: “Plug-in vehicles, which use
proven technology that is capable of achieving
over 100 miles per gallon, make the U.S. Senate’s
goal of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 seem
painfully conservative. We are encouraged by what
appears to be a sincere effort by Ford and
Southern California Edison to chip away at the
auto industry’s longstanding relationship with
Big Oil. By being the first automaker to put a
plug-in hybrid on the road, Ford is leaving its
competitors in the dust." See the entire
statement at <http://ran.org/media_center/news_article/?uid=2377>.

Ford, So Cal Ed to test plug-in hybrids
Mon Jul 9, 2007 7:39PM EDT
By Bernie Woodall (Additional reporting by Poornima Gupta in Detroit)
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN0931005820070709

ROSEMEAD, California (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co.
on Monday announced a partnership with utility
Southern California Edison to test a fleet of
rechargeable electric vehicles and said it
expected to sell such plug-in hybrids within the
next decade if battery technology keeps pace.
"Within five to 10 years we will start to see
this technology in our hands," Ford Chief
Executive Alan Mulally said at the event. When
asked if that meant plug-in hybrids would be
available on showroom floors, Mulally said yes.
He declined to give a more precise production
target, saying: "I can't go further than that. We
will know a lot more in the next few years."

The remarks were the first time the No. 2 U.S.
automaker has offered a timeline for producing
plug-in hybrid vehicles, which many environmental
advocates see as the best available technology to
reduce gas consumption and greenhouse gas
emissions... Mulally cautioned the commercial
rollout of the still experimental vehicles
depends on advances in battery technology, an
assessment shared by other rival automakers.

"Consumers have been waiting a long time for an
automaker to offer the next generation of
ultra-fuel-efficient, gasoline- optional cars,"
said environmental groups Rainforest Action
Network and Global Exchange Campaign in response to Ford's announcement....



GREENCARCONGRESS
points out that the announcement and press
conference left open important details, such as
whether the small fleet of converted Escape PHEVs
would be equipped with the bi-directional
controllers necessary to fully test
vehicle-to-grid operation. Hybrid/PHEV expert
Jack Rosebro's report also emphasizes the long
time-frames expected by both sides of the
partnership. And he adds a great historical note
about Henry Ford and Thomas Edison! His posting
(which also links to our analysis posted
yesterday at CalCars-News) has accumulated
several dozen comments in a few hours.

Ford and Edison Partner on Plug-In Hybrids
9 July 2007 by Jack Rosebro
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/07/ford-and-edison.html

Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally and Edison
International CEO John Bryson announced today
that Ford is partnering with Edison subsidiary
Southern California Edison in a multi-year,
multimillion dollar project to, in Mulally’s
words, “investigate and figure out how to
commercialize plug-in hybrids.” Ford will supply
twenty stock Escape hybrid SUVs to Southern
California Edison, to be placed with “average
consumers.” After real-world baseline data is
collected from the vehicles, Ford will convert
the Escapes to plug-in hybrids with lithium-ion
battery packs from an unnamed battery supplier,
then return them to consumers for comparison testing.

Holding up a standard 110V extension cord, Bryson
stated “We need to make the future as simple as
this...[Electricity] is the only alternative fuel
with an infrastructure that has already been
built.” Mulally added that “for the first time,
we are going to look at the total energy system
as a system.” Although both men stated that the
project is designed in part to investigate
vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, they did not
specifically confirm whether the project vehicles
will be V2G-capable. However, Edison envisions
“smart plug-in hybrid vehicles ”as part of “an
integrated smart home and grid energy system of
the future,” and the two companies also plan to
explore the potential residual value of PHEV
battery packs when utilized for bulk energy
storage, possibly in the home, after the packs
reach the end of their usable life in a vehicle.

Both men cited barriers to the commercialization
of PHEVs: Mulally remarked that “we have a lot of
regulatory and public policy issues to address,”
while in response to the inevitable “when will
PHEVs be sold?” question, Bryson opined “I think
that’s a decade down the road.” Mulally put the
timeframe for the industry at five to ten years,
and added that Ford sees PHEVs as a bridge to an all-electric fleet.

Asked if a convergence between the electric
utility and transportation industries is
inevitable, Bryson emphatically stated “Yes,”
then qualified the statement as currently more of
a hope than a reality. Ed Kjaer of Southern
California Edison added that SCE plans to equip
all five million of its users with smart meters by 2012.

Mulally cited the project as a convergence of
“the great names of Ford and Edison.” Henry Ford
was once Thomas Edison’s chief engineer, and the
two remained friends after Ford left to build his own empire.



EVWORLD
Editor Bill Moore's "Insider Commentary" --
available to those who support this worthy
publication by becoming subscribers at $29/year
-- brings the perspective that the big news is
that electrification of transportation is taking center stage.

