It's a milestone day. GM's CEO has announced that
the Board of Directors has OK'd mass production
of the Chevy Volt beginning in late 2010 --
moving that date from a goal to a commitment.
That also sets the stage, we hope, for earlier
preliminary rollouts of the vehicle in California
and other receptive markets, which we think will
become more likely as the presidential candidates
weigh in with more details of their plans to promote plug-in cars.

See http://gm-volt.com/ for coverage and
commentary. That website picks up a story from The Auto Channel:
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2008/06/03/088775.html
Chevy Volt Is (Really) A Go!

WILMINGTON, Del. June 3, 2008;GM today announced
a range of strategic initiatives to aggressively
respond to growing demand for fuel-efficient
vehicles and to economic and market challenges in
North America. Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and CEO,
made the announcements here as part of the GM annual meeting of stockholders.

The Chevy Volt took a major step toward the
showroom with formal approval by the GM board of
funding for production of the extended-range
electric vehicle. This approval, which includes
funding for production development and tooling,
indicates that GM leadership believes that the
technology for the Volt, including its
lithium-ion batteries, will be ready for volume production on schedule.

"The Chevy Volt is a go," said Wagoner. "We
believe this is the biggest step yet in our
industry's move away from our historic, virtually
complete reliance on petroleum to power vehicles."

"We intend to show a production version of the
Chevy Volt publicly in the very near future, and
we remain focused on our target of getting the
Volt into Chevrolet showrooms by the end of 2010," Wagoner said.

Preliminary plans are to produce the Volt at GM's
Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, subject to
successful discussions with state and local governments.


And the New York Times, with stories on the slump
in SUVs and declining monthly sales for the 3 US carmakers, reports that
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/business/04motors.html
G.M. Shifts Focus to Small Cars in Sign of Sport Utility Demise
By BILL VLASIC
Published: June 4, 2008

DETROIT — Even General Motors, the steadfast
champion of big sport utility vehicles and pickup
trucks, is thinking small now.

With no end in sight for elevated gas prices,
G.M. announced drastic cuts in production of
sport utility vehicles and pickups on Tuesday and
stepped up plans for smaller cars and engines.

G.M.’s chairman and chief executive, Rick
Wagoner, said G.M. will cease production at four
North American assembly plants that make S.U.V.’s and pickups by 2010.

And in a humbling admission that the S.U.V. era
is all but over, G.M., Detroit’s leading
automaker, said it was considering selling the
gas-guzzling Hummer brand it once regarded as a pillar of future growth.
<snip>
G.M. hopes to counter the drop in S.U.V. and
truck sales by increasing car production and
accelerating the development of more fuel-efficient models.

The automaker will add third shifts in September
at plants in Michigan and Ohio that make midsize sedans and compact models.

G.M.’s board also approved production of two new
small cars and a new four-cylinder, 1.4-liter
engine, and gave the green light for production of the Chevrolet Volt by 2010.

The Volt, which will be powered by batteries
augmented by a small gasoline engine, is the
centerpiece of G.M.’s push to develop alternative-fuel vehicles.

“The Chevy Volt is a go,” Mr. Wagoner said. “We
believe this is the biggest step in our
industry’s move away from our historic, virtually
complete reliance on petroleum to power vehicles.”

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

For several years, many Prius owners have been telling their dealers
"I want a hybrid that I get to plug in."
For the past two years, Prius dealers have been very supportive of
individuals who come in with converted cars and need routine service.

We know Toyota wishes that the aftermarket conversions didn't exist:
it detracts from its advertising message (which still in some cases
STILL says, "you don't have to plug in our hybrids). And of course
Toyota is concerned that any issues about quality or safety of
third-party modifications could adversely affect the company's image,
or the prospect for future "done right by the experts" PHEVs made by
Toyota. But the interest levels are growing, not decreasing, and more
than 150 conversions are on the road (see
http://www.calcars.org/where-phevs-are.html for many of them).

Conversions are available from a number of aftermarket companies and
from the CalCars/Electric Auto Association-sponsored EAA-PHEV Open
Source Project for do-it yourselfers: see http://www.calcars.org/howtoget.html

Now in another very significant development, some Toyota dealers --
independent businesses whose main "bread and butter" comes from their
ability to obtain, sell and support the automaker's products -- are
responding to their customers' interest by for the first time
supporting an aftermarket conversion: the federally crash-tested
systems provided by A123Systems' Hymotion.

Hymotion's blog http://www.a123systems.com/blog/hymotion/ has just
announced the company's six initial installers, which include two
independent green companies and -- surprise -- four official Toyota
dealers. The list is below. The posting makes clear that prospective
customers should not contact those dealers, but instead go through
the Hymotion website for orders. Go to the Hymotion website and blog
for the latest info!

A123 Green CHIP dealer network:

Boston:  Westboro Toyota
Washington, D.C.: Fitzgerald Toyota
Minneapolis:  Denny Hecker Automotive Group
Los Angeles:  Toyota of Hollywood
San Francisco:  Green Gears/Pat's Garage
Seattle:  Green Car Company

What are the implications of this news? We hope this new development,
along with GM's announcement this week that the Chevy Volt will be
scheduled for mass production in late 2010, will encourage Toyota to
accelerate its current plans, which at the moment amount to a
commitment to deliver 400 PHEVs for fleet evaluation by 2010.

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

Silicon Valley has made history in the early
development of radio, aviation, aerospace,
computers and the Internet (each time, it must be
pointed out, not simply by bootstrapping but with
the boost from enormous government support and
purchase orders). Now there's talk again of
Silicon Valley's role in Cleantech, including
power electronics, batteries and solar power --
both technologies and investments.

Last December, Andy Grove, Intel's former
chairman &CEO, Time's 1997 Man of the Year,
author of "Only the Paranoid Survive," who now
teaches strategic dynamics at Stanford GSB (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove for
more background) wrote an important article in
Portfolio (the Conde Nast business magazine),
"Think Disruptive." He suggested that GE could
find a new market in electric cars. He got little
response -- though GE has invested in A123Systems.

In recent weeks, Grove has been reaching out to
PHEV advocates. (See a photo of him with my car
at http://www.calcars.org/photos-people.html .)
Last Friday, he stunned the annual CEO Summit of
venture capital leader Kleiner Perkins with a
challenge: to recognize the enormous business
opportunity in the electrification of
transportation. In an hour-long dialogue that
included an extended exchange with KPCB partner
Al Gore and moderator John Doerr, Grove said we
have no time to waste, and that it's critical to
find ways to partially electrify as many as
possible of the world's 900+ million internal
combustion vehicles -- especially the larger,
most gas-guzzling PSUVs (pickups, SUVs and vans).
He's focusing on "dual-fuel" vehicles, his
preferred name for PHEVs. See our embryonic page
on that subject at
http://www.calcars.org/ice-conversions.html -- no
links yet. And if you're interested in this
subject, register for http://wwww.plugin2008.com
July 22-25 in San Jose, where we're moderating
the session on conversions, and you may even see some ICE conversions.

The meeting was closed to the press (though at
some point we may see a full report), so we've
respected the media blackout. But now the story
has started coming out. Today, another Silicon
Valley legend, John Gage, co-founder of Sun
Microsystems, creator of NetDay and early
investor in Hypercar, Inc. (see
http://www.johngage.com ) came to the Intel
Museum and filmed two three-minute interviews
with Fox Business News  as part of its current
"Three Days in the Valley" series. Yesterday,
Gage announced he was a leaving his job as Sun's
Chief Researcher and Vice President of the
Science Office and joining Kleiner Perkins (where
his former colleague Bill Joy is a partner) to
work on cleantech. Today Gage talks about Grove's presentations.

We expect to hear much more from Grove.
Meanwhile, watch the videos at
http://www.foxbusiness.com/video/index.html (page
loads slowly; permalink will be different), or if
you prefer, here are informal transcripts:

GAGE GOES GREEN:

Liz Claman:  Back in 1982 my next guest, most of
you probably didn't even have a computer, he was
making the breakthrough innovations that many of
you now see today -- you can't even see them, but
John Gage certainly could back in the 80s -- nice to have you here.

John Gage:  Such a pleasure.

LC:  John is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems,
you are also the chief researcher and the VP over
there, but now you're moving to one of the top
venture capitalist firms and that would be
Kleiner Perkins.  What a new venture for you.

JG:  It's true.  Well, it's time.  It's time to
start investing time and effort and money in the
new technologies because we have a crisis.  Andy
Grove, the legendary chairman of Intel said on
Friday, we face a global environmental threat.
And he pointed to the 250 million cars on the US
roads today, not going very fast today, and
costing a lot of money today.  He said we must
change every one of them to electric.  Because we
face a global environmental threat.

LC:  And you think by going over to Kleiner
Perkins that that's what you're going to focus
upon, is putting that venture capital money into
greentech -- which is the new word by everybody,
the greentech and certainly the solar world?

JG:  Exactly.  Efficency.  Batteries.  Wind and
solar are intermittent.  If you could invest in
batteries, you might make wind and solar
predominant.  So how do we do what Andy Grove
wants to do, get this country away from its dependence on petroleum?

LC:  John, I have to ask you, what's a scientist
doing, going over to a venture capitalist?  I
mean, a lot of people would look at that and say,
"wow, he's changing course midstream, big time,
and the water certainly is a different temperature."

JG:  On the one hand there's science, and on the
other hand, there's money.  And when you bring
the two together and focus on those brand new,
innovative inventions that could change
batteries, could change photovoltaic, could
change wind, could change electrical
transmission. When you can focus physics and
chemistry, on a project that could be successful
if money were applied, that's where the venture capital world comes to bear.

LC:  Who's got it right, right now.  You hear
about Ford coming out with the plug-in hybrids
soon.  Chevy, rushing with the Chevy Volt, which
is sort of a hybrid plug-in electric.  Are they
just sort of the bigger, slower ways of doing
this?  What's going on out there that you have
seen, that we don't yet, that will probably get there first?

JG:  Those investments, taking what we have today
in vehicles -- we know how to make a wagon, we
know how to put a motor in a wagon.  The problem
for all of the American car makers for years with
no competition, they could make them bigger and
heavier, bigger and heavier, cheap oil meant they
could just make the large vehicles, and we all
pay.  And our children will pay.  Today, moving
to something that is light, new materials, that's
where huge advances are coming. Take the weight
out, but make that vehicle stronger than any
Formula 1 racer.  Take the weight out.

LC:  You sound like Speed Race.  I mean this is
getting exciting for me, but I'm just wondering
where's the money in all this -- is this years before we see this technology?

JG:  I think every person on this planet, that at
this moment is trying to decide whether to buy
the iPhone or not -- we have 3 ½ billion of those
small devices -- but those devices are not
integrated into the vehicles yet.  The moment
that you bring the vehicles onto the network,
they can say where they are, and we can begin to
reuse the hundreds of billions of dollars
invested in streets and highways to do efficient
movement of goods and people.  So bringing
together information, location and network are
the powerful catalysts of a fundamental transformation.

LC:  So you think that people, if you were to
make it so easy for people to drive electric cars
and have -- oh, your iPhone hooks up to this, and
your BlackBerry might automatically hook up when
you walk in and it syncs and you sit down and you
start the car -- then that will sort of hasten
the transition to electric vehicles?

JG:  Why do we move things?  Because everything
is in the wrong place.  I went to find something
to buy -- where is it?  Where is the closest gas
station?  Where's the closest place I could buy
my new iPhone?  Where is it -- I want to buy one
of these things.  So, when you have location data
in your vehicle, you can reroute around traffic
jams, you can dissipate all over the existing
street network, everything moving people to
wherever they want to be -- it's a way of forming
community, it's a way of linking us together,
it's a way of satisfying human need.


HYBRID HOW-TO (John Gage transcript -- part 2)

Liz Claman:  I'm hearing a two pronged approach
here, that when you go to Kleiner Perkins you
will be focusing upon electric vehicles that are
good for the environment but also bringing
together the whole wireless communication world within that.

John Gage:  That's right.  We have to fix the
whole electrical grid problem because if you have
electric vehicles, where does the power come
from?  We've watched the U.S. go dark because we
have not managed our grid well.  We have to learn
from other places in the world that are better than we are.

LC:  Lithium-ion batteries -- I hear a lot of
this, well if we switch to electric cars, there's
going to be a lithium shortage.

JG:  It's true.

LC:  How do you avoid that?

JG:  By inventing polymer kinds of substrates to
enhance the power of lithium to store energy.  Or
perhaps move to new materials that allow you to
make a capacitor out of very new materials that
store -- a capacitor is just two plates of
conductivity with something as an insulator in
between, roll it up and you've got something that
stores energy.  So we have as a major thrust --
convince every kid in the world to become
interested in engineering to solve this global
crisis, and focus on electricity, and on storage
of power and energy, and on transmission systems
to carry that to where we need to use it.

LC:  Coming up, we have the CEO of Solar City,
and they are trying very hard to innovate and get
it cheaper  to put solar panels in people's
houses.  Are you looking at that, too?

JG:  Critically important.  And Andy Grove, one
of the legendary chairmen of Silicon Valley
high-tech said on Friday, is government
intervention necessary, and his answer, this
capitalist head of one of the world's most
successful techno companies, is "absolutely
yes."  We must have incentives for solar, we must
have incentives to move to electric vehicles, we
must have incentives and a coherent, solid plan
backed by all of us.  And as Andy Grove said,
"This is a global threat.  There is no time."  He
kept saying that:  "There is no time".

LC:  What if I tell you that there are also
people out there -- this wouldn't be a surprise
to you -- who say this solar thing is a bubble,
as soon as gasoline prices go down they'll be
cheap again.  Of course, I would argue we saw
cheap gas in 1999, and then now it's expensive
again, and that this is always going to be a huge problem for us.

JG:  You're absolutely right, but I think the
critical word, and I'll again steal from Andy
Grove, is resilience.  Not so much that we need
to be independent of petroleum-producing states,
we need to be resilient when these shocks
hit.  So the price may come down of gas, but it's
no excuse not to invest in efficiency and in new
engineering and scientific knowledge.

LC:  He is one of the visionaries of all time
here in Silicon Valley, John Gage, co-founder of
Sun Micro, and now good luck at Kleiner Perkins.

JG:  Thank you.

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

US ENERGY DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES PROJECTS As part
of its growing commitment to PHEV projects, in
early 2008 USDOE announced it was soliciting bids
for projects that would involve the deployment
(not research) of small fleets of PHEVs. We
wondered at the time whether the $10-$30M carrots
would be enough to attract the large carmakers
who were the focus of the RFPs. (See CalCars-News
Jan 7 and 24 postings.) Now that the first three
contracts have been announced (with more coming
next month), we are happy to have been proven
wrong, and to find that this new program helps
bring more players into the PHEV race.

Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy Andy Karsner spoke at a panel at
the "Google-Brookings Institution's Plug-In
Electric Vehices 2008: What Role for Washington?"
(We'll have more on the conference in subsequent
postings.) He described how his portfolio had
gone from $2M for plug-in hybrids and plug-in
technology to $50M for PHEVs and $100 million for
related technologies. After his session, he held
an informal press conference in an adjacent room
where he announced the winners of contracts. All
three US automakers are part of consortia getting
funds for projects, briefly described in the press release below.

GENERAL ELECTRIC JOINS WITH CHRYSLER: The big
news is that GE has become a PHEV partner of
Chrysler. For years people from Andy Grove to
William McDonough have been saying plug-in cars
were a natural for GE -- even as the company sold
its electric motors division and moved away from
vehicle projects. GE remained in the electric
locomotive business and did invest in battery
maker A123Systems. The news of this partnership,
and reporters' interviews with GE executives (at
end of this posting) indicate it may be on its way back to transportation.

CHRYSLER/DAIMLER/TESLA: The new partnership gives
a boost to the now privately-owned Chrysler LLC,
the one company that doesn't even have a PHEV
concept vehicle --until now just the announcement
of a plan to develop an electric vehicle
division, and a legacy partnership in the
DaimlerChrysler Sprinter project before the
merged companies split. (In a related, surprising
musical chair development, Fox Business News says
Tesla and Daimler are negotiating an unspecified
partnership
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/.eea81ae?@914.aTlncvZdWCe@
-- perhaps for technology or for a partnership on
Tesla's second car, the WhiteStar, likely to be a PHEV.

DOE GETS FIRST FLEX-FUEL PHEV FORD: Karsner also
took the occasion of the press conference to
announce the DOE had taken delivery of a
flex-fuel Ford Escape Hybrid converted by Ford to
a PHEV using Johnson Controls-Saft lithium-ion
batteries. He said driving over it was getting 120MPG.

We also note bloggers' comments at Green Car
Congress's report,
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/06/doe-announces-3.html
saying that the funds are a smal percentage of
what's needed, and the time frames mean the
projects may be outdistanced by the accelerating PHEV race globally.


US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY PRESS RELEASE
DOE Announces $30 Million for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Projects
Adds Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle to Department’s Fleet
http://www.doe.gov/news/6337.htm  June 12, 2008

WASHINGTON – U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy Andy Karsner today announced up
to $30 million in funding over three years for
three cost-shared Plug-in Hybrid Electric
Vehicles (PHEVs) demonstration and development
projects. The selected projects will accelerate
the development of PHEVs capable of traveling up
to 40 miles without recharging, which includes
most daily roundtrip commutes and satisfies 70
percent of the average daily travel in the U.
S.  The projects will also address critical
barriers to achieving DOE’s goal of making PHEVs
cost-competitive by 2014 and ready for commercialization by 2016.

“The projects announced today demonstrate a
shared public-private sector commitment to
advance clean vehicle technologies and will help
reduce our dependence on foreign oil while also
confronting the serious challenge of global
climate change,” DOE Assistant Secretary Andy
Karsner said. “The Department remains committed
to the research, development and deployment of
cleaner, more efficient vehicle options for
consumers from laboratory to the street.”

Assistant Secretary Karsner made today’s
announcements at the Plug-In Electric Vehicles
2008: What Role for Washington? conference,
sponsored by the Brookings Institution and
Google.org.  The projects selected will be
developed between Fiscal Years 2008-11 and
demonstrated in geographically diverse regions to
identify performance, operation, and fuel economy
in a real-world environment.  The goal is to
develop PHEVs that can be mass produced, compete
effectively in the marketplace, and substantially
reduce petroleum consumption by offering fuel
flexibility to American consumers.  DOE’s funding
for these projects, which is subject to
Congressional appropriations, will be combined
with an industry cost share of 50 percent.

In addition to announced projects, DOE expanded
its own fleet of alternative fuel and advanced
technology vehicles with the addition of a Ford
Escape Plug-In Hybrid Flex-Fuel Vehicle, capable
of running on E85, 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent
gasoline.  This vehicle demonstrates the capacity
of flexible fuel technology to reduce petroleum
use to almost zero.  This Ford Escape flexible
fuel PHEV when refueling only on cellulosic E85
or electricity would consume less than 75 gallons
of gasoline per year – the equivalent of over 150
mpg - and reduce CO2 emissions by up to 93
percent.  The Department’s new Ford Escape will
be used to transport DOE employees to official
events and meetings in the Washington, D.C. area.

PHEVs are hybrid vehicles that can be driven in
electric-only or hybrid modes and recharged from
a standard electric outlet.  They offer increased
energy efficiency and decreased petroleum
consumption by using electricity as the primary
fuel for urban driving.  This is the first round
of selections under DOE’s PHEV Technology
Acceleration and Deployment Activity funding
opportunity announcement.  A second round of
applications is due July 18, 2008. The following three projects were selected:

General Motors has been selected for negotiation
of an award for a project aimed at enhancement of
Lithium-Ion battery packs, charging systems,
powertrain development, vehicle integration, and
vehicle validation.  Following development, the
PHEVs will be deployed over a three year period
into a demonstration fleet in three regions of
the U.S.  Other team members include Electric
Power Research Institute (EPRI), University of
Michigan Transportation Research Institute, and
the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Ford Motor Company has been selected for
negotiation of an award for a project to identify
a pathway that accelerates commercial
mass-production of PHEVs.  The project will focus
on development of battery systems and deployment
of prototype PHEVs.  The project will test and
demonstrate the propulsion system design,
controls, and communications necessary to develop
a viable PHEV production program.  Team members
include Southern California Edison, Electric
Power Research Institute, and Johnson Controls-Saft, Inc.

General Electric has been selected for
negotiation of an award for a demonstration of
PHEVs that relies upon an innovative dual-battery
energy storage system capable of 40 miles
accumulated electric driving range.  The project
will focus on developing the dual-battery energy
storage system in parallel with vehicle
integration. GE is partnering with Chrysler for this project.

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS GIVES GE BACKGROUND
GE teams with Chrysler on plug-in hybrid system
Automotive News by Harry Stoffer June 12, 2008
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/FREE/526009316/1506/\
MOTORSPORTSNEWS

General Electric is interested in supplying
components for plug-in hybrid vehicles and is
teaming with Chrysler on a project to demonstrate
a technology GE calls a dual-battery energy storage system.

Vlatko Vlatkovic, a GE official, told Automotive
News today that the company has developed a
hybrid railroad locomotive -- which he compared
to a "6,000-horsepower Prius on rails" -- and is
working on a heavy-duty, off-highway hybrid truck.

"A lot of these technologies are really
synergistic to what the automotives need, and we
can work together with the automotives in
partnership to see how we can advance these technologies further," he said.

Vlatkovic is global technology leader of
electronics and energy conversion at GE Global Research in Niskayuna, N.Y.

He called the automotive sector for GE "a new
space that we are convinced will grow." GE can
offer expertise in batteries, drivetrains and
power electronic controls, he added.

Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli is a former GE executive.

Plug-in hybrid power suddenly is the most
talked-about advanced vehicle technology. This
week, it was the subject of a major Washington conference.
<snip>
A tie with deep-pocketed GE would appear to give
Chrysler LLC a boost in the race.
<snip>

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

HAS TOYOTA COMMITTED TO MASS PRODUCTION PHEVS? Many auto industry
observers think Toyota will stay in the race to be first with PHEVs,
or will follow closely on GM. However, it's important to distinguish
between official statements, speculation and wishful thinking! That's
what we're trying to do.

Last we'd heard, Toyota plans to deliver up to 400 plug-in hybrid
cars (not necessarily Priuses) to fleets for evaluation sometime in
2010. We expect these vehicles, not necessarily Priuses, will be have
better specs than the few Priuses Toyota has modified by adding a
second nickel-metal hydride battery to achieve under 10 miles of
all-electric range. Toyota has repeatedly said it's not ready to
commit to mass production. (See
http://www.calcars.org/carmakers.html  which will be updated as soon
as we can.)  But now we're seeing bloggers, second-hand reports and
even some newspaper headlines that conclude that the company's
position has changed and that it plans to mass produce a PHEV for
consumers in 2011. At the Google-Brookings conference, some people
were talking about how this new development would affect other
automakers. So as soon as we had the time, we made checking out the
news a first priority. We don't think it's true -- but we may have
missed something, and we welcome any solid information that expands
on  what we cite below.

BATTERY EXPANSION: Some confusion may stem from the company's
statement about mass-producing batteries. On June 5, Toyota's Irv
Miller, Group Vice President, Corporate Communications, in the
company's Open Road Blog
http://blog.toyota.com/2008/06/irvs-sheet-ampi.html in a posting
called "Amping Up Battery Production," explained that battery
capacity was becoming a supply issue for the company's hybrids. He
confirmed that the Toyota-Matsushita joint venture Panasonic Energy
EV, will spend $192 million to expand production of nickel-metal
hydride batteries -- and lithium-ion batteries for PHEVs for fleet
users in 2010. He concluded his posting provocatively: "The sooner
we're measuring our energy use in amps instead of gallons, the better
off we'll all be."

WHAT TOYOTA'S PRESIDENT SAID: On June 11, Toyota President Katsuaki
Watanabe unveiled a new "Low Carbon Action Plan" at the Toyota
Environmental Forum in Tokyo. Based on what he said there,  But after
tracking back many of these reports, we will haven't seen any
journalists who were there say more than "a plug-in hybrid vehicle to
be released in 2010" (Wall Street journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121315963078263753.html ). At the
Google/Brookings conference, Toyota's Bill Reinert knew of no major
announcement.

THE AUTHORITATIVE SOURCE: The company's press release at
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/news/08/0611.html confirms media reports
that the joint venture is working on far better batteries and that
next year's Prius (US third-generation, Japan fourth-generation) will
still have nickel-metal hybrid batteries, and it includes PHEVs but
says nothing beyond previous company statements:

Electricity (Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles/Electric Vehicles)
Verification tests are currently being conducted in Japan, the United
States and Europe, as plug-in hybrid vehicles--which can be used as
electric vehicles for short trips and as conventional hybrid vehicles
for traveling longer distances--represent the most promising approach.

* By 2010, TMC will introduce a plug-in hybrid vehicle equipped with
a lithium-ion battery, geared toward fleet customers in Japan, United
States and Europe.
* TMC plans to accelerate development of small electric vehicles for
mass production.

Battery R&D and Production
TMC will establish in late June 2008 a battery research department to
advance the development of an innovative next-generation battery that
can outperform a lithium-ion battery.
Panasonic EV Energy Co., Ltd., a joint venture TMC established with
the Matsushita Group that is conducting joint research on batteries
for use in automobiles, will commence limited production of
lithium-ion batteries in 2009, moving into full-scale production in 2010.

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

I'd hoped to combine this with a report on the
Google/Brookings conference but that's not done. Meanwhile:

The presentations from the 2008 Power Up!
Conference, featuring many leading experts on
PHEVs, are now online -- for the names of
speakers and links to PDFs, see
http://www.plugincenter.com/index.php?page_id=275

And if you didn't get to the recent international
battery conference in Florida, are looking for
the latest, and are based in the Midwest or feel
like jumping on a plane on short notice, in
Chicago this Tuesday, you can hear and meet many
of the leading companies in the PHEV battery
world at ACG's Advanced Battery Investment Summit:

http://battery.acgchicago.com/

Advanced Automobile Battery Investment Summit
Location:       The Standard Club, 320 S. Plymouth Ct. Chicago
7:30 am – 5:30 pm with Reception following

Welcome by ACG Chicago Conference Chair
James Greenberger, Partner, Reed Smith LLP

The Basic Science of Advanced Automotive Battery Technology
This session will review the basic science of
electric batteries and will outline the principal
problems that scientists and companies are
working to solve in order to bring electric
vehicles (EV’s) and plug-in hybrid vehicles
(PHEV’s) to the mass market.  Panelists will
discuss the state of the advanced battery
science: where we are and where we need to
go.  The problem of thermal control in lithium
batteries, one of the principal barriers to mass
market adoption of EV’s, will be discussed in
length.  The head of Argonne National
Laboratory’s battery technology department will
talk about the groundbreaking work being done at
Argonne in support of the Department of Energy’s
FreedomCAR Partnership program.

Introduction of Panel by Moderator
Thomas D. Berman, Partner, Adams Street Partners, LLC

Key Problems in Advanced Automobile Batteries
Dr. Michael Thackeray, Argonne Distingusihed
Fellow, Chemical, Science, and Engineering
Division, Argonne National Laboratory

The Lithium Battery Program at Argonne National Laboratory
Gary Henriksen, Manager, Electrochemical Energy
Storage, Chemical Sciences & Engineering, Argonne National Laboratory

Thermal Management in Advanced Batteries: The
Threshold Barrier to Mass Adaptation?
Prof. Said al-Hallaj, Research Professor,
Illinois Institute of Technology

The History and the Future of Electric Vehicles in the Mass Market
Gene Glaudell, Former CIO, Tesla Motors

Major Automobile Industry Companies and The Future of EV’s and PHEV’s
Major automobile and automobile battery companies
are looking closely at the market potential for
PHEV’s and EV’s.  Their views may determine which
of among the competing advanced battery
technologies will eventually be adopted.  What
opportunities might this present for
investors?  This panel will give investors some ideas.

Introduction of Panel by Moderator
David M. Dolezal, Executive Director, UBS Investment Bank

Ted J. Miller, Senior Manager, Energy Storage and Research, Ford Motor Company
Pin Ni, President, Wanxiang America Corporation
Robert G. Gruenstern, Director, Product
Engineering – Americas, Johnson Control Power Solutions
Paul E. Boskovitch, Chief Engineer for Advanced Hybrid Systems, Ricardo Inc.

Keynote Speaker
Danilo J. Santini, Senior Economist, Center for
Transportation Research, Argonne National Laboratory
Dr. Santini will present and summarize the latest
findings of Argonne Laboratory’s Center for
Transportation Research regarding the relative
efficiencies and feasibilities of EV’s and PHEV’s
compared to other technologies for minimizing
dependence on petroleum fuels in the transportation sector.

Lunch Speaker

Ralph J. Brodd, President, Broddarp of Nevada, Inc.
Dr. Brodd is President of Broddarp of Nevada,
Inc., a consulting firm specializing in
technology assessment, strategic planning and
battery technology, production, and
marketing.  Dr. Brodd is a long-time expert in
battery technology and recently completed a study
for the National Institute of Standards and
Technology entitles “Why are There No Volume
Lithium-Ion Battery Manufacturers in the United
States?”  Dr. Broadd will discuss the findings of
his study and the prospects for growing advanced
automobile battery technology companies in the U.S.

Lithium Battery Technologies for Automobiles – Opportunities and Challenges
This panel will showcase a number of early and
growth stage companies that are actively
marketing advanced battery solutions in the
transportation sector.  Panelists will discuss
the different approaches being taken by these
companies to maximizing energy storage and
minimizing safety hazards in lithium-based
technologies.  The presenting companies represent
different sectors within the lithium battery
supply chain, including companies focused on
advanced materials, battery cells, battery packs
and finished vehicles, or on some combination of
these sectors.  How best to maximize value in
this rapidly developing market will be discussed,
and likely debated, at length.

Introduction of Panel by Moderator
Corey Tobin, Equity Research Analyst, William Blair & Company

Deepak Srivastava, P.h.D., Chief Technology Officer, NanoExa
Michael E. Reed, President & CEO, Electro Energy, Inc.
Jeff Yambrick, Manger of Business Development, Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc.
Sankar Das Gupta, Ph.D.,DK, Chairman & CEO, ElectroVaya
Robert Spotnitz, Pd.D.,Member, American Lithium
Energy and President, Battery Design, LLC
Mohamed Alamgir, Director of Research, Compact Power
Ulrik Grape, CEO, EnerDel Inc.


Is There Life Beyond Lithium?  Other Approaches
to Creating Value in Advanced Automobile Technology
Although most discussion about advanced
automobile battery technologies centers on
lithium-based technologies, it may be too early
to count out other technologies.  Nickel metal
hydride, nickel zinc and advanced lead acid
technologies have substantially longer operating
histories than, and may offer some advantages
over, lithium.  Ultra capacitor technology, the
“cold fusion” of the battery space, may offer an
important supplement, and maybe even an ultimate
alternative, to advanced automobile batteries
based on lithium.  This panel will discuss those alternatives.

Introduction of Panel by Moderator
Shez Bandukwala, Partner, Investment Banking, ThinkPanmure, LLC

Foam-based Lead Acid Batteries
Edward F. Williams, President, Firefly Energy

Nickel-Zinc Batteries
Dan Squiller, President, PowerGenix

Ultracapacitor Technology
John M. Miller P.h.D., Vice President Systems
Applications & Integration, Maxwell Technologies, Inc.

Advanced Materials for Batteries and Ultracapacitors
Mark  W. Zager, CEO, Silitronix, Inc.

VC’s View of the Advanced Automobile Battery Space
Carl J. Barrelet, Associate, Lux Capital Management


Concluding Remarks – Conference Chair
Wine and Cheese Networking Reception

Registration Fees

ACG Members            $195.00
Non-ACG Members    $295.00

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

CONVERSIONS AND SAFETY

CalCars has been promoting conversions of vehicles to PHEVs for
several years -- not as an end in itself but as a strategy to build
awareness and support for a solution, using today's technology and
infrastructure, that should be mass-produced by the world's
automakers. We always say they could do it better in terms of
performance and safety. There are about 150 on the road today (see
http://www.calcars.org/where-phevs-are.html ) and we believe at least
a thousand more are in the pipeline. In general, the conversions have
achieved their goals.

For several years, some opinion leaders from automakers, utilities
and  national labs have expressed their fears that "one bad accident"
could set back the progress of PHEVs. We have agreed that safety must
be the top priority. For that reason, when we've urged carmakers to
develop Version 1.0 PHEVs with "good enough" technology, we've always
said that there should be no shortcuts on safety. And we've been
aware that the conversions by small companies, and those undertaken
by individuals using our Open Source design, could never be as
well-designed as those by large carmakers. For that reason, we were
very encouraged when Hymotion had the resources to meet federal crash
test standards and to apply for other certifications. And we've had
our fingers crossed about other conversions.

On June 7, a Prius converted to a PHEV caught fire. The converter,
Hybrids Plus, notified the owners of all of its converted cars and
began an investigation. The batteries came from A123Systems, which
had no role in approving the battery pack or system design, but has
cooperated in the investigation. To date investigators have not
definitively found the cause of the incident.

CALCARS' ROLE AND VIEWS

CalCars's goal is to promote PHEVs and all of the public and private
efforts to commercialize them -- and to help the companies that are
providing conversion services, components and many related services.
(We have signed Non-Disclosure Agreements with many companies in the
industry, including Hybrids Plus and A123Systems.) As such, we try to
act as "Switzerland,"  a neutral party, and as a basketball point
guard, helping to connect players and direct media to experts. At the
same time, we have our own opinions, which, without violating the
trust of the companies, we don't hesitate to state.

You can draw your own conclusions from the materials below; here are ours:
* We're very fortunate no one was hurt.
* It appears from the second-hand reports that the incident arose
from mechanical systems (connectors, wiring) or some software problem.
* The batteries performed well and did not contribute to the problem;
nothing that happened should lead to second thoughts about batteries
or about well-designed, carefully tested PHEVs.
* There's no question that automakers are making safety their first
priority, and aftermarket converters need to follow suit. We hope
that this and other incidents will lead to a far greater emphasis on
safety as well as full and rapid disclosure of incidents.
* The fact that carmakers can build better and safer PHEVs is
self-evident -- but the demand is so great that individuals and
companies continue to bang down the doors of the suppliers of conversions.
* We're all impatient for the Great Transition to Electrification of
Transportation to begin -- the longer we have to wait, the larger
will be the trend toward third-party conversions, for better or worse.

The story became news when it was reported by the Cooperative
Research Network of the National Rural Electric Cooperative
Association (NRECA members are increasingly interested in PHEVs). We
reproduce that report below, followed by a statement released June
19, 2008 by Hybrids Plus.

In this case, our first reaction was that we regretted that the
company did not itself proactively announce the developments. In
fairness, it began investigations immediately, and did not have all
the answers -- but in the tradition that General Motors has recently
set in its "transparency" model for developing the Chevy Volt, we
would have been happier had it said as soon as possible what had
happened and what it had found out and what it didn't know. That's
what we did less than 24 hours after we had an incident (see CalCars'
Tech Lead's May 3 posting to the Open Source EAA-PHEV list, "WARNING:
Fail-safe systems needed to protect Prius battery in EAA-PHEV
conversions" -- the message is mirrored at
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/eaa-phev/message/2548 and see the
subsequent messages in response, and also see the "General
Disclaimer" warning at http://www.eaa-phev.org/wiki/Maillist .

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO RESPOND QUICKLY

As plug-in cars reach a tipping point in support from many
constituencies, they are increasingly the subject of uniformed or
outdated criticisms. Remember when hybrids became popular and all
sort of misinformation percolated through media and online sources
about high voltage dangers to "first responders" (firefighters and
medical personnel)? It took intensive efforts by automakers and
rescue organizations to make clear that there were no high voltage
wires in doors, and that systems disconnected and drained
automatically. In CalCars-News
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html we provide rebuttals to
several recent stories on PHEVs:  reports about plug-in car charging
consuming vast amounts of water resources; we point out highly
positive articles with negative headlines; and we STILL read about
how plug-in cars substitute coal for gasoline resulting in more
emissions, or requiring the construction of hundreds of new power
plants -- both of which are long-disproved misconceptions.

Before we get to the original sources, a comparison of the relative
safety of plug-in and gasoline/diesel vehicles may put the issue in
perspective. Imagine if all our vehicles were electric and a company
applied to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration
for permission to produce an internal combustion car. We think the
chances would be low of their getting approval to equip each car with
a tank containing a very concentrated highly explosive liquid fuel
that could be set off by a stray spark or could catch fire in
accidents. But that's what we drive every day. And if and when there
is an incident with a plug-in car, let's take note of the National
Fire Protection Association's report on vehicle fires (including
cars, trucks and other highway vehicles; boats and ships; railroad
and mass-transit vehicles; aircraft; and agricultural, construction
and yard vehicles). In 2006,
vehicle fires totalled 250,00, with 445 civilian deaths, 1,075
civilian injuries and $982,000,000 in direct property damage. See for
yourself at http://www.nfpa.org/displayContent.asp?categoryID=953&itemID=29658

EVENT REPORT

CRN PHEV Field Report Update  June 12, 2008
https://crn.cooperative.com/Resources/TechSurveillance/items/2008/FieldReport061\
3.htm

On June 7, 2008, the converted Prius plug-in hybrid electric vehicle
(PHEV) owned by Central Electric Power Cooperative in Columbia, SC,
was destroyed by an internal fire that occurred during a routine
drive. Thankfully, there were no injuries.  But the converted Prius
was destroyed. The cause of the fire is not known.

Until further investigation, CRN has advised grounding all test
vehicles in the PHEV demonstration and is undertaking a detailed
investigation. The limited information available is as follows:

      * The car was a 2008 Toyota Prius outfitted with the
Hybrids-Plus PHEV15 conversion kit.
      * There was no data logger installed.
      * The vehicle had previously experienced minor mechanical issues
relating to the charger.
      * The fire occurred during routine highway driving. The
upholstery in the back seat had caught on fire. The driver pulled
over, exited the car, and there was a subsequent explosion.
      * The A123 lithium-ion battery was damaged but remained largely
intact and functioning.

CRN has taken the following actions. It has employed Electric
Transportation Engineering Corporation (ETEC) of Phoenix, AZ, to
perform an initial investigation on the PHEV.  This firm has come
highly recommended due to its experience with failure analysis and
electric cars.  The firm will work to determine the cause of the fire
and make recommendations if more specialized forensics experts are
needed to complete the investigation.


