Austin on the plug-in hybrid scene
Austin ChronicleAugust 26, 2005
By
DANIEL MOTTOLAThink of the city of Austin as the Green Godfather. In the coming months, Austin hopes to call together a mafia of 50 like-minded, large U.S. cities that are fed up with pollution and high fuel costs. They will then go to automakers and make them an offer they can't refuse: a call for the mass production of
plug-in hybrid electric vehicles capable of triple-digit fuel economy and up to 35 miles of all-electric driving. Armed with commitments for fleet orders by government and business, plenty of cash (like Austin's $1 million in incentives) to buy the first round of vehicles, and tens of thousands of petitions from the public expressing demand for the vehicles, this mafia will tell automakers that the time for change is now.
Among a who's who of elected officials, business leaders, and environmental advocates in attendance Monday, the city officially kicked off its
Plug-In Austin Campaign, which it hopes to expand coast to coast to become the Plug-in America Campaign. Based on today's hybrids, the plug-ins use larger batteries plus special hardware and systems that allow them to take on extra electric charge by plugging into a conventional wall outlet.
This allows the vehicle to provide an average day of petroleum-free driving, doubling the fuel economy of a conventional hybrid and more than tripling that of a nonhybrid vehicle. (The vehicle functions as a conventional hybrid when the extra charge runs out.) The city will begin testing the only prototype currently available, the DaimlerChrysler Sprinter van, in early 2006.
Plug-In Austin advocates uniting the transportation and utility sectors by electrifying the transportation grid. In Austin's case, that translates into using the abundant
West Texas wind power available through Austin Energy's GreenChoice program to charge the plug-in hybrids at night when the wind blows hardest. At prevailing energy rates, an electric gallon of gas would cost about
70 to 80 cents.
The
plug-in campaign has been on the drawing board at City Hall for almost a year. Last September, the City Council passed a resolution in support of plug-in hybrid development, in December council members approved a lease for the Sprinter prototype, and the council approved a financial incentive program for personal
plug-in hybrid purchases in March.
In June, Mayor Will Wynn and Austin Energy's Roger Duncan detailed the plug-in hybrid campaign at the
Conference of Mayors in Chicago, where Wynn signed the Kyoto Protocol-modeled U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement on global warming.
Since then, Duncan has been traveling the country to events like the Sundance Summit on Climate Change, where he addressed 45 mayors, building support for the plug-in campaign. "
Everywhere I go around the country, people are very enthusiastic about the concept," he said.
Addressing the crowd Monday, Rep. Lloyd Doggett called the act of sating the U.S.'s insatiable desire for fossil fuels a national security issue, directly related to the "
tragic and unfortunate foreign entanglements in which we find our young people around the world." According to city data, plug-in hybrids would cut annual gasoline consumption for many Americans by 70%, and could reduce the 50% of Texas' pollution that comes from refineries and vehicle emissions.
Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce President (and former Austin Mayor) Kirk Watson said, by plugging cars into Austin Energy's grid, we "
keep transportation dollars in our communities rather than sending them to foreign countries." He also noted that the battery technology needed for plug-ins is being produced here in Austin by
Valence Technology.
As one of two producers of the lightweight, large-format lithium ion batteries the plug-ins need, Valence is positioned for the hybrid market to come, and has partnered with EDrive Systems of California to retrofit existing Toyota Prius hybrids as plug-ins. The prototype they brought to Austin in June averaged more than 125 miles per gallon.
In the next few years, says Valence's Marc Kohler, the partners will sell aftermarket upgrade kits for all hybrid models on the market. Auto manufacturers will inevitably take over, he said, and spurring that process is what
Plug-In Austin is all about. For more info or to sign the petition, visit
www.pluginaustin.org.
Plug-in Petition
Please go to the
main site to
sign the petition.
PetitionI urge automakers to go beyond popular hybrid vehicles and manufacture
"plug-in" electric hybrid vehicles that run on electric fuel as well as gasoline or other fuels.
A
plug-in hybrid will provide me the option of plugging my vehicle into an ordinary electric outlet in order to recharge the battery, allowing me to drive on electric fuel for a much longer period reducing my need for ever more expensive gasoline and increasing my fuel effciency to over 100 MPG.