Ford and SCE Pursue New Energy and Transportation Vision
http://www.evworld.com/general.cfm?page=insider&nextedition=114

The announcement today that Ford and Southern
California Edison are going to collaborate on a
multi-million dollar, multi-year study of the
feasibility of grid-interactive hybrids -- where
power is exchanged intelligently between the
vehicle and the grid -- seems to me just as
profound as GM's announcement in January that it
was developing a range-extended electric car, the
Volt. The two companies will work together to
explore the role "smart" plug-in hybrids may play
in improving the productivity and reliability of
the grid, as well as how they can be integrated
into the "smart homes" of the future. What's
exciting here is that an American car company
appears to have caught the vision of a
post-petroleum world where transportation and
energy converge. I am sure there have been and
are visionaries in both the utility and auto
industry who have quietly championed this
concept, but today's announcement would seem to
be the catalyst for actively exploring the fringes of that future.



ASSOCIATED PRESS
puts the delivery date for 20 PHEVs somewhere in
2009. It describes manufacturers as "racing to
bring the technology to market." And it quotes
Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Jon
Wellinghoff, who coined the term "Cash-Back
Hybrids" to describe payments to car-owners for
putting their batteries on the power grid.

Ford, California power company join to develop plug-in hybrids
By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer 07/09/2007
AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher and Associated Press
Writer David Runk, both in Detroit, contributed to this report.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_6335900

LOS ANGELES—Ford Motor Co. and Southern
California Edison hope to speed mass production
of rechargeable hybrid vehicles with a new
partnership that tests the technology and gauges
how well drivers take to the vehicles....

"Right now we have a lot to learn," said Susan M.
Cischke, a Ford senior vice president, following
the official announcement. "There's a lot of
battery development that still needs to be done."

The Detroit-based automaker will deliver as many
as 20 plug-in vehicles to the California utility
by some time in 2009, she said....

Many automakers have plug-in hybrids that are
similar to Ford's experimental vehicles, but mass
production has been held back by costs and
battery technology that limit the vehicles'
range. Manufacturers are racing to bring the
technology to market as consumers seek
alternatives to traditional engines and high gasoline prices.

Ford, Cischke said, already is testing two
plug-in hybrids in its Dearborn labs that are
based on the Escape small sport utility vehicle,
a model that Ford offers as a gas-electric
hybrid. Still, Cischke said it could be anywhere
between five or 10 years before rechargeable
hybrid vehicles become more widely produced. "It
all depends on the battery development," she said....

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is
interested in the tests because plug-in hybrid
batteries could reduce the need for additional
generators. The batteries could store electricity
generated at off-peak hours and feed it back to
power companies during peak use times,
Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff said Monday. "If you
could have thousands or millions of plug-in
hybrids providing these services instead, you
could take generators out of that role,"
Wellinghoff said. It's possible that power
companies could pay hybrid owners for the power, he said.



See photos of the two CEOs at blogs from
EDMONDS http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=121640#3
MOTOR TREND
http://blogs.motortrend.com/6212207/green/ford-partners-with-electric-company-to\
-study-plug-in-hybrids/

And for a laugh, the postings at
http://www.drudge.com/news/96373/fordplug-hybrid-possible-5-10-yrs

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

CALCARS' OVERALL REACTION
This is a welcome and very important baby step. Ford's CEO action in
travelling across the country to announce that the company thinks
PHEVs are a direction worthy of "exploring" is significant.

BUT WHAT'S MISSING
* Ford putting its toe in the water for PHEVs can also be seen as a
"me-too" statement by a company missing another chance for a leadership role.
* This program doesn't position Ford to compete with GM and Toyota to
be the first with production PHEVs.
* Ford is not saying it is making plug-in cars a company priority, as
GM has said.
* Ford has not announced significant re-allocations of engineering
and product development staff, as GM has already done.
* If Ford is holding back on something it sees as inevitable, hoping
for future boosts from government funds, it could miss its window of
opportunity.
* And we can't repeat often enough: we all can't afford any delay in
reducing petroleum and carbon use in transportation.


Here's our summary, based on early reports from the press conference
of Ford CEO Alan Mulally and Edison CEO John Bryson, plus the
official text of the announcement (reproduced below), followed by our
single paragraph of what we'd hoped to hear -- from our Saturday
"dream announcement" <http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/786.html>.

WHAT AND WHEN
* Ford's initial deliverable is a fleet of non-PHEV Escape Hybrids,
to be driven by ordinary citizens, to provide benchmarks.
* Ford will itself design a PHEV version of the Escape Hybrid with a
battery partner to be determined. (In an interview with AP, Ford
senior VP Susan M. Cischke said the company has two Escape PHEVs in
its Dearborn labs.)
* Beyond delivery of one PHEV before 2008 and 20 in 2009, we get no
timetables for activities in what's described as a "multi-million
dollar, multi-year PHEV evaluation and demonstration program."
* The partners hope for financial support from state and federal
agencies and utility associations, which implies lengthy time-frames.
* At the press conference, Mulally said he thought we'd see PHEVs in
showrooms in five-to-ten years (he didn't say Ford PHEVs).