HYBRIDS PLUS STATEMENT (June 18, 2008)
See link from http://www.hybrids-plus.com/ht/about.html to
http://hybrids-plus.com/ht/newsletter/upgrade_PR.html

Hybrids Plus takes immediate steps to strengthen and safeguard all
PHEV systems.

We regret the recent failure of a Hybrids Plus PHEV 15 conversion for
the Toyota Prius causing significant damage to the vehicle from a
resulting upholstery fire. Luckily, there were no injuries in the
event, the car was fully insured, and Hybrids Plus is providing a
replacement PHEV system to the customer. Safety is our foremost
concern. After the incident we notified all owners of Hybrids Plus
conversions, described to them the sequence of events in the
incident, advising them not to drive until further information was
available, and to call Hybrids Plus if there was any sign of a
problem with their vehicle.

Over the past week we have conducted two extensive forensic
examinations of the vehicle and of the battery pack using a team of
experts that included Hybrids Plus technical staff, our cell
manufacturer, and experts in electric vehicles. Though the group was
unable to conclusively identify an initial fault point, their efforts
were concentrated on identifying general areas that could be upgraded
for higher safety and reliability. The study did establish with a
high degree of confidence that the cells were not the cause of the
incident, and that the vast majority of the cells were unaffected by
the high temperature to which they were exposed. The Hybrids Plus
PHEV system also was able to withstand the high temperatures in that
incident, remaining largely intact. Chief Technical Officer for
Hybrids Plus, Davide Andrea, extends gratitude to the members of the
study group for their efforts, the suggestions provided, and for
their unbiased conclusions. As stated by Davide, "We are learning
from this incident, reviewing all designs and methods, putting safety
first. We are implementing measures that will fully address each and
every one of the areas that the study group highlighted."

Hybrids Plus has begun a program to inspect and upgrade all PHEV
systems currently in the field, with improvements that will result in
increased safety and reliability. While we do not anticipate seeing
similarities with the failed system, the first vehicles scheduled for
immediate check up are the Prius PHEV 15 systems. The Prius PHEV 30
and then the Ford Escape will follow, although those systems have
designs that minimize or eliminate most potential concerns. We will
implement this upgrade at no cost to our clients, even for systems
that are out of warranty.

Carl Lawrence, CEO of Hybrids Plus, adds, "we are hopeful that the
quality and thoroughness of our response to this incident, and
resultant improvements in overall system safety and reliability, will
lead to increased confidence in the growing PHEV technologies and the
industry as a whole."

Hybrids Plus is the second largest provider of PHEV systems,
converting Prius and Escape HEVs to plug in hybrids through
seamlessly integrated replacement batteries. Hybrids Plus is
presently producing a small fleet of V2G (Vehicle To Grid) vehicles
using its Inverger(tm) technology, and has recently been awarded an
$85,000 grant from Colorado Governor's Energy Office for the
commercialization of this technology.


ADDITIONAL FUTURE COVERAGE
We will distribute any additional significant comments or findings by
the companies. (We've been told by Hybrids Plus that the narrative in
a report by Bloomberg News does not accurately describe what happened
in the incident.)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aXZxl5AH9nqA&refer=japan

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

The June 11-12 conference, "Plug-In Electric
Vehicles 2008: What Role for Washington"
confirmed the full emergence of PHEVs. Plug-in
cars are now seen as a compelling short- and
long-term response to the intersecting crises of
energy security, environment and
economics.  Usually we're quicker to report on
events, but this time we've been slowed by other
organizational and personal priorities. In the
interest of getting information out before more
time goes by, we're not taking as much time as we
would want to shape a complete report. Below are
our notes about key themes, quotable moments and resources.

THE EVENT: A standing-room-only crowd of 350+
people at the Capitol Hill Hyatt engaged with
leading national figures from the auto industry,
utilities, the US House and Senate, and the
non-governmental/advocacy sector to advance the
campaign for plug-in cars. In addition to the
public figures, we met many staffers from
legislators' offices and organizations are
tracking developments and planning their involvement.

CONFERENCE BACKGROUND: When Google.org announced
RechargeIT in June 2007, one of its six grants
went to the Brookings Institution for a
conference on Federal Policy Plug-Ins. David
Sandalow at Brookings was then in the final
stages of his book, "Freedom From Oil," designed
to provide the next administration with the basis
for a new energy policy, in which plug-in cars
are centrally featured (order via link at
http://www.calcars.org/books.html ). By June
2008, with the remaining two presidential
candidates both having seen and spoken favorably
about PHEVs (photos at
http://www.calcars.org/phev-presidents.html ),
the conference couldn't be better timed to help shape the future.

MEDIA REPORTS reflected the new status of
PHEVs.  Major stories in the Associated Press,
Wall Street Journal and elsewhere now take as an
assumption that plug-in cars will be on the
market starting in 2010. Check for yourself: as
we write this, if you search for Google
Brookings, you'll find 207 articles from the past
week at http://www.news.google.com and 117
postings at http://blogsearch.google.com .

OTHER SOURCES: The Brookings Institution's page
for the conference at
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2008/0611_plugin_vehicle.aspx
contains the agenda and speaker bios plus links
to videos and other resources. Google.org's page
on the event is at
http://www.google.org/recharge/dcpluginsconference/
. Meanwhile, Stefano Paris, an electric vehicle
advocate, performed a great public service in
recording and organizing the entire conference's
video streams into about eight approximately
one-hour segments. You can see the full speaker
list, links to blogs and news reports on the
event and watch the videos, with speakers for
each segment identified, at
http://www.stefanoparis.com/redirect/PlugInConference.html
. And look at reports and comments at GreenCarCongress.com and EVWorld.com .



FEDERAL EXPRESS WANTS TO ORDER PHEVs: Since
carmakers are watching the fleet market
carefully, CEO and founder Fred Smith thrilled
the audience when, in response to a question, he
agreed to put out a Request for Proposals for
PHEVs for the company (which has so far tested
one Daimler/Chrysler Sprinter van).


AUTOMAKERS FAVOR PHEVS & INCREASED FEDERAL
SUPPORT (only a bare summary of extended comments)

GENERAL MOTORS'  Troy Clark, President, GM-North
America, said "GM firmly believes the long-term
solution involves a march toward the
electrification of the automobile. The debate has
already shifted. It isn't if this it's going to happen, it's really when."

FORD's Mark Fields, President, Ford North
America, said, "Plug-ins hold the potential to
dramatically reduce CO2 emissions, help address
energy security issues and contribute to economic
stability and employment." And he said, "Based on
the necessary research and development costs,
manufacturing and production investments, the
lack of a national refueling infrastructure, and
the lack of domestic battery manufacturing, it
seems clear that a business case will not evolve,
in the near term, without support from
Washington." (full text at
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/AUTO01/806110460 )

TOYOTA's Bill Reinert, National Manager, Advanced
Technology Group, disappointed many in the
audience, basing his comments on what theysaw as
a combination of outdated objections, disputed
studies and a business-as-usual approach. His
comments were reinforced by those from Alan
Madian, Director, LECG, a research group, who
pointed to the slow rate of adoption of new
technologies as evidence that PHEVs wouldn't be a
factor for a long time. (Speaking at the same
session, we pointed to the still-relevant 2006
report from Alliance Bernstein showing that
market penetration of hybrids and PHEVs could
constitute 72% of all cars and 85% of new car
sales by 2030 -- see http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/493.html


ELECTRIC UTILITIES ARE RATCHETING UP THEIR
SUPPORT: The presentations by Peter Darbee, Chair
and CEO of PG&E Corporation, by Tom Kuhn,
President of Edison Electric Institute, and John
Bryson, Chairman and CEO of Edison International,
made clear  that our nation's utilities fully
understand the potential of electrification of
transportation to help them improve their
business operations and continue their shift to
renewable energy sources. For the utilities
(contrary to broad misconceptions), plug-in cars
are not about selling more electricity. They're
about powering vehicles more efficiently, about
using their off-peak capacity and improving their
business operations. Their presentations also
confirmed that we do need a modern power grid.
Today's patchwork regional system will not hinder
the widespread use of plug-in cars, but to fully
fulfill the potential of using renewable energy
for power generation and using parked cars for
distributed energy storage, the nation will have
to commit to new policies and facilities for transmission and control.


PHEV SOUNDBITES FROM CONFERENCE: Below are some notable statements:

* "NOPEC" -- "No on Oil--Purchase Electric Cars"
-- Tom Kuhn, President of Edison Electric
Institute (the association of investor-owned utilities) coins a new phrase.

* "For the commercialization of plug-in vehicles,
there are no technological or economic
showstoppers," -- Dan Reicher, Director of
Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, Google.org

* "They're a big part of the future: by 2050 or
earlier, we'll see nearly all vehicles plug in."
-- Deron Lovaas, Vehicles Director

* "This is a time when we ought to be working
together [including House and Senate, Democrats
and Republicans],  --Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

* "The critical part of the race is going to be
electric vehicles plug-in hybrids. Like many of
you I was been pleased about the progress. The
Chevy Volt is on track for 2010… but there are
lots of things we need to do." -- Rep. John Dingell (D-MI)

* "In terms of energy policy and the potential to
shift transportation away from liquid fuels to
the electric grid, PHEVs may prove to be nothing
short of revolutionary." -- Sen.Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

* "The single most important thing we need for
development of this industry…is the passage of
something that will level the playing field
between the petroleum-based transportation system
and the electrical-based transportation system.
It is not a fair deal right now, the electrical
folks are behind the eight ball right now because
we give enormous subsidies to the oil- and
gas-based transportation system, in our tax
bills, which we're trying to repeal… But the
biggest is the subsidy we give to oil and gas
companies to allow them to treat the atmosphere
as their personal garbage dump. We do not allow
people to dump their garbage in municipal garbage
dumps for free. We would never allow an oil
company to take their slag from their refinery,
put it in a garbage truck, back it up to a city
park,and dump it in the city park for free in
unlimited amounts.  But that is exactly what we
do with the most dangerous pollutant, the most
dangerous garbage, which is carbon dioxide today." -- Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA)

* "One of the things we inherited with too much
of a technology single approach, and we were
almost hydrogen all their time, and hydrogen and
biofuels have their place in keeping our eyes on
the prize of reducing oil… The question is, is
there a preferential role for electronics based
on their efficiency in delivering and storing and
releasing that energy, and we're leaning at least
on the scalable production side [toward improving
batteries]." -- Andy Karsner, Assistant Secretaty
for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy

* "You're my hero and my greatest concern, since
you're an entrepreneur and  you want to do the
right thing, but voiding the warranty for the
largest hardware purchase that's critical to the
transportation and livelihood for most people is
not a realistic option…. As a national vision, we
want electrification of transportation to be
ubiquitous,"-- Andy Karsner (responding to a
question from David Taylor, owner of an auto shop
in Sanford, North Carolina who has converted a
Dodge RAM pickup truck to run on electricity; his
video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn4Db9gPOkk was shown at the conference).

* Google.org's Dan Reicher had "two final
important thoughts: This conference has really
confirmed what many of us have long  believed,
and that  is that plug-ins are a real solution
whose time has finally arrived.  It confirms
another important fact: we enjoy serious, serious
bipartisan support here in Washington with
respect for this technology. We cannot say that
with respect to several other major energy and
environmental issues in this town, and that's
quite important. The challenge now is how to
build a coalition to really secure critical
support for plug-ins in DC, for R&D, tax credits,
infrastructure, procurement, particularly with
the imminent arrival of a new administration and
a new Congress. And that question for Brookings
and Google is how to build that coalition, and
have it ready for election day, when
opportunities will loom even larger than today.
Please give us your thoughts. My second thought
is really a plea: when it comes to plug-ins we're
really on a roll here. Even without a coalition
in place there's so much each of us, our
companies and organizations and as individuals,
can do advance plug-in vehicles and the grid
needed to support them: information, procurement
and yes, building real plug-in cars, lots of them
in the near term. With the momentum these last
two days have produced please get out there and
make things happen. The result will indeed be electrifying."


CALCARS' TALKING POINTS At the session, "Plug-In
Vehicles: Where Are We Today?" my points were:

* We've come along way since we brought a PHEV to
Washington, DC, two years ago, showing Members of
Congress the reality that with "todays technology
and no new infrastructure," we could move to cars
fueled by "cleaner/cheaper/domestic" electricity.

* CalCars is focusing on "Successful PHEV
Commercialization ASAP" -- with the prospects of
a multiple PHEVs and EVs coming to market in
2010-2012, we want to find all ways to encourage automakers to accelerate.

* The campaign is going international and
expanding to a larger message about broad
"electrification of transportation," and
recognizing that when we look at "gallons per
mile," the bigger the vehicle the larger the
benefit. (That is, a 50 MPG hybrid saves 1
gallon/100 miles when it becomes a 100 MPG PHEV
-- but a 10 MPG truck saves 5 gallon/100 miles when it becomes a 20 MPG PHEV.)

* The largest near-term opportunity for petroleum
reduction may come from partial electrification
through conversions of substantial numbers of the
world's 900+ million internal combustion vehicles
already on the road -- a message Intel's former
CEO Andy Grove is beginning to deliver to diverse
audiences. See a preview of this focus at
http://www.calcars.org/ice-conversions.html

* We have an opportunity in the coming months to
ask both Presidential candidates to tell
automakers that whichever one of them becomes
President, the industry can count on major
initiatives for plug-in cars. See a preview of
this focus at http://www.calcars.org/phev-presidents.html.

* At other points in the first day, my message
was that "business as usual" was no longer a
prudent strategy for carmakers beause of the
global urgency of energy security and climate
change and the new market pressures and opportunities they create.


NEXT UP: SAN JOSE AND SEATTLE CONFERENCES
Plans and new developments will continue to be
discussed and announced at events in the coming
months: at the Plug-In2008 conference July 22-24
in San Jose, and at September 4-5, 2008, at the
Fifth Annual Cascadia-Microsoft Conference on
Transportation Technology in Redmond. Get info at
-- info about the San Jose event is currently at
the CalCars' events page
http://www.calcars.org/events.html and we'll soon
have details about the Washington State event as
well. And at Hybridfest in Madison, Wisconsin
July 19-20, PHEVs will be widely viewed.




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

We've often said people don't buy hybrids for
paybacks -- they're buying "the environmental
feature," just like people buy leather seats --
or for that matter, choose an eight-cylinder car
instead of a six even knowing it has a "negative
payback." But journalists keep focusing on it. Of
course, when we get mass-produced PHEVs, the
issues will be recast: especially if tax
incentives cover some or all of the additional
cost for the first PHEVs, their operating
expenses of 2-4 cents/electric mile vs. 10-40
cents/gasoline mile will help sell PHEVs.

Meanwhile, here are several views on the topic.
Our favorite is the Wall Street Journal's,
because it ends up talking about PHEVs. We follow
that with Toyota's new posting, that positions
the numbers more positive than anything we've
seen as a result of its method for evaluating
what vehicles are compared, and Edmunds' study,
which would have made the Wall Street Journal's analysis look far better.


WALL STREET JOURNAL: EYES ON THE ROAD:
Joseph White, the Journal's Detroit Bureau Chief,
has been saying more and more positive about
PHEVs in recent months. Here are excerpts from
what he said on April 7, in "Getting All the
Carbon Out of Cars: California's Embrace of
Plug-in Hybrids Shows How Hard Zero Emissions
Really Is: "Plug-in hybrids, essentially
gas-electric cars modified to run in all electric
mode for a significant portion of a daily
commute, have made the journey from the auto
industry's fringes in near record time. Just a
couple of years ago, Toyota Motor Corp. was
discouraging people from modifying its Prius
hybrids so that the batteries could be recharged
from a wall outlet. Other car makers dismissed
plug-ins as the answer to the question: "How
could anyone make a gas-electric hybrid more
impractical and costly?" Then, gas prices shot
up, consumers began clamoring for better fuel
efficiency, and minds began to open. General
Motors Corp. got such an enthusiastic response to
a plug-in hybrid show car called the Chevy Volt,
that it decided to put the car into production ­
and feature it heavily in advertising. Toyota's
engineers remain wary of the potential technical
problems of the lithium-ion batteries needed to
make a plug-in hybrid go. But Toyota decided to
go with the flow, announcing it plans to field a
test fleet of plug-in hybrids by 2010 for tightly
controlled use in fleets.....So mark down a
victory for the technological insurgents who
pushed the plug-in concept over Detroit and
Nagoya's objections. But it's a long way from the
end of the
war."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120733236876290335.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Now here's his latest column:


Still Waiting for Hybrids To Be the Smartest Buy,
Higher Gas Prices Help the Equation; Will the Future Be With Plug-ins?
By Joseph White June 16, 2008
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121346814330775183.html?mod=hps_us_inside_today\
>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121346814330775183.html
(usually this column appears in the Tuesday print edition, but this one didn't)

A colleague came to me recently with a question
that is on the minds of a lot of American
consumers these days: Should I buy a hybrid car?

With gasoline at record prices, demand for some
(though not all) gas-electric hybrid vehicles is
booming. The average Toyota Prius is getting sold
just 13 days after hitting the showroom floor,
according to Power Information Network data
sampled from dealerships. A year ago, it took 24
days to sell a Prius. Prius sales dropped 38% in
May compared to a year ago, but that was because
Toyota dealers were running out of cars to sell.
Dealers had just 3,832 unsold at the end of a
month during which they sold more than 15,000
cars. (Those same Toyota dealers had more than
19,000 Sequoia sport utility vehicles gathering
dust at the end of May, according to Autodata
Corp., after selling just 3,575 of the U.S.-made big rigs.)

Readers, over to you: Have higher gas prices
pushed you to buy a hybrid as your next vehicle? Discuss.

Honda Civic hybrids are selling in an average of
30 days, compared to 67 days a year ago. Average
prices for both cars are higher – more than
$1,000 higher in the case of the Prius. (Not
moving so well is the Nissan Altima hybrid, which
is sitting on the showroom floor an average of 60 days.)

The stampede toward hybrid technology reflects
the much broader rush toward smaller, more
fuel-efficient vehicles that has roiled the auto
market as gasoline prices started topping $4 a
gallon. Hybrid fever seems to be everywhere, as
car makers compete to demonstrate their
pro-hybrid bona fides. (Toyota last week said it
will show off early next year two new hybrids.
General Motors Corp. is providing regular
progress reports on the status of its Volt plug-in hybrid, due in 2010. )

The problem is that even at $4 a gallon, most
current hybrid vehicles won't save their owners
enough at the pump to pay back quickly the price
premium over similar, conventional vehicles. The
numbers have gotten better, of course, as
gasoline prices have risen. But buying a hybrid
isn't financial a no-brainer. It depends on your
starting point -- what vehicle you drive today --
what you are willing to consider as an
alternative to a hybrid, and how much you value
the non-monetary benefits of hybrid ownership.

For example, by my rough calculation, if my
colleague buys the Honda Civic Hybrid he's
considering, he'll likely save $640 a year out of
pocket compared to a regular Civic sedan, if his
hybrid averages the EPA combined estimate of 42
miles per gallon over 15,000 annual miles and gas stays around $4 a gallon.

But the hybrid Civic lists for about $4,840 more
than the gasoline model. A calculator or (in my
case) an Excel spreadsheet says the payback on
gasoline alone will take about 7 ½ years. This is
why my colleague is now focused on benefits of
hybrid ownership that can't be counted in coin --
such as the privilege of using the High Occupancy
Vehicle lanes on the suburban freeways around Washington D.C.

Consumer Reports in 2006 did a more elaborate
analysis, factoring in depreciation, savings from
tax credits and maintenance costs and concluded
that most hybrids cost more over five years than
their standard counterparts. Over longer periods,
some hybrids get into the money.

But if what you're really after is the best
mileage for dollar spent, a forthcoming Consumer
Reports analysis will conclude that you should
buy a Honda Fit, says Jeff Bartlett, a Consumer Reports editor.

This price-to-gas-savings issue shouldn't even be
such a close call. Frustration over the
comparatively modest benefits of current hybrids
is a main driver behind the enthusiasm for the
concept of the plug-in hybrid. Just three or four
years ago, advocates of plug-in hybrids were a
small band, operating on the fringes of the
automotive mainstream. They hacked the battery
packs of Toyota Priuses to create cars that could
recharge from the electrical grid and run far
longer in all-battery mode than a standard Prius.
Toyota effectively disowned the plug-in movement
-- and still isn't wild about it. Other
manufacturers largely ignored the plug-in geeks.

That was then.

PHOTO CAPTION: A modified Toyota Prius that is a plug-in hybrid

Last week, a conference on plug-ins sponsored by
the Brookings Institution, a Washington think
tank, and Google.org, an arm of Internet giant
Google, drew a standing room only crowd to a big
hotel ballroom just a few blocks from Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Among the speakers was former Central
Intelligence Agency director R. James Woolsey,
who drives a plug-in Prius and is advising
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John
McCain (R., Ariz.) Widespread and rapid adoption
of plug-ins, he said, could help break the
stranglehold of oil on the U.S. economy -- and
undermine al Qaeda by drying up the flow of
dollars to the Middle East. Mr. Woolsey's vision
is to develop cars that use carbon fibers for
light weight, clean energy from the grid to
recharge batteries, and ethanol for backup fuel
to achieve the equivalent of 1,000 miles per gallon.

"We can, we should and we must destroy oil's
monopoly!" Mr. Woolsey thundered, jabbing the lectern as the crowd applauded.

The conference was a dramatic demonstration that
the plug-in insurgency is now going mainstream.
But it also remains vulnerable. Speakers at the
conference stressed how the technology needs
Washington's help -- in the form of subsidies,
tax breaks, and mandates to adopt new standards
for recharging infrastructure such as "smart"
electric meters that can assess lower fees for
replenishing batteries in the dead of night.

The Department of Energy did announce at the
conference it would offer the Detroit Three $30
million over three years to help develop plug-in
prototypes. But that's small change against the
full costs of retooling for mass production of such vehicles.

As advocates of climate change action can
testify, waiting for Washington to flash a green
light can consign even the most stirring vision to the slow lane.


TOYOTA'S VIEW
Irv's Sheet: The Hybrid Premium Payoff, June 17, 2008
http://blog.toyota.com/2008/06/irvs-sheet-the.html
by Irv Miller, Group Vice President, Corporate Communications

There's been a great deal of talk recently about
how cost-effective running a hybrid vehicle
really is. The issue, it seems, is the amount of
time required for the reduced cost of operation
of a hybrid to pay off the vehicle's price premium.

Vehicles with alternative powerplants like
hybrids cost a bit more than do vehicles with
standard engines. In addition to the usual gas
engine, the Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive
powertrain also includes an electric motor, a
special continuously variable transmission, a
battery pack, a regenerative braking system and a
lot of computing power to make it all work. Hence, the price premium.

But a hybrid saves you money because of superior
fuel economy, so you spend less on gas, right? So
how far must you drive before your mpg savings
pay off that premium? It depends on the amount of
the price premium (the price difference between a
hybrid and a comparable non-hybrid), and on the price of gas.

Various studies that give a surprising spread of
payback times are being circulated. In fact, one
of these studies surfaced on the Today Show, on
MSNBC, June 10. None of these numbers looked
right. So we decided to crunch the numbers
ourselves so that we could see what's going on.

We started with three popular hybrid vehicles -
the Prius, the Camry hybrid and the Highlander
hybrid. To arrive at what we'll call the "hybrid
premium," we started with the True Market Value
(TMV) prices of the base hybrids as calculated by
the popular auto site Edmunds.com, using the
numbers we found there last week. From that, we
subtracted the TMV prices of equivalent
non-hybrid vehicles. In the Prius's case, we used
a four-cylinder Camry SE, which in our line is
the car closest to it in overall size; in the
case of the Camry Hybrid, we used a four-cylinder
Camry XLE, which is closest to the Camry hybrid
in trim level; and in the case of the Highlander
hybrid, we used a standard AWD V6 Highlander.

For the purposes of this calculation, we used the
vehicles' EPA-rated combined mpg figures, an
average of 15,000 miles per year and per-gallon
gas prices of $4.00, the current national
average. We also ran the calculations using $4.40
per gallon. Here's what we found:

The price premium for the Prius is $97, and at
$4.00 per gallon, according to our calculations
you'd get annual fuel savings of $1,096 and
achieve payback in 0.1 year, or a little more
than one month. At $4.40 per gallon, you'd save
$1,205 per year and still achieve payback in 0.1
year. The premium for the Camry hybrid is $2,155,
and at $4.00 per gallon, you'll save $635 per
year and achieve payback in 3.4 years. At $4.40
per gallon, you'd save $699 per year and achieve
payback in 3.1 years. Finally, the premium for a
Highlander hybrid is $7,052. At $4.00 per gallon,
you'd save $850 per year and achieve payback in
8.3 years. At $4.40 per gallon, you'd save $936
and achieve payback in 7.5 years.

In the past, before fuel prices spiked, the
payoff period wasn't much of an issue, at least
for some, because people bought hybrids like our
Prius because of their perceived "green"
character. Being "green," of course, is good. But
saving money also is good. And if you can be
"green" and save money at the same time, that's
the best of both worlds. It is, in fact, the
world of Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive. I just thought you should know.


EDMUNDS REPORT
Hybrids "Paying Off" More Quickly, New Edmunds Data Shows
Edmunds AutoObserver May 08, 2008 By Bill Visnic
http://www.autoobserver.com/2008/05/hybrids-paying-off-more-quickly-new-edmunds-\
data-shows.html

As gasoline prices go higher, many
hybrid-electric vehicles currently on sale are
proving to be even wiser investments, says new data from Edmunds.com.

Considerable past discussion about hybrids has
focused on "payback" time, or the period required
for savings from a hybrid's enhanced fuel economy
to recoup the initial higher purchase price a
hybrid commands. Detractors often claimed that,
from a strictly fiscal view of hybrids, most
vehicle purchasers would never save enough in
gasoline costs to recover their investment in expensive hybrid technology.

But with every increase in gas prices, the hybrid
payback time becomes consequently shorter - to
the point where some popularly priced hybrid
models can pay back their owners' investment in
as little as 18 months, according to the new Edmunds.com study.

That's the case with Toyota Motor Corp.'s Camry
Hybrid, currently one of the nation's
best-selling hybrid vehicles. Compared with a
conventionally powered four-cylinder Camry XLE,
the Hybrid model costs $889 more, says Edmunds.
But based on 15,000-mile-per-year driving, the
Camry Hybrid saves $573, assuming gasoline priced
at $3.61 per gallon. At that rate, owners can
recoup their hybrid investment in just 18 months.

General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid
also is a fuel-efficiency investment with
relatively quick return. Edmunds data shows the
extra $438 the Malibu Hybrid costs compared with
a conventional four-cylinder Malibu LT is
returned in 2.7 years. Driving the Malibu Hybrid
saves about $160 in fuel costs annually, Edmunds says.

For many hybrid buyers, it's never been about the
money -- hybrid ownership is an environmental
statement. But many factors now are aligning to
make purchase of a hybrid vehicle not so bad for the wallet, either.

"Environmentally conscious consumers have been
drawn to hybrid vehicles since day one and were
willing to pay a premium for them," said Jesse
Toprak, Edmunds.com's Executive Director of
Industry Analysis. "But now as a result of  lower
price premiums, higher gas prices and, in some
cases, tax credits, it won't take long for
consumers to offset the price premium and
actually save money by buying a hybrid -- depending on which one they choose."

For Toyota, the nation's volume leader in
hybrid-vehicle sales, federal tax subsidies for
buyers -- which are tied to the number of hybrids
sold -- have long since disappeared. But many
other automakers' models still qualify buyers for
federal tax credits; the Edmunds payback data
takes into account any applicable tax credits.

And what of Toyota's Prius, the most famous and
most recognizable hybrid on the road? Prius has
no non-hybrid counterpart, but Edmunds says
compared with a four-cylinder Toyota Camry LE
sedan, a Prius returns its $3,489 hybrid
"premium" in about 3.5 years, saving a customer
who drives 15,000 miles annually a
not-unsubstantial $989 each year -- or about $82 per month.

Costlier hybrids, meanwhile, are better bought
for their environmental feel-good rather than
their economic merits. An extreme example is the
LS 600h L from Toyota's upscale Lexus division:
Owners had better buy while they're young,
because the LS 600h L requires 68.6 years to pay
back the gigantic $18,630 it costs over the standard-powered LS 460L.

But the long-payback factor is not limited to
premium-priced hybrids. Owners would have to hang
on to GM's Saturn Aura Green Line hybrid for 16.2
years to recoup their investment in hybrid
technology, and the Toyota Highlander Hybrid
takes 12 years to return the extra cost of hybridization.

HYBRIDCARS.COM'S VIEW (USING EDMUNDS NUMBERS)
http://www.hybridcars.com/decision-process/new-hybrid-math.html
The New Hybrid Math   Published May 19, 2008

This week, Toyota will raise the price of a few
of its cars, including a $400 hike on the Toyota
Prius and a bump on the Camry Hybrid by $300. But
in the past four weeks, the average price of
regular gasoline increased by almost 30 cents a
gallon. Therefore, in actual ownership costs, the
price of Toyota hybrids is cheaper this week than
it was a month ago. Welcome to the new hybrid math.

Buying a hybrid car, like any consumer purchase
decision, has never been solely about dollars and
cents. As many economists have pointed out,
consumers buy things just as much based on their
hopes and fears about the world, and desires for
their own lives. Nonetheless, the media has
repeatedly crunched the numbers on the “payback
period” to demonstrate that hybrids don't add
up--until $4 gas turned that argument on its head.

In April 2006, Consumer Reports said that not a
single hybrid would recoup its extra cost over
five years of ownership--and then recanted its
study, designating the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic
Hybrid, and Ford Escape Hybrid as economic
winners. Since that time, the EPA rating of
hybrids has been cut by about 20 percent, and
Toyota and Honda hybrids have lost some or all of
their federal tax incentives. How did that affect
the hybrid cost-benefit analysis?

Edmunds.com’s most recent analysis released
earlier this month expanded the list of hybrids
that earn a five-year "payback" to five models:
Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, Honda Civic Hybrid,
Nissan Altima Hybrid, and Toyota's Prius and
Camry Hybrid. Edmunds used an average gas cost of
$3.61 per gallon and 15,000 miles a year of
travel. If you expect the price of gasoline to
average more than $3.61 over the next five years
or to keep the car longer than five years, the
math looks even better. And Edmunds is not
calculating relative resale values for hybrids.

"Environmentally conscious consumers have been
drawn to hybrid vehicles since day one, and were
willing to pay a premium for them," said Jesse
Toprak, Edmunds.com's industry analyst. "But now,
as a result of lower price premiums, higher gas
prices and, in some cases, tax credits, it won't
take long for consumers to offset the price
premium and actually save money by buying a
hybrid--depending on which one they choose."

The shifting economic algebra of hybrids is
expected to accelerate the red-hot growth of the
market for gas-electric vehicles. As most of the
auto industry suffers through a dismal year,
Prius sales in April jumped by 67 percent
compared with last year. "Many of our Priuses
sell the same day they arrive on the lot. If they
haven't already pre-sold, that is," said Bill
Kidd, a Baltimore-based Toyota dealership owner,
in an interview with Hybridcars.com.

A few other numbers to consider: Toyota recently
announced that it sold its one millionth Prius.
And despite the $400 price increase and the
belt-tightening in the United States, Toyota is
maintaining its goal to sell one million hybrids
globally every year beginning in about three years.

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

Big news today: we start with some background about the candidates
and plug-in cars, then we go to what each candidate has said in the
past few days, with our comments on each.

GENERAL COMMENTS BY CALCARS:

"We're thrilled that Presidential candidates are talking about
plug-in hybrids. It shows we've reached a tipping point, where our
elected leaders, CEOs and grass-roots advocates and automakers all
agree it makes sense to power cars with cleaner, cheaper, domestic
electricity.  Let's make sure the focus remains on reducing fossil
fuel use through near-term mass production -- not on long-term R&D
that makes the perfect the enemy of the good and could be an excuse
to postpone commercialization."


BACKGROUND: BOTH CANDIDATES HAVE SEEN AND PRAISED PLUG-IN HYBRIDS

Some weeks ago, we put up a bare-bones page
http://www.calcars.org/phev-presidents.html showing them with PHEVs,
as part of our preparation for the Google-Brookings Institution
conference. At that conference we proposed a strategy to have the
candidates agree that plug-in cars wouldn't be a campaign issue this
fall because whichever of them was elected, automakers should know
that next year, they could expect major federal support for PHEVs.
(The candidates have actually issued a joint statement to this effect
on Darfur
http://www.savedarfur.org/page/content/Candidates_Statement/ that we
saw as precedent, and they have both said that the incoming President
would not challenge California's pioneering emissions regulations
that have been so strongly blocked by the current administration.)

It's now clear that candidates, advocates and carmakers are all
focusing on January 20, 2008. Brookings' David Sandalow's book,
"Freedom From Oil" (which you can order via
http://www.calcars.org/books.html ) remains the best roadmap,
providing background, a full program, talking points and a
Presidential Address on the subject. Taking their cues from the
subject of the conference, "Federal Policy on Plug-In Cars," in their
presentations both Ford and GM emphasized the benefit of federal
support. And the Energy Dept. took the occasion to announce awards of
small development contracts that would for the first time involve
Ford, GM and Chrysler (working with GE) on PHEV projects -- even
though the total amount of awards is only $30M.

Now it looks like our game plan has been superceded by events in both
campaigns.  Here are the latest developments plus our responses.


THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN
Today John McCain proposed a "Clean Car Challenge" including $5,000
incentives for zero-emission vehicles and a $300M prize for a battery
that's 30% better than we have today. Among the hundreds of news
stories, this from the AP
report
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jfqkglGaJzMm-z8hIuFPKpCqLkwwD91FQ6L81

The presumed Republican nominee is proposing a $300 million
government prize to whoever can develop an automobile battery that
far surpasses existing technology. The bounty would equate to $1 for
every man, woman and child in the country, "a small price to pay for
helping to break the back of our oil dependency," McCain said in
remarks prepared for delivery Monday at Fresno State University in
California. McCain said such a device should deliver power at 30
percent of current costs and have "the size, capacity, cost and power
to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric
cars." The Arizona senator is also proposing stiffer fines for
automakers who skirt existing fuel-efficiency standards, as well as
incentives to increase use of domestic and foreign alcohol-based
fuels such as ethanol. In addition, a so-called Clean Car Challenge
would provide U.S. automakers with a $5,000 tax credit for every
zero-carbon emissions car they develop and sell.

We can perhaps thank in part long-time PHEV advocate James Woolsey,
former CIA director and the coiner of the catchy description of the
PHEV campaign as * The Lonodon Daily Telegraph, in reporting
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/johnmccain/2169365/Joh\
n-McCain-hires-former-CIA-director-Jim-Woolsey-as-green-advisor.html
that he is McCain's key energy advisor says, "He is one of a new
generation of so-called "Greenocons", campaigners who are making the
case for a green American foreign and energy policy not just to save
the planet, but to keep America safe too."

CALCARS' TAKE ON THE PROPOSAL

"We're glad that plug-in cars are becoming a central focus for
Senator McCain. The tax credit idea sends the message to carmakers
that Washington understands that federal support in electrifying
transportation is a great investment and it's the end of business as
usual. That means carmakers' business models are out the window and
they have great opportunities to take a leap into innovation. We also
hope Washington will see the near-term benefit of incentives for
converting many of today's internal combustion engine cars.

"As for the battery prize, we've all known people who postponed
buying a computer for years because the next version would be better
-- but meanwhile they lost the use of that invaluable tool. The clock
is ticking on energy security and global warming and the world can't
wait to get started. Prizes do a great job catching people's
attention and inspiring innovation, but we hope the call for improved
batteries doesn't obscure the reality that today's batteries are good
enough for Version 1.0 PHEVs. General Motors in particular is showing
we don't have to wait for new technology. Cheaper and lighter
batteries will be the icing on the cake."


THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN
Meanwhile, over the weekend, Senator Obama told a group of Democratic
governors in Chicago, reports AP
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jNlJOuGuTs5qgEuIws8f56V48hyAD91DVH680
, that "he would invest $150 billion over the next 10 years to create
green jobs, particularly in the automotive industry and to improve
the electricity grid so people can drive plug-in hybrid vehicles."

CALCARS' VIEW

"Senator Obama has a history of support for PHEVs that goes back to
his 2005, including the Obama-Insley "Health Care for Hybrids" bill
introduced in 2006. We know that he has been hearing from many
sources that it's time to talk about the benefits of plug-in cars and
what can be done to promote and incentivize them, and we look forward
to hearing more.

"As for the power grid, there are many reasons to modernize and
improve it, but plug-in cars don't have to wait for that. Reports
from federal laboratories and speeches by utility CEOs confirm that
we today's power grid is more than adequate to begin plugging in tens
of millions of cars, especially at night when we have more power than
we can use."

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

More below from Intel's former CEO Andy Grove: this story is now
running at the Chicago Tribune's website and should get broad
distribution Sunday and Monday. See also our June 10 report at
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/959.html

Before that story: On Wednesday, the daily PBS Newshour ran a
9.5-minute story on plug-in cars. Watch/read transcript at
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/transportation/jan-june08/electriccars_06-25.html
. Veteran reporter Spencer Michaels traces back the story to the ZEV
Mandate in the 90s, and looks at PHEVS (CalCars' Felix Kramer and
Luscious Garage's Carolyn Coquillette appear) and and EVs, focusing
on Tesla. Mary Nichols of the Air Resources Board is interviewed as well.
The story spends a good bit of time on hydrogen fuel-cell cars. (It
continues to surprise us that journalists who zero in on higher
initial costs in the thousands of dollars for plug-in cars, are
blinded by hydrogen promises. For instance on June 16, Honda showed
off its fleet of 100 Clarity hydrogen vehicles, each costing hundreds
of thousands of dollars, and said the price could fall under $100,000
within 10 years. This didn't stop the Wall Street Journal the NYTimes
from treating them as news about today's automobile choices! See
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121364017994578203.html and
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/business/worldbusiness/17fuelcell.html


AP Interview: Ex-Intel head pushes electric cars
By KEN THOMAS | Associated Press Writer June 27, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-grove-plug-ins,0,1749993.story

WASHINGTON - Former Intel Corp. chairman Andy Grove has a knack for
sensing when larger circumstances should force changes at a company
or an industry -- and how to respond.

He even has coined a term for it: the "strategic inflection point."
Now the retired chairman of the world's largest computer chip maker
thinks the term applies to energy and transportation, where
record-high gasoline and oil prices have renewed interest in
alternative energy sources and advanced vehicles.

