pluginaustin

Plug-ins Increase Mileage

Here is a story from the local TV Station.

Plug-In Hybrid Kits To Increase Mileage to 100 MPG
Source: KVUE TV Austin
[Nov 25, 2005]

SYNOPSIS: But every time fuel prices rise, the idea of having to fill your gas tank just 10 times a year, may prove to be a real charge.

How many miles per gallon does your car get? Somewhere around 25 or 30? What would you do to get 100 -- or as much as 200 -- miles per gallon?

Some are working to making cars more fuel-efficient.

Some drivers already are, and you could too.

To find the godfather of high mileage, you have to come to the University of California-Davis where Professor Andy Frank and his students have been one-upping Detroit for 15 years.

Retrofitting assembly line cars -- even a SUV -- with a smaller gasoline engine, next to an electric motor and rechargeable batteries, creating a plug-in hybrid.

Capable of going 60 miles on a charge, since most people drive less than 40 miles a day, the gas engine is rarely used, near Los Angeles.

"It costs less than a dollar to fill it up overnight with electricity," Frank said.

Pete Nortman's small company has turned a 40 mile per gallon Toyota Prius-Hybrid into a 125 mile per gallon car, by replacing Toyota's less powerful batteries with 18 high-energy ones and a plug for overnight recharging.

"It feels great to be able to drive by the gas stations to refuel once a month instead of once a week," he said.

Nortman will soon begin selling Prius conversion kits - for around $10,000. It's pricey, but possibly the beginning of a movement, by people committed to driving with less expensive, lower-polluting energy from the power grid rather than with oil from the Middle East.

"But people pay extra all the time for features in their vehicles and we're selling the environmental feature," said Felix Kramer, Calcars.org.

The auto makers have so far shown no interest in cars they consider unsellable.

"This is something they could do today, but they don't want to do anything that would change their business model today."

But every time fuel prices rise, the idea of having to fill your gas tank just 10 times a year, may prove to be a real charge.

Plug-in hybrids weigh a bit more than regular cars. Their batteries should last for at least 10 years.

posted by AE @ 10:27 AM