GENERAL POINTS
* The collaboration's announcement eloquently outlines the
environmental, economic and social benefits of PHEVs for
transportation and power generation.
* The partners will "evaluate and model" business cases for
"innovative" ideas, including vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid
scenarios and utilities buying back slowly degrading batteries for
long-term stationery re-use.
* Southern California Edison will integrate these cars with its new
"Smart Meters," which all of its customers will have within five years.
* Ford's initially exclusive partnership (which may have been
accelerated by the personal connection between ex-Boeing CEO Alan
Mulally and Boeing Director since 1995 John Bryson) could later
include other electric utilities nationwide and Edison will continue
to work broadly with other utilities and automakers.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ford Motor Company and Southern California Edison
Join Forces to Advance a New Transportation and Energy Vision

ROSEMEAD, Calif., July 9, 2007- The automaker that introduced the
world's first hybrid sport-utility vehicle and the electric utility
with the nation's largest and most advanced electric vehicle (EV)
fleet are combining resources to explore ways to make plug-in hybrid
(PHEV) vehicles more accessible to consumers, reduce
petroleum-related emissions and improve the cost-effectiveness of the
nation's electricity grid.

Describing teamwork between their industries as essential to making
progress on energy security and climate change, the heads of the Ford
Motor Company and Edison International, the parent company of
Southern California Edison (SCE), today announced the nation's first
collaboration to examine the future of PHEVs as part of a complete
vehicle, home and grid energy system.

"The Ford Motor Company team is firmly focused on delivering products
people really want. This unique partnership with Southern California
Edison will allow us to explore new solutions for our customers'
growing need for energy conservation," said Alan Mulally, president
and chief executive officer of Ford. "By combining strengths, ours in
hybrid technology, theirs in energy management, we can consider
transportation as part of the broader energy system and work to
unleash the potential of plug-in technology for consumers."

"The challenges of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing
our nation's energy security reach across industry boundaries and
unite us in a common cause," said John E. Bryson, chairman and chief
executive officer of Edison International. "Partnerships between
automakers such as Ford and electric utilities such as Edison
demonstrate the innovative leadership position that both companies
hold in seeking and finding solutions to global and consumer problems."

Ford and Edison intend to explore many of the potential benefits of
widespread PHEV use, which include enhanced energy security, reduced
greenhouse gas emissions, lower fuel costs and more cost-effective
use of the nation's electricity grid.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle technologies are not yet competitive
due primarily to the high cost of advanced batteries.  Ford and SCE
will explore whether these batteries have other uses that could
reduce their cost to consumers. For example, a popular vision of
plug-in hybrid automotive technology is the potential for owners to
charge their vehicles in the evening when the cost to produce
electricity is low, and then store and use that energy during peak
hours of the day, when electricity costs are high. Advanced batteries
also could store energy from rooftop solar panels more efficiently.
The two companies will evaluate and model the potential economic
value of such innovative uses.

Also, batteries currently have no residual value priced into the
purchase cost. Ford and SCE believe it might be possible to develop a
market for the untapped value present in used plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle batteries at the end of their vehicle life.

And, Edison's nationally recognized Electric Vehicle Technical Center
in Pomona, Calif., is testing advanced battery technologies that
could further enhance the emergence of future energy storage
applications in the utility industry.

Ford-Edison Project to Evaluate Potential Values of PHEVs

- Fueling at the plug instead of the pump would be cheaper for consumers.

As a transportation fuel, electricity is 50 percent to 75 percent
less expensive than the equivalent cost of a gallon of gasoline. The
diverse mix of energy sources used to generate the nation's
electricity supply is priced lower and is more stable than the cost
of petroleum.

- The use of plug-in hybrid vehicles holds the promise of reduced
greenhouse gases and enhanced energy security.

Plug-in hybrid technology offers the opportunity to use as
transportation fuel the nation's growing renewable generation
portfolio as well as surplus off-peak power.

Plug-in hybrids produce less carbon dioxide and pollutants than
gasoline hybrids. Such environmental and financial benefits will
increase as a larger percentage of the nation's transportation needs
is fueled from the power grid.

- Using off-peak electricity to fuel transportation could increase
grid productivity and help bring down the price of electricity for
utility customers.

Each night, a large percentage of America's power generation
infrastructure sits idle. A recent study by the U.S. Department of
Energy1 estimated that if every light duty car and truck in America
today used plug-in hybrid technology, 73 percent of them could be
plugged in and fueled by excess capacity in the electricity grid
without constructing a single new power plant. [DOE study on plug-in
hybrids, released December
2006:
<http://www.pnl.gov/energy/eed/etd/pdfs/phev_feasibility_analysis_combined.pdf>]

- Smart plug-in vehicles could become part of an integrated smart
home and grid energy system of the future.