During the past year and a half, Grove has created his own crash
course in electric power, plug-in hybrid vehicles and finding ways of
shifting the nation's fleet of vehicles from gas. His goal: To draw
more attention to electric vehicles.

"The most important thing I would like to do is light that almost
half-assumed truth up in neon lights. Electricity in transportation
has to be done. It is urgent. It is important that everything else is
secondary," Grove said during a recent phone interview with The
Associated Press.

"The drumbeat of the electrical transportation is accelerating like
nothing I've ever seen in my life," Grove said.

Grove, 71, who was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1997, is
the latest industry and government heavyweight to push plug-in
hybrids and electric cars. Former CIA director James Woolsey, former
Secretary of State George Schultz and Google Inc.'s philanthropic
arm, Google.org, have touted the benefits of cars that could plug
into a standard wall outlet to recharge the battery.

Several automakers are testing plug-in prototypes that would allow
the vehicle to run on electric power for the first 40 miles. The
technology hinges on the development of advanced lithium ion
batteries and companies such as General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor
Corp. hope to have an extended range plug-in available in limited
quantities by 2010.

In the latest edition of The American, published by the American
Enterprise Institute, Grove writes that the beauty of electric power
is its ability to be produced through multiple sources such as coal,
wind and nuclear, and its "stickiness" -- it can only be transported over land.

Oil, by contrast, "flows to the highest bidder," making the United
States more susceptible to large demands for petroleum from growing
economies such as China.

While car makers have been developing plug-ins, Grove says the nation
should consider ways of retrofitting the 80 million low-mileage
pickups, sport utility vehicles and vans on the road to make them
capable of running on both gasoline and electric power.

Giving these vehicles "dual fuel" functions would be similar to
changes made in other technologies. DVD players, for example, were
often combined with VCR tape players when they were first introduced
to help consumers make the transition.

To push the technology along, Grove suggests tax incentives to take
the risk out of battery development and help offset the costs of
conversion kits. Utilities, he says, could subsidize the early
adopters of plug-ins by providing free electric power to the vehicles
for the first year to 18 months.

"I think it is a legitimate place for the government to fund, to
accelerate it," he said.

Automakers have urged the government to provide more consumer tax
incentives and research aid to develop advanced batteries, but they
have questioned efforts to retrofit the vehicles.

Any changes to the engine would void the warranty, and the
alterations could undermine the vehicle's reliability and safety
functions, automakers say.

"We strongly discourage consumers from retrofitting vehicles," said
GM spokesman Greg Martin.

Grove says the fledgling plug-in hybrid movement offers parallels to
the Homebrew Computer Club from the mid-1970s that helped electronic
hobbyists in northern California set the stage for personal
computers. Plug-in hybrid conversion shops could spread the
technology in similar ways.

"The personal computer ... went to individuals first before it went
to corporations. The conversion goes to individuals," Grove said.
"Electric cars ... the corporations are sitting, wishing this whole
friggin' thing to go away. Which is exactly what the computer
companies' attitude was to personal computers."

Grove has battled Parkinson's disease and devoted millions of dollars
and work to support research into the disease. He has taken to
alternative energy issues with a similar intensity, tapping into a
network of plug-in enthusiasts and experts. Grove says he even bought
a textbook on electric and hybrid vehicles written by a University of
Akron professor.

"They are all enthusiastically tutoring me," he said.

Grove co-teaches a Stanford University business school seminar, and
will devote the class next fall to examining ways of making the
electric car possible.

He acknowledges that the shift to electric transportation will be a
daunting challenge, but notes that President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt worked with Detroit's automakers during World War II to
quickly retool their plants to supply the war effort. At a time of
$4-plus a gallon for gas and the dangers of oil politics, those
lessons shouldn't be lost.

"I think technologically it's doable. I think the logic is pretty
compelling," Grove said. "Somebody better drive it and play Roosevelt."

Biographical info on ex-Intel head Andy Grove
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-biobox-grove,0,7241155.story
By The Associated Press June 27, 2008

NAME: Andrew S. Grove.

AGE-BIRTH DATE: 71; born Sept. 2, 1936, in Budapest, Hungary.

EXPERIENCE: Senior adviser to executive management, Intel Corp.,
2005-present; Chairman of the Board, Intel Corp., 1997-2005; Chief
Executive Officer, Intel Corp., 1979-1997; one of the founders of
Intel Corp. in 1968; joined the research and development laboratory
of Fairchild Semiconductor and became assistant director of research
and development in 1967. Grove is a lecturer at the Stanford
University Graduate School of Business.

EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree, City College of New York, 1960;
doctorate degree, University of California, Berkeley, 1963.

BOOKS: Physics and Technology of Semiconductor Devices (1967), High
Output Management (1983), One-on-One With Andy Grove (1987), Only the
Paranoid Survive (1996), Swimming Across (2001), Strategic Dynamics:
Concepts and Cases, co-authored by Robert A. Burgelman (2005).

FAMILY: Wife, Eva; two daughters.

QUOTE: "The drumbeat of the electrical transportation is accelerating
like nothing I've ever seen in my life."

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

Following up on our June 23 report on McCain's
proposals, http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/966.html here is the latest.

As we had expected/hoped, the candidates are
paying attention to each other's statements and
repositioning their own. They both agree that
plug-in cars are a good idea but so far, neither
has been as fully specific as we think is called
for in this situation (i.e. in relation to the
program proposed by Brooking Institution's David
Sandalow in his book, "Freedom From Oil"
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/857.html ).
The world is watching to understand their energy
polices; carmakers are waiting to factor in
federal policies as they decide how quickly to
move forward, and people looking at the business
opportunities in converting millions of internal
combustion engine cars, whose efforts may result
in the most near-term social benefits, are
watching to see if their vehicles will also be eligible for incentives.

Certainly, the race is on. In a story, "Obama,
McCain Zap Each Other on Energy Proposals,"
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/06/24/obama-mccain-zap-each-other-on-energy-pr\
oposals/
that otherwise doesn't cover any ground not
reported elsewhere,  FOXNews.com on Tuesday, June
24, 2008, said, "The back-and-forth underscored
how rising gas prices are steering the political
debate just as much as the overall economic slump
or the war in Iraq." In the story below, the
Washington Post chimed in on what it called "the
latest skirmish over which presidential candidate
is better prepared to tackle the nation's energy and environmental problems."

In what follows, we will focus entirely on
plug-in cars and NOT on all critiques of other
aspects of energy policy and differences between
the candidates on offshore drilling, biofuels,
gas tax rebates, nuclear power, etc. Below you'll find excerpts from:

* Remarks by McCain + Clarification from James Woolsey
* Remarks by Obama
* Media reports on Obama in Pittsburgh and Las Vegas
* Media reports on McCain at Lordstown auto factory and in Santa Barbara
* Other resources


REMARKS BY JOHN MCCAIN on Energy Security and Our National Security
http://www.johnmccain.com/informing/news/Speeches/65ee015f-0eb2-46e3-b7c5-5e9da0\
1d08d4.htm
June 23, 2008-- remarks as prepared for delivery
at a town hall meeting in Fresno, CA:

Ninety-seven percent of transportation in America
runs on oil. And of all that oil, about 60
percent is used in cars and trucks. Yet the CAFE
standards we apply to automakers -- to increase
the fuel efficiency of their cars -- are lightly
enforced by a small fine. The result is that some
companies don't even bother to observe CAFE
standards. Instead they just write a check to the
government and pass the cost along to you. Higher
end auto companies like BMW, Porsche, and
Mercedes employ some of the best engineering
talent in the world. But that talent isn't put to
the job of fuel efficiency, when the penalties
are too small to encourage innovation. CAFE
standards should serve large national goals in
energy independence, not the purpose of small-time revenue collection.

My administration will issue a Clean Car
Challenge to the automakers of America, in the
form of a single and substantial tax credit based
on the reduction of carbon emissions. For every
automaker who can sell a zero-emissions car, we
will commit a 5,000 dollar tax credit for each
and every customer who buys that car. For other
vehicles, whatever type they may be, the lower
the carbon emissions, the higher the tax credit.
And these large tax credits will be available to
everyone -- not just to those who have an accountant to explain it to them.

Furthermore, in the quest for alternatives to
oil, our government has thrown around enough
money subsidizing special interests and excusing
failure. From now on, we will encourage heroic
efforts in engineering, and we will reward the greatest success.

I further propose we inspire the ingenuity and
resolve of the American people by offering a $300
million prize for the development of a battery
package that has the size, capacity, cost and
power to leapfrog the commercially available
plug-in hybrids or electric cars. This is one
dollar for every man, woman and child in the U.S.
-- a small price to pay for helping to break the
back of our oil dependency -- and should deliver
a power source at 30 percent of the current costs.

My friends, energy security is the great national
challenge of our time. And rising to this
challenge will take all of the vision,
creativity, and resolve of which we are capable.
The good news is, these qualities have never been
in short supply. We are the country of Edison,
Fulton, and two brothers named Wright. It was
American ingenuity that took three brave men to
the moon and brought them back. Think of all the
highest scientific endeavors of our age -- the
invention of the silicon chip, the creation of
the Internet, the mapping of the human genome. In
so many cases, you can draw a straight line back
to American inventors, and often to the
foresighted aid of the United States government.

CLARIFICATION: James Woolsey, energy advisor to
Senator McCain's campaign, has further explained
that there is not only a $5,000 credit for ZEVs
but credits close to that for near-ZEVs - which
include PHEVs. And his calculations for the
battery prize result in a goal of a 70 percent
improvement in batteries to get to 30 percent of
current cost.  (In the CalCars-News posting cited
above, we had repeated an erroneous
simplification about how much better the battery needs to be.)


REMARKS BY SENATOR OBAMA as prepared for delivery
A Serious Energy Policy for Our Future
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 Las Vegas, Nevada
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gG5RCv

I commend [McCain] for his desire to accelerate
the search for a battery that can power the cars
of the future.  I've been talking about this
myself for the last few years.  But I don't think
a $300 million prize is enough.  When John F.
Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man
on the moon, he didn't put a bounty out for some
rocket scientist to win ­ he put the full
resources of the United States government behind
the project and called on the ingenuity and
innovation of the American people.  That's the
kind of effort we need to achieve energy
independence in this country, and nothing less will do....

I have a very different vision of what this
country can and should achieve on energy in the
next four years ­ in the next ten years.  I have
a plan to raise the fuel standards in our cars
and trucks with technology we have on the shelf
today ­ technology that will make sure we get
more miles to the gallon.  And we will provide
financial help to our automakers and autoworkers
to help them make this transition.  I will invest
$150 billion over the next ten years in
alternative sources of energy like wind power,
and solar power, and advanced biofuels ­
investments that will create up to five million
new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced;
that will create billions of dollars in new
business like you're already doing here in
Nevada.  And before we hand over more of our land
and our coastline to oil companies, I will charge
those companies a fee for every acre that they
currently lease but don't drill on.  If that
compels them to drill, we'll get more oil.  If it
doesn't, the fees will go toward more investment
in renewable sources of energy.

When all is said and done, my plan to increase
our fuel standards will save American consumers
from purchasing half a trillion gallons of gas over the next eighteen years.


MEDIA REPORTS ON OBAMA'S MEETINGS WITH CAR EXECUTIVES
Obama: Federal funding needed to develop green cars
June 26, 2008 by Andrew Strieber
http://wot.motortrend.com/6256582/government/obama-federal-funding-needed-to-dev\
elop-green-cars/index.html

After responding to rival John McCain's recently
proposed $300 million battery development prize
by calling it a "gimmick" and countering that
more government resources will be needed to help
domestic automakers break America's dependence on
imported oil, Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama sat down with industry leaders over
the past two days to discuss the issue face to
face. In two separate group meetings, Obama
recently met with Ford CEO Alan Mulally and GM
head Rick Wagoner to share ideas and hear their concerns.

Though the senator's meeting with Mulally was not
public, the Ford CEO issued a statement calling
it "very productive," and saying "the vitality of
our economy will depend on our government seeking
a partnership with industry." With this in mind,
today Obama joined an economic roundtable with
Wagoner and other representatives at Carnegie
Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Though in the
past Obama has been tough on domestic automakers
for building too many SUVs, he began the meeting
by asking how the next president can help
domestic automakers cope with rising gas prices
and global warming. Wagoner responded that while
the Big Three are putting a massive effort into
the development of advanced powertrains, the
"application of these new technologies is pretty
expensive" and the government needs "to provide
some support" to help make them affordable. After
explaining that automakers' "relatively weak
balance sheets" make it difficult for them to
shift production lines and build smaller cars,
the GM chief also brought up his company's Volt
plug-in hybrid (PHEV) in a discussion of tax
credits. Designing the car's revolutionary
gas-electric system has proven more expensive
then anticipated, and GM will reportedly struggle
to sell the car at an affordable price. Tax
credits would help offset the added cost of new technology.

Noting a "surprising consensus" on fixing the
economy, the senator agreed with Wagoner that
federal assistance will be needed to help
American EVs and PHEVs compete against upcoming
products from Toyota and VW, among others. Though
the Department of Energy recently issued grants
to aid PHEV development, they totaled only $30
million -- Obama has proposed creating a $150
billion clean energy initiative, including money
to help automakers retool factories to build alternative-fuel cars.

Meanwhile John McCain will visit GM's Lordstown,
Ohio assembly plant tomorrow and continue to
discuss his own competing prescription for aiding
the ailing Big Three. The future of the American
auto industry has emerged as a major theme in
this year's presidential campaign, and if gas
prices continue their steady upward climb, no
doubt it will only continue to gain importance.

Thursday, June 26, 2008
U.S. automakers need federal research money, GM's Wagoner tells Obama
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080626/POLITICS01/806260453/\
1148/rss25

PITTSBURGH -- U.S. carmakers need a boost in
federal research spending and incentives for
consumers to adopt new and expensive
technologies, General Motors Corp.'s top executive told Barack Obama Thursday.

Obama kicked off a forum with top business and
academic leaders with a question to GM Chairman
and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, asking what the
next president can do to help domestic automakers
adjust to rising gas prices and increasing environmental concerns.

"We've got a lot of smart people working" on new
technologies such as battery-powered vehicles and
hydrogen fuel cells, Wagoner said, but government
support for basic research on new energy technologies is crucial.

"We need to keep in mind ... application of these
new technologies is pretty expensive," Wagoner
said. "We need to provide some support to make
sure these new technologies are affordable to consumers."

The exchange highlighted the attention Obama and
his Republican opponent, John McCain, have paid
to auto issues. Obama met Wednesday with a group
of business executives including Ford Motor Co.
President and CEO Alan Mulally; on Friday, McCain
will tour GM's Lordstown, Ohio, plant and meet with workers there.

Obama sparked criticism from many in the industry
last year when, in a speech at the Detroit
Economic Club, he criticized automakers for
failing to build more fuel-efficient cars -- a
speech he has repeatedly referred to in campaign ads and appearances.

But at Thursday's forum on the Carnegie Mellon
University campus, Wagoner sat just to Obama's
left on a stage with some of the nation's top
technology and academic leaders, and Obama kicked
off the forum by asking, basically, what he could
do to help lift the domestic carmakers out of their massive financial losses.

Referring to those losses and GM's recent
decision to close a series of plants -- including
a Wisconsin factory Obama visited during the
primary campaign there -- Obama asked, "How do we
shape our energy future in a way that allows GM
to remain competitive, keeps some of the best
workers in the world on their jobs and generates
profits for the company and shareholders?"

Wagoner sounded a note of optimism, noting GM's
plan to introduce the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet
Volt by 2010 and more advanced research on
hydrogen fuel-cells. But he said the researchers
developing batteries for hybrids and taking
hydrogen power from the lab to the highway need
federal research money. And he asked for
government help to offset the high costs of newer
technologies for consumers -- aid that
traditionally has come in the form of tax credits.

And Wagoner suggested that the carmakers'
"relatively weak balance sheets" make it
difficult for them to make the large capital
investments needed to shift production lines to new vehicles.


McCain Has Plan to Make Government More Green
By Juliet Eilperin and Lyndsey Layton Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, June 25, 2008; Page A01
washingtonpost.com readers have posted 295 comments about this item.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/25/ST2008062500204.ht\
ml

Republican John McCain said Tuesday the federal
government should practice the energy efficiency
he preaches, pledging as president to switch
official vehicles to green technologies and do the same for office buildings.

Sen. John McCain pledged yesterday that he would
make the federal government more environmentally
friendly, while Sen. Barack Obama mocked his
rival as crafting energy policies that merely
pander to voters, in the latest skirmish over
which presidential candidate is better prepared
to tackle the nation's energy and environmental problems.

In a speech in Santa Barbara, Calif., McCain
(R-Ariz.) vowed to "put the purchasing power of
the United States government on the side of green
technology" by buying fuel-efficient vehicles for
its civilian fleet of cars and trucks and by
retrofitting federal office space. The pledge
comes months after Obama (D-Ill.) outlined a more
detailed and ambitious proposal on the subject,
virtually ensuring that the next administration
will take significant steps to lower the
government's output of energy and pollution....

"Every year, the federal government buys upwards
of 60,000 cars and other vehicles, not including
military or law enforcement vehicles," McCain
said as he campaigned with California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, a prominent GOP environmentalist.
"From now on, we're going to make those civilian
vehicles flex-fuel capable, plug-in hybrid, or
cars fueled by clean natural gas."



McCain Offers Aid, No 'Bailout' on Autos
By JOHN D. STOLL and ELIZABETH HOLMES with Amy Chozick
Wall Street Journal June 28, 2008; Page A4
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121461489591312807.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Detroit's calls for help from Washington are
gaining some traction, as both Republican John
McCain and Democrat Barack Obama this week let
auto-industry executives share the spotlight in
their presidential campaigns, and suggested they'd lend auto makers a hand.

During a meeting Friday at a General Motors Corp.
small-car factory in Lordstown, Ohio, Sen. McCain
said he doesn't support a "classic" bailout of
the ailing domestic car companies, but he laid out initiatives to help.

"It depends on what you mean by a bailout," he
said. "If you're talking about it in the classic terms, I'm afraid not."

But the Arizona Republican said he would offer a
spate of tax incentives and infrastructure
support aimed at encouraging innovation of more
fuel-efficient products and expanding
availability of alternative fuel. He vowed to get
involved in enforcing trade deals that may
disadvantage auto companies trying to export cars and parts.

On Thursday. Sen. Obama moderated a panel of
business leaders that included GM Chief Executive
Rick Wagoner. Mr. Obama, who last year scolded
Detroit for failing to focus on fuel efficiency,
struck a more sympathetic tone.

"Obviously all of you realize the market has
changed so you have every incentive to do so but
you may need some bridges to help get there,"
Sen. Obama said. Mr. Wagoner said he left the
meeting encouraged by Sen. Obama's questions and
willingness to help. The company is encouraged by
Sen. Obama's plan to invest $150 billion in green
technology ideas, many of which affect the U.S. auto industry.

Sen. McCain said he'd make the
research-and-development tax credit permanent,
and "would like to invest American federal
dollars" in the development of flex-fuel cars
that run on ethanol, in hydrogen-powered cars, and electric cars.

"I think once we develop that technology with
pure research and development then we've got to
hand it over to the private enterprise and the
automotive companies. I do not think we should be
in competition, but ... we have national
laboratories that are capable of coming up with a
lot of innovation and a lot of new technology."

GM North America Chief Troy Clarke joined Sen.
McCain for a brief plant tour before the
town-hall meeting. Mr. Clarke, talking to
reporters, said he is "encouraged" by the amount
of weight being given the auto industry thus far
in the election cycle. He said the auto maker is
engaged in "a technology race" with foreign
rivals and GM welcomes "a robust national debate on a solution."

In recent years, GM has been calling for reforms
on a laundry list of issues, from health care to
the dollar and energy diversity. Mr. Clarke, once
GM's labor chief, said the current focus on
energy will open up the opportunity to eventually
talk more in depth on all the pressures squeezing Detroit.

He said attention to how crucial the industry is
to fixing the energy crisis "is serving as an
accelerant" for the auto industry's entire body
of requests from the government.


OTHER RESOURCES
Discussion of the McCain program by Joseph Romm at ClimateProgress:
http://climateprogress.org/2008/06/25/mccain-energy-gimmick-part-2-the-ill-defin\
ed-impractical-clean-car-challenge/

Profile of McCain advisor Jim Woolsey in the Wall
Street Journal's special energy section:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121432276099000211.html?mod=2_1586_middlebox


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

For your Independence Weekend enjoyment to hold
your interest while we work on an overall
"carmakers" update covering recent developments among automakers:

* Musings from Csaba Csere Car & Driver's
Editor-In-Chief (who back in October 2005
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/183.html was
one of the first to pay attention to PHEVs as the "next big thing,")
* An "insider" from the Kiplinger's Letter (prognosticating for 85 years);
* A whiny, uninformed criticism of GM from Holman
Jenkins, Editorial Board Member of the Wall Street Journal
* A rebuttal of an earlier, shorter editorial by
Jenkins, from Business Week's "AutoBeat" columnist David Kiley.


Fearless Prediction: Plug-In Hybrids Will be the
Hot Rods of the 21st Century - Column
The Steering Column BY CSABA CSERE  May 2008
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/columns/c_d_staff/csaba_csere_the_steering_\
column/fearless_prediction_plug_in_hybrids_will_be_the_hot_rods_of_the_21st_cent\
ury_column

Plug-in hybrids are the latest rage among
cutting-edge planet savers. By combining a big
battery with an electric motor and a small
internal-combustion engine (75 or so horsepower)
hooked to a generator, a plug-in hybrid delivers
the pollution-free exhaust of a pure electric car
for about 40 miles, which encompasses most trips
for most people. Yet unlike a pure electric car,
a plug-in can drive from New York to Los Angeles
once its engine fires up to spin the onboard
generator and recharge the battery. In this mode,
the plug-in achieves a hybridlike 40-to-50 mpg
while neatly eliminating the range limitations of purely battery-powered cars.

The lithium-ion batteries needed to achieve this
performance--at a reasonable price--still do not
exist, but numerous firms are on the case, hoping
to nab major contracts to supply the world's
automakers with batteries by the millions. When
such inexpensive batteries become available,
plug-ins will quickly proliferate, as they can be
charged at standard household electrical outlets.

That's more than can be said for fuel-cell
vehicles, which are still decades away, owing to
the high costs of the fuel cells and the immense
difficulties of producing pollution-free hydrogen
and distributing it across the country. In fact,
a reasonable person might conclude that once
plug-in hybrids become common and their batteries
become inexpensive purely battery-powered
vehicles will leapfrog the fuel-cell machines and leave them stillborn.

The key to making the plug-in hybrid work is the
big battery that stores enough juice for the
vehicle to solely run on electric power for a
considerable distance. In the case of the Chevy
Volt concept, this battery has a capacity of 16
kilowatt-hours. For the technically challenged, a
kilowatt means 1000 watts, so this battery can
produce 16,000 watts for one hour, one watt for
16,000 hours, or anything in between. In reality,
these ratings will be cut in half because using
only half the battery capacity will greatly
extend the number of times the battery can be charged and discharged.

When I see a battery that large, my first thought
is to convert its electrical energy into
horsepower. Eight kWh equal 10.7
horsepower-hours, or 644 horsepower-minutes. In
other words, the battery has enough juice to
produce 644 horsepower for one minute. Even if we
cut that back by 10 percent to account for motor
and electric inefficiencies, we're talking about serious power here.

There are a number of steps required to turn this
substantial reservoir of electrical energy into
speed. The first is to install a switch that lets
the driver tell the power control electronics not
to run the car on its fully charged battery but
rather to fire up the internal-combustion engine
immediately and run as a conventional hybrid
while keeping the battery fully charged and ready
to deliver a maximum dose of electrical power for
high-performance driving. The switch will simply
let the driver select whether the car is
operating in power mode or efficiency mode, and
it will need to be accompanied by appropriate
software changes in the computer that controls
the system's power flow. The skill to accomplish
this will surely be developed among the hordes of computer hackers in America.

The next step is to install a serious electric
motor into the plug-in hybrid vehicle. The Volt
is powered by a 160-hp electric motor with 236
pound-feet of torque. Replacing this motor with
one that is two or three times as powerful would
energize the car's performance considerably. Or
remembering that the Volt is front-wheel drive,
adding a second motor to power the rear wheels
could also provide the additional muscle. The
specialized, three-phase AC motor/generators used
in hybrids are not sitting on the shelves at your
local RadioShack, so a certain amount of
scrounging and improvisation will be required to
find and fit them. But much as hot rodders of
half a century ago took superchargers designed
for GM's 71-series diesel engines and adapted
them to various Detroit V-8s, the truly motivated
will find the motors needed for these plug-in hot rods.

Big motors will also need upsized power control
electronics to deliver a suitably elevated supply
of volts and amps. In many ways, it's like a
souped-up V-8 needing a larger-capacity
fuel-injection system with a bigger fuel pump and
fatter fuel line. The electrical components
needed to do this should be available, although
custom fabrication will be required to achieve the desired results.

Let's imagine a suitably modified plug-in hybrid
with a 16-kWh battery. With half of that
energy--to preserve the battery life--available
to power the car, coupled to an upsized 400-hp
electric motor, you can enjoy full power for 96
seconds. That's enough to run 0 to 60 in the
four-second range and continue on to 170 or 180
mph, depending on the car and whether its gearing
supports such a high speed (another area for potential modification).

With a little bit of regenerative braking thrown
in, that would get you a full hot lap around most
road-racing tracks in the country. After
exhausting the battery with such an extended
high-power run, it would take roughly 10 minutes
of driving--at a mild speed--for the onboard
generator to fully recharge the battery again.

You can't really do any of these things to a
parallel hybrid like the Prius because the
electrical and IC powerplants are too fully
integrated to easily modify them. But because a
plug-in is a series hybrid, with the electric
motor only driving the wheels and the IC engine
only running the generator, there's much greater
potential to tweak the individual components. The
beauty of such a plug-in is that even after
making performance modifications you can still
flip the switch and drive the vehicle in the
battery-intensive mode and get those flashy
100-plus-mpg figures on short commutes.


Plug-in Hybrid Cars Zooming Ahead
Automakers are speeding ultra-high-mileage
plug-in cars to market to beat looming federal emissions mandates.
By Jim Ostroff, Associate Editor, The Kiplinger Letter June 26, 2008
http://www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/forecast/archive/plugin_hybrid_cars_co\
ming_to_market_soon_080626.html

Get ready to see the USA in your plug-in
Chevrolet -- or your Saturn, Ford, Toyota or
Mercedes. High gasoline prices have automakers
fast-tracking development of fuel sipping
vehicles that will allow most motorists to charge
up at night from home, then commute to work and
run errands without heeding the gas gauge. Even
long trips won't drain wallets, with plug-ins
averaging 80 to 100 miles per gallon (mpg),
cutting fuel costs about 40%, including the cost of recharging.

General Motors and Toyota will get their
souped-up hybrids into showrooms first, within
two years, followed by Ford. Virtually every
major automaker plus niche manufacturers such as
Fisker Automotive and Visionary Vehicles have a plug-in entry in the works.

Within a decade, plug-in cars will account for
around 20% of all new U.S. vehicle sales, largely
replacing their lower mileage gasoline-electric
hybrid forebears. By 2025, that share will be about 30%.

Automakers have little choice but to go electric.
They're already being forced to boost fleets'
average fuel efficiency to 35 mpg by 2020, a 40%
jump. The auto companies also don't want to be
caught flat-footed by enactment of carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions restrictions by Congress.
Lawmakers are inching toward them and may enact
such restrictions as soon as next year. Although
carbon caps will be phased in over several years,
Detroit carmakers and their foreign cousins fret
that their vehicles will have to exceed 35 mpg
fuel efficiency in order to slash CO2 tailpipe emissions.

Automakers are under the gun from states, too.
California's zero-emissions vehicle program
mandates nearly 60,000 plug-in cars be sold in
the state between 2012 and 2014. Connecticut,
Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New
Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont have
adopted similar requirements, and other states will follow.

Technical breakthroughs will help automakers get
plug-ins on the road faster than anticipated even
a year ago. "After years of work and false
starts, the lithium ion battery is about to move
beyond the development stage into
commercialization. That will enable vehicles to
be recharged at home during the night, or
elsewhere during the daytime," says David Cole,
chairman of the Center for Automotive Research,
an auto industry consulting firm. Early models
will be able to travel up to about 40 miles on
the battery charge alone. That's not much of a
drawback -- more than 80% of motorists drive less
than that in a day, Cole says.

Infrastructure is revving up, too, with companies
such as Coulomb Technologies set to install
curbside and garage recharging posts. Motorists
will be able to buy volts with a pre-paid card,
says Paul Scott, a cofounder of Plug In America, a lobbying group.

Early buyers may suffer sticker shock, though,
with prices of $40,000 or so for a plug-in,
including $10,000 for the lithium ion battery.
Within a few years, as volume picks up and the
cost to make lithium ion cells declines, the
price of the battery will slip 25%, and in less
than a decade, battery cost should drop below $1000.

Because plug-in vehicles involve a whole lot more
than replacing a fuel tank and gasoline-powered
engine with a battery and an electric engine,
widespread adoption of electric cars should spawn
an economic boomlet. In addition to the lithium
ion batteries, plug-in vehicles will need whole
new systems -- including computer components and
software -- to control braking, turning,
acceleration and so on, replacing the
mechanically linked drive trains, transmissions,
steering and braking systems of today's
gasoline-powered vehicles. The battery market
alone is expected to hit $30 billion by 2020.
Best positioned to take advantage: Early electric
controls, transmission and advanced timing system
leaders BorgWarner, Continental, Johnson Controls and TRW. But start-ups


What Is GM Thinking?
Wall Street Journal, July 2, 2008 Page 11
By Holman Jenkins
http://www.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121495482307421193.html

"Violent change" in consumer tastes is not a new
challenge for the car business. The phrase is Lee
Iacocca's, from his autobiography, referring to
public demand for small cars after the 1979 oil shock.

Less violently, a sudden shift in taste for
smaller, more fuel-efficient cars amid the
recession of 1958 helped doom the Edsel.

The 1950s also happen to be the last time GM's
share price sank as low as $11 per share. Two morals must be drawn.

One is that GM's ability to avoid bankruptcy has
again become doubtful in the minds of investors.
The 1950s comparison indeed overstates the
company's well-being today. In inflation-adjusted
terms, today's share price is closer to $1.50 in mid-1950s dollars.

Secondly, any forecast calling for a "permanent"
shift in auto tastes based on a quantum as
volatile as the price of gasoline is nuts.

GM's leaders are not nuts, and yet to pour
hundreds of millions into a race to launch an
electric car, the Chevy Volt, guaranteed to lose
money on every unit sold, begins to seem a
peculiar strategy for a company in dire liquidity straits.

With each hectic advance in the development
process, the expected sticker price to consumers
has gone up. Reportedly, off-the-shelf electrical
fixtures, such as headlights and taillights,
won't suffice because they draw too much power.
At last leakage, GM is saying now the Volt may need a sticker price of $45,000.

At best, the Volt will be an affluent family's
third car. It will have to be plugged in for six
hours a day - i.e., it will be a car for a
suburbanite with a sizeable garage wired for
power. It won't be a car for a city dweller who
parks on the street or in a public lot. It will
travel 40 miles on a six-hour charge. After that,
a small gas motor will kick in to recharge the
battery while you drive. Some reports claim the
Volt will get 50 mpg in this mode, but that's
hallucinatory: If using a gasoline engine to
power an electric motor were so efficient, the
streets would be full of such vehicles. (Our
guess: The car will be lucky to get 15 mpg under gasoline power.)

Notice that, even today, some people continue to
buy SUVs capable of hauling eight passengers, the
dog and groceries, though they spend most of
their time in the car driving alone. Customers
value flexibility in their vehicles. For a car
with the Volt's narrow usability to sell would
require an unlikely revolution in consumer
behavior, especially if gasoline prices aren't going to $10 a gallon.

And for those who think the Volt's justification
is greenhouse emissions, notice that electric
cars play Three Card Monte with energy inputs: It
all depends on where the electricity is coming
from. (Ditto, by the way, GM's long-range faith
in hydrogen fuel cells - it all depends on where
you get the hydrogen from.) On the other hand, if
you replaced the world's coal plants with nuclear
plants, it would have a huge impact on greenhouse
emissions regardless of what cars people are
driving. If curbing CO2 is your goal (however
quixotic), power plants, not cars, should be your focus.

Never mind. GM executives are not nuts. They
justify the costs and risks of the Volt as a way
of changing GM's image in the minds of consumers
and politicians. To commit a pun, the Volt is
GM's vehicle for making a bailout of GM politically acceptable.

The company has already started signaling it
expects Washington to provide a whopping $7,000
tax credit to Volt purchasers. In Europe and the
U.S., under whatever fuel economy and emissions
regulations prevail, GM also expects special
favoritism for the Volt. The goal is to re-enact
the flex-fuel hoax, in which GM receives extra
credit for making cars that can burn 85% ethanol,
even if they never see a drop of such fuel.

CEO Rick Wagoner last week laid out the case to
Barack Obama personally for turning GM into a
ward of the state, by way of direct and indirect
subsidies to support a transition to
"alternative" fuel vehicles. GM has done yeoman's
work getting its structural costs (i.e., labor)
in line, but shareholders should note that a big
part of the company's turnaround gamble consists
also of eliciting favor once again from
Washington after a period in which the domestic
auto makers were nothing but whipping boys on Capitol Hill.

This year, Ford designers are working to make the
iconic Mustang look smaller, though it won't be
any smaller. Ford recognizes, apparently, that
there's a taste component to consumer demand for
small, unprepossessing cars as well as an
economic motive. GM is making the same bet, on a
much bigger scale. It's betting the Volt will
trigger a change in Washington's taste for bailing out a domestic car maker.


WSJ Attack on Chevy Volt----Shocking
Posted by: David Kiley on April 23
http://www.businessweek.com/autos/autobeat/archives/2008/04/wsj_attack_on_c.html

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. writes a pretty tedious
editorial in The Wall Street Journal today,
suggesting that General Motors is wrong-headed
for developing the plug-in Chevy Volt.

Holman W. Jenkins Jr. does make one reasonable
point. The Department of Transportation's
announcement that automakers will have to boost
fuel efficiency in their cars and trucks by 4.5%
a year until 2015, is subject to change by a
future Congress and White House if automakers
can't get there, market conditions and oil prices
changes, etc. There are a host of things that can
happen between now and then to move the goal posts.

But here is where Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. loses
me. "America's biggest near-dead car company
called in reporters this month to boast - boast!
- about its willingness to lose money on its
forthcoming electric car. That includes betting
the farm on whether batteries can be developed
with the necessary power-to-weight ratio and life
expectancy to give the car its needed usability.
"Whatever it takes to do, we will do" to deliver
the plug-in Volt by a 2010 deadline, project
leader Frank Weber told journalists."

The scientists I have interviewed over the past
few years tell me that not only is the technology
within reach, but that it makes too much sense
not to pursue with gusto. Do costs have to be
brought down? Yes. But never has an application
of technology come along that so perfectly
matched the peculiarities of the U.S. driver. The
plug-in is designed to run between 40 and 50
miles on an electrical charge. If you have to go
a longer distance, an engine that kicks on to
recharge the battery will get you there. It takes
the nervousness of running out of juice out of the mix.

Honda doesn't see the market for plug-ins. Okay.
But Honda have us the awkward looking Insight to
answer the Prius, as well as the Ridgeline pickup
and the Element. Honda's read of the consumer
desire side of the busines can be off.

GM sees the Volt and its plug-in siblings as a
new lens through which the U.S. and world will
view the company--if it gets the products right
and delivers. But fault the company for
over-spending on breakthrough technology? Why? GM
has gotten management decisions wrong plenty of
times (linking with Italian automaker Fiat before
its financial renaissance comes to mind) They
have also gotten product decisions wrong plenty
of times (see: Pontiac Aztek, Chevy Outlander and Saturn LS to name a few.).

A financial and management commitment to bring a
game-changing technology to showrooms is hardly
something to criticize. As Toyota has proved, the
presence of the Prius in showrooms and in the
papers makes even its thirstiest gas suckers like
the Sequoia and Tundra appear greener than GM's vehicles even when they aren't.

More from Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. "For some number
of dollars, GM can afford to bribe consumers to drive Volts off the lot…"

GM is betting that there will be early adopters,
as well as government incentives to help
consumers buy the new technology…just as there
were for the Prius. GM opted out of hybrids in
the 1990s because it rightly saw that
gas-electric hybrids were an inelegant
engineering solution for higher fuel economy. It
made a bet that hydrogen-powered cars would come
along faster than reality tells us now is the case.

Yes, it's a bit of a roll of the dice for GM. And
it's unlike the way the "near death" automaker
Jenkins describes has behaved in the past. From
my vantage point, it looks like GM is taking in
the political reality that we will never have
European-style gas taxes to drive demand for
smaller vehicles, so it is trying to one-up
Toyota on the technology front. If GM falls on
its face in the execution, we can all write that
story. But to pillory the company for trying? What for?

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

News of three major events:

* Former Intel CEO Andy Grove has been added as a keynoter to the
international conference on plug-in cars.
* The third annual "Hybridfest" in Madison Wisconsin features a
strong focus on PHEVs
* Save the Dates for the September 4-5 Cascadia/Microsoft conference:
the Pacific Northwest's headline event
* Plus pointers to articles about Oregon and Washington plug-in projects


PLUG-IN 2008 Conference & Exposition in San Jose, CA July 22-24, 2008
http://www.plugin2008.com

In a major new addition to the program, Andy Grove, former Intel
chairman and CEO, will provide a keynote address at Plug-In 2008.
This inaugural three-day international conference will showcase the
latest technological advances, market research and policy initiatives
shaping the future of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Grove
will discuss the critical importance -- and business opportunity and
viability -- of moving transportation from oil to electricity. Grove
was TIME Magazine's Man of the Year in 1997 and was named by the
Wharton School of Business and Nightly Business Report as Most
Influential Business Person of the Last Twenty-Five Years in 2004.

