Posted on 08/14/2005 2:26:28 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
CORTE MADERA, Calif. - 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-size 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."
The extra batteries let Gremban drive for 20 miles with a 50-50 mix of gas and electricity. Even after the car runs out of power from the batteries and switches to the standard hybrid mode, it gets the typical Prius fuel efficiency of around 45 mpg. As long as Gremban doesn't drive too far in a day, he says, he gets 80 mpg.
"The value of plug-in hybrids is they can dramatically reduce gasoline usage for the first few miles every day," Gremban said. "The average for people's usage of a car is somewhere around 30 to 40 miles per day. During that kind of driving, the plug-in hybrid can make a dramatic difference."
Backers of plug-in hybrids acknowledge that the electricity to boost their cars generally comes from fossil fuels that create greenhouse gases, but they say that process still produces far less pollution than oil. They also note that electricity could be generated cleanly from solar power.
Gremban rigged his car to promote the nonprofit CalCars Initiative, a San Francisco Bay area-based volunteer effort that argues automakers could mass produce plug-in hybrids at a reasonable price.
But Toyota and other car companies say they are worried about the cost, convenience and safety of plug-in hybrids and note that consumers haven't embraced all-electric cars because of the inconvenience of recharging them like giant cell phones.
Automakers have spent millions of dollars telling motorists that hybrids don't need to be plugged in, and don't want to confuse the message.
Nonetheless, plug-in hybrids are starting to get the backing of prominent hawks like former CIA Director James Woolsey and Frank Gaffney, President Reagan's undersecretary of defense. They have joined Set America Free, a group that wants the government to spend $12 billion over four years on plug-in hybrids, alternative fuels and other measures to reduce foreign oil dependence.
Gaffney, who heads the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy, said Americans would embrace plug-ins if they understood arguments from him and others who say gasoline contributes to oil-rich Middle Eastern governments that support terrorism.
"The more we are consuming oil that either comes from places that are bent on our destruction or helping those who are ... the more we are enabling those who are trying to kill us," Gaffney said.
DaimlerChrysler spokesman Nick Cappa said plug-in hybrids are ideal for companies with fleets of vehicles that can be recharged at a central location at night. He declined to name the companies buying the vehicles and said he did not know the vehicles' mileage or cost, or when they would be available.
Toyota has historically been hysterical about anybody making any modifications to their cars. They officially recommend against adding/upgrading to an aftermarket stereo. They're that bad.
Toyota does not recommend modifying our vehicles from their original factory specifications. This includes replacing the original stereo equipment with other than what was originally designed for use in your vehicle. Modifications could affect the vehicle’s performance, safety or durability. In addition, damage or performance problems resulting from the modification may not be covered under warranty. For this reason, we do not distribute information or specifications regarding the installation or compatibility of non-Toyota audio systems. For complete details of Toyota's warranties, please refer to your Owner's Warranty Information booklet.
45mph is a bit underpowered, I agree. However, I'm not one of those guys who even weighs horsepower as a factor when buying a new car. I usually choose the smallest American car I can find. Truth to tell, I don't even like my car, but drive it out of necessity. I'd much rather be on one of my bicycles or my Harley. I guess I'm a two-wheel guy.
Sorry, all of Hoover Dam's electricity is already being used!
Silly!
All car companies are the same way. Thank the lawyers. If there is an accident, fire, whatever the first step is to blame the car company and go after them for the big bucks.
Still have my K-10 with the duel fuel tanks outside the frame. Piss pour paint job (undercoating failure) but it runs (about 12 mpg).
Drive the Saturn (38 mpg) most of the time.
At 8 cents a KWH that's 3 KWH of power stored.
If the rest of his calculations are this dishonest..................
FYI, I'd dispute the statement that the Sportster isn't the best Harley. It's not the most expensive, but it's by far the most trouble free engine HD has ever produced. If you can live with the power of the 883 (I couldn't) you have the single most reliable engine HD has ever produced because every part is engineered for the 1200.
lol, now that was funny.
Exactly!
My Suburban gets great mileage on the downslope of mountains. So to radically increase gas mileage, I simply start all my trips from the top of a mountain. Sort of the opposite of when I was a kid and had to walk up hill to school both ways.
Electricty has the possibilty of being generated by renewable resources. Skipping the pie in the sky promises of wind and solar, hydrogenerators and nuclear reactors are realites that produce enormous amounts of energy.
More power to you, I like bikers. I drive a 400 hp Camaro and just laugh at these toys.
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.
This is the rubber check and $3.00 bill part of the story. If he has to plug the car into the wall to charge his extra batteries, then he's not really getting the great gas mileage he says he is. Instead he's doing the classically inefficient thing of using burning coal to produce electricity that has to be transmitted over power lines, transformed, and then used to charge his batteries. Hence, his "clean" car probably uses more actual BTUs of fossil power, and generates more carbon dioxide, than a standard Prius would. Any electric car is an emmission mover, not an emission eliminator, since it just moves the point of emission from where it's being driven to the power plant that generates its electricity.
Going nuclear would greatly alter my position, which is similar to hers. Absent that act of saninty, electric cars will be and remain emission movers, not emission eliminators.
It is easy to make cars get better mileage.
Just make them lighter and/or smaller.
Of course, making them lighter and/or smaller also increases the chances of you dying if you get into a crash...
Americans are more and more demanding safety. That generally comes at the expense of weight.
A gallon of gas contains only so much energy. It takes so much energy to move mass X up hill Y or accelerate at rate Z. It isn't rocket science. One can track where the energy goes at each step of the way. It isn't like it's being lost in some engineered black hole...
And I assume you know that a British gallon is about 20% larger in volume than a US gallon. Australia likely uses British gallons.
I imagine an electric vehicle gets an infinite amount of mpg.
Everybody knows lead and sulfuric acid are good for the environment.
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