Untapped consumer benefits could be obtained by adding to the
traditional utility system the energy storage and retrieval capacity
of a large number of advanced batteries in plug-in hybrid vehicles.
For the first time, excess power generated by home-based units such
as rooftop solar generation could be stored and used when needed by
the property owner.

Ford-Edison Project Components

- Ford and Edison intend to undertake a multi-million dollar,
multi-year PHEV evaluation and demonstration program.

- Ford will provide SCE with a demonstration fleet of 2008 Ford
Escape Hybrid SUVs that will be benchmarked for performance
characteristics. The Escape hybrid platform will then be engineered
by the Ford product development team, with a battery company partner
yet to be named, to be fully PHEV capable.

- Some of the vehicles will be evaluated in typical customer settings
in order to model overall home and grid values this technology could tap.

- Additional project funding may be sought from participants such as
the Electric Power Research Institute, the U.S. Department of Energy,
the California Energy Commission and the South Coast Air Quality
Management District.

- Ford will initially work exclusively with SCE to develop the
testing procedures and define its initial demonstration fleet. As
Ford's plug-in hybrid program grows, the automaker will look for
broader participation as it develops a business model not just for
Southern California, but potentially nationwide. SCE has worked for
more than 20 years with all major automakers and will continue
seeking alliances between the two industries that advance plug-in
hybrid technology.

Related Facts
- Ford was the first American auto manufacturer to develop and
produce a hybrid SUV, the Ford Escape Hybrid. This full hybrid is now
in its fourth year of production.

- Ford is pursuing a portfolio of advanced technology solutions to
address energy security and climate change concerns, including
refinements in gasoline fueled engines and advanced transmissions,
clean diesel, biofuels and flexible fuel vehicles, hybrids and
hydrogen fuel cells.

- The electric grid is the only alternative fuel infrastructure
accessible to every U.S. home.

- SCE's EV fleet has traveled more than 14 million miles since the
mid-1990s. Since the inception of SCE's EV program, company vehicles
have avoided the consumption of more than 700,000 gallons of gasoline
and avoided 7,500 tons of global warming carbon dioxide emissions and
more than 1,700 tons of air pollutants.

- SCE's Electric Vehicle Technical Center, founded in 1993, conducts
extensive plug-in electric vehicle battery testing with major battery
manufacturers and the DOE to evaluate system reliability in both
mobile and stationary applications.


Ford Motor Company Media Contacts:
Jennifer Moore, jmoor186@...
Dan Smith, dsmith@...

Edison International Media:
Gil Alexander, gil.alexander@...

# # #

Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in
Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles in 200
markets across six continents. With about 260,000 employees and about
100 plants worldwide, the company's core and affiliated automotive
brands include Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo and
Mazda. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor
Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford's products,
please visit <http://www.fordvehicles.com>

An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California
Edison is one of the nation's largest electric utilities, serving a
population of more than 13 million via 4.8 million customer accounts
in a 50,000-square-mile service area within central, coastal and
Southern California.


THE HEADLINE/STORY WE'D WELCOME
Ford/Edison Offer Cash-Back Hybrids to Fleets

Ford announces it will make available in the coming months hundreds
of Ford Escape [or other model] PHEVs for testing in vehicle-to-grid
(V2G) experiments and evaluation of everyday driving use, by SCE, the
US National Labs, Pacific Gas & Electric, Austin Energy, King County,
Google, and the other consortia and companies that want to prove out
PHEV performance and begin integrating transportation and power
generation. The company announces a fast-track timetable for
mass-produced PHEVs. And it commits to support legislation now under
consideration in the House and Senate to incentivize producers and
buyers of PHEVs.

  From <http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/786.html>, which also
provides background on Ford's recent history with hybrids and PHEVs.

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

Ford officially joins what the reporter describes as
"manufacturers...racing to bring the technology to market" with a
prototype Ford Escape Hybrid PHEV that could go into production, not
a concept car. The interview emphasizes real-world research, not
technology research. Interestingly, Ford Senior VP Cischke highlights
night-time wind-charging, indicating an appreciation for the
potential of vehicle-to-grid benefits. We'll see if we get more news
this afternoon at the press conference!

Ford Takes on Calif. Hybrid Partner
Ford, California Power Company Teaming Up to Test Rechargebale Hybrid Vehicles
Monday July 9, 6:13 am ET
By Tom Krisher, AP Auto Writer
Associated Press writer David Runk contributed to this report.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070709/ford_hybrid_partnership.html?.v=2

DETROIT (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. and Southern California Edison will
team up to test rechargeable hybrid vehicles in an effort to speed up
mass production of the new technology.

The utility, which serves 13 million people in 11 central, coastal
and Southern California counties outside Los Angeles, will get a Ford
plug-in hybrid vehicle by the end of this year and as many as 20 by
some time in 2009 to test their durability, range and impact on the
power grid, said Susan M. Cischke, Ford senior vice president for
sustainability, environment and safety engineering.

Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally and other company executives
planned to be in California on Monday to make the announcement, which
Cischke says is a unique partnership between a power provider and an
automaker that should help bring plug-in hybrids to market more quickly.

Plug-in hybrids generally have batteries that power an electric
motor, with an internal combustion engine for use when the batteries
run low. The batteries can be recharged by plugging them into a
standard wall outlet.

Southern California Edison will help Ford by placing the cars with
consumers and collecting data, Cischke said in an interview with the
Associated Press.

"They have the wire-side knowledge about the grid and all the issues
there," she said. "By partnering with these two industries ... we're
hoping that it does accelerate the commercialization and certainly
drive some of the cost issues down."

Power shortages have been an issue in Southern California Edison's
highly populated service area. The company is under a state mandate
to build five power plants in that would fire up during peak energy
use periods. The plants would help avoid projected energy shortages.

Many automakers have plug-in hybrids that are similar to Ford's
experimental vehicles, but mass production has been held back by cost
and battery technology that limits the vehicles' range. Manufacturers
are racing to bring the technology to market as consumers seek
alternatives to the internal combustion engine and high gasoline prices.

"We see electricity as itself an alternative fuel in support of
transportation," said John Bryson, chairman of Rosemead, Calif.-based
Edison International, parent company of Southern California Edison.

Bryson said the collaboration will allow Ford and the utility to
better see how technology that has been tested in the laboratory
works in the real world. He said plug-in hybrids have the potential
put the power grid to better use, for example, by charging vehicles
in overnight hours when electricity demand is lower.

Ford, Cischke said, already is testing two plug-in hybrids in its
Dearborn labs that are based on the Escape small sport utility
vehicle, a model that Ford offers as a gas-electric hybrid.

Cischke said it's still too early to predict when Ford can
mass-produce the cars.

"That's one of the reasons for this program, to gather more data and
fully understand the customer usage part," she said.

She said that in the future, power generated by wind could be used at
night to recharge vehicles.

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

Here's a very revealing article about the impact of the woes of
Detroit automakers on part suppliers. The Detroit Free Press article
concludes by citing Compact Power, one of the companies hoping to
supply batteries for the GM Volt, as a ray of hope.

Then a commenter on the story brings into the story Europe's new
emission requirements, ably translates grams/kilometer into US MPG,
and shows that it's the "Det3" who manage -- somehow  -- to build
cars that meet European standards there, but can't/won't do it here!
(Feel free to add your views!) Here, up front, are those two
paragraphs by "PatAnthony:"

WE CAN SEE how Chyrsler, FORD, GM (Vauxhall/Opel) [world headquarter
in Detroit] are responding to European CO2 emissions requirement of
160 g/km in 2005 (resulting in fleet average of 35 mpg(US) combined
city/highway); 140 g/km in 2008 (resulting in fleet average of 44
mpg(US); and 130 g/km proposed for 2012 (resulting in fleet average
of ~47 mpg(US).

Now look at what they have already done in Europe.
http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/information/how-to-use-the-data-tables.asp#petr\
ol
This is a list of 36 EU vehicles that all beat the proposed 2012
emission standards by achieving 120 g/km ... all get 47 mpg(US)
combined or better. If Smart is counted as a Chrysler, Daihatsu and
Vauxhall/Opel as GM, add 4 Fords, then 33% of these 47 mpg plus
vehicles were brought into production over the last few years by the
Detroit 3.


AUTO INDUSTRY WOES
CHAIN REACTION: Parts makers feel the pinch as U.S. market shrinks
July 8, 2007
BY JEWEL GOPWANI  FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
<http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070708/BUSINESS01/707080651>

The woes of the Detroit automakers, who lost a combined $15 billion
last year, are taking their toll on North America's financially
distressed parts makers.

Recent studies of the supplier industry show that these companies are
cutting costs, changing where they do business and what they make in
order to survive the most competitive auto industry they've ever seen.

As Detroit automakers lose market share to competitors like Toyota
and Honda, they're making fewer vehicles, so they need fewer parts.
And they're pressuring suppliers to charge less for those parts.

But at the same time, the cost of doing business keeps going up.
Plastics, steel, electricity and health care are all getting more
expensive. And many suppliers are burdened with lots of debt, which
has become more costly to carry as interest rates rise.

Rising costs and falling demand make a brutal combination.

"They have to be able to rethink the entire way in which they do
business," said Erich Merkle, an auto analyst with IRN Inc. in Grand
Rapids. "That means going out and finding new customers. That means
looking for innovations in terms of their product line."

The suppliers that are doing well in the massive auto-parts industry
-- estimated at $902 billion by Merrill Lynch -- are typically those
with lean operations, global scope and proprietary technology.