Additional highlights of this conference on PHEVs and EVs:
* A pre-conference battery workshop and 18 breakout sessions with
80-plus scheduled speakers addressing issues ranging from car buyers
and PHEVs, to reducing petroleum use with PHEVs, to "smart charging"
and the home interface, and more.
* Comprehensive exposition featuring displays including plug-in
vehicles, batteries and the latest innovations associated with PHEVs
and electricity infrastructure. Vehicles scheduled for display
include a plug-in Prius, a Ford Escape PHEV, a PHEV Dodge Sprinter, a
Ford F-150 PHEV, a plug-in ACE Formula Racing Car, and other plug-in
and electric vehicles, motorcycles and scooters.

If you don't attend the whole conference, come to the Public Night,
Tuesday at 6PM to see the booths on the exposition floor and attend
the panel discussion on PHEVs and their role in the transportation
and energy future.


HYBRIDFEST in Madison, WI  July 19-20, 2008 http://www.whybridfest.com

This third annual event will focus on rising fuel prices and will
feature a number of PHEVs and a live Prius conversion. Felix Kramer
is speaking both days.

  From the press release:
After two years of growing crowds and nationwide publicity,
Hybridfest continues to amaze the skeptics who thought that a
grassroots event, organized by volunteers, and held in Madison,
Wisconsin, would never succeed. The more than 12,000 people who
visited Hybridfest 2007 would disagree. One of this nation's largest
events dedicated to clean and sustainable transportation will once
again be held as part of the Dane County Fair, July 19-20, 2008. Free
public admission to Hybridfest 2008 will be included with the
purchase of every Dane County Fair ticket, and parking at the fair is
free. Most Hybridfest events are scheduled for the air-conditioned
comfort of the Alliant Energy Center.

This year's show will include displays by manufacturers, dealers,
environmental groups, vendors and exhibitors, as well as vehicle test
drives. Toyota Motor Company, the world's largest auto manufacturer
and maker of more hybrid vehicles than any other, is proud to again
be Hybridfest 2008's Diamond Sponsor. Felix Kramer, founder of
CalCars, will join a varied lineup of speakers on a wide assortment
of topics including current and future vehicles, as well as various
environmental, fuel-efficient driving and other technology issues.

Hybridfest 2008 will again be the "home" for hybrid owners from
around North America. Owners travel from all across the country and
Canada, many hypermiling to Madison, to meet, teach and learn with
other hybrid and fuel-economy enthusiasts like themselves. Visitors
will have the unique chance to see incredible vehicles in the
Hybridfest Owners' Vehicle Showcase, and to talk with the owners
about their real-life driving experiences. Hybridfest 2008 will also
feature the nation's premier fuel economy competition, the MPG
Challenge, which will again test some of the world's best hypermilers
to achieve the best fuel economy over an open-road course. Last year,
MPG Challenge winners achieved from 60 to 168 MPG in various vehicle classes.

Sunday speakers include
Ron DeLong, creator of the ScanGaugeII: Using the XGauge feature in
the ScanGaugeII
Wayne Gerdes, owner of CleanMPG.com:  Total Cost of Ownership. Why
You Want to Purchase a Hybrid Today
Mike Granoff, Head of Oil Independence Policies for Project Better
Place: electric car infrastructure
Benjamin Jones, co-founder of ecomodder.com: Modifying Your Car for MPG's
Peter Koczan, Hybridfest 2007 MPG Challenge participant: Tips and
Tricks for Maximizing Fuel Economy on the Highway
Felix Kramer, CalCars.org: The Campaign to Commercialize Plug-In Hybrids
Richard Krueger, automotive writer and fuel economy instructor: Five
Easy and Safe Ways to Improve Your Fuel Economy
Francis Voge, Executive Director of Wisconsin Clean Cities:
information about the "greening" of fleets.

  From the Hybridfest web site....
Although the public portion of Hybridfest spans two days (Saturday,
July 19, and Sunday, July 20), as a Hybridfest member you'll have
access to even more fun:
* An extra half day of activities on Friday, July 18
* Post-show activities Saturday evening, July 19
* Pre-show activities Sunday morning, July 20
* T-Shirt, Goodie Bag, Showcase rights, awards, door prizes, free
fair admission, "How-To" sessions, etc.


BEYOND OIL: Save the Dates September 4-5 in Redmond WA

"Beyond Oil: Transforming Transportation: A National Demonstration
Project" Redmond, WA September 4-5 at the Microsoft Conference Center
Fifth Annual Cascadia-Microsoft Conference on Transportation
Technology, co-sponsored by Microsoft, the U.S. Department of
Transportation, the Idaho National Laboratory, PEMCO, Washington DOT
and Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.

The topic of the conference is urgent and timely. With oil over $120
a barrel and gas approaching $4 a gallon, America will spend $450
billion this year to buy imported oil, accelerating an unprecedented
transfer of wealth. Our near total dependence on oil in
transportation harms national security, the economy and the environment.

Learn how we can accelerate the day when we have a choice in
transportation fuels. Hear experts discuss how flexible fuel, plug-in
hybrid electric vehicles can be combined with advanced vehicle
software and communications capabilities that will increase safety,
reduce time in traffic, dramatically decrease emissions and bolster
national security.

Hear speakers describe a national demonstration project that can be
launched this year that would showcase these advanced transportation
and energy solutions. And hear panels discuss how governments and the
private sector can work together to create the transformed
transportation system of the future. Workshops include advanced
cellulosic biofuels, tolling, traffic management, green highway and
clean port strategies as well as advanced air, passenger rail and
marine technologies.

Register early, as attendance is limited.
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=351&program=Ca\
scadia&isEvent=true


OTHER PACIFIC NORTHWEST NEWS
See the article in The Oregonian, "The new span is key to a 'green
highway'" Sunday, June 29, 2008 by Bruce Agnew and Matt Rosenberg
from Cascadia, that situates plug-in cars within a larger
transportation planning context:
http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1214533\
540146360.xml&coll=7

Oregon Utility, Readying for Waves of EVs, Installs Charging Stations
in Two Cities
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2008/07/oregon-utility-readying-for-wav\
es-of-evs-installs-charging-stations-in-two-cities.html

Seattle Mayor Introduces City's First PHEV [report on regional
13-Prius program]
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/05/seattle-mayor-i.html




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

The Sunday Washington Post Op-Ed page, has An Energy Policy We Can
Stick To by Andy Grove, arguing for a transition to electrification
of transportation and focusing on PSVs (Pickups, SUVs and Vans) for
the biggest and most immediate impact. We hope Congress and the
Presidential candidates are reading it! Text is below, after news of
a few other articles and resources.

INSIDE STORY OF HOW CHEVY VOLT WAS DEVEOPED: for your Sunday
reading,  well-known author (and Brookings Institution associate)
Jonathan Rauch has a long article,  "Electro-Shock Therapy" is in The
Atlantic Magazine's July-August issue, on sale and online at
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/general-motors


INSIDE STORY OF HOW TESLA MOTORS DEVEOPED: While you're going to the
newsstand, pick up Fortune's July 21 issue. The cover has a large
picture of the Tesla Roadster, a headline, "TO HELL WITH $4 GAS.
DRIVE THIS! (IT'S ELECTRIC.)  The $109,000 Tesla Raodster does zero
to 60 in 3.9 seconds. Top Speed, 125 MPH. No gas. And if the startup
that makes it gets its act together -- a big if -- you may even be
able to get one soon."
The 9-page article tells the business story of Tesla Motors,
including interviews with insiders Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning,
Ian Wright, Elon Musk, Darryl Siry, Michael Marks, and Tom Gage from
AC Propulsion. The article confirms what we've been hearing for some
time, that Tesla's second generation vehicle, previously code-named
"White Star," now named Model S, to be built in California, not New
Mexico, will not be a PHEV after all, but a $60,000 family sedan with
four doors and a hatchback.


QUICK TALLY OF CARMAKERS ON PHEVS: see the short "Felix Kramer's
Plug-in Electric Vehicle Progress Report For General Motors,Toyota,
Honda and Ford at EnergyTechStocks.com
http://energytechstocks.com.previewmysite.com/wp/?p=1428


CLIMATE PROGRESS BLOG ON PHEVS: At this widely-read blog on globa
warming, Joe Romm has "Why electricity is the only alternative fuel
that can lead to energy independence"
http://climateprogress.org/2008/07/10/why-electricity-is-the-only-alternative-fu\
el-that-can-provide-energy-independence/
and Earl Killian has a PHEV FAQ
http://climateprogress.org/2008/07/11/plug-in-hybrid-faq/ to which
we've also linked from the less-recently updated
http://www.calcars.org/faq.html


FOR THE technically inclined, here are links we've not previously
posted: Determining the Appropriate Design and Configuration of
PHEVs: A set of papers presented in April by engineers from Toyota,
Argonne National Laboratory and GM at the SAE 2008 World Congress.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/04/determining-the.html
   and UC Davis Report Provides Overview of Goals and State of PHEV
Batteries: A report from the Institute of Transportation Studies at
UC Davis provides an overview of the current state of several battery
chemistries. http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/05/uc-davis-report.html


ANDY GROVE IS CATALYZING CHANGE: We've posted several times about the
continuing efforts by Intel's former CEO to SPARK a national
conversation and steps to make electrification of transportation an
urgent national priority. Grove's office is arranging to get copies
of his seven-page article with the same name in The American Magazine
distributed widely, last month at the Google-Brookings conference,
most recently at the private "The Allen & Company Sun Valley
Conference" hosted by a private investment firm for media, technology
and business moguls. The full article, including graphics (though not
the table of contents, showing a CalCars PHEV), is now viewable at
The American's
website
http://www.american.com/archive/2008/july-august-magazine-contents/our-electric-\
future
. Also see a blog posting on his recent talk on the subject at
Stanford at
http://sefora.org/2008/07/07/andy-grove-says-plug-in-your-car/ and
watch for news about his keynote speach next Tuesday at the
Plug-In2008 conference in San Jose.

An Energy Policy We Can Stick To
By Andrew S. Grove
Sunday, July 13, 2008; Page B07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071102549.\
html

Energy independence is the wrong goal.

Oil, like all other goods, flows toward the highest bidder.
Consequently, talking about "independence" in a global economy ruled
by market forces is a contradiction.

As national policy, we must protect the U.S. economy from
interruptions in the supply of such a critical commodity -- whether
those interruptions are related to natural or political causes. I
believe that the appropriate aim is to strengthen our energy
resilience to adjust to such changes.

We can do this by increasing our reliance on electricity.

Electricity can be transported only over land. Consequently, it will
stay in (or stick to) the continent where it is produced. Equally
important is that electricity can be produced using multiple sources
of energy. Petroleum, yes -- but also coal, which is abundant in the
United States; wind; hydroelectric; nuclear; and solar energy. If one
source suffers a shortage, we can produce electricity from another.
Electricity will give us the greatest degree of energy resilience.

Most everything today runs on electricity. A big exception is the
transportation sector. Transportation uses more than half of the
petroleum consumed in this country. If we don't convert a large
portion of the transportation sector to electricity, we cannot make
real progress toward energy resilience.

This conversion will not be easy. It requires growth in generation
capacity as well as in the capacity and reach of the transmission
infrastructure. Most important, it requires vehicles to run on electric power.

Given the size and weight of ordinary automobiles, current technology
allows electric cars to run only 100 miles or so before their
batteries need to be recharged -- the way we recharge our cellphones,
by plugging them into the national electric grid. Many drivers can
live with this limitation most of the time, but few will find it
satisfactory all of the time. Still, today's capabilities can get us
off to a good start.

New technology often appears in this manner: It is not completely
satisfactory in the beginning but good enough to get going.

The automobile industry has been waiting for batteries to improve
until they can allow electric cars to enter the marketplace with the
same driving range as gasoline-fueled cars. Battery developers, for
their part, have been waiting for demand from the automobile industry
to develop before fully committing the resources required to do the
job. The generation and transmission infrastructures have not been
built up to service the potentially explosive demand from transportation.

To be sure, this situation is starting to change. Start-ups such as
Tesla Motors and Project Better Place have begun to experiment with
all-electric cars, and important developments are underway at Nissan
and General Motors. But our exposure to the vagaries of oil supply is
growing by the month.

We must sharply accelerate the conversion to electricity. To start,
the U.S. government should lead the way by requiring that a growing
percentage of new cars be built with dual-fuel capability. These cars
would have an electric engine and an auxiliary gasoline engine. The
car would run on electricity and after the batteries were depleted
would switch to the gasoline engine.

The forces of disruptive technology would eventually bring
improvements in battery technology, ultimately allowing the
production of an all-electric car with satisfactory driving range.

Our biggest problem, however, is how long all this takes. No matter
how fast the production of dual-fuel cars is ramped up, replacing the
bulk of the approximately 250 million cars on America's roads will
take a decade.

We must mobilize all segments of our economy to accelerate the
process. Enterprising folks are working to devise ways in which
existing gasoline cars could be converted to dual-fuel. Not all
vehicles have the space and design that allow this process to happen
easily. Luckily, the most gasoline-hungry cars do. Pickups,
sport-utility vehicles and the like represent about 80 million
vehicles, with mileage of perhaps 13 to 16 miles per gallon.
Converting these should be our first priority.

Estimates show that converting these vehicles to dual-fuel operation,
even with electricity providing no more than 50 miles of driving
range between daily rechargings, could cut petroleum imports 50 to 60
percent -- a stunning opportunity.

A task of this magnitude requires changes in the behavior of millions
of consumers. We may need to apply tax incentives over some initial
period, perhaps one or two years, to offset the cost of the retrofit
and couple them with deep discounts on the cost of electricity used
by the vehicle.

The move to electric miles also has the added advantage of helping to
mitigate a major environmental threat. A shift from petroleum-based
vehicles to electricity-based ones would move the locus for
addressing carbon emissions from millions of individual vehicles to
far fewer centralized electricity-generating plants. Controlling
emissions thus becomes an industrial task, easier technologically.
Estimates indicate a potential reduction of carbon emissions of
around 50 percent.

There is no issue more urgent. History shows a pattern of using
access to energy to influence diplomatic outcomes, with events often
escalating into violence. We must prevent this from happening to our
country. National security as well as economic needs require that we
urgently adopt a strategy to strengthen our energy resilience. The
most practical and immediate way is to encourage the mass manufacture
of vehicles, as well as the retrofitting of existing ones, so that
they first run on electricity.

Andrew S. Grove was chairman and chief executive of Intel Corp. from
1987 to 1998 and now serves as senior adviser. A longer version of
this column appears in the current issue of the American magazine;
much of the work for that article was based on collaboration with
Robert Burgelman of Stanford Business School.

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

It's happened: the candidates are now facing off
on PHEVs. For the previous round, see our July 1
posting, "Obama/McCain/GM/Ford Maneuver for
Support on PHEVs" http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/968.html ).

Now Barack Obama has become more specific -- as
we'd hoped he would -- plus he has addressed Sen.
McCain's ideas and offered more. Both campaigns
have advisors who favor plug-in cars, and many
advocates are sending them suggestions and
talking points, so we are expectantly watching what comes next!

Below we present the best clips, followed by the
full text of the speech as prepared for delivery
to a town hall meeting at Stivers School for the
Arts in Dayton, Ohio, including our [bracketed
inserts] showing significant additions and
applause and [timings] for the speech as
delivered. You can watch the 24-minute speech at
YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_htFLt01ntU&feature=user
-- you'll as delivered it's a bit more
colloquial. And we hope both campaign staffs will
take note that the largest applause lines came
for PHEVs, auto jobs, and the seeing this as a
"Pearl Harbor" moment. Before the transcript, we
include a post-speechc interview where Obama
talks about how automakers could retool their SUV
plants to produce hybrids, saving thousands of jobs.

And finally, we've squeezed in two links: to
OPUS, the first syndicated cartoon on PHEVs, and
to a stirring plug-in agenda by Jack Hidary.


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: our compilation of favorite
sentences from the speech. (We've already seen
creative video editing in this campaign: if
someone is inspired to make a 2-minute video of
the best clips and put it on YouTube, we'll spread the word far and wide!

We must end the tyranny of oil in our time, in
this generation.... When I arrived in the U.S.
Senate... I also passed a law that will fuel the
research needed to develop a car that can get 500
miles to the gallon.... My plan is going to
fast-track $150 billion of investment in a clean
energy fund to help create the fuel-efficient
cars and alternative sources of energy that will
secure this nation and jumpstart a green
economy.... we can by reducing our consumption
save the same amount that we import from all the
OPEC nations. That's the direction we've gotta take....

First, we'll double our fuel mileage standards
over the next two decades utilizing much of the
technology we have on the shelf today - a step
that will save this country half a trillion
gallons of gasoline, the equivalent of cutting
the price of a gallon of gas in half. And I will
provide tax credits and loan guarantees for our
automakers to help them make this
transition....Second, we'll launch a Venture
Capital Fund that will provide $50 billion over
five years to get the most promising clean energy
technologies out of the lab and into the
marketplace. A principal focus of this fund will
be continuing the work I began in the Senate and
investing in plug-in hybrid batteries that will
allow cars to get up to 500 miles per gallon. By
the way I'm glad that Senator McCain now
understands the importance of this battery
technology, but it's gonna take a lot more than a
cash prize, a Reader's Digest Sweepstakes, to
achieve this goal. It will take some serious
investment on the part of the federal government,
in partnership with the auto companies, with
research universities, with states like Ohio and
Michigan and Indiana that have a long history of
working in the automotive field. Fourth, we'll
use our clean energy fund to invest over $1
billion a year to re-tool and modernize our
factories and build the advanced technology cars,
trucks and SUVs of the future - so that the jobs
and industries of the future are created right
here in the United States of America....

Most importantly, this plan will ensure that we
control the energy we use with resources and
technology that are available today. The steps I
just spoke about are not far-off, pie-in-the-sky
solutions, they are here and they are now....In
the last century, during the days that followed
the attack on Pearl Harbor, the American people
were asked, almost overnight, to transform a
peacetime economy that was still climbing out
from the depths of depression into an Arsenal of
Democracy that could wage war across three
continents. Many doubted whether this could be
achieved in time, or even at all. President
Franklin Roosevelt's own advisors told him that
his goals for wartime production were unrealistic
and impossible to meet. But FDR simply waved them
off, saying, believe me, "the production people
can do it if they really try." That was FDR's
attitude: "Don't tell me we can't do it. Yes we can."


INTERVIEW WITH OBAMA ABOUT CARS & JOBS
Obama: Dayton could be leader in green future
Dayton Daily News, Saturday, July 12, 2008  By Laura A. Bischoff, Staff Writer
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/07/11/ddn07120\
8obamainterview.html

DAYTON — Dayton and other parts of the Midwest
should be the hub of new green energy jobs, given
its location and skilled work force, Democrat
Barack Obama told the Dayton Daily News on Friday, July 11.

"One of the benefits of being in the Midwest is
that we should be at the center of the action,"
Obama said in a brief interview following his
town hall meeting at Stivers School for the Arts.

When asked what he would do as president to bring
jobs back to Dayton, Obama said, "Dayton and
other portions of the Midwest that have been
hard-hit by the loss of manufacturing should be
some of the centers for building this new green
economy that has to be one of our priorities
moving forward. It's critical that we develop a
car that's getting much higher mileage. It's
critical that we are developing biofuels that can
help drive our economy and loosen our dependence
on foreign oil. And Ohio and cities like Dayton
have the skilled workforce, the experience in
manufacturing, the research facilities that allow
them to be centerpieces for the major investment
— $15 billion a year, as I talked about. I also
think that Dayton has a distribution hub
historically and can benefit from infrastructure
improvements of the sort that I've called for."

With the high gas prices and slumping economy,
General Motors announced last month that it is
closing its sport utility vehicle assembly plant
and eliminating 2,500 jobs. Aiming for the
long-term goal of energy independence does not
have to mean sacrifice and pain in the near term
for auto towns like Dayton, Obama said.

"The problem is, had we said to the automakers
20, 25 years ago, 'We are going to work with you
to make more fuel efficient cars but that's the
direction we have to go,' car makers would have
adapted. But they were resistant and we didn't
have the political will to do it," Obama said.
"And so, instead of that SUV plant, we could have
had a Prius plant or the U.S. equivalent of a
Prius plant, a hybrid plant. We can't double back
on that lack of foresight but at least moving
forward we can make sure that we are planning for
the future so that 20 years from now, people are
looking back and saying Dayton has been a city
that sees the future and America is a country that sees the future."


OBAMA'S SPEECH IN DAYTON
Watch it (23:50 minutes) at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_htFLt01ntU&feature=user
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama, provided by his
press officer as as prepared for delivery in Dayton on Friday.
Posted by Plain Dealer staff July 11, 2008
12:55PM
http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2008/07/transcript_of_barack_obamas_sp.html

I've often said that the decisions we make in
this election and in the next few years will set
the course for the next generation. That is true
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's true of
our economy. And it is especially true of our energy policy.

The urgency of this challenge is clear to anyone
who's tried to fill up their tank with gas that's
now over $4 a gallon. It's clear to the legions
of scientists who believe that we are nearing a
point of no return when it comes to our global
climate crisis. And with each passing day, it is
clear that our addiction to fossil fuels is one
of the most serious threats to our national security in the 21st century.

For the last eight years, this Administration has
narrowly defined security as fighting an
open-ended war in Iraq. But in the interconnected
world of this new century, new threats come from
stateless terrorists, loose nuclear weapons, the
spread of pandemic disease, an inability to
compete with rising powers in the global economy,
the threat of global climate change and our
dependence on foreign oil. I'll be talking about
these threats next week and in the weeks to come,
and today I'd like to begin with those related to energy.

We now know that the carbon emissions released by
countries across the globe are warming our
planet, which leads to devastating weather
patterns, terrible storms, drought, and famine.
In fact, studies show that by 2050, famine could
displace more than 250 million people worldwide.
That means people competing for food and water in
the next fifty years in the very places that have
known horrific violence in the last fifty:
Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. That is a threat to our security.

An even more immediate and direct security threat
comes from our dependence on foreign oil. The
price of a barrel of oil is now one of the most
dangerous weapons in the world. Tyrants from
Caracas to Tehran use it to prop up their
regimes, intimidate the international community,
and hold us hostage to a market that is subject
to their whims. If Iran decided to shut down the
petroleum-rich Strait of Hormuz tomorrow, they
believe oil would skyrocket to $300-a-barrel in
minutes, a price that one speculator predicted
would result in $12-a-gallon gas. $12 a gallon.

The nearly $700 million a day we send to unstable
or hostile nations also funds both sides of the
war on terror, paying for everything from the
madrassas that plant the seeds of terror in young
minds to the bombs that go off in Baghdad and
Kabul. Our oil addiction even presents a target
for Osama bin Laden, who has told al Qaeda,
"focus your operations on oil, since this will
cause [the Americans] to die off on their own."

If we stay on our current course, the rapid
growth of nations like China and India will rise
about one-third by 2030. In that same year,
Middle Eastern regimes will be sitting on 83% of
our global oil reserves. Imagine that - the very
source of energy that fuels nearly all of our
transportation, controlled almost entirely by
some of the world's most unstable and undemocratic governments.

[4:45] This is not the future I want for America.
We are not a country that places our fate in the
hands of dictators and tyrants - we are a nation
that controls our own destiny. That's who we are.
That's who we've always been. It's what led us to
wage a revolution that brought down an Empire.
It's why we built an Arsenal of Democracy to
defeat Fascism, and stopped the spread of
Communism with the power of our ideals. And it's
why we must end the tyranny of oil in our time [in this generation].

This is a debate we've been having in this
campaign, but it's also an issue we've been
talking about for decades. We have heard promises
about energy independence from every single U.S.
President since Richard Nixon. We've heard talk
about curbing our use of fossil fuels in nearly
every State of the Union address since the oil
embargo 1973. Back then we imported about a third
of our oil. Today we import over half.

Now, a few days ago, Senator McCain said, "Our
dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been
thirty years in the making, and was caused by the
failure of politicians in Washington to think
long-term about the future of the country."

I couldn't agree more. The only problem is that
out of those thirty years, Senator McCain [should
look in the mirror because he] was in Washington
for twenty-six of them. And in that time he has
achieved little to help reduce our dependence on
foreign oil. He's voted against raising our fuel
mileage standards and joined George Bush in
opposing legislation twice in the last year that
included tax credits for more efficient cars.
He's voted against alternative sources of energy.
Against clean biofuels. Against solar power.
Against wind power. Against an energy bill that
represented the largest investment in renewable
sources of energy in the history of this country.

So when he talks about the failure of politicians
in Washington to do anything about our energy
crisis, understand that Senator McCain has been a
part of that failure. When he proposes policies
that give $4 billion in tax breaks to oil
companies but only pennies a day to Americans
struggling with high gas prices, understand that
that's not part of the solution in Washington,
that's part of the problem in Washington. When he
offers a plan that doesn't make any real
investment in alternative sources of energy, that
represents a failure to think long-term about our
nation's future. That's what we've had [enough
of] in this country for too many years, and
that's why we need change in November. [That's
why I'm running for president, to change
Washington, to change this policy. [applause]

I won't pretend this change will be easy or that
it will come without significant cost or some
measure of sacrifice from the American people.
Achieving energy independence is one of the
greatest challenges we've ever faced, and it will
be the great project of our generation. [But I
believe that progress is not only possible but imperative.]

When I arrived in the U.S. Senate, I worked with
Democrats and Republicans to pass a law that will
give more Americans the chance to fill up their
cars with clean biofuels.[9:36] I also passed a
law that will fuel the research needed to develop
a car that [can get] 500 miles to the gallon.
[applause] And I reached across the aisle to come
up with a plan to raise the mileage standards in
our cars for the first time in thirty years - a
plan that won support from Democrats and
Republicans who had never supported raising fuel standards before.

Today, with oil and gas prices this high, we hear
a lot of plans and proposals coming out of
Washington since politicians are finally paying
attention. The problem is, they're reacting
instead of acting. They're searching for easy
answers to get them through the next election
instead of serious, long-term solutions that will
offer real relief and real security for America.

I understand the politics. In a country desperate
for action, ideas like a gas tax holiday or
expanded oil drilling in the waters off our
coasts are popular. And I'll say this - if there
were real evidence that these steps would
actually provide real, immediate relief at the
pump and advance the long-term goal of energy
independence, of course I'd be open to them. But so far there isn't.

As good as they sound, the history of gas tax
holidays is that the prices go up to fill in the
gap, and the big winners end up being the
retailers and oil companies - not the American
people. That's what happened when we had a gas
tax holiday in Illinois that I supported, and
that's why we ended up repealing it. It didn't
work. And it would also drain the federal highway
fund of billions of dollars and cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

When it comes to offshore drilling, even Senator
McCain [and George Bush's office of energy have]
acknowledged that it won't provide short-term
relief. In fact, if we started drilling today, we
wouldn't see a drop of oil for seven years, and
even then it would have little if any impact on prices.

Meanwhile, the oil companies currently have the
rights to drill on 68 million acres of land and
offshore areas that they haven't touched. I
believe that before we give the oil companies any
more land, it's time we tell them to start
drilling on the land they already have or turn it
over to someone who will, because we need that
oil. We should also invest in the technology that
can help us recover more oil from existing
fields. And we should also look to our
substantial natural gas reserves to tap a source
of energy that's already powering buses and cars here and around the world.

In the long-term, however, we have to remember
that these domestic resources are finite. Even if
you opened up every square inch of our land and
our coasts to drilling, America still has only 3%
of the world's oil reserves. Senator McCain may
believe otherwise, but that is not a real solution to our energy crisis.

What we need are real ideas to give hardworking
Americans relief from high gas prices, and
serious, long-term investments to permanently
reduce our dependence on foreign oil. That's exactly what my plan does.

To provide immediate relief, I've proposed a
second, $50 billion stimulus package that would
send energy rebate checks to every American. I've
asked Senator McCain to join me in passing such a
plan, and I extend that invitation again today.
I've also proposed a $1,000 middle-class tax cut
that will go to 95% of all workers and their
families. And I'll crack down on oil speculators
who may be artificially driving up the price of oil.

[15:57] But to truly reduce our long-term
dependence on foreign oil, my plan [is going to]
fast-track $150 billion of investment in a clean
energy fund to help create the fuel-efficient
cars and alternative sources of energy that will
secure this nation and jumpstart a green economy.
It's a plan that will reduce our oil consumption
10 million barrels per day by 2030, which is more
than all the oil we're expected to import from
OPEC nations in that same year. [Think of that,
we can by reducing our consumption save the same
amount that we import from all the OPEC nations.
That's the direction we've gotta take. Now here's how we'll do it.]

First, we'll double our fuel mileage standards
over the next two decades utilizing much of the
technology we have on the shelf today - a step
that will save this country half a trillion
gallons of gasoline, the equivalent of cutting
the price of a gallon of gas in half. And I will
provide tax credits and loan guarantees for our
automakers to help them make this transition. [applause]

Second, we'll launch a Venture Capital Fund that
will provide $50 billion over five years to get
the most promising clean energy technologies out
of the lab and into the marketplace. [applause]
[17:50] A principal focus of this fund will be
continuing the work I began in the Senate and
investing in plug-in hybrid batteries that will
allow cars to get up to 500 miles per gallon.
[appause] [18:09] [By the way] I'm glad that
Senator McCain now understands the importance of
this battery technology, but [it's gonna] take a
lot more than a cash prize, [a Reader's Digest
Sweepstakes,] to achieve this goal. It will take
[some serious investment on the part of the
federal government, in partnership with the auto
companies, with research universities, with
states like Ohio and Michigan and Indiana that
have a long history of working in the automotive field.] [applause]

[18:45] Third, to create a market for alternative
sources of energy like solar, wind, , I'll
require that 25% of our electricity comes
renewable sources by 2025, and that we produce
two billion gallons of advanced cellulosic
biofuels by 2013. We'll also invest in finding
cleaner ways to use coal, our nation's most
abundant energy source, and safer ways to use
nuclear power and store nuclear waste.

[19:22] Fourth, we'll use our clean energy fund
to invest over $1 billion a year to re-tool and
modernize our factories and build the advanced
technology cars, trucks and SUVs of the future
[applause] - so that the jobs and industries of
the future are created right here in the United States of America. [applause]

Finally, one of the fastest, easiest, and
cheapest ways to conserve energy and use less oil
is to make America more energy efficient and more
competitive with the world. That's why, when I'm
President, I will call on businesses, government,
and the American people to make America 50% more energy efficient by 2030.

When all is said and done, my plan to invest $150
billion in alternative energy will create entire
new industries, thousands of new businesses, and
up to five million new, green jobs that pay well
and can't be outsourced. [applause] And we pay
for all of it by taking away tax breaks for oil
companies and putting a price on carbon pollution
- a step that will also reduce our carbon emissions 80% by 2050.

[21:03] Most importantly, this plan will ensure
that we control the energy we use with resources
and technology that are available today. The
steps I just spoke about are not far-off,
pie-in-the-sky solutions, they are [here and they
are] now. Today, there are waiting lists for
fuel-efficient cars. There's an old steel mill in
Pennsylvania that has become the home of a new
wind turbine factory. I've seen a small business
in Nevada powered entirely by solar power. Across
the planet, countries like Germany and the United
Kingdom have already implemented clean energy
polices that are reducing their carbon emissions
right now, and leaders like Tony Blair and Angela
Merkel have done a great job of raising the
visibility of climate change within the G8. Now
it's our turn to lead - to show that this future is possible for America.

[22:05] In the last century, during the days that
followed the attack on Pearl Harbor, the American
people were asked, almost overnight, to transform
a peacetime economy that was still climbing out
from the depths of depression into an Arsenal of
Democracy that could wage war across three continents.

[22:26] Many doubted whether this could be
achieved in time, or even at all. President
Franklin Roosevelt's own advisors told him that
his goals for wartime production were unrealistic
and impossible to meet. But [FDR] simply waved
them off, saying, believe me, "the production
people can do it if they really try." [That was
FDR's attitude: "Don't tell me we can't do it. Yes we can."] [applause]

The [challenges we face from our energy
dependence are] great. Meeting it will take time,
and it will not be easy. But if we're willing to
work at it, and invest in it, and sacrifice for
it; if we're willing to summon the same spirit of
optimism and possibility that has defined this
country's greatest progress, then I believe that
we too [can] do it if we really try. [Yes we
can.] And I look forward to trying with you,[Dayton]. Thank you.

TWO CURRENT LINKS: HIDARY AND OPUS
Here's "Oil Gone Wild" by Jack Hidary
(entrepreneur, chairman of
SmartTransportation.org, which brought hybrid
taxis to New York City and co-creator of the new
Congressional Freedom Prize:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-hidary/oil-gone-wild_b_112446.html

Here's the first nationally syndicated carton
featuring PHEVs: OPUS by Berkeley Breathed, July
6, 2008: http://wpcomics.washingtonpost.com/client/wpc/wpopu/2008/07/06/


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

Al Gore gave a major climate speech today, urging an enormously
ambitious program to create an electrical generation system powered
entirely by renewable zero-carbon sources within 10 years. It
reflects a approach to life that takes many people decades to learn:
"When you want something, if you don't ask for it, you won't have a
chance of getting it." All the objections about "impracticality" take
on a different meaning for citizens and opinion leaders who realize
what's at stake. Thus, this speech brings us closer to replacing a
"business as usual" global mentality with one that considers the fate
of the earth.

Aside from that, we are very encouraged by its perspective on plug-in
cars (minutes into a 27-minute speech):

"We could further increase the value and efficiency of a Unified
National Grid by helping our struggling auto giants switch to the
manufacture of plug-in electric cars. An electric vehicle fleet would
sharply reduce the cost of driving a car, reduce pollution, and
increase the flexibility of our electricity grid."

This definitive acknowledgment of the benefits of electrification
gives advocates of steps on global warming a better answer for
transportation than timid suggestions that more people buy more
efficient gasoline cars or drive less. It's in line with what leading
climate change scientist Dr. James Hansen said in February 2006, "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."  And it's a stronger restatement of what Gore said in
September 2006,  "...there are already some solutions that seem to
stand out as particularly promising [...] We could further increase
the value and efficiency of a distributed energy network by retooling
our failing auto giants - GM and Ford - to require and assist them in
switching to the manufacture of flex-fuel, plug-in, hybrid
vehicles...." (See http://www.calcars.org/endorsements.html for
sources for both.)


The rest of the speech, promoting an 'aggressive because we have no
choice' program, responds to 'why power plug-in cars from a dirty
grid?' Our quick answer: even on the national (half-coal) power grid,
mainly because electric motors are so more efficient than gasoline
engines, an electric mile emits about half the CO2 of a gasoline
mile. Our higher-level answer meshes with Gore's vision: plug-in cars
are the only vehicles that will get cleaner as they get older because
the grid will get cleaner.


Below we've excerpted what we think are persuasive and eloquent
statements from the speech given at DAR Constitution Hall in
Washington, DC. Watch the entire 27-minute speech (which includes 2.5
minutes of comments before the prepared text), at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt9wZloG97U . (The section on plug-in
cars, including very enthusiastic applause, starts at 18:00.) Read
the complete text at http://www.wecansolveit.org/content/pages/304/
and read a FAQ at http://www.wecansolveit.org/content/pages/287/ .
And you can watch a 5-minute video at the Alliance for Climate
Protection's home page http://www.wecansolveit.org .

Att "What Others Are Saying"
http://www.wecansolveit.org/content/pages/303/ you can see comments
by Dr. James Hansen, Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space
Studies; Jonathan Lash, President, World Resources Institute; Bill
McKibbon, author & climate activist; Carol M. Browner, former EPA
Administrator, and Principal of The Albright Group LLC; Lee Thomas,
Former EPA Administrator (under President Reagan); David G. Hawkins,
Director, Climate Programs, Natural Resources Defense Council; Dan
Kammen, Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley; David Yarnold,
Executive Director, Environmental Defense Fund; and Alden Meyer,
Director of Strategy and Policy, Union of Concerned Scientists. And
see analysis and comments at Green Car Congress, Climate Progress,
NYTimes Dot Earth and Huffington Post:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/07/gores-challenge.html
http://climateprogress.org/2008/07/17/gore-speech/#comments
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/the-annotated-gore-climate-speech/?\
hp
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-gore/a-generational-challenge_b_113359.html


SPEECH EXCERPTS from "Al Gore: A Generational Challenge to Repower America"

Like a lot of people, it seems to me that all these problems are
bigger than any of the solutions that have thus far been proposed for
them, and that's been worrying me.
I'm convinced that one reason we've seemed paralyzed in the face of
these crises is our tendency to offer old solutions to each crisis
separately - without taking the others into account. And these
outdated proposals have not only been ineffective - they almost
always make the other crises even worse.
Yet when we look at all three of these seemingly intractable
challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running
through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous
over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of
these challenges - the economic, environmental and national security crises.

We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to
burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to
change.....when you connect the dots, it turns out that the real
solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to
renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices.
Moreover, they are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee
our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf.

To those who argue that we do not yet have the technology to
accomplish these results with renewable energy: I ask them to come
with me to meet the entrepreneurs who will drive this revolution.
I've seen what they are doing and I have no doubt that we can meet
this challenge.
To those who say the costs are still too high: I ask them to consider
whether the costs of oil and coal will ever stop increasing if we
keep relying on quickly depleting energy sources to feed a rapidly
growing demand all around the world. When demand for oil and coal
increases, their price goes up. When demand for solar cells
increases, the price often comes down.
When we send money to foreign countries to buy nearly 70 percent of
the oil we use every day, they build new skyscrapers and we lose
jobs. When we spend that money building solar arrays and windmills,
we build competitive industries and gain jobs here at home.
To those who say 10 years is not enough time, I respectfully ask them
to consider what the world's scientists are telling us about the
risks we face if we don't act in 10 years. The leading experts
predict that we have less than 10 years to make dramatic changes in
our global warming pollution lest we lose our ability to ever recover
from this environmental crisis. When the use of oil and coal goes up,
pollution goes up. When the use of solar, wind and geothermal
increases, pollution comes down.
I for one do not believe our country can withstand 10 more years of
the status quo.

To be sure, reaching the goal of 100 percent renewable and truly
clean electricity within 10 years will require us to overcome many
obstacles. At present, for example, we do not have a unified national
grid that is sufficiently advanced to link the areas where the sun
shines and the wind blows to the cities in the East and the West that
need the electricity. Our national electric grid is critical
infrastructure, as vital to the health and security of our economy as
our highways and telecommunication networks. Today, our grids are
antiquated, fragile, and vulnerable to cascading failure. Power
outages and defects in the current grid system cost US businesses
more than $120 billion dollars a year. It has to be upgraded anyway.
We could further increase the value and efficiency of a Unified
National Grid by helping our struggling auto giants switch to the
manufacture of plug-in electric cars. An electric vehicle fleet would
sharply reduce the cost of driving a car, reduce pollution, and
increase the flexibility of our electricity grid.
At the same time, of course, we need to greatly improve our
commitment to efficiency and conservation. That's the best investment
we can make.

