TreeHuggerTV - Plug-In Hybrids
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 06. 5.06
“I wanna have a choice about what fuel I put in my car.” So says Ryan Fulcher who, with the help of Calcars, is turning his Toyota Prius in to a plug-in. It’s fair to say that most of us would agree with Ryan. As he says, “Everyone wants to drive electric cars, they just don’t know it yet!” So to get us plugged in to the plug-in scene this week THTV and Shoulder High Productions went to see how it’s possible to shift pollution from a tailpipe to a power-plant. With Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) it is possible to get 100 miles per gallon from your hybrid. Not only is electricity under $1/gallon, but these cars are only going to get cleaner as the grid gets cleaner. As for now, even charging off the national grid, which is about 50% coal, these cars produce under half the net pollution. This is not futuristic thinking folks, this is right here and right now, as Ron Gremban of Calcars explains “We already have all the components necessary to rapidly change our transportation energy.” – so let’s get plugged in!
To learn more about what Calcars is doing check out some more funky footage about Plug-in Hybrids on their website. Look out too for more videos on this topic produced in collaboration with Shoulder High Productions. As usual the best way to get your regular THTV fix is to subscribe to our weekly podcast from iTunes, so that you receive a new episode every week without any effort at all! You can also use the TreeHugger XML feed to subscribe. Or you can visit BlipTV, You Tube and Google Video. Don’t forget to check it out! ::Calcars
Modding cars to be electric sound good et al, but what about the safety aspects? How does added weight change the safety of crashes? How secure are the batteries? Is my child going to suffer trauma that (s)he may not have previously experienced, because of a mod?
what is with the fleshbot ads?
Are the sex toys made from natural rubber harvested in an eco-way by fair trade-related tribes?
Too bad they decided to use highly toxic lead-acid batteries. How much less mileage would the existing NiMH packs have offered? How much added space/weight did the lead-acid packs take up? And what would Lithium Ion batteries have cost.
Nice video. I hope my posting on Hugg contributed to this article.
In regard to your posting Earthsaver, good question. I know Toyota gives alot of money for the old batteries. Here's hoping Toyota adopts this technology.
I was thinking the same thing. How "less safe" is the car with all that weight? Did the owner go from a slow to a very slow heavy, poor handling car?
We'd have to find out how much the batteries weight to be sure, but here are a few reasons why I think it's not that big a deal:
You can sit 5 in a Prius and it will drive just fine. I doubt the extra batteries are heavier than one average adult.
The Prius' electric motors have great torque, which should help to carry the extra weight more easily and transparently.
I am an Engineer in the Automotive Industry and have been in advance planning and launches of many vehicles. The safety is a concern and will be addressed. I intend to have PHEV in production for the Automotive Companies. Safety will be part of the requirements.
Don't they only go up to around 35mph on electric?
If my commute was at that speed I would prefer to take public transport.
A good friend of mine is working with a private company to offer PEHV retrofit kits based on lithium battery packs. The energy density is about triple that of NiMH, and the charge-discharge cycle efficiency is close to 97%.
Lithium batteries are the direction this technology is going to go in the future, and it's not as far away as many people think.
hey consumer q, you're prophetic. we're gonna be running a piece on eco-friendly sex toys in the weeks ahead.
a lot of excellent queries on plug-in hybrids -- some of which are answered on the calcars site: http://calcars.org/resources.html
If you get a chance to see "Who Killed the Electric Car" jump at it. Better yet contact Sony Pictures and let them know you want to see it. It's a fantastic film about the original electric EV1 cars created by GM in the California market - and what happened to them.
Kris, TreeHuggerTV will be running a HOT story on "Electric Car" just before the premiere. Last week we ran a sneak preview of the piece on TreeHugger News.
So far the ability to view plug in hybrids has mailnly been limited to the East and West coasts, but this summer you can come view a plug in Prius in the Midwest (Madison, WI). One will be at Hybridfest 2006 - A Hybrid Electric Car Show and More!
Hymotion, a plug in hybrid maker in Toronto is bringing their plug in hybrid down to Madison for everyone to check out July 22nd.Hybridfest will also have a fully functional EV1 on display and maybe even a plug in Honda Insight. If any of the TreehuggerTV crew is looking for a reason to come to the Midwest, this is it. We'd love to see you there!