"It can be a great business for those who operate at the top of their
game," said John Hoffecker, a managing director at Southfield-based
AlixPartners LLP, who compiles an annual study of the industry's
health. "It can be a very unforgiving business for those who do not
move as quickly as those around them."

Investment help

The storm of bad news has sent dozens of auto suppliers into Chapter
11 bankruptcy, the largest being Troy-based Delphi Corp.

Once the world's largest supplier, Delphi plans to close or sell 21
plants in the United States. It negotiated a new UAW contract and is
preparing to emerge from bankruptcy later this year with investment
from private equity firms.

Other suppliers have been going down a similar road.

You can find two examples in Oakland County. Cerberus Capital
Management LP plans to buy Novi-based Tower Automotive Inc., and Carl
Icahn plans to buy at least 43% of Southfield-based Federal-Mogul
Corp., both of which went through extensive restructuring.

And the march into bankruptcy isn't over.

Southfield-based consulting firm BBK estimates that a third of North
American suppliers are in financial trouble.

Enter private equity, which has taken on a bigger role in the auto
industry, as it has throughout the economy. Private equity players
were involved in 24% of all mergers and acquisitions last year,
versus 14% in 2003, according to AlixPartners.

The jolt of new ownership might be what some suppliers need to change
their businesses. "You tend to see on average, a sense of urgency in
private equity companies, greater than you do in the average
supplier," Hoffecker said.

Global reach

While North America has been a tough place to do business, auto
suppliers are expanding overseas to get a stake in fast-growing car
markets and to cut their costs.

In China and India, car and truck sales grew by more than 20% last
year. AlixPartners expects China to replace Germany as the world's
third largest auto market by 2009. (Including minicars and heavy
trucks, China's market is already bigger than Germany's.) India is
expected to be the fifth largest by 2013.

More and more, automakers are expecting their suppliers to be global
players, said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive
Research in Ann Arbor.

He expects that more automakers will follow General Motors Corp. in
its strategy to use common parts in vehicles around the world, making
it more important for suppliers to go where their customers make cars.

Growing globally is not only a way to reach customers, but also a way
to cut costs. When done right, moving manufacturing to low-cost
countries can save a company 15% to 20%, AlixPartners says.
Federal-Mogul, for instance, is closing 25 plants in Europe and North
America and moving that work to low-cost countries.

Future powertrains

The industry does offer some opportunities for growth, particularly
for suppliers that offer breakthrough powertrain technology.

Hoffecker said: "The ones that are doing well, and there are a
number, ...they're using technology and innovation to differentiate
themselves from the pack."

As consumers get used to high gas prices, automakers are racing to
offer more fuel-efficient vehicles -- opening doors for suppliers who
can help them do it.

In hopes of topping Toyota's popular Prius hybrid, GM has made a big
bet on the Chevrolet Volt, which is expected to use a battery-powered
drivetrain that could get more than 50 m.p.g. with a gas-powered generator.

Troy-based Compact Power Inc. is among the early winners. It is
developing a battery prototype for the Volt and has visions of
growing $10 million in sales last year to $500 million in 10 years.

Jim McTevia, chairman of restructuring firm McTevia & Associates in
Bingham Farms says this is the way of the future.

"We're going to have to become manufacturers of technology instead of
heavy machinery and heavy equipment," he said. "That age is over."
.


* View all Comments

Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:14 am
PatAnthony: "Too bad the solution was not to demand changes in the
American automotive industry instead if abandoning it. This is an
American problem, not a Detroit problem"

I wish to differ with you. I have tried for 35 years to encourage
Det3 to provide better better fuel economy and quality (including service).

In 2005 I started a major correspondence effort with Chyrsler, FORD,
GM regarding "future needs" including possibility of fuel price
increases expected by at least one Congressional staffer of $4/gallon
by 2007. To put it bluntly ... the responses I got basically said "GO
AWAY ... WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING".

They have not observed losses to Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota,
or VW over the past 35 years.

What can/could the "average" American do other than buy the product
that "BEST" meet their needs, be it "domestic" or "foreign".

WE CAN SEE how Chyrsler, FORD, GM (Vauxhall/Opel) [world headquarter
in Detroit] are responding to European CO2 emissions requirement of
160 g/km in 2005 (resulting in fleet average of 35 mpg(US) combined
city/highway); 140 g/km in 2008 (resulting in fleet average of 44
mpg(US) combined city/highway); and 130 g/km proposed for 2012
(resulting in fleet average of ~47 mpg(US) combined city/highway).

Now look at what they have already done in Europe.
http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/information/how-to-use-the-data-tables.asp#petr\
ol
This is a list of 36 EU vehicles that all beat the proposed 2012
emission standards by achieving 120 g/km ... all get 47 mpg(US)
combined or better. If Smart is counted as a Chrysler, Daihatsu and
Vauxhall/Opel as GM, add 4 Fords, then 33% of these 47 mpg plus
vehicles were brought into production over the last few years by the
Detroit 3. It turns out that an additional 20% are provided by
several Hondas, Toyotas, a Hyundai, and a VW.