Of course, we could and should speed up this transition by insisting
that the price of carbon-based energy include the costs of the
environmental damage it causes. I have long supported a sharp
reduction in payroll taxes with the difference made up in CO2 taxes.
We should tax what we burn, not what we earn. This is the single most
important policy change we can make.

In order to foster international cooperation, it is also essential
that the United States rejoin the global community and lead efforts
to secure an international treaty at Copenhagen in December of next
year that includes a cap on CO2 emissions and a global partnership
that recognizes the necessity of addressing the threats of extreme
poverty and disease as part of the world's agenda for solving the
climate crisis.

Of course the greatest obstacle to meeting the challenge of 100
percent renewable electricity in 10 years may be the deep dysfunction
of our politics and our self-governing system as it exists today. In
recent years, our politics has tended toward incremental proposals
made up of small policies designed to avoid offending special
interests, alternating with occasional baby steps in the right
direction. Our democracy has become sclerotic at a time when these
crises require boldness.

It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the
perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is
drilling for more oil ten years from now.
Am I the only one who finds it strange that our government so often
adopts a so-called solution that has absolutely nothing to do with
the problem it is supposed to address?
If we keep going back to the same policies that have never ever
worked in the past and have served only to produce the highest
gasoline prices in history alongside the greatest oil company profits
in history, nobody should be surprised if we get the same result over
and over again.

If you want to know the truth about gasoline prices, here it is: the
exploding demand for oil, especially in places like China, is
overwhelming the rate of new discoveries by so much that oil prices
are almost certain to continue upward over time no matter what the
oil companies promise. And politicians cannot bring gasoline prices
down in the short term.
However, there actually is one extremely effective way to bring the
costs of driving a car way down within a few short years. The way to
bring gas prices down is to end our dependence on oil and use the
renewable sources that can give us the equivalent of $1 per gallon gasoline.

Many Americans have begun to wonder whether or not we've simply lost
our appetite for bold policy solutions. And folks who claim to know
how our system works these days have told us we might as well forget
about our political system doing anything bold, especially if it is
contrary to the wishes of special interests. And I've got to admit,
that sure seems to be the way things have been going. But I've begun
to hear different voices in this country from people who are not only
tired of baby steps and special interest politics, but are hungry for
a new, different and bold approach.

We are on the eve of a presidential election. We are in the midst of
an international climate treaty process that will conclude its work
before the end of the first year of the new president's term. It is a
great error to say that the United States must wait for others to
join us in this matter. In fact, we must move first, because that is
the key to getting others to follow; and because moving first is in
our own national interest.
So I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every
level, to accept this challenge - for America to be running on 100
percent zero-carbon electricity in 10 years. It's time for us to move
beyond empty rhetoric. We need to act now.

This is a generational moment. A moment when we decide our own path
and our collective fate. I'm asking you - each of you - to join me
and build this future. Please join the WE campaign at
http://www.wecansolveit.org.We need you. And we need you now. We're
committed to changing not just light bulbs, but laws. And laws will
only change with leadership.

--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --
        Felix Kramer  fkramer@...
       Founder  California Cars Initiative
             http://www.calcars.org
     http://www.hybridcars.com/blogs/power
      cell 650.520.5555  voice 650.599.9992
--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --

It's official: look at the headline and the
story, which includes a specific matchup of the
candidates' positions on PHEV policy! (See our previous reports in CalCars-News
on this subject.) Also, it looks like there may be a second race with each
candidate distancing himself from blind
support of corn ethanol (see CBS report below).

GM's Volt Becomes Centerpiece in Presidential Debate on Energy
By Lorraine Woellert and Jeff Green
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVV3eMUSiMgQ&refer=home

July 18 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp.'s
plug-in electric car, the Chevrolet Volt, is
becoming a must-have prop for the U.S.
presidential candidates as they try to appeal to
workers in contested states such as Michigan and
Ohio and show their commitment to weaning the country off of imported oil.

Stopping at a technical center run by the largest
U.S. automaker in Warren, Michigan, Republican
John McCain today called the Volt an illustration
of how the U.S. can cope with rising crude oil
prices and the decline of manufacturing jobs.

``The eyes of the world are now on the Volt,''
McCain said at a meeting with autoworkers after
sitting in the vehicle and getting a briefing on
the car's technology from GM Chief Executive
Officer Rick Wagoner and Vice Chairman Bob Lutz.
``It's the future of America and the world.''

The Arizona senator and his Democratic rival,
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, are holding up
GM -- beset by a collapse of its U.S. sales and
three years of losses -- as a model of American ingenuity.

McCain said the Volt, which GM aims to roll off
assembly lines by 2010, demonstrates how U.S.
automakers can move smartly and quickly away from
fossil fuels without shedding manufacturing jobs.

``I've said the old automotive jobs aren't coming
back,'' McCain said yesterday. ``But I also said
in the same sentence that the Big Three would
lead in green technologies and innovation and the
new technologies that would restore the life and
vitality of the automotive industry in America.
And General Motors is doing exactly that by developing the Volt.''

Alternatives

While the candidates' differences over whether to
allow more oil drilling off the U.S. coast has
dominated the debate, on the stump they both are
giving prominence to their plans to boost
alternative energy development and foster technology to cut emissions.

McCain, 71, and Obama, 46, come at the issue from
different directions. McCain wants to boost
innovation by offering purchasers of zero
carbon-emission cars a $5,000 tax credit. A
graduated tax credit would apply to purchases of
lower emission cars such as the Volt.

He would establish a $300 million prize for
development of new battery technology for
vehicles. He also wants to encourage construction
of 100 new nuclear plants and invest government
money in development of clean-burning coal.

Obama has pledged $150 billion in federal
spending to create 5 million ``green collar''
jobs to cut pollution and energy use, in part by
promoting the use of renewable fuels and retooling factories.

Oil Dependency

McCain adviser Jim Woolsey said both proposals
share the same goal, ``an end-run around oil dependency.''

The plans have another common target: protecting
American manufacturing jobs. Touting clean and
green technology is a way for candidates to
resonate in competitive states such as Michigan,
Ohio, and Pennsylvania, where factory workers are a substantial voting bloc.

Both candidates say that so-called green jobs can't be outsourced.

``Obama is proposing a very, very serious program
for reinvestment in a manufacturing economy and
rebuilding our manufacturing heartland is the
center of that,'' said Bracken Hendricks, an
Obama adviser and a senior fellow at the Center
for American Progress, a Washington-based policy research institution.

Courting Candidates

GM has been courting both candidates. Wagoner
spent two hours with Obama at an innovation
summit June 26 in Pittsburgh talking about how
the government could help GM in the race to replace traditional gasoline cars.

Wagoner wants government funding for research on
batteries for electric cars and hybrids to
compete with similar funding for automakers in
Japan and Korea, where battery technology is a
national priority, GM spokesman Greg Martin said.

The automaker also wants more government support
for biofuels, such as ethanol from corn or other
plants, Martin said. GM has said about half of
its models will be able to use both an
ethanol-mix or gasoline by 2012. The automaker
wants government support for new infrastructure.

Wagoner and Obama also discussed the need for tax
incentives and other government support for
consumers to help them buy these vehicles and
offset the higher cost for the new technology, he
said. GM is making similar overtures to McCain, Martin said.

``When you look at the Chevy Volt, in one product
you have so many different technologies that show
how an American corporation can leapfrog the
competition,'' Martin said. ``The Volt makes a
pretty good single platform for showing support for that ingenuity.''

The Volt is part of GM's plan to combine
fuel-efficient gasoline and biofuel engines,
hybrid-electric models, fuel cells and other
technology to cut fuel use and narrow a technology gap with Toyota Motor Corp.

GM said June 3 it is closing four truck plants
and adding cars as $4-a-gallon gasoline forces
consumers into more fuel- efficient vehicles.

The Volt is scheduled to hit showrooms by
November 2010. GM will produce about 10,000 Volts
in its first full year and increase production to
60,000 annually after that, Lutz said June 17.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lorraine
Woellert in Detroit at lwoellert@...;
Jeff Green in Detroit at jgreen16@...


MCCAIN CRITICIZES ETHANOL SUBSIDIES
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/07/18/politics/fromtheroad/entry4271518.shtml
  From the Road column July 18, 2008, 11:32 AM
McCain's Tough Talk to Auto Workers
  From CBS News' John Bentley

(WARREN, MICH.) John McCain gave an abbreviated
version of his economy speech tailored to Detroit
– singing the praises of General Motors
development of the Chevrolet Volt, an
electric-gas hybrid that GM hopes to bring on the
market in 2010. But he also gave some answers
that the employees here at this town hall meeting
held at GM headquarters probably didn’t want to
hear on the issues of ethanol and the future of automakers.
<snip>
He also said he did not support ethanol
subsidies, which has been a sore spot among
automakers, who have invested in cars that run on ethanol.

“Most experts today will say because we
subsidized ethanol, it has distorted the market
and now contributed to inflationary pressure in
our country, which are very, very dangerous, to say the least,” McCain said.

“So I’m all for encouragement and whatever is
necessary to make sure every vehicle is flex
fuel, that every gas station has a pump that says
E-85 on it, and it’s clear to me that ethanol,
corn based as well as sugarcane based, as well as
bio-fuels, as well as other alternative sources
of energy that come onto the market be made
available and I would devote a lot of my efforts in that direction.”

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

Here's an interview from Bloomberg News with Andy Grove the day
before he delivers a keynote address at http://www.plugin2008.com in
San Jose, followed by a long story in the conference's hometown
paper, The San Jose Mercury News, featuring more info about the
conference, interviews with many participants and numerous photos in
the print edition.

Grove Invokes Paranoia to Prove Only Electric Vehicles Survive
By Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@...; Alan
Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aC9rYRwCL_q4

July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Andy Grove, the former head of Intel Corp.,
asked students in his Stanford University business school seminar
last year to determine whether an electric car market could thrive in
the U.S. Their conclusion: It can't.

That propelled the 1997 Time Man of the Year, now retired, on a
personal crusade to reshape U.S. energy policy, take on the auto
industry and attack America's leaders for risking the nation's security.

Grove, 71, who revolutionized production of devices at the heart of
computers, is exploiting his name and ties to investors and
politicians to jump-start a similar advance in battery-run vehicles.
His idea is to refit millions of gas-guzzling autos to run on
electricity part-time and convince carmakers to adopt so- called open
source rules on advanced technology so that Americans can convert their cars.

``I came to a few conclusions that I was stunned by because they were
so obvious and people don't seem to get it,'' Grove said in a July 8
interview in his office in Los Altos, California. U.S. dependence on
oil may bring economic calamity and eventual conflict with China, he said.

Grove, who joined Santa Clara, California-based Intel in 1968 and
built it into the world's biggest chipmaker with $38.3 billion in
revenue last year, says electrifying cars is the fastest way to ease
international competition for energy because passenger autos account
for almost half the U.S. use of oil.

`There Could Be Blood'

His path to advocacy includes a disagreement with former Vice
President Al Gore and an unreturned message to General Electric Co.
Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt.

While Grove's students said a failure of political leadership is what
is keeping electric cars from the market, automakers and analysts say
challenges include high costs, a lack of batteries sturdy enough for
daily use, no recharging infrastructure, and harmful environmental
effects if coal-fired plants are the main energy source.

``All these objections are absolutely valid in a peace state,'' said
Grove, who entitled his 1996 book on management, ``Only the Paranoid
Survive.'' ``What if we are approaching a state of war, whether it is
literally shooting or just starving to death economically?''

In Silicon Valley, Grove is prodding venture capitalists to fund
electric vehicle technologies with a lecture he's delivered to
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Khosla Ventures titled ``There
Could Be Blood.'' He's aiming to tap the entrepreneurial drive that
led the region to dominate software and Internet businesses.

Conversion Plan

In his keynote speech tomorrow at the 2008 Plug-In convention in San
Jose, he plans to outline his concerns. The closing slide in a draft
of his presentation, Grove says: ``Motivation. Not Cost. Not
Environment. SURVIVAL!''

In four years, Grove wants 10 million vehicles to be equipped with
battery packs capable of powering at least 40 miles of all-electric
driving before the gasoline engine engages. They'd be recharged with
power from domestic sources instead of oil, 58 percent of which is imported.

In his speech, he'll call on the U.S. to offer tax credits or
interest-free loans to retrofit vehicles and urge utilities to
provide fee-free power to charge them for two years. Carmakers should
adopt open-source policies to share technology and commit to honoring
warranties when consumers do such modifications.

Grove says he is unimpressed with the energy policies of the leading
presidential candidates, Republican Senator John McCain and
Democratic Senator Barack Obama, calling them ``investment plans with
no strategy.''

Garage Conversions

Gore on July 17 called for the U.S. to shift entirely to renewable
sources of electricity by 2018 as a way of quickly cutting carbon
emissions contributing to global warming.

``He's addressing the second most important problem,'' Grove said.

Grove says he is encouraged by conversions of pickups and other autos
that have been done by individuals and small shops for years.
Batteries and motors are installed to add all- electric range and
reduce vehicle's gasoline use.

``I would love to give a lot of light and limelight to these people
who have been doing this in their garages because there are a lot of
them,'' Grove said. ``This is how the computer industry became a very
large industry.''

General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest
automakers, sold electric cars in California a decade ago and both
plan to offer plug-ins by 2010. Converting vehicles not designed to
hold hundreds of pounds of additional batteries doesn't work, they say.

Silicon Valley Club

``Batteries needed to move a large SUV would be very big and very
expensive,'' GM spokesman Dave Barthmuss said. ``If things were that
easy, we'd flip a switch and do it.''

Lead-acid and nickel-metal hydride batteries that have been used in
vehicles converted by individuals are too heavy, and lighter,
higher-powered lithium-ion packs aren't ready yet, said Toyota
spokesman John Hanson.

``Battery technology is not anywhere near the level it needs to be
for us to create a vehicle that delivers performance and range for a
price people are willing to pay,'' Hanson said.

Other technology leaders interested in electrifying transportation
include Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google Inc.; Sun
Microsystems Inc. founder Vinod Khosla; and PayPal Inc. founder and
Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk.

While they are investing in the technology, Grove, who has battled
Parkinson's disease and cancer, isn't bankrolling electric car or
battery ventures.

``I'm not interested in making money,'' Grove said. ``I am kind of
done. I enjoy doing this because it's worthwhile. It started as a
teaching exercise. As things get worse, I feel compelled to speak out
on the subject.''

Neil Young's '59 Lincoln

Rock musician Neil Young is using his fame to fuel a similar
campaign. He has gotten a Kansas mechanic to retrofit a 1959 Lincoln
Continental convertible to run on batteries as a way to spur electric
car conversions.

For his part, Grove has reached out to conversion experts such as
Andrew Frank, a professor of engineering at the University of
California, Davis to learn about their research and what they need to grow.

Frank is trying to raise at least $10 million to fund a company to
convert pickups to run on electricity for the first 40 miles before
switching to gasoline. His start-up, Efficient Drivetrains Inc.,
would train mechanics to perform conversions costing customers about
$10,000, he said.

`Hot-Rodding'

``I grew up in the days of hot-rodding, and fundamentally what we did
was take conventional cars and added widgets to it to improve its
performance,'' Frank said. ``That's what we are doing here.''

Grove is also working with Palo Alto, California-based CalCars, which
promotes adding batteries to gas-electric hybrids such as Toyota's
Prius to extend their electric-only range. Installing a second pack
of batteries, reprogramming the software and installing a recharging
plug can more than double the cars' fuel economy to 100 miles per
gallon, CalCars says.

GM's Volt plug-in car, due in two years, is the right idea, though
it's coming too late, Grove said. Along with a delayed reaction by
automakers, he says he is disappointed that large U.S. companies such
as GE haven't pushed for a rapid shift away from imported energy.

At a June conference hosted by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins,
Grove's emphasis on energy security as more urgent than global
warming triggered an exchange with Kleiner partner Gore.

``I had a little disagreement with Mr. Carbon,'' Grove says. ``He
didn't have a problem with my arguments. He didn't like the
priorities. For carbon to kill us we have to stay alive for a while.
It's not looking that good.''

Kalee Kreider, Gore's spokeswoman, said the former vice president and
Grove share many of the same views. ``If the U.S. were to meet the
challenge laid out by Vice President Gore, vehicles could then run
off of a clean, renewable electricity grid,'' she said in an e-mail on July 18.


SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS: the story is announced with a photo of my PHEV
at the top of the front page of the daily newspaper, along with
"PLUG-INS NEARLY READY: Experts in San Jose this week to kick tires
on hybrids, and the story occupies most of the front page of the
business section, with a large photo of my "PLUG OK" license plate
and several photos of that car, the Volt, Toyota's prototoype PHEV.

SIDEBAR:
CHECKING OUT PLUG-IN HYBRIDS
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_9946667?nclick_check=1

Here's some information about the Plug-in 2008 Conference & Exposition

When: Today-Thursday

Where: San Jose McEnery Convention Center

What: The conference includes the exhibit, speakers and panel
discussions on various topics related to plug-in hybrid vehicle
technology. Intel co-founder Andy Grove is the keynote speaker. The
conference is not open to the public, but ...

Public night: From 6-9 p.m. on Tuesday, Plug-in 2008 does open to the
public. Tickets, available at the door, are $10. From 6-7:30 p.m.,
exhibit booths will be open for touring. Several vehicles will be on
display. From 7:30-9 p.m., a panel featuring Dan Reicher
(google.org), Chelsea Sexton (Plug In America) and Mark Duvall
(Electric Power Research Institute) will discuss the movement toward
plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Sponsors: Plug-in 2008 is organized by the Silicon Valley Leadership
Group, EPRI, Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, Sempra
Energy, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Southern
California Edison and UC-Davis.

Information: www.plugin2008.com

MAIN STORY
http://www.mercurynews.com/greenenergy/ci_9946666
Future is nearly now for plug-in hybrids
By Matt Nauman  Mercury News  07/21/2008
Contact Matt Nauman at mnauman@... or (408) 920-5701.

When hundreds of experts gather in San Jose this week for the
country's first and biggest plug-in hybrid conference, the tone of
the gathering will reveal a dramatic change.

Automakers, utility representatives and policy-makers will be talking
when, not if, at Plug-in 2008.

Asked whether plug-in hybrids, also known as plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles, or PHEVs, are inevitable as production vehicles, Mark
Duvall of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto
answered with cautious optimism that sounded more optimistic than guarded.

"I would never say 100 percent until I can kick the tires myself, but
I'm as optimistic as I've even been in 15 or so years with this
subject," Duvall said.

Like traditional hybrids, a plug-in hybrid has both batteries and a
gasoline engine, and can operate on either or both. Unlike
traditional hybrids, plug-ins have larger battery packs and a plug
that allows for household charging, meaning they can travel much
farther on electricity. And while a hybrid such as the Prius can only
go a few miles at low speeds solely on electricity, plug-in advocates
envision vehicles with 20 to 40 miles of battery-only transportation range.

Duvall is one of the speakers at Plug-in 2008, which runs today
through Thursday at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, and is
organized by a host of supporters, including the Silicon Valley
Leadership Group, Pacific Gas & Electric and EPRI. The event
Advertisement
isn't open to the public but does include a public session Tuesday night.

Representatives from General Motors, Toyota and Ford will be on hand.
So will officials from PG&E and Southern California Edison;
battery-makers; government researchers; and plug-in advocates.

And former Intel Chief Executive and Chairman Andy Grove, who writes
and speaks publicly about his fondness for plug-ins, which he calls
dual-fuel cars, will give the keynote address Tuesday.

It's an important topic in Silicon Valley, one of the largest markets
for the Toyota Prius, the best-selling hybrid and a poster child for
those embracing green living.

"We're a very receptive market for new technologies that can make a
substantial difference regarding climate change," said Laura
Stuchinsky, who also will speak at the conference. Until recently,
she headed up the Silicon Valley Leadership Group push to promote
production of plug-in hybrids. She's now the sustainability officer
for the city of San Jose's transportation department.

At this point, the consensus is that GM and Toyota will be offering
plug-in hybrids by late 2010 or early 2011. Other automakers are
expected to follow.

Media reports suggest that GM will unveil a production version of its
Chevrolet Volt, which it describes as a range-extended electric car,
as soon as September. The Detroit automaker says the Volt will have a
small gasoline engine to extend the range of the vehicle's
lithium-ion battery pack. It also says it can be charged via a 110-volt plug.

Meanwhile, Toyota is currently testing plug-in versions of the Prius
in France, Japan and the United States. About a half-dozen of the
cars are being evaluated at Toyota's U.S. headquarters in Torrance as
well as by researchers at the University of California campuses in
Berkeley and Irvine, said Jaycie Chitwood, senior strategic planner
for Toyota's advanced technology vehicle group.

Those who have driven the car have had positive reactions, Chitwood
said, although they question why the vehicle can only travel seven
miles on electricity. The car's next-generation battery will improve
on that, she said.

"It's very smooth, seamless," Chitwood said. "You feel like you're
driving a Prius plus."

But with the increasing hype about the potential of plug-ins, Toyota
feels the need to reign in expectations a bit, she said. "We want to
make sure people understand what plug-ins are, and what they aren't,"
she said. "We still believe that hybrids will be our core technology
going forward."

If Felix Kramer has anything to do with it, plug-ins will be a way of
life. Kramer founded the California Car Initiative, better known for
its Web URL, CalCars.org, to promote plug-in hybrids. Based in Palo
Alto, Kramer drives a converted Prius emblazoned with "100+ MPG" on
its sides. The movement toward the vehicles has reached "a
consolidation moment," Kramer said.

  From 2010 to 2012, he expects to see an increasing number of plug-in
hybrids from big car companies on the road. "The carmakers are in a
race," Kramer said.

"All the important constituents agree this is a good idea, and
they're trying to figure out how to make it happen on a large scale
and rapidly."



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

In the first of several roundup postings about
Plug-In 2008, we present lots of news from
companies at the Plug-In 2008 Conference. All the
citations below are highly compressed excerpts of
announcements and news reports: read the links for details.

* GM announces partnership with utilities and EPRI
* V2Green demonstrates real-time smart-grid control, partners w/eTec, Coulomb
* Coulomb unveils street charging/shows Saturn Vue, partners w/V2Green
* Google.org's Acta/Aptera investments and new fleet data
* Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies debuts Ford F-150 pickup conversion
* Plug-In Supply announces lower prices on Prius conversion kits
* Last (and least) news from Felix Kramer about
his new advisor relation with several companies


GENERAL MOTORS PARTNERS WITH UTILITIES
GM allies with U.S. utility group on electric cars: Wed Jul 23, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/smallBusinessNews/idUSN2147289020080723
    (REUTERS): General Motors Corp on Monday said
it is collaborating with an organization
representing U.S. utilities to ready the nation's
electric infrastructure for the widespread sale
of plug-in electric cars, such as the Chevrolet Volt.
    The tie-up with the Electric Power Research
Institute will address three issues: guaranteeing
safe and convenient vehicle charging, consumer
outreach and advocating public policies that
support plug-in vehicle technologies, GM said.
    The company is the second major U.S. automaker
to announce a collaboration with EPRI, which
represents utilities that generate more than 90
percent of the power in the United States.
    Asked whether it made sense for GM to join
forces with rival automakers, in addition to
utilities, Gross said GM was working on a faster
schedule than its rivals because of the Volt's planned 2010 launch.
    "We have an actual production program in the
works," Gross said. "We need to move through
these issues as quickly as we possibly can."

EARLIER STORY: GM, utility group to announce
electric car tie-up: Fri Jul 18, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN1845827620080718?rpc=44
    (REUTERS): Automakers have said the adoption
of the electric cars would be speeded if electric
utilities would set up recharging stations and
allow them to send power back to the grid from
parked cars to reduce operating costs.
    Auto executives have also suggested the
utilities could create a market for recycled but
still-powerful lithium-ion battery packs from older electric cars.
    Those batteries could be stitched together to
store energy for peak demand periods, a secondary
market that could bring down the initial cost of plug-in vehicles.
    For their part, the utilities stand to gain
revenue as consumers turn to the grid rather than
the gas station as the source of power for cars, analysts have said.
    "GM was unsuccessful in the commercialization
of electric cars before for reasons that remain
controversial," said Felix Kramer, founder of
CalCars, a nonprofit group that promotes
plug-ins. "This time, they realize they need partners."
http://www.hybridcar.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=667&Itemid=2
ANNOUNCEMENT
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/07/gm-and-electric.html
ANALYSIS AND COMMENTS


V2GREEN REAL-TIME SMART GRID CHARGING/PARTNERS WITH ETEC & COULOMB
http://www.v2green.com/docs/v2green_media_ad_0808.pdf
    The first live demonstration of smart grid
technology controlling the bi-directional flow of
electricity between the grid and a fleet of
plug-in vehicles. In real-time, V2Green will
simultaneously manage the power flow to a fleet
of plugin vehicles, including two on the Plug-In
2008 show floor -- an AC Propulsion eBox electric
car and an A123 Systems/Hymotion converted Toyota
Prius plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.
http://www.v2green.com/docs/v2green_etec_0708.pdf
    eTec to Evaluate PHEV Fast-Charging and Smart
Grid Interactions for the U.S. Department of
Energy eTec will work with V2Green and the USDOE
to demonstrate and evaluate the value of
bi-directional fast-charging for PHEVs and smart grid technologies
http://www.v2green.com/docs/v2green_coulomb_0708.pdf
    Coulomb Technologies and V2green Announce
Smart Charging Infrastucture Technology and
Marketing Partnership for Plug-in Vehicles
    ...a technology and marketing partnership to
create an intelligent charging infrastructure for
plug-in vehicles. Coulomb’s innovative Smartlet
Charging Stations and Communications Network
provide convenient, easy-to-use charging
stations, delivering bi-directional energy
metering and user authentication. V2Green’s smart
grid technology establishes two-way communication
between plug-in vehicles and the grid, allowing
utilities to control charging behavior in
real-time, within parameters set by vehicle
owners. By joining forces, Coulomb and V2Green
are able to offer a charging infrastructure that
is effortless for drivers and responsive to the needs of the grid.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/07/etec-and-v2gree.html
ANALYSIS AND COMMENTS


COULOMB DEMONSTRATES CHARGING STATIONS/NETWORK WITH SATURN VUE
http://www.coulombtech.com/press_releases/release_20080721.php
    Coulomb Technologies Announces New Smart
Charging Infrastructure for Plug-In Vehicles
    Smart Charging Stations, Payment Subscriptions
and Utility Grid Management Target New Market of Plug-In Vehicles
    Coulomb Technologies today announced a smart
charging infrastructure for plug-in vehicles.
Coulomb has developed a complete solution
targeting plug-in vehicles including Extended
Range Electric Vehicles, Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles,
and Battery Electric Vehicles. Coulomb's
ChargePoint™ Network includes public charging
stations, a consumer subscription plan and
utility grid management technology for electric
utility companies to smooth electrical demands on the grid.
    1. Smartlet Charging Stations: Perform
bi-directional energy metering and control, user
authentication, and 802.15.4 wireless local area
network technology, which enables a subscription
model through communication with a data center.
    2. Smartlet Communications Network: Provides a
high reliability meshed network using 802.15.4
technology and GSM/GRPS technology to communicate
with the Network Operating System for user
authentication, access control, energy flow control and energy metering.
    3. ChargePoint Network Operating System (NOS):
Manages the Smartlet Charging Stations through
the Smartlet Communications Network. The
ChargePoint Network also provides web portals for
subscribers, hosts and utilities. Functions
include user authentication, access control,
energy flow control, location management, utility
company policy administration, user portal, host
property portal, utility portal and GPS system interface.
    "Major automakers have announced delivery of
plug-in vehicles to the U.S. marketplace by 2010.
But with 54 million garages for the 247 million
registered passenger vehicles in the U.S. today,
most consumers do not have a way to charge a
plug-in vehicle." said Richard Lowenthal CEO of
Coulomb Technologies. "We have developed a
scalable, smart charging infrastructure that
provides municipalities and parking lot owners a
recurring income stream through public charging
stations that are easy to install and maintain.
Our complete technology solution also provides
electric utility companies a means to control the
load that plug-in vehicles put on the grid and a
means to compute and implement taxes on electricity as a transportation fuel."
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/07/coulomb-technol.html
ANALYSIS & COMMENTS
[Our note: We always emphasize that PHEVs don't
need a new infrastructure -- polls have shown
that many more than half of homeowners have
access to a plug to charge their cars. Of course,
since the grid is ubiquitous, creating a charging
infrastructure for EVs and for PHEVs for those
who don't have such access, or who want to charge
at work, is a much smaller challenge than to
deliver a new alternative fuel type. It requires
broadly accepted standards and companies that can
use today's hardware and software technologies to
begin. Coulomb is taking the lead in integrating
the pieces for such an infrastructure.]


GOOGLE.ORG INVESTS $2.75M: Aptera and ActaCell
http://blog.google.org/2008/07/driving-plug-in-technology-with.html
    Last June Google.org launched RechargeIT, an
initiative to accelerate the adoption of plug-in
electric vehicles. At that time we announced a
request for investment proposals (RFP) from teams
working on technologies relevant to this goal.
Today we are pleased to announce our first
RechargeIT investments in two promising companies
tackling the challenge of vehicle electrification.
    Aptera Motors of Carlsbad, California is
building an ultra-high efficiency vehicle based
on improved aerodynamics and composite materials.
Aptera's first prototype achieved over 230 miles
per gallon during testing, and they are
developing an all-electric as well as a plug-in
hybrid vehicle based on this design.
    ActaCell is an Austin-based company working to
commercialize lithium-ion battery technology
developed at the University of Texas at Austin.
ActaCell's technology offers the promise of
improved battery cycle life and lower costs,
while maintaining a focus on battery safety, all
of which are important factors in the widespread adoption of plug-in vehicles.
The Google.org URL has links to both companies
and to media reports on the news Green Car
Congress
reports
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/07/aptera-raises-m.html
that Aptera has raised $24M in a series C
financing and
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/07/new-li-ion-spin.html
that Acta has closed on a $5.8M series A
financing, both including the Google investments.
Also see reports at Earth2Tech:
http://earth2tech.com/2008/07/23/googleorg-invests-in-electric-car-startups/
and
http://earth2tech.com/2008/07/23/battery-startup-actacell-charges-up-with-google\
-dfj/

GOOGLE.ORG RE-LOADS G-FLEET PERFORMANCE NUMBERS
Many people have been curious why Google's PHEV
fleet was getting an average in the high 60MPG
range. The quick answer: lots of cold starts,
brief trips where the engine often didn't warm
up, mostly highway driving, and no orientation
for drivers. The managers designed a test program
to compare results of city, combined city/highway
and highway driving. See
http://www.google.org/recharge/experiment/ for
the assumptions and results. The new numbers
match reports by drivers, conversion companies,
CalCars and national laboratory analyses.
http://blog.google.org/2008/07/our-plug-ins-perform-90-mpg.html
Our plug-ins perform: 90+ MPG by Rolf Schreiber, RechargeIT Engineer
    We were curious to see how the cars would
perform under controlled conditions - and how
they would stack up against other conventional
automobiles typically found in U.S. households.
With that, the RechargeIT Driving Experiment was born!
    In total, it took just over seven weeks to
complete all the trips in all the vehicles. And
with the results in, our plug-ins did great, with
the Priuses getting more than 90 miles per
gallon. The PHEVs not only greatly outperformed
the average American fleet fuel economy of 19.8
MPG, they did significantly better than the
standard hybrids – 53% fuel economy improvement
for the plug-in Ford Escape and 93% improvement for the plug-in Prius.


HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE TECHNOLOGIES SHOWS FORD F-150 PICKUP PHEV
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=129928
EVT unveils the first plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle (PHEV) version of the Ford F-150, helping
the light truck achieve better gas mileage
without sacrificing the size and utility that makes it so popular.
    It isn't a small improvement, either: HEVT —
the name stands for Hybrid Electric Vehicle
Technologies — claims that the stock 16-mpg
figure is hiked up all the way to 41 mpg.
However, the 41 mpg is only for up to 30 miles
per day; beyond that, the vehicle will get 21 mpg
as a hybrid. The truck will be able to travel 15
miles on electric power alone. HEVT hopes that
this technology will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel use.
    The truck will be produced on a custom basis
for individuals and organizations. Full details,
including horsepower figures, have yet to be released.
http://www.hevt.com/news.php
Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies, Inc.
Unveils World's First Plug-in Hybrid Ford F-150 Pickup
Chicago Company Showcases Plug-in Hybrid Electric
Conversion Kits Adaptable to Most Vehicles
    The HEVT prototype was displayed during
today's keynote address by Dr. Andrew S. Grove,
former chairman of Intel Corporation. "Trucks,
SUVs and vans are the least-efficient vehicles on
the road, so retrofitting them should be a high
priority if we want to make a meaningful,
near-term difference in oil consumption.  Rapid
commercialization of prototypes like HEVT's is the way to go," Dr. Grove said.
    “HEVT's solutions apply to not just smaller
passenger cars and hybrids, but almost any
vehicle including larger gas guzzlers,” said HEVT
founder Ali Emadi. “Our laboratory simulations
show that the larger the vehicle, the greater the
benefits – in gas costs, particulate and
greenhouse emissions, and sound pollution.  For
this reason we are currently focused on PSVs and
will later expand to school buses as well as transit buses.”


PLUG-IN SUPPLY BRINGS DOWN COST OF CONVERSIONS
http://www.pluginsupply.com ANNOUNCEMENT
Plug-In Supply Inc. Unveils World’s First Plug-in
Hybrid Conversion Kit Under $5,000 With Extended Life Batteries
Plug-In Supply, Inc. unveiled the world’s first
Prius Conversion System priced at $4995. Buyers
can install it themselves or pay well under
$2,000 for installation by a Plug-In Supply
dealer.The PbA10 (lead acid) Conversion System,
which turns a standard 2004-2008 model year Prius
into a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)
based on the CalCars Open Source design...has an
all-electric range of 10 to 15 miles and improved
average mileage of up to 100 miles per gallon
(plus 1 cent/mile of electricity). By refining
the design for manufacturing, Plug-In Supply’s
Conversion System reduced the conversion time
from several weeks to just one day in 2007.
Further improvements in design have reduced the
cost and complexity while improving reliability and battery longevity.
    The conversion system uses new extended life
lead-acid batteries (over 800 cycles), for better
battery longevity than was previously available.
The combination of longer battery life and lower
price improves the affordability of converting a
Prius. The system is designed to permit an
upgrade to lithium Iron Phosphate batteries with
an all-electric range of 15-20 miles, as costs
for these longer range batteries decline.  Under
development for release this year: PSI Lithium
Ion Phosphate Prius+ conversion, featuring the
latest batteries from Phoenix Silicon
International (PSI). The chassis will provide
access to the spare tire and is expected to
provide 16 miles of EV mode operation and last the life of the car.
    Plug-In Supply is working closely with CalCars
to develop these products to put more plug-ins on
the road. Plug-In Supply will donate 5 percent of sales to CalCars.org.



DISCLOSURE BY FELIX KRAMER: Since 2002, CalCars
has been working to commercialize plug-in
vehicles. During that time, we've remained
resolutely independent and neutral, providing
visibility and assistance to all individuals and
institutions that contribute to that goal (see
list at http://www.calcars.org/partners.html).
We've had non-disclosure agreements with many
companies -- and have been good at keeping
secrets! Now, after years as an informal advisor
and networker, I've just agreed to act
(individually, not as on behalf of CalCars) as an
advisor, compensated with options for activities
on behalf of several companies. (I am motivated
primarily by the opportunity to help promising
ventures succeed rather than by the prospect of
possible financial rewards.) I've just
established such an advisor relationship with
Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies,
www.hevt.com co-founded by Prof. Ali Emadi, and
with Efficient Drivetrains Inc.,
www.efficientdrivetrains.com co-founded by Prof.
Andy Frank. I've secured their informal
commitment that when they are in a position to do
so, they will contribute to CalCars.org in
recognition of our role in the industry. I've
insisted on having no restrictions on my working
with competing companies. I assure you that
CalCars will continue to remain a neutral
"Switzerland" in its relationships with companies and organizations.

This formal reply to proposed regulations by the California Air
Resources Board was written by CalCars Technical Lead Ron Gremban
following discussions with the individuals and companies involved in the
Open Source EAA-PHEV (Electric Auto Association - Plug in Hybrid
Electric Vehicle) project, some of whom have also submitted testimony.
It's a good overview of the business and technical issues surrounding
regulation of aftermarket conversions.

Here's how we summarize the message: "Let's be very careful of
unintended consequences of too-early and too-specific restrictions,
which could inhibit invention. Right now the auto industry is benefiting
from new ideas that could help them make money producing clean cars. And
conversions have already stimulated discussion about public and private
incentives for these "green-tuned" vehicles and for the even better
mass-produced versions that will follow them. Let's take this step by
step and not shut down the small innovators."

Find the EAA-PHEV group at http://www.eaa-phev.org
<http://www.eaa-phev.org/>  and the specific sections on Prius
conversion at  http://www.priusplus.org <http://www.priusplus.org/>  .
The message archive can best be seen at
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/eaa-phev/

   <../../../../eaa-phev/> July 31, 2008 from Ron Gremban:
Dear CARB members.  I'm writing this in response to the emboldened draft
regulations below:

At http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/hevtest/hevtest.htm
<http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/hevtest/hevtest.htm> :

The ARB is modifying the existing exhaust & evaporative test procedures
for Light Duty & Medium Duty Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) to better
characterize emissions from all types and architectures of Hybrid
Electric Vehicles including Plug-In hybrids.  Information regarding this
process and the proposed modifications are shown below.  To receive
information on postings to this website please sign-up on the ZEV list
serve.

