What is a plug-in hybrid? It is a car that runs on electricity via a battery that you can charge by plugging into a regular electrical outlet. These cars, being hybrids, also have gas tanks that can be used to power the car and recharge the battery, giving you what some might call the best of all world’s (assuming mass transit, bicycling or walking aren’t options). Best of all would be to burn no liquid fuel, but plug-in hybrids allow us to reach, or closely approach, this ideal in many cases.
What is different about plug-in hybrids? The plug! Current commercial hybrid cars use batteries, but they inconveniently keep a barrier between you and the electric company. You have to burn gasoline (petrol) to charge the battery.
How can you buy a plug-in hybrid? You can buy a hybrid car “off the shelf” and have it converted to a plug-in hybrid. This service is available in the US, the UK and elsewhere. Plug-in hybrids may be available directly from Toyota by 2010. For more information on plug-in hybrid cars, the following sites are very valuable: Plug-in Partners, Plug-in America, Hybrids Plus (a manufacturer of plug-in hybrids in the US). See also the DVD “Who Killed the Electric Car?”, read the book “Plug-in Hybrids: the cars that will recharge America”, and read the blog “plugs and cars”. The site “What Green Car?” provides information about plug-in hybrids for consumers in the U.K.
What are the running costs of plug-in hybrids? Estimates suggest that the transportation costs are equivalent to gasoline at $1.00/gallon.
Don’t forget that purely electric cars and trucks and buses are also available in the US, the UK, and elsewhere. For example, in the US, Tesla Motors, Volt and Phoenix Motor cars offer a range from trucks to sports cars. I wrote a recent, short post on very small and inexpensive electric cars being made for India.
I’d like to hear about other plug-in hybrid and electric car options in the US and around the world, and people’s reaction to (a) the low cost of plug-in hybrids coupled with the security of a gas tank if you need it, vs. (b) purely electric cars, which now have long range driving ability as well as high power (in some cases).
Don’t forget that you can couple electric cars or plug-in hybrids with solar and/or wind powered electric systems for your home or work-place to minimize or eliminate the use of liquid hydrocarbon fuels like gasoline/petrol, ethanol, etc. You can even run your home off your car battery!
© James K. Bashkin, 2008
Technorati Tags:air pollution, alternative energy, alternative fuel, electric cars, electric trucks, plug-in hybrids, hybrid cars, liqiuid fuels, transportation, solar power, wind power, green, environment, sustainability, heavy electric vehicles, solar homes, solar businesses, solar roofs, toyota, phoenix motor cars, tesla, volt, lightning, us, uk, cost of travel, india, resource, blog, opinion
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
-
1
Pingback on Apr 1st, 2008 at 3:48 am
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
-
2
Pingback on Apr 3rd, 2008 at 1:37 am
[...] nearlynothingbutnovels has a reputation for providing reliable and awe-inspiring information. Check out the latest post on Plug-in Hybrid Cars and Electric Cars: a Summary that may be of interest. Below summarizes what was written: [...]
-
3
Pingback on Apr 3rd, 2008 at 6:32 am
[...] CdTe thin film technology, problems with ramping up production of new (and old) PV technology, and alternative clean energy techniques, including solar heating. The article doesn’t mention First Solar, who are in production with [...]
-
4
Pingback on Apr 9th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
[...] April 9, 2008 in science Mariela Moon posted this story on http://www.goodcleantech.com/ about lithium-ion batteries, which are common but hampered by both the risk of overcharging and a decrease in charging capacity after an overcharging event. “Research for the improvement of lithium-ion has reached a milestone in Argonne National Laboratory where longer battery life and a 30 percent increase in storage capacity have been achieved.” This clearly is promising with regard to plug-in hybrid electric cars and related electric cars. [...]
-
5
Pingback on Apr 9th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
[...] Michael Rose reports via BusinessWire (London) and http://www.greatcarstv.com/news/: “Plug in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are set to bust out of their niche role and become mainstream. Experts believe the global [...]
-
6
Pingback on Jul 20th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
[...] and world markets is certainly a cause for celebration, though my loudest cheers will be for the plug-in hybrids that will (or should) also be arriving [...]
Leave a Comment
-
A practical solar solution:
-
Subscribe by mobile device
Chemistry for a Sustainable World
-
Recent Comments
-
Find Solar Installers, Tax Information and more:
-
To subscribe to my RSS feed, click here:
-
Click here to subscribe by email:
-
-
If you search the web, blog or have an online business you might want to check out Squidoo (free membership, lots of resources) 
Feed from Green site Hugg- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
- My fiction blog
-
-
My Flickr Photos
More Photos
April 4, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Good article. I really think that Plug-In hybrids are the next big step in hybrid technology. They offer the best of both worlds when you look at a pure electric car and a conventional hybrid. Automakers are currently scrambling to get this technology into their hybrid lineups and we should see an influx of these in the near future. The Prius is said to be released in 2010 as a plug-in and the Chevy Volt is also a plug-in hybrid that is rumored to be coming to the showrooms around this time too. The future looks bright for this technology!
June 26, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Thanks for adding some measurements to your article.