What Detroit 3 (world headquarters) has offer the US are vehicles
that can not meet the 10 plus year old current CAFE standards of 27.5
mpg combined average using the 2008 EPA methodology.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/byMPG.htm

I think MOST of US CARE ... BUT we can't even get the Detroit 3 to
address the fuel economy issue ... how can we save the industry employees?

If Detroit does not want to build vehicles that people want, the plan
must be to dismantle domestic manufacturing ... a National Security
issue ... in my opinion ... but I'm nobody ...

Sorry ... I am powerless also ... I WISH YOU ALL GOOD LUCK and MAY
YOUR FUTURE ... QUICKLY BECOME CLEARER ... AND .... BRIGHTER!


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

Late Friday we got calls from journalists asking what we know about a
Businesswire media advisory. It was an invitation to media to hear
Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, and John Bryson, CEO of Edison
International, parent company of  Southern California Edison, at a
2:30 PST press conference Monday to announce:

"a joint electric transportation initiative designed to explore ways
to advance plug-in hybrid technology for the U.S. market. This will
be the first time a major automaker and a large electricity utility
have combined resources to study ways to make plug-in hybrid
technology more accessible for all customers."
Promised video includes: "Hybrid vehicles and a bank of electric
vehicle charging stations/B-roll footage of a Ford hybrid and the SCE
electricity system."

We no nothing more than you. The description sounds like a small
study with a handful of prototypes -- but with both CEOs showing up,
it could be far more. We hope Sherry Boschert is right when she was
quoted by Reuters (below), that automakers are finally "realizing
that the handwriting is on the wall." We hope Monday marks the
culmination of years of efforts by PHEV advocates to encourage Ford
to see the opportunity. It's Ford's chance to get people excited
about their cars, take the lead in innovation -- and in the race to
be first on PHEVs, beat GM and Toyota to the starting line.


THE HEADLINE/STORY WE'D WELCOME
Ford/Edison Offer Cash-Back Hybrids to Fleets

Ford announces it will make available in the coming months hundreds
of Ford Escape [or other model] PHEVs for testing in vehicle-to-grid
(V2G) experiments and evaluation of everyday driving use, by SCE, the
US National Labs, Pacific Gas & Electric, Austin Energy, King County,
Google, and the other consortia and companies that want to prove out
PHEV performance and begin integrating transportation and power
generation. The company announces a fast-track timetable for
mass-produced PHEVs. And it commits to support legislation now under
consideration in the House and Senate to incentivize producers and
buyers of PHEVs.

NOTE: The V2G capability would require not only larger batteries and
associated electronics, but also two-way controllers so the car can
be fully integrated into the power system. This hardware is
"existing, proven technology" -- AC Propulsion has made and sold them
for years, and Hybrids-Plus is about to sell them. And a number of
companies are developing software and systems to integrate plug-in
cars with the grid's management and billing systems.


CONTEXT FOR MONDAY'S ANOUNCEMENT
Here's a partial recap of Ford's recent history with hybrids and
plug-in cars (details of many at
<http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html> and
<http://www.calcars.org/carmakers.html>):

HYBRID DEVELOPMENT
* After five years, Ford launched the Ford Escape Hybrid in summer
2004. The much-anticipated first hybrid SUV offered MPG in the low
30s (compared to the low 20s for the non-hybrid). Customers,
especially in states like California and Virginia, where high-MPG
hybrids were allowed in the HOV (carpool) lanes, expressed their
disappointment. (It came close to being called a "muscle hybrid,"
like the Accord recently discontinued by Honda.)
* Under Bill Ford, the company promised to increase hybrid production
ten-fold by 2010, then retracted the commitment.
* The Sierra Club's national leadership partnered with Ford to
introduce the Mariner hybrid. Sierra and other groups were
disappointed when only a few thousand were produced. Many are still
in the process of realizing they could support far more than hybrids,
and that reducing petroleum use is not the same as displacing it with
renewable, domestic electricity.
* Responding to Ford's position as the US carmaker with the lowest
average fleet fuel economy, Rainforest Action Network and Global
Exchange launched the Jumpstart Ford campaign for higher-MPG cars
throughout the Ford line. (Later broadened and joined by the Ruckus
Society, it was renamed the Freedom From Oil Campaign.)

PLUG-IN HYBRID EFFORTS
* CalCars, working with architect-designer Bill McDonough (former
sustainability advisor to the Bill Ford and the company), and with
Prof. Andy Frank, engaged with Ford in 2005-2006 for six months with
proposals for PHEV projects, but never managed to get buy-in.
* Bill Ford, when publicly asked at the May 2006 shareholders
meeting, said the company was "keenly looking" at PHEVs but had
nothing to announce.
* Ford introduced two concept cars that it said showed its interest
in PHEVS: the HySeries Edge and the Airstream. Both were greeted with
much skepticism, since they start with hydrogen fuel cells as the
range extender.
* Continuing contacts with Ford engineers indicates that the
impediments are more about business models and company priorities
than technology.