July 16, 2008
     * Meeting Agenda
<http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/hevtest/071608agenda.pdf>
(conference call information provided)
     * Staff Presentation
<http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/hevtest/071608phevwrkshp.pdf>
     * Draft Test Procedures
     * Draft - California Evaporative Emission Standards and Test
Procedures for 2001 and Subsequent Model Year Vehicles
<http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/hevtest/071608evaptp.pdf>
     * Draft - California Refueling Emission Standards and Test Procedures
for 2001 and Subsequent Model Year Vehicles
<http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/hevtest/071608orvrtp.pdf>
     * Draft California Exhaust Emission Standards and Test Procedures for
2011 and Subsequent Model Years ZEVs and HEVs
<http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/hevtest/071608hevexhausttpss.pdf>
     * Draft EV Charging Requirements
<http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/hevtest/071608evchargingreq.pdf>
     * Draft Aftermarket Parts Certification Requirements
<http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/hevtest/071608aftermarketpartsdraf\
trev.pdf>

     * Meeting Notice
<http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/mailouts/msc0817/msc0817.pdf>
I commend these efforts to tackle the necessary regulation of a complex
and potentially extensive and valuable area of our transportation
future.

Like Andy Grove, who just proposed the conversion of 10 million trucks,
SUVs, and vans into PHEVs nationwide within the next four years, I
strongly believe that our automobile manufacturers not only will not,
but cannot even begin to, build enough PHEV vehicles in the next decade
to create -- by replacing existing and yet-to-be-sold low-mileage
vehicles -- the level of oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions
reductions that our economy, environment, and California state law
requires.  Even iif auto manufacturers were to move exceedingly fast,
e.g. by converting a full 1% of their new vehicle production to PHEV in
2011 (the expected first full year of any PHEV production -- it took 10
years to reach this point with hybrids), then to double that production
quantity each year thereafter, it would take 10 years to reach 90%
production penetration, 16% on-the-road penetration, and a likely 8%
(that year only, not cumulative) greenhouse emissions reductions.

This means that large numbers of existing vehicles, and not just the
small percentage that are hybrids, will need to be partially electrified
to come close to meeting the IPCC's and California's greenhouse
emissions and oil displacement goals.  Of course California will need to
be careful to avoid, in the process, moving backwards in criteria
emissions and vehicle safety.  However, I submit that although the auto
manufacturers have generally higher technology capabilities at their
disposal than entrepreneurs, they tend to move toward implementation of
new propulsion technology in production -- especially technology that
they don't yet see as an economic windfall -- at a glacial pace,
sometimes even when their very existence is threatened by avoiding doing
so (as from today's fuel prices).

Because of this, hybrid-to-PHEV and the upcoming ICE-to-PHEV conversion
technologies have so far been created and brought to market by
non-profit and entrepreneurial companies and loosely organized groups of
engineers on shoestring budgets.  I believe that, if we are to have a
significant electrification of the vehicle fleet within a decade, this
must be allowed to continue and even be incentivized.  While
conversions, when sold in significant quantities, will need to prove in
some way that they do not increase criteria emissions, I believe, in
order to avoid a high cost of entry that would prevent small,
innovative, shoestring-budget operations from starting out, there is
high value in tolerating the creation and even sale of smaller
quantities of conversions with lower-level oversight.  Such small
operations can innovate new conversion solutions, sell a few once they
work, then use the proceeds and the field experience to test against and
meet progressively carefully monitored regulations as a part of both
improving the product and increasing sales.  At some point some products
and organizations will reach the point where they get noticed and funded
for high-cost production engineering, testing, and serious levels of
production, as has Hymotion.  At this point, the proposed certification
requirements (subject to suggestions below) would be appropriate.

Once again, I emphasize that regulation alone is insufficient to get
auto manufacturers to do things that are in the public interest but that
they don't want to do.  This was established as true with the original
ZEV mandate (I believe 10% of new vehicles by 2004 were going to be
ZEV), and continues with the Pavley bill tied up in court after a
federal denial as well as due to a suit by all the auto manufacturers,
including even 'green' Toyota.  In contrast, what CalCars has discovered
does work is a combination of:
     * Laws and regulations, such as feebates, creating strong
incentives/disincentives for desirable/undesirable end-user behavior
     * Very public demonstrations that show the viability and availability
of the technology to the public, generate large amounts of media
exposure, and educate the public to the technology's advantages, both to
the individual and to society
     * Development and sales of conversion systems, first to early
adopters, then to more mainstream customers, at an ever-increasing scale
that the auto manufacturers cannot ignore, and that will provide much of
the promised value of PHEVs far sooner than could possibly occur through
increasing penetration of new PHEV vehicles alone.
     * Emissions and safety regulations that allow this conversion
penetration to begin entrepreneurially while expanding in an
increasingly controlled way.
     * Grants, including to small groups that have specific unique things
to offer, to help stimulate the needed technical, financial, business,
and marketing innovation
I propose that aftermarket conversions be required to follow the
following progression:
     1. Once such standards are created, conformity to a set of safety
engineering standards to be established by a to-be-determined consortium
of EV and aftermarket automotive experts, similar to the industry
standards the very successfully safety-conscious FAA now requires of
Light Sport Aircraft manufacturers.
     2. Before sales of more than 25 conversions, justify on paper in an
application to CARB why the converter believes that the conversion will
not raise emissions, given national laboratory tests of emissions levels
of other conversions.
     3. Before sales of over 100 conversions, submit one converted vehicle
to CARB (temporarily) for testing and (if further crash safety
regulations beyond the federal regulations already in place for
aftermarket vehicle additions and for batteries) show the results of a
software-simulated crash test.
     4. Before sales of over 1000 conversions, the whole CARB procedure
specified in the draft procedures (as updated with suggestions) must be
completed.
Also:
     1. Conversions of multiple makes and models should be considered a
single conversion type when vehicle parameters do not vary significantly
(e.g. Prius 2004-2008 models are essentially alike, and Escape and
Mariner hybrids are also essentially the same vehicle).
     2. Testing for conversion longevity against warrantied lifetime is
far too time-consuming (ultimately requiring many years) and beyond the
capabilities of any organization without the deep pockets of top-tier
auto manufacturers.  Some shortcut(s) must be acceptable, such as
demonstrating that battery deterioration either will not cause increased
emissions or will be detected and force repair.
     3. Other than against emissions increase, it should be up to the
conversion manufacturer as to how long to warrant the conversion and/or
parts within it.  This will allow the use, for example, of batteries
that can make conversions more affordable though they may need
replacement one or more times during the remaining life of the converted
vehicle.
     4. It is unrealistic and extreme to require that the addition of a
conversion to a vehicle will reset its mileage for warranty purposes to
zero.
     5. Actual crash testing must be required only upon embarkation of
volume sales.
Draft Aftermarket Parts Certification Requirements

The "Draft Aftermarket Parts Certification Requirements" document
contains this potential showstopper for small business:  to get approval
to sell conversions in CA, a manufacturer must not only warranty a
conversion for the expected lifetime of the converted vehicle (section
7), as specified by other regulations -- 10 years or 150,000 miles, I
believe, for an AT-PZEV like the Prius -- but the conversion must be
tested and proven to not increase emissions for that full lifetime
(section 5b, especially 5b.vii), either in a converted vehicle, or via
approved laboratory aging (to the vehicle's lifetime, or can that be
projected?), with test in a converted vehicle before and after the
laboratory aging.

Unless I misread this, it means that conversions will not be able to be
approved for sale in CA until such testing is completed, which is an
expensive and time-consuming process.  Even accelerated aging, if deemed
acceptable, would take years to reach the equivalent of 10 years or 150k
miles!  And what about battery packs that are known not to last that
long, but that can provide significant fuel displacement while they do
last?  A possible out is to show that in conversions that do not replace
the original battery, even a worn-out conversion will not increase the
emissions beyond those of the unconverted vehicle -- but that out will
not work for battery replacement conversions.

Another issue included in that document is that up to 5 in-use converted
vehicles of each conversion type must be made available to CARB (I
believe yearly) for an unspecified length of time by each conversion
manufacturer.  Since small conversion manufacturers may themselves own
only one or two vehicles, this could present a very difficult economic
challenge, despite the fact that CARB would foot the cost of the testing
unless the vehicles failed the tests.  I would propose that this be
changed to one vehicle plus one more for each 1000 conversions sold, up
to a maximum of five total.

Section 3 says that these requirements "shall apply to all OVCC
(Off-Vehicle Charge Capable) conversion systems to be certified for
installation on CA-certified HEVs."  What about conversions of non-HEVs?

Depending on how it is interpreted, section 3a could make it difficult
to get approval for systems that replace the Battery ECU, that change
messages between it and the rest of the hybrid system, or that rely on
resetting the OEM system at various times (though the relevant data
could be automatically read out and saved as needed).  It depends on
what is meant by "an analysis showing that these modifications will not
adversely affect OBD performance."

Section 3b says, "The driveability of a vehicle equipped with a
conversion system shall not be degraded in such a way as to encourage
consumer tampering."  It may be CARB's interpretation as to whether or
not an optional low-performance but zero emissions Forced EV mode would
still be allowed.

Altogether, it appears that these regulations would increase the cost of
entry into this market to a point where only large corporations could
participate, thereby totally locking out the very entrepreneurial
startups that have been and are very likely to continue to be the best
sources of innovation for technology that the auto manufacturers have
been resisting.  How about increasingly stringent regulations that
become effective after set numbers of each manufacturer's conversions
are sold in CA, and that reach the proposed level only after e.g. 5000?
Otherwise, the $500k one might spend on meeting the full requirements
would have to come from often nonexistent start-up capital, and would
still amount to $500 per conversion after the sale of 1000 conversions
-- both of which are far beyond the early capabilities of every
conversion manufacturer I know of, including Hymotion before its
purchase by A123 (A123 has now spent mid-six-figures on such testing),
and that sale would not have happened if Hymotion hadn't already been
selling viable conversions.

Draft EV Charging Requirements

There are two issues here, both having to do with eliminating the
exception to more stringent requirements for vehicles that are capable
only of "level 1" charging at up to 1.44 kW from an ordinary 15A, 120VAC
outlet.

Instead, the proposal is that all plug-in vehicles be required to
conform to J1772 REV ?2009, including the use of a Yazaki plug (although
the availability of an adapter to allow plugging into an ordinary outlet
may also be required), and that they all be required to have charger
capacity to provide a full charge in 4 hours (though battery chemistry
is allowed to prolong the charging).

First, requiring the Yazaki plug may not be a bad idea, as it will
enable public charge stations with a standardized Yazaki jack to charge
all EVs including PHEVs.  But, for "level 1" charging, an ordinary 120V
plug must be allowed as well, so that one need not rewire his home after
buying a PHEV.  Public charge stations are unlikely to be important for
PHEVs, but could eventually lead to more charging, e.g. at on-street
parking spots frequented by people without garages, and at hotels and
other overnight locations.

However, the requirement of 4 hour charging is a potential problem and a
puzzle.  The document says that "...7-8 hours ... time duration would
extend beyond preferred late-evening low-cost Utility rate schedules",
but PG&E's E-9 off-peak rate is from midnight to 7am, 7 hours, not 4.
In fact, if all vehicles started at the start of off-peak rates, the
load would be better spread out, at least until the advent of a
full-blown smart grid, by a 7-hour charging rate rather than a 4-hour
rate.  Also, though CARB's document shows that a PHEV-25 could charge
from a 120V 15A circuit in 4 hours, that applies only to a compact or
efficient sedan and doesn't include charger inefficiencies.  A PHEV-40
sedan or a PHEV-20 SUV or pickup truck could reach only a 6 hour rate on
120V, thereby triggering the requirement for a higher power 240V
charger, at more cost and to what advantage?

Draft California Exhaust Emission Standards and Test Procedures for 2011
and Subsequent Model Years ZEVs and HEVs

My comments so far are actually from the Staff Presentation slides,
which are a condensation of the other documents, and Argonne Labs'
presentation at the 2008 SAE Hybrid Conference, as I have not yet read
this document.

Presentation slide 26 says that "Only one required charge for PHEV
testing if AC Energy to fully recharge is within +/- 1% between the
Urban and Highway CD Range tests...".  1% is also mentioned on slide 23,
slide 27, and in other places.  This seems unusable, as at least 5%
differences between separate discharges and charges are common after
similar driving conditions.

Thank you for your consideration of my comments.

Sincerely,
Ronald Gremban, CalCars' Technical Lead


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





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Every newspaper in the country is reporting about the "Gang of 10" --
Republican and Democratic Senators working to gain support for a
grand compromise. If enacted, it allows some offshore oil drilling in
the Gulf of Mexico and perhaps off the Atlantic Coast, subsidizes
nuclear power and coal-to-liquid and funds ethanol research. It
renews the expiring solar and wind tax credits.

And it includes a $7,500 tax credit for new plug-in cars and $2,500
for conversions existing cars plus $7.5B for automakers to retool
plants for plug-in cars and $7.5 billion for battery R&D. Inclusion
of these provisions demonstrates the almost-unanimous Congressional
support for plug-in vehicles as a near-term solution, and should send
further signals to automakers that they'll get support in DC this
fall or next year.

The compromise aims to fuel 85% of US cars off gasoline by 2020 --
which sounds a lot like proposals from Andy Grove and others that
have been seen as unrealistic. (There are some subtleties in the
provisions: the 85% goal is a "sense of the Senate" resolution; the
$7,500 credit also applies to fuel-cell cars; and many
environmentalists are dubious about the tradeoffs. Read details below.)

POLITICS: The Senate just went into recess without any progress on
energy legislation but will return in September for a short
pre-election session. Democrats (all from states that voted Repubican
in 2004) include Mary L. Landrieu (Louisiana), Kent Conrad (North
Dakota), Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas) Mark Pryor (Arkansas),Ben Nelson
(Nebraska), and Republicans Saxby Chambliss (Georgia), Johnny Isakson
(Georgia), Lindsey Graham  (South Carolina), Bob Corker (Tennessee)
and John Thune (South Dakota). Senator Obama said he was open to
compromise, McCain said the country needed "all of the above," and
more drilling sooner, and the White House said it would consider the measure.


SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Senators craft bipartisan energy bill by
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington
Bureau
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/02/MNEA123KET.DTL

Lawmakers could be waking up to the fact that the election-year blame
game between the two parties hasn't eased the pain Americans are
feeling from $4-a-gallon gas prices. That's why the "Gang of 10"
senators - a group of five Democrats and five Republicans - is
pushing what they describe as a middle course between the
Republicans' insistence on more drilling and Democrats' demands for
more renewables and efficiency measures.

The group's effort was modeled on the "Gang of 14," a group of seven
Democrats and seven Republicans who defused a bitter dispute in the
Senate in 2005 over the confirmation of President Bush's judicial
nominees. Chambliss reached out last month to North Dakota Democratic
Sen. Kent Conrad, whom he had worked with on the recent farm bill, to
form a similar group to plot a compromise on energy.

Their plan includes several of the Democrats' top energy priorities,
including stripping oil companies of at least $30 billion in tax
breaks. The bill would use some of that money to renew expiring tax
credits for wind and solar projects through 2012. It also would give
consumers a $7,500 tax credit to buy an electric or fuel-cell
vehicle, and a $2,500 credit to retrofit their current vehicles into
plug-in hybrids.

The bill would provide $7.5 billion in research money to boost
electric vehicles, mostly to improve the batteries that store
electricity. U.S. automakers would be big winners, receiving $7.5
billion in government money to retool their auto lines to crank out
more electric cars.

The ethanol industry would also benefit, with $2.5 billion in new
research money to create more efficient biofuels as well as loan
guarantees for building new ethanol pipelines and tax breaks for
biofuel, electric and hydrogen refueling stations. The bill would
speed up the processing of permits to build new nuclear power plants
and offer up to $10 billion in loans for new coal-to-liquid plants,
as long as they captured their carbon emissions.

"We believe that it's critically important that any plan be balanced,
that it include serious conservation measures as well as additional
production incentives," Conrad said.

The bill is already generating some heavyweight opposition. The oil
industry is warning that revoking its tax breaks could slow its
production of new energy supplies. Environmentalists support the tax
credits for wind, solar and electric vehicles, but strongly oppose
the new offshore drilling and coal-to-liquid fuels provisions.

"This is Exxon's drilling agenda wrapped in a veneer of other energy
policies," said Anna Aurilio, federal legislative director of the
U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

The bill's sponsors are hoping it will be the centerpiece of debate
when the Senate returns in September. Majority Leader Harry Reid,
D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have called for
an energy summit the first week Congress is back.

Reid said the "Gang of 10" bill includes some good ideas, although he
does not agree with all of it. But he added, "I am hopeful this plan
can begin to break the current legislative stalemate on the Senate floor."


WASHINGTON POST: Obama Says Energy Compromise Is Necessary  By
Jonathan Weisman
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/02/AR2008080201538.\
html

Obama said on Saturday that it is time to compromise. The proposal by
the Senate's "Gang of 10" has "some of the very aggressive elements
that I've outlined in my plan," he said here, including a goal in 20
years of having 85 percent of cars no longer operating on
petroleum-based fuels and to provide $7 billion to help the U.S. auto
industry retool to build ultra-efficient vehicles.

"What I don't want is for the best to be the enemy of the good here,
and if we can come up with a genuine, bipartisan compromise in which
I have to accept some things I don't like, or the Democrats have to
accept some things that they don't like, in exchange for moving us in
the direction of energy independence, then that's something I'm open
to," Obama said. "I wanted to send a strong signal that we can't
allow partisan bickering or the desire to score political points to
get in the way of providing some genuine relief to people who are struggling."

Republicans seized on Obama's shift, accusing the presumptive
Democratic nominee of inconstant and politically motivated policy
stands. The Republican National Committee sent out a news release
noting that on Wednesday in Missouri, Obama declared, "I want to be
absolutely clear to everybody about this. If I thought that I could
provide you some immediate relief on gas prices by drilling off the
shores of California and New Jersey . . . if I thought that by
drilling offshore, we could solve our problem, I'd do it."

The drilling issue may offer Obama the strongest reason yet for
compromise. New polls suggest that opposition to offshore drilling is
easing under the weight of $4-a-gallon gasoline. Obama left open his
options Saturday, saying that the Senate compromise's "drilling
provisions are about as careful and responsible as you might expect
from a drilling agenda," but that he remains skeptical.

"We can't drill our way out of the problem," he said. But, he added,
"I also recognize that in the House and the Senate, there are
Republicans who have very clear ideas about what they want, and at
some point people are going to have to make some decisions. Do we
want to keep on arguing, or are we going to get some things done?"

The campaign of Sen. John McCain at once claimed credit for leading
Obama to his new position and questioned whether he ultimately would
support additional drilling. McCain also opposed expanded offshore
drilling until switching his position in June.

It is not clear how far Obama's endorsement will get the Senate
compromise. Environmentalists decried the deal as badly slanted
toward oil production. Daniel J. Weiss, an energy and environmental
expert with the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund,
said most of the drilling provisions are mandatory, while the key
energy conservation measures are voluntary. The push to have 85
percent of future cars powered on non-petroleum fuel is merely a
nonbinding sense of the Senate resolution. And the compromise does
not include a long-sought environmental provision that would mandate
that a certain percentage of electricity generation come from
renewable energy sources.

"This deal is like swapping your home for somebody's car," Weiss
said. "Sure, the car is nice, but is it worth your house?"

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200808011623DOWJONESDJONLINE\
000859_FORTUNE5.htm
UPDATE:As Parties Fight,Group Offers Bipartisan Energy Package  By
Ian Talley Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


WALL STREET JOURNAL: Obama Would Back Offshore Drilling As Part of
Bipartisan Energy Package By AMY CHOZICK
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121769917863707497.html



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

David Morris has written frequently about plug-in hybrids. This
happens to be a particularly readable and comprehensive review that
also includes plug-ins' modern history since 1990. At the article's
URL you can also find a huge volume of comments.

In addition, we were intrigued today to hear of a practical electric
airplane, recently flown in Oshkosh Wisconsin, reported by the "other
EAA" (the Experimental Aircraft Association," whose annual conference
just ended. At
http://www.airventure.org/2008/8sun3/electra_flyer.html read about
the Electraflyer, a one-person plane that flies up to 90 MPH for
1.5-2 hours, with a 5.6 kWh lithium polymer battery pack that
recharges in 2-6 hours and weighs 78 pounds. If all that interests
you, then don't miss the PHEV version:  at the website for the second
annual Electric Airplane Symposium
http://cafefoundation.org/v2/pav_eas_2008.php in San Francisco, CA on
April 26, 2008, download "Hybridizing Light Aircraft"  PDF (290K),
CalCars' Technical Lead Ron Gremban's 13-slide talk  showing that
plug-in hybrid designs may also be viable for light aircraft.


Electric Cars Are the Key to Energy Independence By David Morris,
AlterNet. Posted August 2, 2008.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/93609/electric_cars_are_the_key_to_energy_in\
dependence/?page=entire

David Morris is vice president of the Institute for Local
Self-Reliance. His report on the future of transportation, Driving
Our Way to Energy Independence, was published in April 2008. He is
also the author of Self-Reliant Cities (Sierra Club Books, 1982).

Al Gore's heroic speech challenging us to make our electrical system
100 percent renewable promised it would simultaneously address three
major crises: the weak economy, catastrophic climate change and the
dire national security problems inherent in our dependence on imported oil.

He got two out of three right. A crash renewable electricity
initiative would provide an immediate boost to our economy and could
slow climate change, since electricity accounts for about a third of
our overall greenhouse gas emissions.

But it would do little to enhance our national security.

Oil generates only 3 percent of our electricity. Therefore a 100
percent renewable electricity system does little to reduce our oil
dependency -- unless that electricity is used to substitute for oil
in our transportation system.

Al Gore knows this. In other venues he has mentioned electrified
vehicles. But he needs to make electrifying our transportation the
central element in his 10-year plan, for at least two reasons.

One is that it is an initiative that would prove far more compelling
to the vast majority of Americans. Climate change is abstract, and
the strategies to resolve it are remote. Our relationship to our
vehicles, on the other hand, is both concrete and visceral. We
desperately want to get off oil, especially when gasoline prices rise
to $4 per gallon.

But it is more than a pocketbook issue for many of us; it is a moral
issue. Americans hate being dependent for our mobility, and therefore
for our livelihoods, on countries often hostile to our way of life.
Electric cars promise to end that dependency.

And as a bonus, with rooftop solar cells, we can become independent
not only from OPEC but from remote and often unresponsive utility
companies. We can become energy producers as well as energy consumers.

And then there is the plain fact that once significant numbers of
electric vehicles are on the roads, word of mouth will be a powerful
marketing tool. The reason? As Marc Geller, a longtime advocate of
electric vehicles, told me a year ago as we were traveling up Route 1
in Northern California in his all-electric small SUV, "Anyone who
drives an electric car falls in love with an electric car." That love
affair will be aided and abetted by a population eager to embrace a
homegrown fuel and vehicles that offer quicker propulsion, a quiet
drive and zero tailpipe emissions.

There is another persuasive reason for Gore to focus on an
electrified transportation system: It is simply physically impossible
to convert our entire electricity system to renewables in 10 years,
but it is possible to convert our entire ground transportation system
to renewable electricity within a similar time frame. That would
require a national mobilization, to be sure, but it can be done.

Converting our electric system fully to renewables would require us
to shut down about 80 percent of our current electricity-generating
capacity, much of it low-cost, already paid off and capable of
generating electricity for another 25 years or more. Moreover, to
reach very high penetration rates of renewable electricity would
require that we overcome the principal shortcoming of wind and
sunlight: intermittency.

To electrify our transportation system, on the other hand, we could
displace rather than shut down the existing system, and we would be
replacing a physical stock with a relatively short life expectancy.
Given the average seven-year life expectancy of existing vehicles and
the high probability that we would offer an incentive for owners of
older gasoline-powered vehicles to trade them in, new electric
vehicles could constitute the entire fleet within a decade, and that
doesn't take into account the potential for conversions of existing vehicles.

Powering 100 percent of our transportation system would require about
30 percent of the electricity generated in 2006. With a massive
effort, using a combination of solar and wind power, we could
generate about that much electricity by 2020.

The fact that we can even contemplate the rapid electrification of
transportation is a testament to 20 years of grassroots activism at
the local and state level. The enactment by Congress of a renewable
electricity tax incentive in 1992 was important, but the wind energy
industry did not take off until states began to mandate renewable
electricity. Today more than 25 states boast such mandates. A recent
report put together by a task force of California leaders urges the
state to double its renewable electricity mandate to 50 percent by 2020.

We have done a great deal, from the bottom up, to increase the supply
of renewable electricity. Less well known is how much we have done on
the demand side of the equation, that is, the use of electricity in
transportation.

A brief historical review might be in order here. The first electric
utilities were born largely to serve the transportation sector, which
in the late 19th century meant urban streetcars. Until 1920,
transportation remained the nation's utilities' single largest
customer. And as the birth of the automobile age began, electric
vehicles were by far the most popular. In the late 1890s electric
vehicles (EVs) outsold gasoline cars 10 to 1. Many of the first car
dealerships were exclusively for EVs.

The future of transportation abruptly changed in the 1910s. Mass
production of gasoline-powered cars dramatically lowered their price.
The introduction of automatic ignition removed the difficult and
dangerous task of cranking to start the gasoline engine. Meanwhile
the infrastructure for electricity was almost nonexistent outside
city boundaries, limiting the utility of electric vehicles.

For the next 70 years, electric transportation all but disappeared.

Then, in 1990, two events occurred to revive the prospects of
electrified vehicles. One was a private sector initiative; the other
a public sector initiative. One was technology driven; the other
politically driven.

In 1990, Sony introduced the lithium ion battery. Its higher energy
density quickly made it the battery of choice for electronic
equipment. Over the next 10 years, as portable electronic equipment
demanded more powerful and longer-lasting batteries, the lithium ion
battery industry saw many technological advances. In the last five
years, many variations of that battery have begun to vie for
supremacy as the foundation for a new generation of electric vehicles.

The public initiative was California's Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV)
Mandate. Enacted in 1990, the mandate required that 2 percent of all
new vehicles sold by major car manufacturers in that state be
all-electric by 1998, and 10 percent by 2003. By 1994, 12 additional
states had adopted its mandate.

If that mandate had remained in place, more than 10 million EVs might
be traveling our roads today. But as the marvelous documentary "Who
Killed the Electric Car?" reveals in depressing detail, the ZEV
mandate was weakened in the 1990s and finally killed in 2003.

Notwithstanding its demise, the mandate did result in several
important and positive outcomes. One was the hybrid vehicle, whose
development was in part an outgrowth of the vigorous developments in
electrical and electronic vehicle systems spurred by the ZEV mandate.
Another was the advance in large-format battery technology after many
decades of stagnation. The new Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery
replaced the lead acid battery for ZEVs sold in California, and by
the late 1990s, a second-generation NiMH promised to last the life of
the car, almost halving the capital cost of an electric vehicle.
(Tragically, patent disputes have stifled NiMH development.)

Perhaps the most important enduring legacy of the ZEV mandate was the
creation of tens of thousands of Californians who experienced the
pleasure of driving or being driven in full-size electric vehicles
capable of high-speed, long-distance highway driving. "Who Killed the
Electric Car?" portrays what seemed to be a futile grassroots effort
to stop car companies from taking back their EVs and crushing them.

Yet even as the movie ends, the uprising began to gain traction. GM
proved incorrigible. But creative and extensive protests here and
abroad persuaded Ford and then Toyota to cease crushing their
vehicles and begin offering them for sale. Reportedly, Chris Paine,
the director of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is making a new movie
titled "Who Saved the Electric Car?" It promises to be a very uplifting sequel.

At its peak, the ZEV mandate brought some 5,500 electric vehicles
onto California roads, ranging from Ford's small Think Car to
Toyota's small SUV, the RAV4, to Ford's light pickup truck, the Ranger.

After the protests ended and the dust cleared, more than 800 electric
vehicles were saved, most of them RAV4s. Some have now traveled more
than 110,000 miles, validating both the durability of the batteries
and the vehicles' remarkably low maintenance costs.

The EV movement was aided and abetted by the introduction, in 2004,
of the second iteration of the Toyota Prius. The best-selling car
sported a mysterious blank button on the dashboard. Via the Internet,
Americans were told that in Japan the button was operational. Pushing
it allowed the car to travel solely by electricity for a mile or so.
Engineers in Texas and California quickly learned how to convert the
Prius to drive solely on electricity, and they added sufficient
battery capacity to travel 10 and then 20 and then 30 miles before
recharging was needed.

Several start-ups began to offer plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV)
conversions. Felix Kramer, the Paul Revere of the movement, spent the
next two years trying to convince national reporters, members of
Congress, Silicon Valley businesses and even EV advocates, many of
whom believed a car with a gas engine was a sacrilege, that a plug-in
hybrid electric vehicle could become the foundation for a transition
to an electrified transportation sector. Kramer convinced a leading
car industry reporter based in Michigan to run a story, which quickly
translated into dozens of stories in the national media. In the
spring of 2006, he spent $15,000 to transport his own converted Prius
PHEV to DC and allow several senators and leading policymakers and
opinion leaders to literally kick the tires and drive in it.

At the time fewer than a dozen Prius conversions existed in the
entire country. But the work of organizations like Plug-In America
and Plug-In Partners and Kramer's own CalCars began to seize the
popular imagination.

In just the last 12 months, the dam against electrified vehicles
seems to have broken. For the first time since 1910, an oil-free
transportation system is on the table.

New announcements by businesses large and small have become almost a
weekly occurrence. Hymotion, a small company affiliated with Internet
giant Google and the MIT spin-off, battery maker A123, has begun to
roll out a nationwide network of certified plug-in hybrid converters.

Toyota, which for the first six years of Prius sales used the
advertising tag line, "You Never Have to Plug It In," announced in
2007 an abrupt change of mind. In 2010, Toyota will begin leasing
plug-in Priuses in Japan. GM, which had originally loudly and
sarcastically dismissed the concept of hybrids, announced it will
offer a plug-in hybrid with a 40-mile driving range in 2010. Nissan,
VW, Renault and other car manufacturers have all announced their
intention to introduce electric vehicles in the same time frame.

In July 2008, San Jose announced the beginning of a network of easily
accessible and useable EV-charging stations in parking garages around
the city. San Francisco followed with its own request for proposals
for a similar citywide network.

On the political front, the current energy bill stalled in Congress
because of Republican opposition: The bill contains a tax incentive
for plug-ins sufficient to make the first cost of such vehicles
nearly competitive with conventional vehicles.

The energy bill signed into law just before Christmas in 2007
includes a little-noticed but very powerful incentive for
all-electric vehicles. For purposes of meeting the new higher fuel
efficiency standards, all-electric vehicles will be awarded an
efficiency rating based largely on the amount of gasoline displaced,
which translates into an overall fuel efficiency rating for a typical
mid-size EV of about 350 miles per gallon.

And on the customer level, gasoline prices of $4 per gallon have
generated a palpable hunger for alternatives and changed the
comparative economics of EVs and gasoline-powered vehicles. Driving a
mile on electricity today costs about 3 cents while traveling a mile
on gasoline costs about 15 cents. This can translate into annual fuel
savings of more than $1,000.

The advent of EVs may change not only the contours of our
transportation system but also the structure of our electricity
system. The unique characteristic of the electricity system is that
the product must be instantaneously transmitted and no storage
capacity is available. This is the reason Enron and others were able
to manipulate the system in deregulated California 10 years ago, a
manipulation that led to the near bankruptcy of the state and
continues to burden the state budget.

The prospect of a large battery capacity contained in tens of
millions of electrified vehicles could be, in the words of one
utility executive, "a game changer." Utilities, eager to nurture a
potentially large new customer, are also vigorously assessing how
this new electric capacity can be integrated into the existing
distribution and subtransmission parts of the grid system.

Some studies have estimated that utilities could pay an EV owner
several thousand dollars a year to tap into the car's batteries when
needed for energy used to keep the local grid stable. The vehicle
would be available for such tapping a considerable percentage of the
time. A typical vehicle sits idle some 23 of 24 hours a day. Millions
sit in commuter parking lots for eight hours a day.

A large storage capacity could also ameliorate the intermittency
problem of renewable energy, which in turn could allow a much higher
proportion of renewable electricity on the grid. One study of the
Sacramento, Calif., electricity network concluded that a significant
penetration of battery-powered vehicles could boost the potential
wind energy contribution to about 50 percent of total electricity generation.

EVs might spur a profound relocalization of our electricity system. I
discovered the intimate link between electric vehicles and
decentralized electricity in the spring of 2007, when I spent a week
in California driving or being driven in a variety of electrified
vehicles, from glorified golf carts to PHEVs to the "0 to 60 in less
than 4 seconds" Tesla. I was invited by a national travel magazine to
investigate the future of the car based on my 2003 report on the
subject, "A Better Way." Everyone I met who had an EV or a PHEV also
had solar cells on their roofs. And why not? Not only does it make
them more energy self-reliant, but the value of the electricity
generated by the solar array is far higher when it displaces gasoline
than when it displaces conventional electricity.

Indeed, a symbiotic relationship between car and house may be
emerging. California has time-of-day tariffs under which electricity
consumed at peak hours, say, midday on a hot summer's day, can be
several times more expensive than electricity consumed during
nighttime odd-peak hours. If EV owners must use electricity at peak
times, they can tap into the stored electricity in their vehicles.
The EV serves as a source of backup power for the house. More than
one EV owner boasted about how his was the only house with lights on
when the neighborhood suffered a blackout.

If Congress enacts its electrified vehicle incentive, we should see
an immediate surge in conversions and new PHEV and EV sales. In 2010
several EV and PHEV models should be available from major car
companies, albeit in small quantities, and these should allow us to
gauge the costs of an all-electric transportation system.

If I were Al Gore, I would ask Congress not only to pass the EV
incentive but also to phase in a mandate for an all-renewable-fueled
transportation fleet, perhaps beginning with 5 percent of all new
vehicles by 2012 and moving toward 100 percent by 2020. A call to
arms would resonate with the American public. And as both consumers
and citizens, Americans could quickly translate their support into a
mass movement to finally eliminate our addiction to oil.


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

Plug-In 2008, the first International Conference on Plug-In Hybrids
and Plug-In Electric Cars http://www.plugin2008.com , was a stunning
success. Over 650 people attended, and over 1,000 came to the Public
Night. In this posting are some excerpts of notable statements from
the conference. Because there were overlapping sessions and we missed
many, it's selective (and we hope accurate) but we hope helpful. We
also that the conference organizers will make the Powerpoint
presentations available to the public in some fashion, since they are
important contributions to a rapidly-changing dialogue and new
developments weekly, if not daily.

After we completed these mini-transcriptions, we found that
AutoChannel has made available streaming video of most of the
speakers, starting at
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2008/08/03/095252.html -- so you
can use these excerpts as a partial guide to ones you may want to watch.


JONATHAN LAUCKNER, Vice President, Global Program Management, General
Motors: Defining the automobile industry's course going forward, in
terms of priorities, choices and actions, we think it's an open
field.  As GM prepares to enter its second century, we will continue
to refine the internal combustion engine, and step-gear automatic and
manual transmissions, improved diesel technology, and expand the use
of biofuels such as ethanol.  However, we increasingly believe that
the ultimate  solution involves the electrification of the automobile
as soon as possible. In fact, there is now a clear shift in the
debate from if this will happen to when this will happen.

The large market is how we ultimately make a sizeable dent in our
petroleum dependency. We as automakers need to take the lead, no
question. And we are, by developing responsive, relevant technologies
and then driving down their cost. We understand this. But there are
important roles for others as well. There's no question that our
government has to play a significant role. One of the things that
government can do, and I'd argue must do, to promote energy
independence for our nation, is proactively to support the
development of advanced technology. Our nation must fund a major
effort to strengthen domestic advanced battery capabilities if we
hope to ride the firs wave of the plug-in revolution. Governments of
other countries, most notably China and Japan, are pouring millions
and millions of dollars into support for advanced batteries and other
advanced propulsion technologies.

Together with our coalition partners in the utility industry, GM is
working to transform automotive transportation as we know it. We must
get our nation and the world past oil dependence and get on the road
to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions , heading towards a
future that's electric. We're making the choices and taking the risks
that we believe are critical to doing plug-in vehicles right, and
doing them first. Ladies and gentlemen, that's what GM is thinking.


JAMES BOYD, Vice Chair and Commissioner, California Energy
Commission: Plug-in hybrids offer clear compelling fuel savings,
petroleum reduction, greenhouse gas emission reduction benefits for
Californians, In our 2005 Integrated Energy Policy Report, the
California Energy Commission took the unprecedented step of
recommending a single transportation technology for development. That
technology was plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The 2005 Integrated
Energy Policy Report notes that "plug-in hybrids are the on-road
electric vehicle technology option that can bridge the gap between
today's hybrids and the zero emission vehicles of the future."

The need for alternative  transportation technologies such as plug-in
hybrids is urgent.  It was urgent then, it's doubly urgent today. At
this exposition, we're all going to see the promise of this
technology. A technological promise that has the attention of
policymakers certainly in this state and I think most other areas of
the United States. The dual benefits of phenomenal vehicle efficiency
coupled with the increased us use of our most environmentally benign
alternative fuel, California's electricity, is a great realization for us.

One of our presidential candidates even proposed a $300 million prize
for the right battery for transportation. How might this conference
inform such a prize? Well I'm hoping it will be a very strong message
that says, "Hey, we have the battery, we have the right application,
so let's move it." So over the next two days let's all explore the
applications and see how tantalizingly close we are to delivering on
the promise of plug-ins to reduce carbon, improve air quality, reduce
petroleum use. We've come to the right place, California and Silicon
Valley, at the right time. There's a convergence in California of
government policy and public attitude, and believe me that doesn't
happen all the time. So to me the planets and the stars are aligned,
so let's move this issue.


DAN SPERLING Automotive Board Member, California Air Resources Board:
The relevant [questions] are moving to the next generation of
batteries. We need fundamental battery research because there are not
going to be that many batteries sold in the next ten years, and no
matter how successful this is, they will be mainly after that, and
they're not going to be the kind of batteries we see now or even in
the early next generation, so the real need is on the R&D side.


DAN REICHER, Director, Climate and Energy Initiatives, Google.org:
Our vision is millions of vehicles plugging into a green grid.


GENEVIEVE CULLEN, Vice President, Electric Drive Transportation
Association: What's important to notice is that between 2005 when we
previously passed an energy bill and 2007 when this one passed, we
went from almost no interest or understanding or stakeholder support
for plug-in programs to a pretty universal support, if not
understanding. These significant authorizations for research
development and deployment are really an amazing progression of the
debate in a short amount of time. In Congressional time, that's
lightning fast.


BILL BOYCE, Supervisor of Electric Transportation, Sacramento
Utilities District: The projected capacity from wind and solar as we
can see 71% when you add that up but due to intermittency we can only
utilize half of that, so 43%, and what you really get into, more than
anything a benefit: is it possible for PHEVs to provide that energy storage?