Because of these benefits, I pledge to strongly consider purchasing a
plug-in electric hybrid vehicle once car manufacturers make them available, even if it costs more than other vehicles.
If you like, you may sign the petition in the comments of this post, just include your name and address.
And thanks for helping build a better, cleaner, and safer future.
A P Story Gets the Word Out
Here is the AP story that ran this weekend, and it has been
picked up all over...it's resulted in a jump in traffic to
CalCars from the
usual 400-1000 unique visitors per day to 13,000 on Sat. and 17,000 on
Sunday.
Tinkerers modify their hybrid cars to get more mileage per gallonBy TIM MOLLOY
Associated Press
CORTE MADERA, Calif.
Aug. 13, 2005
Politicians and automakers say a car that can both reduce greenhouse gases and free America from its reliance on foreign oil is years or even decades away.
Ron Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage.
It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret — a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries that boosts the car's high mileage with an extra electrical charge so it can burn even less fuel.
Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car.
Like all hybrids, his Prius increases fuel efficiency by harnessing small amounts of electricity generated during braking and coasting. The extra batteries let him store extra power by
plugging the car into a wall outlet at his home in this San Francisco suburb — all for about a quarter.
He's part of a small but growing movement. "
Plug-in" hybrids aren't yet cost-efficient, but some of the dozen known experimental models have gotten up to 250 mpg.
They have support not only from environmentalists but also from
conservative foreign policy hawks who insist Americans fuel terrorism through their gas guzzling.
And while the technology has existed for three decades, automakers are beginning to take notice, too.
So far, DaimlerChrysler AG is the only company that has committed to building its own plug-in hybrids, quietly pledging to make up to 40 vans for U.S. companies. But Toyota Motor Corp. officials who initially frowned on people altering their cars now say they
may be able to learn from them.
"
They're like the hot rodders of yesterday who did everything to soup up their cars. It was all about horsepower and bling-bling, lots of chrome and accessories," said Cindy Knight, a Toyota spokeswoman. "Maybe the hot rodders of tomorrow are the people who want to get in there and see what they can do about increasing fuel economy."
more
Austin Kick Off
Dear Friend,
Please accept this invitation to join the Austin City Council and other community leaders like yourself on
Monday, August 22, at 11:00 a.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall as we kick-off Austin’s Plug-in Hybrid Campaign. Together we will show a unity of purpose as Austin leads the way to a cleaner, brighter future.
Our future, as Austin’s leaders and numerous others across America believe, would benefit from
the integration of the electric and transportation sectors. For economical, environmental, and strategic reasons we are encouraging automakers to go beyond their already popular hybrids and to develop and produce “
plug-in” hybrid electric vehicles. Such vehicles would have a larger battery capacity; an all electric operating range of at least 35 miles; and the option of being plugged into a standard 120-volt outlet for recharging. Plug-in hybrids would achieve greater gas mileage at a much lower cost than current hybrids.
Some automakers have already announced their intention to produce a hybrid for all models by 2012. We want to demonstrate to automakers that a national market already exists for the plug-in hybrid, for reasons including:
Economic: Plug-in hybrids will benefit consumers through lower fuel costs – we estimate an “electric equivalent” of a gallon of gas will cost well below $1.00. Also, while the infrastructure for the “hydrogen economy” has not been built, the electrical delivery system already exists.
Environmental: Using plug-in hybrids will result in net lower emissions, especially if vehicles are recharged with renewable energy sources. We envision Austinites driving to work in plug-in hybrids charged overnight by energy from West Texas wind turbines.
Strategic: Political leaders, countless organizations, and innumerable individuals are seeking alternatives to increasingly expensive foreign oil; and this is a quick, near-term solution toward reaching the critical goal of energy independence.
For more information on this event, please contact Lisa Braithwaite at 512-322-6511. To find additional information about these vehicles and our local and national efforts, please access our website at
www.pluginaustin.org.
On August 22, please join us to kick-off the plug-in hybrid campaign and help Austin set the example for the nation. I look forward to working with you on this important endeavor.
Regards,
Will Wynn
Austin Mayor
Chair, US Conference of Mayors Energy Committee