COMPANY AND MANAGEMENT EVENTS
* Ford abandoned its popular Th!nk all-electric car; after several
corporate reorganizations, Think Global cars will soon be produced
and sold with battery packs from Tesla Energy Systems, the new
subsidiary of Tesla Motors.
* Ford tried to take back a small number of remaining Ranger EV
trucks, but finally gave in to the Don't Crush Campaign, which then
became Plug In America.
* Mary Ann Wright, who led the Ford Escape Hybrid development, took
the job of CEO of a Johnson Controls-Saft Battery joint venture to
sell lithium batteries to GM and other carmakers.
* When Boeing's Bill Mulally took over as Ford's new CEO, business
analysts described one of Ford's main problems as "it will take them
five years to change their product mix." We responded with messages
we hope reached Mulally that, in less than a year, the company could
extend the Ford Escape Hybrid line with a PHEV option.

FORD ESCAPE CONVERSIONS (see <http://www.calcars.org/where-phevs-are.html>)
* When we showed our Prius PHEV to Bill Clinton last year, his
reaction was that he wanted to convert the Mariner Hybrid the company
had customized for him.
* Escape hybrids have been converted to PHEV and publicly shown by
Hymotion/A123 and by All Cell Technologies in Chicago, but have
received relatively little attention.
* Canadian battery company Electrovaya has a conversion under
development, as does Colorado's Hybrids-Plus.
* Hybrids-Plus plans to include with its Escape the "Inverger, an
integrated Inverter and Charger to transfer power in either direction
between the electrical grid and the PHEV battery."
* We were intrigued that the South Coast Air Quality Management
District's announcement of a contract with Quantum Technologies for
conversions of 20 Escape Hybrids is described as occurring "with
support from Ford," but we've been unable to find out any further
details (the contract isn't final).


REUTERS PREVIEWS MONDAY
Ford, utility join to promote plug-in ve
By Kevin Krolickihicles  Fri Jul 6, 2007 7:59PM EDT
<http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0620997020070706>

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co and power utility Southern
California Edison will announce an unusual alliance on Monday aimed
at clearing the way for a new generation of rechargeable electric
cars, the companies said.

Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally and Edison International Chief
Executive John Bryson are scheduled to meet with reporters at
Edison's headquarters in Rosemead, California, the companies said.

The two chief executives will announce a "joint initiative" that
represents a first-of-its-kind tie-up between a major automaker and a
major utility in the area of "plug-in" hybrid vehicle technology,
representatives of both companies said.

Further details were not immediately available, but environmental
advocates said the tie-up showed the momentum building for developing
rechargeable hybrid vehicles as a way to reduce oil consumption and
greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmental advocates, particularly in California, have been
pressing automakers to roll out such plug-in vehicles that would be
capable of running on electricity for short distances and recharging
at a standard electric outlet.

"I think they're all realizing that the handwriting is on the wall,"
said Sherry Boschert, a plug-in vehicle advocate and author.

Southern California Edison, which supplies power to some 13 million
people in the area around Los Angeles, has been a vocal advocate for
the development of electric vehicles and proposed tax incentives and
rebates to speed their development.

SCE has said that its existing power-generation facilities would be
capable of supplying millions of vehicles if they were recharged at
night when demand is low.

Experimental technology being tested in northern California on a
small fleet run by Web search giant Google Inc. also allows parked
plug-ins to transfer stored energy back to the electric grid, opening
a potential back-up source of power for the system in peak hours.

Ford became the first American car maker to introduce a hybrid
vehicle when it released the Escape in 2004.

But faced with declining U.S. market share, Ford later backed off
ambitious sales targets for hybrids and was criticized by
environmental advocates for having lost momentum in the race to
develop alternatives to combustion engines.

In June, an executive for Ford said it was developing new hybrid
vehicles but saw deep-seated engineering problems with plug-in vehicles.

Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr., who led the automaker until
last September, said last month that he regretted that Ford had not
moved faster to seize the lead in addressing environmental concerns.

Led by Toyota Motor Corp's Prius, the current generation of hybrid
vehicles uses batteries to power the vehicle at low speeds and in
stop-and-go traffic, delivering higher fuel economy.

General Motors Corp. has already begun work this year to develop its
own plug-in hybrid car, designed to use little or no gasoline over
short distances.

GM showed off a concept version of the Chevrolet Volt in January and
has set 2010 as a target for production.

Analysts have said pending legal and regulatory changes could speed
the adoption of hybrid technology.

The U.S. Senate last month approved sharp increases in fuel economy
standards and is considering a package of tax credits for consumers
who purchase plug-in vehicles and the companies that make them.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama is one of the
sponsors of that legislation.

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