PHEVs, battery electric vehicles, anything with energy storage,
effectively becomes that cost-effective mechanism

There are people trying to develop business cases just around energy
storage for those aspects. And the plug-in hybrids really offer that
potential if the two-way flow of electricity from some of those
things like inverters can have the controllability designed in.
Battery warranty will be an issue. We recognize that the automakers
are definitely not going to want to warranty a battery used in an
application for energy storage all the time. That's where we come
back to looking at that application for 10 cycles a year, that's not
a high cycle life factor.


JIM KELLEY, Vice President of Transportation and Distribution,
Southern California Edison: [Comparing this moment to the lunar
landing and the fall of the Berlin Wall] Now here's the cool part.
I'm of the view that on this day and in this place we are witnessing
a tipping point that's very powerful. After decades of diverse and
siloed ideas, some of them pretty crazy, we're part of a convergence
that I believe will almost certainly change the world forever. If you
look around this room and I've had the chance to meet some of you,
not enough, what a strange bunch of bedfellows. Zealots, early
adopters, greens, CFOs, bankers, corporate behemoths, electric
utility people, all coming together driven by the force of a vision
and a commitment to sustainability, efficiency, environmental
stewardship, these are part and parcel of this conference and are
becoming part of the global fabric. And things I believe will never
be the same.


MARC DUVALL, Program Manager, Electric Transportation, EPRI: The
people that have strategically looked around have determined that we
have never successfully commercialized an alternative fuel for
transportation. And at this point there really is no turning back ,
there are no alternatives to wait for. This is absolutely disruptive,
this change must absolutely be managed, it must absolutely be
executed to the fullest.

The automotive industry that makes a 50-state, highly sophisticated
product that has processing power that would put computers of just a
few years ago to shame has to talk with these advanced smart grid
technologies that are being deployed roughly at the same time. So
you're going to see the plug-in hybrid or the electric vehicle and at
roughly the same time you're see the rollout of the smart grid,
they're both in development, they're coming together, you're building
railroad track from the west coast and the east coast and you're
trying to meet in the middle. And we absolutely have to get that
right. It won't be simple but it will enable simplicity.

The only way that can happen is if the utility industry that will
provide the fuel and the automotive industry that will provide the
products are absolutely at the same table and get this right. That is
the only way.

Within our collective industries and in the general public there is a
tremendous amount of misinformation -- myths. Many people do not
actually believe that hybrid electric vehicles pay off right now. $4
a gallon gasoline, 50% or better fuel economy. Many people still
remember the original Consumer Reports article or some other that
said, "This can't work." There are still articles being published
today about fuel economy technologies not being worth the effort. So
we have a lot of work to do, because ultimately until the people who
go out and buy these cars and the industries that both make them and
support them have fully internalized why we need to do this and all
the reasons we need to do this, then we could never be successful.


TOM TURRENTINE, Director, PHEV Research Center, University of
California at Davis: In 1993, I saw my first plug-in hybrid and it
was this moment -- it's like going up and down a stream up in the
mountains and trying to find a place to cross, looking for a place,
and you got out two rocks and you look at the next step and say, "oh
man, I'm going to fall in that creek," and you keep looking up and
down the stream. Well when I first saw this technology, I thought, it
looks like, step by step, we might get across that creek. And Andy
Frank saw this many years ago, he saw a lot of it, before a lot of
us, and many of us all in our way have started feeling that.

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

Here's a selected roundup of some of the most
extensive or perceptive print and online reports
on Plug-In 2008 http://www.plugin2008.com July 22-24, 2008 in San Jose.

You can watch video of many conference speakers
at The Auto Channel -- listed at
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2008/08/03/095252.html
are: * Steve Specker, President & CEO EPRI *
Peter Schwartz, Global Busine * Jonathon
Lauckner, Vice President, GM * Nancy Gioia, Ford
Motor Company  * James Boyd, California Energy
Commission * Dan Sperling, California Air
Resources Board * Andy Grove, Former Chairman &
CEO, Intel * Dr. Andy Frank, UC Davis * Jim
Kelly, VP, Southern California Edison * Mark
Duvall, Program Manager, EPRI * SPECIAL * A
Conversation with Del Coates * EXHIBITORS * The
Good News about Plug-ins, with Mark Duvall, EPRI
* Bad Boy Buggies, 4WD plug-ins * Enhanced
Vehicle Acoustics, new sounds for quiet hybrids *
ZAP! a tour of their EVs * Green Transporters a
product tour * A123 Hymotion all about converting to plug-in


SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS: Matt Nauman's reports were
the most comprehensive and visible (the first day
including a teaser at the top of the paper's
front page, plus several days in a row on the
front page of the business section. The final
story pulled back from the general enthusiasm of the others.

Future is nearly now for plug-in
hybrids  07/21/2008 http://www.mercurynews.com/greenenergy/ci_9946666

GM eyes electric grid for plug-ins: Meetings with
power companies aim to prepare grid for new
hybrid 07/22/2008 http://www.mercurynews.com/greenenergy/ci_9957180

Grove exhorts conversion to plug-in hybrids
7/23/2008 http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9960395

Reality check for plug-in disciples: Common use
of the hybrids is years away 07/26/2008
http://www.mercurynews.com/greenenergy/ci_10005390


CREATIVE GREENIUS BLOG: Read opinionated reports
with many photographs in five postings: Greetings
  From Plugged-In San Jose | Welcome To Plug-In
2008 | Electrifying Day At Plug-In 2008 |
Professor Franks Has Given Birth - Day Three at
Plug-In 2008 |Top Ten Things I Learned @ Plug-In
2008n http://www.mrjoe.com/MrJoe/Creative_Greenius/Creative_Greenius.html


AUTOBLOG GREEN: A brief posting  with a promise
of more videos, by Shannon Arvizu
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/07/24/dispatch-from-plug-in-2008-part-1/


EVWORLD: So far only by email but soon to appear
online is Bill Moore's Insider Commentary with
his quick summary of the important developments
at the conference (it should be at
http://www.evworld.com/general.cfm?page=insider&year=8&title=INSIDER%20COMMENTAR\
IES
soon)

Of course, everyone would like to know what I
thought of the inaugural three-day event being
held in San Jose. What was new? What was
exciting? And more importantly, are we making
progress?  In the "What's New" category, there
were three firms who stood out in my mind: Hybrid
Electric Vehicle Technologies, Inc., which
debuted an innovative plug-in hybrid conversion
for a standard Ford F-150 pick-up; V2Green and
its electric grid control software for plug-in
vehicles; and Coulomb Technologies that is
developing public charging stations that will pay for themselves.

What is compelling about HEVT's approach is that
it will allow conventional gasoline engine
vehicles to be converted to electric vehicles
virtually overnight. In the case of the F-150,
the 12 kWh battery pack is stashed behind the
front seat in the extended cab truck, the
controller is housed under the bed, and the
electric motor is connected behind the
differential. HEVT claims the typical 16 mpg
F-150 will travel up to 15 miles at freeway
speeds in its electric-only mode. In blended
mode, it gets 41 mpg for the first 30 miles. As a
hybrid operating outside the all-electric range,
it turns in a respectable 21 mpg.

I had a chance to speak at some length with the
folks at Coulomb, who had just announced a deal
with GM and V2Green at the opening of the
conference. I'll include a slideshow of photos --
a picture is still worth a thousand words -- that
I took at the conference in the near future.

Less physically tangible is V2Green's offering of
software that will enable utilities to manage
electric car charging loads smartly. Utilities
implementing V2Green's technology will be able to
track the location of any electric car in the
system when its driver plugs in to recharge.
While the company is developing prototype boxes
to facilitate the car-utility interface, John
Clark, its president, sees similar circuitry
being integrated into the cars, eliminating the
need for this special electronic box. So,
gradually, the pieces are starting to come
together: the vehicles, the chargers and the controlling software.

Perhaps the personal highlight of the conference
was briefly speaking to and video taping former
Intel chief Andy Grove, who was the luncheon
keynote speaker on the opening day. I think
you'll appreciate his vision for moving us
forward at a more rapid pace towards an EV World.


SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Plug-in hybrids generate
buzz in San Jose, by David R. Baker, Chronicle
Staff Writer
http://www.sfchroniclemarketplace.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/23/BU67\
11TF9S.DTL
The plug-in hybrid car is ready for its close-up.
Once known only to a small group of devotees, the
ultra-high-mileage cars have generated enough
buzz to draw about 650 people to a plug-in conference in San Jose Tuesday.


GREENTECH MEDIA: Making Plug-In Hybrids a Must
Buy: Carmakers, utilities and policy makers
converged in Silicon Valley this week to trade
ideas about how to get a lot of consumers to buy
plug-in hybrid electric cars. by Ucilia
Wang
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/making-plug-in-hybrids-a-must-buy-1168.ht\
ml
The Future of Plug-In Hybrids Reed M. Benet
outlines the potential successes and pitfalls of
the plug-in hybrid market from the groundfloor of
this year's Plug-In conference:
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/the-future-of-plug-in-hybrids-1215.html
About Coulomb Technologies:
http://www.greentechmedia.com/video-player/colombtech.html
Interview with Andy Frank:
http://www.greentechmedia.com/video-player/godfather.html


FORBES.COM Two-minute video:  Electric Cars Spark
Bright Future The greatest challenges the
industry faces for mass adoption.
http://www.forbes.com/video/?video=fvn/tech/stc_hydrid07280
. Plus profile and interview at the conference:
Plug-In Cars Zoom Forward: California activist
Felix Kramer is leading the charge for hybrid
electric plug-in vehicles. By Sarah Terry-Cobo
http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/29/kramer-plugin-hybrid-tech-communting08-cx_stc_0\
729kramer.html?partner=email

Felix Kramer is in the right place, at the right
time, hawking the right product...."I realized
that cars really are the fulcrum of the economy,"
Kramer told Forbes.com at the Plug-In 2008
Conference in San Jose, Calif., last week. "If
you can change cars, you can change many things.
… It is the end of business as usual, and the car
industry needs to figure out ways to build cars
that are not using fossil fuels."

GM spokesman Rob Peterson says the automaker and
Kramer have the same goals. "He wants [plug-ins]
for the same reason GM wants them--to get away
from the use of petroleum and because they offer
an environmental solution," Peterson says.

The real challenge, Kramer says, is convincing
automakers to build plug-ins on a large scale.
Even though they agree that plug-in electric
vehicles are a good idea, few have committed to
mass production. "They're not convinced, or they
are still in a business as usual mode," he says.
"They don't understand that the world around them
is changing and these things are going to have to happen."

Despite Kramer's criticisms, automakers and
industry experts say he is a pioneer in spreading
the gospel of plug-ins. "It wasn't until Felix
came along that they got some traction, because
he's a promoter," says Andy Frank, a mechanical
engineering professor at the University of
California, Davis, who built the first hybrid vehicle in 1972.

Mark Duvall, program manager of electric
transportation at Palo Alto, Calif.-based EPRI,
says Kramer has become synonymous with plug-ins.
"If you want to find out the Daily Kos or the
most prominent source of public info about
plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, it's Calcars," he says.

All these efforts, Kramer says, has "helped to
create a grass-roots demand for a new product. It
didn't come from a company or from the
government, it came from people saying, 'This is
what we want. Build it for us.' "


WIRED.COM: Plug-In 2008 By Chuck Squatriglia
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/07/wiredcom-plug-i.html
This summary is the launching pad for six separate reports on the conference.

The transition from pump to plug has begun, and
the day is coming when your ultra-efficient,
low-emissions car will have an extension cord.
The push is on to bring plug-in hybrids to
market, with start-ups racing against the biggest
automakers for a spot in your garage. There may
be no greater proof that these cars are the real
deal than the fact the company widely blamed for
killing the electric car promises to be the first
to bring it back with the Chevrolet Volt.

The electrification of the automobile may well be
inevitable, but getting there won't be easy.
Automakers have to figure out how to sell the
technology to consumers who know nothing about
it. Utilities have to develop the infrastructure
to allow the tens of millions of people without a
garage to plug in their cars. And everyone's got
to figure out how to make the cars affordable.
Those challenges were at the top of the agenda
this week at the Plug-In 2008 conference in San
Jose, where automakers, utilities, battery
manufacturers and academics joined plug-in
advocates from around the world to figure out how
to get these cars on the road in big numbers.
Here are the high points from the conference.

The Car of Tomorrow Has An Extension Cord -
Advocates say they'll save the planet, but most
consumers just want something that doesn't burn
so much damn gas.
http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/news/2008/07/plugins (below)

GM Joins Utilities to Ensure Plug-Ins Can Plug In
- General Motors bets the farm on the Chevrolet
Volt and covers the bet by making sure people can
actually plug it in. http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/07/gm-joins-utilit.html

   Electric Cars are Inevitable - And Essential -
The cars are coming, but they've got a lot of
technological, political and market hurdles to
clear. http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/07/electric-cars-a.html

Intel CEO Calls for 10 Million Plug-In
Conversions Within Four Years - Andy Grove lays
out a Herculean challenge and a plan to make it
happen. But he leaves us with more questions than
answers. http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/07/plug-in-2008-to.html

To Sell Plug-In Hybrids, You've Gotta Make 'em
Sexy - Plug-ins may be our best chance to save
the planet, but automakers must sell consumers on
the technology - and amp up the cars' sex appeal.
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/07/plug-in-2008-to.html

Plug-In 2008 Photo Gallery. Wired.com
photographer Emily Lang wanders around the
exposition hall to bring you some of the the
vehicles of tomorrow. http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/07/plug-in-2008-ph.html


The Car of Tomorrow Has an Extension Cord By
Chuck Squatriglia
http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/news/2008/07/plugins
"It all boils down to the three ways electricity
is better than gasoline," says Felix Kramer of
Cal Cars, a plug-in advocacy group. "It's
cleaner, it's cheaper and it's domestic."

"The discussion is no longer one of 'if,' but of
'when' and 'how,'" says Chelesa Sexton, executive
director of the advocacy group Plug-In America.
"This has moved beyond the grass-roots level into
the policy and business arenas." "For the longest
time, this was seen as a crunchy environmental
California movement," Sexton says. "It never was,
but now there's a broad coalition of people
sitting at the same table to demand these cars.
There's a collective frustration with the status quo."

Sales undoubtedly will start off slowly. Analysts
don't expect GM to sell more than 30,000 Volts
annually for the first couple of years. Other
automakers will see similar sales figures until
the cost of batteries comes down. "We're looking
at small volumes initially," says Mike Omotoso of
J.D. Power & Associates. "But we could see critical mass by 2015."

Advocates say politicians and policymakers can
help by creating tax breaks to make it easier for
consumers to buy the cars and automakers to build
them. Such incentives -- coupled with perks like
carpool-lane access -- helped hybrids gain a
foothold, they say, and could do the same for
plug-ins. The Department of Energy has handed out
more than $60 million since 2006 to advance
hybrid and battery technology and hopes to
disburse another $62.3 million by the end of next year.

Both Barack Obama and John McCain have hailed
plug-in hybrids in general -- and the Volt in
particular -- in recent weeks and promised to
spur development of such cars if elected. And
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, has called for
Washington to go further by launching a "New
Manhattan Project" that would include getting
plug-in hybrids on the road in large numbers. "We
have the plug," he says. "The cars are coming. All we need is the cord."

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

Andy Grove made waves at Plug-In 2008
http://www.plugin2008.com , challenging the
audience -- including representatives from many
auto companies -- to cooperate and use their
ingenuity to create a new industry to electrify
millions of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars
now on the road. In particular, he called for a
broad national effort with an ambitious goal:
convert 10 million PSVs (Pickups, SUVs and Vans)
by 2012.  He emphasized that this would have a
far more immediate impact than the slow
penetration of new plug-in vehicles starting in a few years.


INTRODUCTION: I was honored that Andy Grove asked
me to introduce him as keynote speaker to the
audience of over 600 at the Plug-In 2008 conference. Here's what I said:

"One day in May, I picked up the phone to find
Andy Grove, calling me to hear more about plug-in
hybrids. I was thrilled. Not entirely surprised,
since last December I'd written on CalCars-News
about his pitch for GE to build electric cars.
Since then, I've enjoyed introducing one of the
world's most strategic thinkers -- to members of
the diverse coalition so well represented here
today. We're all charged up that he's working with us.

Andy's met many world-class challenges.
Fortunately, he's now focusing on scalable ways
to speed market penetration of plug-in
cars.  Today Andy Grove is best known for Intel.
May this new passion enhance his legacy.  One
disclaimer: Andy's not seeking new investment
opportunities. He's got some big new ideas, to
inspire us throughout the conference. Now, at a
time when it's the end of business as usual, to
start a new set of wheels turning in our heads, here's Andy Grove."


KEY RESOURCES: You can download his presentation
at a CalCars URL
http://www.calcars.org/grove-plugin08slides080722.pdf
and watch/listen to the half-hour speech at Auto
Channel
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2008/08/03/095241.html
and or EVWorld
http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1501 .
You can see Earth2Tech's 6:50 abridged version of
the speech, showing a few of the 35 slides, at
YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zOxi1AGwqg or at the Earth2Tech URL below.

At one of CalCars' photos pages, "Groups and
Companies and Converters
http://www.calcars.org/photos-groups.html " you
can see in close-up Andy Grove with Ali Emadi of
HEVT, Andy Frank of Efficient Drivetrains and
Felix Kramer . And at "Top Photos
http://www.calcars.org/photos.html " you can see
a wider photo of the same group along with both
converted SUVs . (While most photos on our
website are freely reproducible; for these two,
see link to Green Stock Media for rights.) In
both captions you'll find URLs for the
presentation and the video. And you can read his
Washington Post Op-Ed at
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071102549\
.html>http://www.washingtonpost.com/­wp-dyn/­content/­article/­2008/­07/­11/­AR2\
008071102549.html
and his longer article in the American (which was
distributed to the conference attendees) at
<http://www.american.com/archive/2008/july-august-magazine-contents/our-electric\
-future>http://www.american.com/­archive/­2008/­july-august-magazine-contents/­o\
ur-electric-future
.

We will continue to report at CalCars-News on the
growing interest in ICE (internal combustion
engine) conversions, which may become a major
focus of CalCars. (That goal of 10 million ICE
conversions begins to seem a little less
unachievable this week as the Senate "Gang of 10"
proposes that 85% of US vehicles get off gasoline by 2020.)


RESPONSE FROM INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES AND OTHERS: The
possibility that ICE conversions might be
feasible was a new idea for most attendees, who
were familiar mostly  with retrofits of Toyota
Prius and Ford Escape hybrids by aftermarket
conversion companies, CalCars and the EAA-PHEV
project. (Many also knew about Prof. Andy Frank's
ground-up conversions over the years at UC Davis
http://www.team-fate.net .) During his speech,
Grove pointed to two adjacent proofs of concepts:
Frank's Chevy Equinox conversion and the
just-completed Ford F-150 pickup truck by Hybrid
Electric Vehicles Technologies http://www.hevt.com .

JONATHAN LAUCKNER, VP of General Motors, speaking
before Grove, talked about him. (We assume he had
seen the AP/Bloomberg/Washington Post stories --
see http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html --
that indicated what Grove would be proposing.) In
his speech, he said, "I'd like to acknowledge
another person who is involved in transforming
the energy industry, someone whose words have
inspired many people someone whom you'll be
hearing from today during lunch, and
interestingly enough, was a visiting lecturer for
one of the courses that I attended at Stanford.
Andy Grove, former CEO and Chairman of the Board,
Intel. I personally would like to welcome Andy to
the conversation about the electrification of
personal transportation. He brings a lot to the
table. Like Andy,  all of us here today must
become advocates for this effort. The
electrification of personal transportation is a
topic that I know we share and care about very
deeply. No doubt there are issues to be overcome
in achieving widespread vehicle electrification
that affect all of us, whether we're automakers,
utilities, NGOs, policymakers  or potential early
adopters of electrical vehicles. It's not nearly
as daunting as sending a man to the moon, but
it's requiring equally bold actions."

NANCY GIOIA, Ford's sustainability and hybrids
program director, in conversations after the
speech, was doubtful that any such conversions
could meet automakers' standards for safety,
performance and reliability. But we and others
persisted in suggesting that she not rule out
some way that well-funded and serious aftermarket
companies could gain status from automakers
as  "super-qualified vehicle modifiers." (QVMs
are companies approved by carmakers for far less
ambitious modifications. This could represent a
new revenue source for carmakers, and could
significantly improve both the MPG and resale
value of PSVs.) We hope we had an impact. When
asked to comment later by Matt Nauman of the San
Jose Mercury News, her response in "Grove exhorts
conversion to plug-in
hybrids"
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9960395
was open-minded: "I don't agree with his
(Grove's) specifics, but I don't know if it was
as much about his specific proposal as saying
this is the kind of quantum discussion we should be having.".

PAT CADAM, owner of Pat's Garage in San
Francisco, which converts Prius hybrids into
plug-ins, said in the same Mercury News story,
"Grove's speech was full of 'great ideas.' 'I
like him saying that this kind of plug-in
technology (converting Priuses) is valuable, so
taking something like an SUV or pickup and
converting it is even more valuable.'"

The subject came up repeatedly in the next two
days, including at the afternoon workshop on
conversions, which I moderated, where several
people stood up to describe themselves as
currently starting companies to modify ICE
vehicles. And at a networking session later in
the day, many of them met angel and venture
capital investors, some of whom had attended the
conferences and others who had came just for this informal event.

At the afternoon panel, discussions were very
lively, notably including TOM MOLINSKI, Manitoba
Hydro Fleet Manager, who said: "On Andy Grove's
thinking, as a fleet manager I'm up here
computing. 10 million vehicles at an average of
$10,000 a conversion. That's $100 billion. That's
not a lot of money. I'll be careful what I'm
saying here because I'm a Canadian.  How much
does the US spend on defense a year? What's $25
billion dollars a year [for four years] to make
this happen when you put it in the context of the
war in Iraq? It's really not that outrageous when
you consider what the stakes are. $100 billion is
not a lot of money compared to losing Bangladesh.
[Global Business Network's Peter Schwartz said
during a plenary that country would soon need to
be evacuated because of climate change.] We keep
talking about what's the cost of doing these
things. At some point we have to start asking
what's the cost of not doing these things. And
the cost of not doing these things is getting
more expensive every time we turn around."

TOM TURRENTINE, Director, PHEV Research Center,
University of California at Davis, in the final
remarks at the conference, said, "We also heard
from Andy Grove just how serious energy security
is -- as somebody who actually grew up behind the
Iron Curtain for a few years and has a certain
perspective on what happens in a crisis."


NEWS REPORTS: The speech received broad
attention. Searches for the terms "Andy Grove"
and "electric" return 35,700 results at Google,
197 at Google blog search, and 34 at Google News.
Here are some we find most illuminating -- in
some, short excerpts; in others, just URLs:


GREEN CAR CONGRESS "Andy Grove Calls for
Concerted US Effort to Convert Pickups, SUVs and
Vans to 40+ Mile PHEVs" with many comments:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/07/andy-grove-call.html


EARTH2TECH: "Andy Grove Calls for 10 Million
Plug-Ins In 4 Years," by Katie Fehrenbacher
http://earth2tech.com/2008/07/23/andy-grove-calls-for-10-million-plug-ins-in-4-y\
ears/
Includes a 6:51 minute version of video, showing
the slides as well -- also found, larger at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zOxi1AGwqg .
Andy Grove, the former chairman of Intel turned
plug-in vehicle advocate, set a goal at a
conference on Tuesday that the U.S. should have
10 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on
the roads in four years. Those plug-ins should be
converted from vehicles with poor mileage like
SUVs, pickups and minivans. Grove threw down the
gauntlet before the crowd at the first annual
Plug-In 2008 conference. He said that a
multi-industry taskforce made up by utilities,
auto makers, high-tech companies and academia
could drive that goal and present the plan to the
next U.S. president on Jan. 21, 2009.

At Plug-In 2008, Grove said that a task force
could implement his goal by collaborating and
competing in the way companies that developed the
Internet did. Grove has previously compared the
early market for plug-in conversions to the early
PC hobbyist movement. Grove did note a promising
collaboration in his speech: As announced on
Monday, GM, along with over 30 utilities and the
Electric Power Research Institute will work
together to promote plug-ins. Grove said if
companies in the industry embraced both
open-source and standardized technology, the
industry for converting plug-in vehicles could
flourish. At the same time, Grove did admit that
converting that many pickups, vans and SUVs to
plug-in vehicles in just four years is
“borderline not doable.” But he says he likes the
challenge, and if it was easy it wouldn't be
interesting. Beyond learning from the development
of the Internet, Grove also said that public
policy could aid the plan by redeploying tax
incentives and giving away electricity for free to converted plug-ins.


HYBRIDCARS.COM: "Converting Standard Cars to
Plug-in Hybrids? Unlikely" [This critical story
received many comments.]
http://www.hybridcars.com/types-systems/converting-standard-cars-plug-hybrids-07\
31.html


GREENTECHMEDIA:  "Plug-In Hybrid's New Spokesman:
Andy Grove, The former Intel chief extols the
virtues of plug-in hybrid electric cars and asks
for free electricity and a tax credit to
popularize them" by Ucilia Wang
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/plug-in-hybrids-new-spokesman-andy-grove-\
1165.html
Not enough effort is going into promoting
electricity as a replacement for fossil fuels,
Grove said. He called for the public to
“transform our energy industry” and showed slides
with phrases such as “There will be blood” and
“Clear and present danger” to emphasize the
urgency and difficulty of accomplishing the goal.
“We are at a strategic inflection point in our
country and for the $7 trillion energy industry
worldwide,” Grove said. “We are, so far, doing
the very worse that we can do, which is worse
than ignoring that there is a problem.”


EVWORLD: "Andy Grove on American Energy
Resilience" [as noted above, this includes links
to video] http://ww.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1501
He estimates that if the 100 million "large form
factor" vehicles that include pick-ups, SUVs and
vans where converted to plug-in hybrids, we could
cut our oil imports by 50%.  "We face a clear and present danger," he stated.


EDMUNDS.COM: "Former Intel CEO Says 'Clear and
Present' Energy Danger Can Be Solved by EVs" By
Philip Reed,  Senior Consumer Advice Editor
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2008/07/former-intel-ceo-says-clear-and\
-present-energy-danger-can-be-solved-by-evs.html

If only our elected leaders spoke as directly
about our energy problems as does Intel founder
Andy Grove. Grove, speaking to a hushed lunchtime
audience, said the bloodiest battle in history
(the Battle of Stalingrad in which 1.5 million
were killed) was fought over the oil fields of
Caucasus. The implication is obvious. If we don't
kick the oil habit we will wind up fighting more "resource wars" over oil.

Grove wants to see us using electricity to power
our vehicles, an obvious choice, he said, because
electricity is "fungible," meaning that it can be
created in many different ways, transported
easily and used in different ways. Throughout the
speech, Grove referred to the "Tragedy of the
Commons," a phrase popularized by Garrett Hardin
in a 1968 essay about what happens when resources
that are held in common are overused. Flashing a
red powerpoint slide on the screen with the movie
title "There Will Be Blood," Grove concluded his
speech by saying, "It is up to us to rebuild the
commons and make that (the movie title) not be so."

Grove seemed to want to motivate the audience
when he called the current problem "borderline
undoable." He added, "So far we are doing the
very worst job we can do. We are trying to
pretend the signs are not there." Conversely,
Grove praised an announcement from GM last night
that it had teamed with the Electric Power
Research Institute to gain the cooperation of 34
utilities in 37 states to prepare of the introduction of electric vehicles.

WIRED: Intel CEO Calls for 10 Million Plug-In
Conversions within Four Years By Chuck
Squatriglia http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/07/plug-in-2008-yo.html
SAN JOSE, California -- Plug-in hybrids are a
great way to ease our oil addiction and do
something about global warming. But it's taken 10
years for conventional hybrids like the iconic
Toyota Prius to eke out almost 3 percent of the
domestic market, and nothing suggests cars with
cords will take hold any faster.
That, according to Andy Grove, the former
chairman and CEO of Intel, simply will not do.
He's become one of the country's most
high-profile plug-in evangelists, reading from a
sermon published last month in The American. Now
he's issued a Herculean challenge during the
Plug-In 2008 conference that had many in the
choir singing "Hallelujah!" He's called on
automakers, utilities, researchers and pretty
much everyone in Silicon Valley to develop a plan
to convert 10 million pickup trucks, vans and
SUVs to plug-in hybrids within four years. And he
says they should hand it to the next president on Jan. 21.

The scale of what Grove has suggested would be
difficult to overstate. After all, Toyota's been
cranking out the Prius for a decade and only
recently saw it's one-millionth model leave a
showroom. General Motors is throwing nearly
everything it has at the Chevrolet Volt so it can
start selling them -- in the low tens of
thousands at most and at what undoubtedly will be
a loss -- by the end of 2010. So how does Grove
-- and those who hailed him for his chutzpah --
propose doing things any faster? By making it a
national priority along the lines of the moon
shot. Or a program akin to the New Deal. Only
that level of commitment -- and investment --
will overcome the challenges to so radically
transforming the nation's transportation fleet,
they say. Grove's suggestions include:

      * A federal tax credit covering half the
cost of retrofitting a vehicle, funded by
licensing fees on all vehicles, boats and airplanes.
      * Free electricity for plug-in hybrids for as long as two years.
      * An open source approach (which some
advocates already employ for home conversions) to
developing the technology, and a new federal
court to handle intellectual property issues
stemming from the development of such vehicles.
      * Greater investment by venture capitalists
to spur innovation in the field.
      * Support from the Small Business
Administration and others to help launch the industry.

Supporters of Grove's idea suggest starting with
the fleets -- taxi cabs, delivery vans, municipal
vehicles. They get lousy mileage, so the return
on investment through reduced operating costs
will come much faster, and economies of scale
will reduce costs. And since a relatively small
number of models - the Ford Crown Victoria,
variants of Ford's F-Series trucks, etc. --
comprise the majority of fleet vehicles, it'll
minimize R&D costs. That's the approach John
Dabels, CEO of conversion start-up EV Power
Systems, has taken. "We are focusing on trucks
because trucks consume more fuel and, frankly, no
one else is doing this," he says. The company is
beta-testing a kit that bolts right on behind the
transmission with no modification to the engine,
emissions system or other major components.
Dabels claims the $11,000 conversion delivers a
33 percent increase in fuel economy and "we're
reasonably comfortable with getting to 40."

Once the conversion of fleets and hybrids is
underway, plug-in proponents say, you go after
everyone else. "The low-hanging fruit is out
there," says Felix Kramer, founder of the plug-in
advocacy group Cal Cars. "There are millions of
battered vehicles out there to be converted." He
and other conversion advocates say converted
vehicles will hasten the day when automakers fill
their showrooms with plug-in hybrids by providing
them with a wealth of data regarding how the
vehicles perform, how consumers use them and
what's needed to keep them going. But where are
we going to get the batteries? How do we ensure
converted vehicles meet federal
safety  standards? Who's going to perform all
these conversions, who's going to provide the
training to do it and what guarantees will
consumers have that the cars will keep running
five or 10 years down the line? And perhaps the
biggest question of all - what's it going to cost
and how are we going to pay for it?

"Ten million conversions at a cost of $10,000
(each)? That's $100 billion," says Tom Molinski,
manager of emerging technology for Manitoba
Hydro. "How much does the U.S. spend on defense?
How much has it spent on Iraq? At some point we
have to ask, 'What's the cost of not doing this.'"


WHILE WE'RE TALKING ABOUT CONVERSIONS

ANDY FRANK IN PRINT AND VIDEOS: Greentech Media's
Michael Kanellos has a print and video interview
with Frank about his views and his new company,
http://greenlight.greentechmedia.com/2008/08/01/a-new-plug-in-hybrids-start-up-a\
mid-hybrid-wars/
and before the conference, the Christian Science
Monitor's Mark Clatyon (who wrote one of the
first stories about Prius conversions) travelled
to Davis for a profile of Frank: "Can plug-in
hybrids ride to America’s rescue? The engineer
behind many electric-car advances says oil’s days
may be numbered"
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/07/18/can-plug-in-hybrids-ride-to-\
america%E2%80%99s-rescue/

SILICON VALLEY LEADERSHIP GROUP: The press
conference the day before the conference session
got attention to SVLG's conversions for members
of http://www.ourpower.org Here's a link to an
ABC local news story, "Hybrid conversions getting
nearly 80 mpg" and 2:00 video with cars:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=6278746

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

We've been tracking the increasingly direct and lively race between
the candidates on policies for plug-in cars, at the CalCars-News
Archive http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html

Previously, Senator Obama had included PHEVs in his $150 billion
10-year package. McCain had proposed a $5,000 tax credit and a $300
million battery development prize, and declared his commitment to
helping GM's launch of the Chevy Volt. Last Friday, the Senatorial
"Gang of 10" had proposed a $7,500 tax credit, $2,500 for aftermarket
conversions, and a goal of getting 85% of our cars off gasoline by 2020.

Here's today's round, coming from Sen. Obama at Michigan State
University in Lansing Michigan. Notably, his program appropriately
includes steps to increase use of renewable fuels, develop a smart
power grid, and to that often-forgotten best solution: "Deploy the
Cheapest, Cleanest, Fastest Energy SourceEnergy Efficiency."  We
include excerpts from his speech, from his program and a Detroit News
story. You can read the text of the speech at
http://enviros.barackobama.com/page/content/enviroshome and may later
today find a link there to a video of the speech. The campaign also
includes links to a new organization, CleanTech for Obama
http://www.cleantechforobama.com . (We also end with a zinger
one-liner from today's lead editorial in the New York Times, pointing
out the common-sense fact that adoption of PHEVs can bring down fuel costs.)

Sen. McCain speaks on energy tomorrow, also in Michigan, that
electoral swing state, and may respond further... [This is the first
time I've posted so many messages to CalCars-News in one day;
meanwhile, I'm trying to start a vacation tomorrow, but will be reachable...]


REMARKS OF SENATOR BARACK OBAMA (as prepared for delivery), "New
Energy for America," Michigan State University Monday, August 4th,
2008, Lansing, Michigan
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gG5zCW

First, we will help states like Michigan build the fuel-efficient
cars we need, and we will get one million 150 mile-per-gallon plug-in
hybrids on our roads within six years.

I know how much the auto industry and the auto workers of this state
have struggled over the last decade or so.  But I also know where I
want the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow to be built - not in Japan,
not in China, but right here in the United States of America.  Right
here in the state of Michigan.

We can do this.  When I arrived in Washington, I reached across the
aisle to come up with a plan to raise the mileage standards in our
cars for the first time in thirty years - a plan that won support
from Democrats and Republicans who had never supported raising fuel
standards before.  I also led the bipartisan effort to invest in the
technology necessary to build plug-in hybrid cars.

As President, I will accelerate those efforts to meet our urgent
need.  With technology we have on the shelf today, we will raise our
fuel mileage standards four percent every year.  We'll invest more in
the research and development of those plug-in hybrids, specifically
focusing on the battery technology.  We'll leverage private sector
funding to bring these cars directly to American consumers, and we'll
give consumers a $7,000 tax credit to buy these vehicles.  But most
importantly, I'll provide $4 billion in loans and tax credits to
American auto plants and manufacturers so that they can re-tool their
factories and build these cars.  That's how we'll not only protect
our auto industry and our auto workers, but help them thrive in a
21st century economy.

What's more, these efforts will lead to an explosion of innovation
here in Michigan.  At the turn of the 20th century, there were
literally hundreds of car companies offering a wide choice of steam
vehicles and gas engines.  I believe we are entering a similar era of
expanding consumer choices, from higher mileage cars, to new electric
entrants like GM's Volt, to flex fuel cars and trucks powered by
biofuels and driven by Michigan innovation.


PROGRAM: NEW ENERGY FOR AMERICA (8-page
PDF)  http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/factsheet_energy_speech_080308.pdf

INVEST IN DEVELOPING ADVANCED VEHICLES AND PUT 1 MILLION PLUGIN
ELECTRIC VEHICLES ON THE ROAD BY 2015: As a U.S. senator, Barack
Obama has led efforts to jumpstart federal investment in advanced
vehicles, including combined plug-in hybrid/flexible fuel vehicles,
which can get over 150 miles per gallon of gas As president, Obama
will continue this leadership by investing in advanced vehicle
technology with a specific focus on R&D in advanced battery
technology. The increased federal funding will leverage private
sector funds and support our domestic automakers to bring plug-in
hybrids and other advanced vehicles to American consumers. Obama will
also provide a $7,000 tax credit for the purchase of advanced
technology vehicles as well as conversion tax credits. And to help
create a market and show government leadership in purchasing highly
efficient cars, an Obama administration will commit to:

* Within one year of becoming President, the entire White House fleet
will be converted to plug-ins as security permits; and
* Half of all cars purchased by the federal government will be
plug-in hybrids or all-electric by 2012

PARTNER WITH DOMESTIC AUTOMAKERS: Obama will also provide $4 billion
retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants
and parts manufacturers, so that the new fuel-]efficient cars can be
built in the U.S. by American workers rather than overseas. This
measure will Paid for by Obama for America strengthen the U.S.
manufacturing sector and help ensure that American workers will build
the high-demand cars of the future.


DETROIT NEWS: "Obama vows tax credits, aid to automakers for hybrid
cars" August 4, 2008 by Gordon Trowbridge and Mark Hornbeck
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080804/METRO/808040391/1022

LANSING -- Barack Obama today set a goal of 1 million plug-in hybrid
vehicles on American roads by 2015, and offered tax credits to buyers
and a "major commitment" to help the domestic carmakers meet the goal.

Those and other efforts, Obama said in a mid-day speech at the
Lansing Center, would allow the United States to end its imports of
oil from the Middle East and Venezuela in 10 years. And, he said, it
would re-energize Michigan struggling domestic carmakers.

"I know how much the auto industry and the auto workers of this state
have struggled over the last decade or so," Obama said. "But I also
know where I want the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow to be built:
not in Japan, not in China, but right here in the United States of
America. Right here in the state of Michigan."

The Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate said he
would offer $4 billion in loans and loan guarantees to the carmakers
to help develop plug-in hybrids, which would get almost all of their
propulsion from electricity and have small gasoline engines as a
backup. Consumers would get a $7,000 tax credit for buying the
vehicles, which will likely be significantly more expensive than
traditional, gasoline-powered cars.


NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL FIRST TO STATE THE OBVIOUS: with all the
grandstanding about what to do about high prices at the pump, in
today's NY Times Lead Editorial "Energy Follies"  August 4, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/opinion/04mon1.html here's
something we haven't seen said ANYWHERE: "plug-in hybrid cars that
over time could actually make a difference in fuel prices."

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

We've seen lots of news about the Chevy Volt in the past few days --
all encouraging. It's getting more real, though large scale
production is still more than two years away. After a few items on
Toyota, we summarize/excerpt the main news and introduce an idea for
GM's consideration.


FIRST, ABOUT TOYOTA: We've seen reports from the Center for
Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars (automotive insider
event) that Toyota will produce a PHEV in 2010. It remains unclear
whether this is a broader commitment than the previously stated plan
to deliver 400 PHEVs for fleet evaluation in late 2009-2010.

TOYOTA PHEV SCHEDULE: Here are excerpts from the Associated Press
story by Tom Krisher, "Toyota says its making progress on plug-in
vehicle:" Toyota Motor Corp. plans to bring a plug-in hybrid vehicle
to market sometime in 2010, and Justin Ward, manager of the
automaker's advanced powertrain program in the U.S., said the design
will be similar to that of the current Prius....Ward said that like
GM, Toyota has been testing lithium-ion battery packs in the lab and
in prototype cars....Ward said he's also confident that Toyota can
reach its 2010 goal, and he said the Japanese automaker knows the
importance of being out front with plug-in and hybrid technology.
"There's always value in being the leader, but it can't be your
primary driver," he said. "Your primary driver needs to be what's
best for society in general."
http://searchchicago.suntimes.com/autos/news/1109809,AP081508_toyotaplugin.artic\
le

TOYOTA AS COMPETITOR: In the context of Justin Ward's comments about
the race to be #1, another Toyota executive explains at least in part
why Toyota has been in no hurry. Excerpts from Bryce G. Hoffman on
Augu 12, "Toyota roots for Detroit Three Rivals:" A senior Toyota
Motor Corp. executive told The Detroit News today that the failure of
one of Detroit's Big Three automakers would be devastating for his
company. "We want everyone to succeed," said Steve St. Angelo, head
of Toyota's Kentucky assembly plant and senior vice president in
charge of engineering and manufacturing for North America.
"Competition is good for us. The customers are the big winners,
because it makes all of us better... When GM, Ford, Chrysler and
Toyota are healthy, the economy is stable and it's the best for all
of us," he said...."When any of our competitors want to come to our
plants, we let them," he said. "We really don't want anybody to go
bankrupt."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080812/AUTO01/808120448/1148



BACK TO GM: For the latest anytime on the Volt, check out
http://www.chevy-volt.com and/or get on the mailing list or RSS feed.)

FINAL DESIGN AND FIRST PROTOTYPES: Poornima Gupta and Soyoung Kim
from Reuters reported August 14 "GM to finish electric car design by
mid-September:" General Motors Corp said on Thursday it would
finalize the design of the all-electric Chevy Volt by mid-September
and aims to have 50 prototypes with production-ready parts by the end
of 2008...."We have one gate in our process we call a styling freeze,
which is happening in the middle of September," Frank Weber, GM's
vehicle line executive in charge of the Volt, told reporters on the
sidelines of an automotive conference. "The No. 1 priority is to make
the battery program robust," Weber said... "The conceptual future is
not to extend the range much further.... The future is to take the
same range and the same original 40 miles but then have battery packs
about half the size, twice the robustness and half the
cost...."  "We've always said the Volt is not a niche program," he
said. "Niche volume would not work. All the suppliers are looking for
significant volumes to build up capacity and make sure this also
works for them."
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN1447206620080814 (See our
reaction below.)

ENGINEERING ON TRACK/NO IMPEDIMENTS: The AP's Tom Krishner reported
August 13 that "GM engineer says rechargeable car is on
schedule:"  Early versions of the Chevrolet Volt's battery packs are
powerful enough to run the high-stakes rechargeable car, but dozens
of issues remain before General Motors Corp. can start selling the
revolutionary vehicle in 2010 as planned...."At this point, there's
nothing standing in our way of continuing to do what we said we're
going to do," Andrew Farah, the Volt's chief engineer, said in a
recent interview with The Associated Press...."It'll have a similar
set of visual cues and some of the features that were on the concept
car," Farah said.  Late last year, it looked like the Volt's schedule
would be derailed by battery delays....GM engineers used the time to
work on the mechanical connections. Batteries arrived in January at
GM's sprawling Warren, Mich., technical center, and the team has
nearly erased the 10-week deficit, Farah
said.  http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iFHOu2alXYE7teF1NAFYU6FiLw8QD92HJS8G0

GM-VOLT.COM PROVES DEMAND; GM EXPECTS SHORTAGES: GM-Volt.com got
broad media attention by announcing 33,411 serious buyers for the car
from 50 states and 46 countries (the most came from California).
Their average price point is $31,261, somewhat lower than GM has been
hinting the car would sell for. But none of this takes into account
the impact if, as we expect, the next President offers a substantial
tax credit in the $3-$10K range. Interviewed by Reuters' Kevin
Krolicki in an August 12 report, "Over 33,000 buyers signed up for GM
electric car;" A GM spokesman said that the automaker expected an
initial shortage for the Volt, similar to the shortages for other
hot-selling recent models. "I don't know if there is any other
vehicle or any other technology that has generated this kind of
interest because of the state of the market and gas prices," said GM
spokesman Dave Darovitz. "We know the demand is going to be there."
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1251261520080812?sp=true . Also, on
Fox Business News Videos http://www.foxbusiness.com/video/index.html , see our
comments at Aug 14 GM Volt (3:46 part 1) and Electric Vehicles (4:22 part 2).

DESIGN NEWS: Bob Boniface, Design Director, shows a few photos and
explains the thinking behind the car's design at
http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/archives/2008/08/all_eyes_on_the_volt.html
and gave a few more details in an interview with GM-Volt.com,
including the fact that the vehicle will have a center
touch-sensitive display screen and a second screen.
http://gm-volt.com/2008/08/14/exclusive-interview-with-chevy-volt-chief-designer\
-about-the-production-car/

GM VOLT IN EUROPE: European media report the company (which already
pllans a diesel versioin from Opel in 2011) is in discussions with
the British government about bringing the Volt to the UK and Europe:
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/Chevrolet-Concepts/234479/


FROM CALCARS: HOW GM CAN CONTINUE TO "THINK DIFFERENT:" Millions of
potential customers hope GM will deliver an exciting, compelling
product and thereby help reincarnate the 100-year-old company. In
recognition of their stake in the Volt, GM has taken the admirable
and unprecedented decision to provide the public with a large open
window into its design and development processes. The company
provides in-depth information and invites comments at its recently
streamlined FastLane Blog http://fastlane.gmblogs.com. It has opened
its media events and auto show private meetings to online media,
skeptics and those who never recovered from the EV1 experience. Its
briefers have taken press conference questions from plug-in vehicle
advocates. We fervently hope that GM will further expand this
approach as it completes design and plans production, launch,
marketing and distribution.

We're especially encouraged that senior managers have been paying
attention to advocates and drivers of plug-in vehicles. In March
2007, phoning into an "Advanced Battery Technology Briefing," we
suggested to GM Vice President Beth Lowery and other executives that
plug-in advocates and the State of California could open doors as
energetic partners with GM. (See our report at "GM's Media Briefing
on PHEVs Offers Major Opportunity"
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/713.html .) Since then, we've
often reminded them of our offer to roll out a green carpet to
bolster their commercialization plans. GM has responded positively.

ABOUT THOSE PARTNERS: California's utilities that have through dry
spells maintained Electric Transportation departments are doing all
they can to facilitate the carmakers' transition to plug-in vehicles.
Along with the Electric Power Research Institute, they've already
developed several promising partnerships. We've emphasized our view
that California's Air Resources Board and Energy Commission will be
if asked accommodate accelerated phase-ins for pre-launch mini-fleets
via flexible regulations. And we've made the case that several
sizeable groups -- former drivers of production EVs from GM, Ford,
Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Selectria and others, those who
still drive Toyota RAV4 EVs, and the growing number of drivers of
Prius and Escape PHEV conversions -- represent an untapped resource.
We can in effect be an informal focus group to comment on and provide
feedback about a new product in late-stage development.

FIRST STEP: We took as evidence that our executives recognize the
value of our offers that Tony Posawatz, the Volt's Vehicle Line
Director, recently asked CalCars to organize a get-together with
plug-in community members to talk about technology and our driving
experiences. We brought together a dozen people, broadly
representative of the plug-in community. (Uncharacteristically,
scheduling conflicts led to an all-male group.) See photo with IDs of
the resulting August 5th event at Pat's Garage in San Francisco
http://www.calcars.org/photos-groups.html . Our group was interested
in hearing what he could share about the current thinking of the
engineering team. And Posawatz was open to our suggestions, including
issues relating to charging, interfaces and displays, and customer
expectations for the Volt. Our expectations that the meeting would be
a productive two-way exchange were fully realized. We al were
surprised and excited by new ideas and approaches. All agreed to find
ways to continue the dialogue.

ABOUT THOSE FIRST VOLTS: This dialogue got us thinking: What if GM,
having placed such major bets on the Volt, took one more leap of
faith? It involves those eagerly-awaited first 50+ prototypes or
their immediate successors. Of course, the company's engineers will
put these beta vehicles through all sorts of tests and evaluations.
And we hope the media will get more than spy-photo images -- though
it's reasonable to expect journalists to refrain from reviewing a
product in development.

Our idea is inspired by GM's Project Driveway which this year seeds
100 fuel-cell SUVs in three geographical areas. It's in the spirit of
out-of-town theatrical tryouts before Broadway premieres. Today we
propose that as soon as GM has prototypes for which safety and
general reliability are assured -- for what may be version 0.5, or
the next v0.6 batch -- the company get the reactions of experts and
grass-roots veterans. We suggest they seed a few dozen short-term
loaned vehicles to the people and institutions whose feedback are
most likely to result in tweaks and improvements before the v1.0 product.

In California, we nominate the ARB and CEC, the state's utilities and
EPRI, University of California programs, and (you wouldn't expect us
to leave ourseves out) CalCars, the Electric Auto Association and
Plug In America. Elsewhere, the National Labs, GM-Volt.com, Plug-In
Partners, the leading energy security and environmental groups. And
if possible, one to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, to provide source
material for the speechwriters and spur on other automakers.

If you see an appropriate place to endorse or expand on this idea, at
http://fastlane.gmblogs.com or other green car posting locations, it
might help.

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

As plug-in cars become more and more mainstream, it's no longer
possible to track their every mention. We've reached a new plateau.
They're an accepted -- if still distant -- part of the
energy/transportation solution. Yet we still have to battle both
long-standing and new misinformation. Though we've "arrived," we're
stranded waiting several years for the cars; we hope then many
misunderstandings and easy but inaccurate generalizations will
dissipate. This CalCars-News posting collects and comments on the
latest objections, including one that is the basis of T. Boone
Pickens's plan for vehicles; we also include extensive reviews of his
proposals on wind and natural gas.


HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW THE DEBATE ON PLUG-IN CARS HAS EVOLVED?

You've heard the saying attributed to Christopher Reeve: "So many of
our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and
then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable." We seem
to be nearing stage three.

For years we heard carmakers, government and experts say:
* No one wants them
* They're doomed by "the complexity of two systems"
* They don't have emissions benefits
* If they're so good, carmakers will do it on their own
* They'll cost too much
* They'll require building new power plants
* Batteries aren't good enough
* If batteries are ready, we won't have enough raw materials

WHAT'S LEFT NOW THAT WE'VE ADDRESSED ALL THESE?

In addition to a couple of trailing objections we cite below, here's a new one:
* Good idea, but we can't build them quickly enough to make a difference

We hear this latest objection often from advocates and editorialists
willing to overlook the decade it could take to get oil from new
wells or electricity from new nuclear plants.... (It also reminds us
of the people who went from denying that climate change was a problem
to focusing solely on adaptation -- skipping the huge middle step of
prevention!) Here's a sampling with comments:


ROBERT SAMUELSON, The Great Energy Confusion -- this
Newsweek/Washington Post columnist has been warming up to PHEVs but
still has reservations. Here's his Washington Post Op Ed, August 13,
2008 plus our comment online
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR2008081202825.\
html

It's easy to exaggerate how quickly new technologies can improve our
situation. Obama says that we can have a million plug-in hybrids
averaging 150 miles a gallon on the road within six years (plug-in
hybrids run on electricity and gasoline). Sounds impressive. But that
would be less than one-half of 1 percent of all vehicles, and the
forecast is probably a stretch. The battery technology required for
plug-in hybrids is still not competitive, adding $7,000 to $10,000
per vehicle, says Brett Smith of the independent Center for
Automotive Research. Obama would address this problem by providing a
$7,000 tax credit (in effect: a rebate) on plug-in hybrids. These
subsidies might go mainly to upper-middle-class buyers, permitting
them to flaunt their "green" credentials (Obama's candor grade: C).

COMMENT (ONLINE): Everything takes a long time to have an impact.
Both candidates agree we could get near-term reduction in use of
imported oil and in emissions by substituting electricity for oil.
The question is how fast can we evolve our fleet to plug in? One
million plug-in hybrids in six years would be far more than anyone
expects -- but we could do much better than that if we realized it
was the end of business as usual. Intel's former CEO Andy Grove in a
column in the Washington Post a few weeks ago proposed converting
"PSVs" (Pickups, SUVs and Vans), the largest gas-guzzlers...he's
calling for 10 million in four years, which is an ambitious goal
worthy of our past history in meeting challenges.-- Felix Kramer,
Founder, CalCars.org


T. BOONE PICKENS WEIGHS IN: Energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens has
gained vast attention in recent weeks with is two-part plan: a $10B
bet on wind power and a major increase in the use of natural gas as a
transportation fuel. He's committed $58 million to promote his ideas
-- that's on the scale of what the major oil companies spend! See his
website at http://www.pickensplan.com plus interviews everywhere and
many TV ads. His staff is using every oneline tool, including
MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and RSS feeds, to
stimulate a grass-roots campaign.

Pickens justifies his push for natural gas vehicles by saying that
plug-in cars can't arrive in the market quickly enough. Below are his
comments on that subject plus a range of other perspectives on
Pickens' plan and its implications.

T. BOONE PICKENS ON PBS NEWSHOUR  August 11, 2008
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec08/tbpickens_08-11.html

RAY SUAREZ: A lot of the critiques that have appeared since you've
begun to pitch your plan say, yes, wind energy, fantastic idea, let's
go ahead and do it.
But the second phase of diverting the natural gas that we have here
in the United States and putting it into transportation doesn't get
that same kind of response. People point out that natural gas is a
much more efficient generator of electricity than it is the fuel for
a personal automobile.
T. BOONE PICKENS: Well, I don't agree with that, but we have plenty
of natural gas to do both. And it would be a long time for you to
move the natural gas out of power generation. It would take probably
five years for it to come out.
And so -- but the only thing that you have in America -- you have
only one resource that will reduce foreign oil, and that is natural
gas. It's the only resource we have that will replace gasoline and diesel.
RAY SUAREZ: But instead of building a national grid for distributing
natural gas as a fuel to personal transportation, wouldn't it make
more sense to keep making electricity with it and just have people
plug in their cars?
T. BOONE PICKENS: Well, I love the plug-in. That's fine with me. But
you can't get to any numbers that way. The other day, somebody said,
"We'll have a million cars on the plug-in hybrid in 10 years." We
have 250 million cars in the United States, so you can't get to -- a
million cars isn't going to do anything for us.

OUR COMMENTS: We think Pickens's advocacy and investment in wind is
already having a beneficial effect on the prospects for renewable
energy. We hope he will devote significant resources to securing the
renewable of the all-important renewable tax credits in Congress.

Note that his wind activities come with a big question mark. Though
Pickens says he's so rich that he's simply acting in the public good,
a key aspect of his wind plans is extremely controversial in Texas:
his efforts to secure land corridors for new transmission lines.
Pickens wants this land to double as routes for pipelines delivering
water from the enormous Ogalalla aquifer in the Texas Panhandle  to
Houston and other water-short big cities. A scathing cover story in
the June 12, 2008 Business Week, "There Will Be Water"
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_25/b4089040017753.htm
describes Pickens's efforts to gain public approval for eminent
domain land takeovers by lobbying, creating new "Fresh Water Supply
Districts" he controls, overrunning local communities and other
opponents. Conservatives don't like the water grab: on July 31, Fox
News ran "Pickens Gives New Meaning to 'Self-Government'" by Steven
Milloy of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. What about
environmentalists? Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope is a fan
-- see his blog, "T. Boone and Me"
http://sierraclub.typepad.com/carlpope/2008/07/t-boone-and-me.html .
However, commentators at that blog call out Pope on the water issue,
as does Steven Milloy in his column.

As for the other half of the plan: Pickens aims to redirect the
natural gas no longer needed for power generation thanks to wind
power to fuel cars. The key flaw is that natural gas is still a
fossil fuel. Its conventional emissions are much cleaner but it's
only 30% lower in CO2 than gasoline. (We were amazed to see Pickens
pick up our comparison on electricity to gasoline as
"Cleaner/Cheaper/Domestic" and apply it to natural gas at
http://www.pickensplan.com/theplan -- more accurately, he might add
"Slightly" in front of each adjective.)

Though as recently as 2006, Sierra's Pope thought getting US
carmakers to build hybrids was as much as we could hope for, recently
he's stopped criticizing plug-in vehicles as unattainable. But he's
more enthusiastic about Pickens' natural gas plan, which he calls "an
audacious alternative vision" and "feasible." He favors government
mandates, incentives to carmakers and vehicle conversion kits. All
this makes sense for plug-in vehicles. But even with multi-million
dollar backing, these proposals are unlikely to work for natural gas.
(Pope also notes natural gas needs an expanded fuel delivery infrastructure.)

With far less attention, Pickens has also jumped in to the
legislative arena in California as chief bankroller (over $3.2M via
his Clean Energy Fuels Corp.) for Proposition 10, nicknamed "Big
Wind."  The initiative would apply $5B in bond funding largely to
alternative fuel vehicles, including up to $50,000 for natural gas
vehicles. Broad criticism centers around its funding by Pickens and
suspicions that it's a backdoor way to pay for expanding the natural
gas vehicle fleet. At
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=California_Proposition_10_(2008)
you can read about the California Alternative Fuels Initiative (and
see links to the also-controversial "Big Solar" Prop 7).

OTHER COMMENTS ON PICKENS PLAN: our favorite is from Joe Romm: "Memo
to T. Boone Pickens: Your energy plan is half-brilliant, half-dumb:"
"We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity."
Most of that electricity comes from gas burned in combined cycle gas
turbines at an overall efficiency of up to 60%. Why in the world
would the federal government -- or anyone else -- spend billions and
billion of dollars on natural gas fueling stations and natural gas
vehicles in order to burn the gas with an efficiency of 15% to 20%?
Natural gas is simply too useful and expensive to squander in such a fashion.
And then there's global warming....Running cars on natural gas does
NOT significantly reduce GHG emissions (esp. if there is even the
tiniest leak in the whole gas delivery process). Running a car on
electricity from the U.S. electric grid does reduce GHG emissions.
And running a car on electricity from combined cycle gas turbines
would have a far lower GHG emissions than running the car directly on
natural gas -- internal combustion engines are simply too damn
inefficient. Of course, running a car on the wind power would
eliminate vehicle admissions completely. Or using the wind power to
displace coal plants would eliminate the emissions from those plants entirely.
So a large-scale switch to NGVs by consumers is not going to happen
no matter what T. Boone does. But he could help accelerate windpower
into the marketplace and for that alone he deserves some
kudos.
http://climateprogress.org/2008/07/08/memo-to-t-boone-pickens-your-energy-plan-i\
s-half-brilliant-half-dumb/

At Romm's Climate Progress, also see a followup,
http://climateprogress.org/2008/07/22/five-reasons-pickens-is-now-as-tiresome-as\
-madonna-and-britney
and a guest blog,
http://climateprogress.org/2008/07/27/a-bone-to-pick-with-t-boone-pickens/

INTERVIEWS ON PICKENS: See a 20-minute video interview (thanks to
Sightspeed video chat) on Etopia-News with Felix Kramer on the Grove
plan and on PHEVs in general, at
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid932411100/bclid1729305913/bctid173\
1287383
and a 10-minute phone interview with James Woolsey at
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid932411100?bclid=1729305913&bctid\
=1731287398
and a 10-minute interview with Chelsea Sexton at
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid932411100?bclid=1729305913&bctid\
=1732351605


UNEXPECTED AGREEMENT ON PLUG-INS VS. NATURAL GAS CARS: We're seeing
support of our views from many quarters, for instance:
"Energy Independence Within Reach:" Energy independence is within our
grasp, according to Edward Mazria, founder and executive director of
Architecture 2030. Speaking at the first annual National Clean Energy
Summit hosted by U.S. Senator Harry Reid, the Center for American
Progress Action Fund, and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Mazria
explained that buildings are the key to phasing out conventional coal
and reducing oil imports by 86% by the year 2030....."By implementing
the 2030 Blueprint, the US could completely replace conventional coal
by the year 2025," explained Mazria. Following the Blueprint would
also free up the natural gas used to produce the electricity
currently used in buildings by the year 2030, so that it could be
used to generate electricity for plug-in hybrid and electric
vehicles. "We very much support T. Boone Pickens' plan, however, we
propose using the freed-up natural gas to generate electricity for
vehicles, as opposed to using it directly in vehicles," said Mazria.


ANDY GROVE ON PICKENS: this strong advocate for converting internal
combustion engine Pickups, SUVs and Vans to run partly on
electricity, in "The Elephant in the Tank" from Portfolio Magazine,
August 17, 2008 says,
Pickens proposes to build massive wind farms in the nation's center
to generate a large part of America's electricity, which would then
liberate the natural gas that is currently used to generate
electricity. If the cars on the road were to be retrofitted to run on
natural gas, Pickens argues, the need to import the corresponding
amount of petroleum would disappear. Setting aside the task of
retrofitting over 200 million vehicles, this plan raises a
fundamental question. Natural gas, like oil, is a global commodity
that can be shipped anywhere. Even if it is produced in the United
States, what makes it stay here? It does so if, and only if, the
United States pays the prevailing market price for it, just as we are
paying market price for the petroleum fueling our cars today. So very
little would change.
Read the article at
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/top-5/2008/08/17/Why-Pickens-and-Gore-Are-\
Wrong
and with comments at
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2008/08/portfolio_0818


MEDIA PAIR PICKENS AND GROVE
We enjoyed the analysis in the August 18 Detroit Free Press by Justin
Hyde, "2 industry outsiders have vision to steer Detroit 3 back on
track." It starts out saying,
An Oklahoma oil billionaire and a Silicon Valley titan have committed
themselves to reforming the U.S. auto industry -- whether Detroit's
ready or not.
It examines the plans and Detroit's "lukewarm" response, but includes
quotes only about the Pickens plan, and concludes, "In their defense,
they've got to make money, and they don't want to take risks and
they're damn near broke," Pickens said. But, Grove said, "The sight
of the gallows sharpens the mind. Fifteen billion in quarterly losses
makes you re-examine the old truisms that you've operated with."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080818/BUSINESS01/808180320

Also see a multi-part dialogue in the LA Times on energy markets,
Pickens, and plug-in cars between John White, Executive Director of
the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies in
Sacramento and Jerry Taylor, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute --
the most recent one with links to earlier exchanges is
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/suncommentary/la-oew-taylor-white22-200\
8aug22,0,7549360.story


ONE MORE OBJECTION THAT'S STARTING TO COME ON:
* Some people don't have a home garage outlet

We hear it anecdotally; we could use a household survey. Polls have
in the past shown that half to two-thirds of U.S. households have
access to a plug (much fewer in Europe and Asia). Here's a recent a
UCDavis study:"Study Finds About 1/3 of US New Vehicle Buying
Households Have the Required Infrastructure and Buying Interest for
PHEVs" http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/08/study-finds-abo.html
OUR COMMENT: There are no technical breakthroughs needed to enable
cars to plug in at multiple locations: it's mostly a software
project, plus a Green Collar Jobs project to install the hardware.
New companies like http://www.coulombtech.com will be enabling
streetside, workplace and public garage charging infrastructures as
quickly as needed.


AND WE STILL GET OLD MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GRID CAPACITY
"McCain touts energy plan at nuclear plant," by Matthew Bigg, Tue 5
Aug 2008: Newport, Michigan (Reuters) - Republican presidential
candidate John McCain visited a nuclear power plant on Tuesday to
tout his plan to battle rising energy costs by expanding exploration
of traditional sources like nuclear power and offshore oil drilling.
McCain criticized Obama for his refusal to consider expanding U.S.
nuclear energy industry and mocked his call for 1 million plug-in
hybrid calls on U.S. roads by 2015. "If we want to enable the
technologies of tomorrow like plug-in electric cars, we need
electricity to plug into," he said.
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnN05341085.html

OUR COMMENT: McCain knows PHEVs mostly plug in at night when there's
plenty of extra power. (Since the Pacific National Lab study was
released in early 2007 it's been clear that today's grid could fuel
over 3/4 of our current cars if they turned into plug-ins overnight.
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/657.html .). But speaking at a
nuclear power plant, he says we need new capacity.


HELP ON A QUOTE? for those dedicated enough to read this far: We've
seen but can't put our hands on a much older quote than the one from
Christopher Reeve about how ideas are rejected and then embraced by
skeptics; we'd welcome hearing from anyone for whom this rings a bell.

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

The choice of Sen. Joe Biden as Sen. Barack
Obama's running mate brings another strong
advocate of progressive policies on energy and
transportation to the campaign and it may further
heat up the Obama-McCain race for the best
policies on plug-in cars. Biden supports
expansion of renewable fuels, strong legislation
on climate change -- and last year he authored
legislation to fund advanced battery development for plug-in hybrids.

At the Springfield, IL announcement, we also
heard the story of how Biden decided to take the
train from Washington to Wilmington -- 90 minutes
each way every day -- when he arrived in the
Senate thirty-five years ago. After his wife and
daughter died in a car crash, he chose not to
move to Washington but to raise his two sons in
Delaware. Now one of those grown-up sons is on
Amtrak's Board of Directors, and Sen. Biden still
takes that train every day and is a strong supporter of public transportation.

We mention this because we can't forget that
electrification of transportation is only one key
part of the broad transition we're beginning. In
response to our posting yesterday about Pickens
and using natural gas for cars, Mark Wiener, a
CalCars-News subscriber, responded, "with respect
to CO2, putting more goods on trains instead of
trucks and encouraging residential, solar water
heaters is hardly ever mentioned.  But these are
potent methods of reducing CO2 and they are
economical for the end user." The U.S. differs
from almost every other industrial country in
shipping most goods by truck instead of by train.
As we talk enthusiastically about plug-in cars,
conservation, mass transit, and "smart growth" to
reduce vehicle miles travelled are even more effective solutions!

Below are a Detroit News report on Biden's
selection, excerpts from his positions on plug-in
cars from his Senate re-election campaign website
and his Senate website, and details of his
legislation on batteries. And look for a second
posting with more about plug-in cars at the Denver Convention.


Biden little known in Michigan, but is friend of automakers
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau  Saturday, August 23, 2008
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080823/METRO/808230408

Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware is little-known to
Michigan voters: Detroit News polling firm
EPIC-MRA last asked about Michigan voters'
attitudes toward him, in May of last year, 39
percent of likely Democratic primary voters said
they had not heard of him; the number is almost
certainly higher for the full electorate.

But Biden's legislative record includes a lot of
work on Michigan's signature industry: autos. He
was intensely involved in Delaware's unsuccessful
attempts to keep Chrysler's Newark, Del.,
assembly plant open. Last year, he authored a
bill calling for a five-year, $500 million boost
for research on lithium-ion batteries, the
crucial technology for making plug-in hybrid electric vehicles practical.

In an opinion piece that appeared in Wilmington
News Journal, his state's largest paper, in the
wake of the Newark plant decision, Biden and Rep.
Mike Castle wrote, "We must do whatever it takes
to help our domestic auto manufacturers remain competitive."

Though Biden, like most Democrats, generally has
favored higher federal fuel economy standards,
"he has always been there for us on auto issues"
said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing.

Biden grew up in working-class Scranton, Pa., and
he could improve the Democratic ticket's appeal
to white working-class voters and help solidify
support with organized labor. And he is Roman
Catholic; Catholics make up between one-quarter
and one-third of the Michigan electorate, and are
a constituency Obama sometimes struggled to win during the primaries.


FROM 4BIDEN.COM (Senate re-election site): Super efficient technologies:

There are now superefficient plug-in hybrids
which can get 100 miles to the gallon, powered by
lithium ion batteries. These hybrids are
dominated by foreign competitors from Japan,
Korea and China. These countries have invested
hundreds of millions of dollars in developing and
supporting the new technologies. Joe Biden
believes that America needs to make an equal
investment in new technology. He has proposed
legislation that would double our investment in
the development of batteries needed for hybrid
electric vehicles.  http://www.4biden.com/news/energy-environment/


FROM BIDEN'S OFFICIAL SENATE WEBSITE:
http://biden.senate.gov/issues/issue/?id=0cc59be1-a50d-4e0f-952e-57931f6e4d62
"There is no question our oil dependence is
threatening our national security. It helps fuel
the fundamentalism we’re fighting. Our oil
dependence limits our options and our influence
around the world, because oil rich countries
pursuing policies we oppose can stand up to us,
while oil dependent allies may be afraid to stand
with us. If we don’t change our policy, oil will
further empower the countries that produce it,
restrict our options, and undermine our economic
and physical security. Where we can have the most
impact is stopping our demand for oil from
increasing as our economy grows. We know where to
start: expand alternative fuels and improve
vehicle efficiency. We can do this. We can absolutely do this."

THE BIDEN PLAN: ENERGY SECURITY FOR AMERICA

Senator Biden believes that in the near term, our
energy policy should focus on energy security ­
which we can start to strengthen right now by
reducing our own oil consumption and focusing our
attention on significant investment in renewable sources of energy. He would:

* INVEST IN NEW TECHNOLOGY
* INCREASE USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY
* ENCOURAGE AMERICANS TO USE ENERGY EFFICIENTLY
* INCREASE FUEL EFFICIENCY OF VEHICLES
* INCREASE USE OF RENEWABLE FUELS [below]
* REQUIRE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO BE MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT

INCREASE FUEL EFFICIENCY OF VEHICLES: Raise Fuel
Economy Standards By 1 Mile Per Gallon More Each
Year: Senator Biden was pleased that in 2007, for
the first time since 1979, Congress passed a
provision that restructured the automotive fuel
economy program and raised standards. Senator
Biden believed that the provision should have
gone further, by upgrading to a better system
that combines protection for U.S. automobile
manufacturing jobs with predictable increases in
fuel efficiency standards for cars, SUVs and
light trucks. The new system would set fuel
economy standards based on the attributes of a
vehicle (such as its size and weight), with
individualized fuel economy targets that increase
by 4 percent per year (or approximately 1 mile
per gallon each year) reaching a 40 mpg average
by 2017 which will save approximately the amount
of oil we import from Saudi Arabia.

Invest in New Super-Efficient Technology: The
market for lithium ion batteries ­ those needed
for super-efficient plug-in hybrids which can get
100 mpg ­ is dominated by foreign competitors
like the Japanese, Koreans and Chinese. That is
because these countries have invested hundreds of
millions of dollars in developing and supporting
the technology. Senator Biden believes the United
States needs to make an equal investment in new
technology like lithium ion batteries. He has
proposed legislation that would double investment
in the development of advanced lithium ion
batteries needed for plug-in hybrids and electric
vehicles ­ increasing it from $42 million to $100
million a year for five years.


SENATOR BIDEN'S REMARKS on introducing the
"American Automobile Industry Promotion Act of 2007" (S.1055)
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=110-s20070329-48&person=300008#sMo\
nofilemx003Ammx002Fmmx002Fmmx002Fmhomemx002Fmgovtrackmx002Fmdatamx002Fmusmx002Fm\
110mx002Fmcrmx002Fms20070329-48.xmlElementm26m0m0m

Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]: [Introducing S. 1055]
Mr. President, today I am introducing The
American Automobile Industry Promotion Act of
2007 to jump-start next generation battery
technology development in the United States and
extend incentives to American-made highly efficient vehicles.

This legislation authorizes $100 million a year
for 5 years to advance new battery technology--an
amount double the administration's current budget
request. On a national and international level,
we must do whatever it takes to help our domestic
auto manufacturers remain competitive.

Right now, the Japanese dominate the market for
lithium ion batteries because they invested
hundreds of millions of dollars in developing
this technology and in supporting their domestic
industry. And, the Koreans and the Chinese are
not far behind. American auto manufacturers are
playing catch-up and we need to move quickly.

Specifically, I am proposing to support the
development of advanced electric components,
systems and vehicles, by providing funds for
battery research to national laboratories, small
businesses, and institutes of higher learning.
The bill will also establish, through a
competitive selection process, an Industry
Alliance of private, U.S. based, for-profit firms
whose primary business is battery development.
The Industry Alliance would be an advisory
resource on short and long term battery technology development.

The new research initiative will have four major
areas of focus: (1) Research and Development
including battery technology, high-efficiency
charging systems, high-powered drive-train
systems, control systems and power train
development, and nanomaterial technology for
battery and fuel cell systems. (2) Demonstration.
The initiative also creates a demonstration
program which would devote resources toward
demonstration, testing and evaluation of hybrid
electric vehicles for many different applications
including military, mass market passenger and SUV
vehicles. (3) Education. The initiative will
support curriculum development in secondary, high
school, as well as higher education institutions
that focus on electric drive systems and
component engineering. (4) Testing. Finally, the
initiative would work with the EPA to develop
testing and certification procedures for criteria
pollutants, fuel economy, and petroleum use in vehicles.

In addition to research and development for the
lithium ion battery, the American Automobile
Industry Promotion Act will also set a national
standard for biodiesel, a cleaner-burning fuel
made from natural and renewable sources; and
expand tax credit eligibility for consumers who
purchase more fuel-efficient diesel vehicles.
Today's diesels are cleaner than their
predecessors, are in compliance with EPA
emissions standards, and are 30 percent more fuel
efficient than an equivalent gasoline engine.
Specifically, the bill expands the emissions
requirements to qualify for a tax credit for
various weight diesel vehicles, increasing the
number of American-manufactured more fuel
efficient diesel vehicles that qualify. This
provision would expire in four years, at which
time all highly efficient vehicles will have to
meet higher emissions standards to qualify for the tax credit.

Now is the time to act. It's not too late, but we
do not have the luxury of waiting. If we are ever
to be truly competitive in the global auto market
and free from our dependence on foreign oil, we
must move forward on all fronts.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the
legislation be printed in the Record.


EESI LEGISLATIVE REPORT: Biden Pushes Plug-Ins in New Legislation
http://www.eesi.org/publications/Newsletters/CleanMotion/CM_April07.htm#Biden

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) recently joined a
growing list of policymakers in support of
plug-in hybrids with the introduction of
legislation to significantly increase the
nation's investment in the development of
advanced lithium-ion batteries for electric
vehicles and plug-in hybrids.  The “American
Automobile Industry Promotion Act of 2007”
(S.1055) authorizes $100 million per year for
five years to advance relevant
technologies.  This amount is double the
Administration’s current budget request for
battery and advanced vehicle component research and development.
<snip>
Currently, the United States lacks capacity to
manufacture advanced batteries for hybrids and
sources its batteries from foreign
markets.  Domestic automakers and policymakers
alike have called for an accelerated effort to
develop domestic manufacturing capacity for
advanced batteries.    Senator Biden, who hails
from Delaware, a major auto manufacturing state,
believes the U.S. must assist domestic automakers
in staying competitive with international lithium
ion battery research and development.   His bill
would specifically support the development of
advanced electronic components, systems and
vehicles by providing funds for battery research
to national laboratories, academic institutions and small businesses.

To view the Biden plug-in bill, please visit:
http://thomas.loc.gov (Type S.1055 as the bill number)

DELAWWARE NEWS JOURNAL
Biden bill pays for battery research
Lithium ion technology would improve hybrid cars
By LULADEY B. TADESSE March 30, 2007
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070330/BUSINESS/70330\
0335/1006/NEWS

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., introduced legislation
Thursday that would boost federal investment in
the development of lithium ion batteries that he
says is critical for producing the next generation of hybrid vehicles.

Biden's bill, called "The American Automobile
Industry Promotion Act of 2007," would provide
$100 million a year for five years toward
research and development of battery technology.
The funds would go toward battery research at
national laboratories, small businesses and educational institutions.

Supporters say lithium ion battery research is a
key to the development of advanced hybrid
technology such as plug-in hybrid cars. Unlike
gas-electric hybrids like the Toyota Prius,
plug-in hybrids use electric power and travel
extended ranges without using gasoline. But the
development of plug-in cars is stunted because
more research is needed in lithium ion batteries,
Biden said. Such batteries are expensive and
there are very few manufacturers in the United States.

"Right now, the Japanese dominate the market for
lithium ion batteries because they invested
hundreds of millions of dollars in developing
this technology and in supporting their domestic
industry. ... American auto manufacturers are
playing catch-up and we need to move quickly," Biden said.

Automakers in Delaware, including DaimlerChrysler
AG and General Motors Corp., which are jointly
working on hybrid technology, are expected to benefit from the bill.

"Battery technology is definitely the most
significant challenge to not only hybrids, but
also fuel cell vehicles," said Nick Cappa,
Chrysler's Advanced Technology spokesman.

Biden's bill comes as Delaware's DaimlerChrysler
plant in Newark builds pilot models of the
company's first large-scale production hybrid vehicle, the Dodge Durango.

The Newark plant, which builds the regular
Durango and Chrysler Aspen, is to be closed in
2009, largely because it produces SUVs that are
not fuel-efficient. The plant employs about 2,100 people.

"This legislation is important not only for the
two auto plants in Delaware and the thousands of
people who work there, but also for the future of
the entire U.S. auto industry," said Sen. Tom
Carper, D-Del., who co-sponsored the bill.

The Biden bill also will devote resources to set
a national standard for biodiesel and cleaner
burning fuels like ethanol. It also would expand
tax credits for consumers who purchase fuel-efficient diesel vehicles.

Contact Luladey B. Tadesse at 324-2789 or ltadesse@...

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