PHEVs

I first came across this latest version of the hybrid experiment about a month back and started some research into it. It does well to pull you in with its bright lights banner of 100+ mpg. Gotta admit, it is spectacualr to see that kind of a push of the envelope. What is allowing the gas/electric hybrid combination to to reach such uncharted levels of mpg is a strong leverage towards the electric side of the vehicle with gas playing more of a supporting role and electric taking up the main charge. Ha ha, get it.....main charge. Sorry. Now, if the electric side is going to rein in such prowess it can't do it the way the existing hybrid car models are built. By self-charging. Taking their time. That won't do it - more power is needed. Hence, you must plug these babies in just like an all-electric car. Hence, a PHEV. Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle.

As I wrote in my very first blog entry, I and my Sothern California bretheren went through the trauma of $500 montly electricity bills this summer and the events of 100 power outages related deaths, hundreds of burnt out transformers that So Cal Edison didn't have enough manpower to catch up with, coming with in a hair of rolling blackouts and rotting food in refrigirators. The electric shock bills had become topics of conversation in any form of social gathering anywhere. I recall well the Edison officials on radio pleading that the pace of development in Sothern California has gotta be checked. Apparently, a 3 bedroom 1700 sq ft single family home priced at $600,000 isn't enough to stop it. Anyway, I digress. California's energy crises (thanks in part to the dead and buried firm of Enron) is not the world's.

Though these vehicles are still very much a spectator sport and any marketable entity is still a few years away, I still find the stuff exciting. At least to look at. For now. The experimental cars are small and feeble. Doing 40 miles off one charge. Top speeds of 60mpg. Stuff like that. All of that is going to change. The Tesla Roadster can do a top speed of 130mph and 200 miles off one charge. But its a $100,000 2 seater. I am not as big a fan of plug-in as I am of the self-charging batteries but with a hybrid combination the plug-in can be reduced to perhaps once or twice a week. The trip to the pump once a month. And thats workable. As long as the cars are built for mainstream. That's 200bhp. 3000 lbs+. Full size sedan. More than 50mpg. We don't need 100mpg. That will stay a spectator sport for some time. By the way, a Southern California company called Energy CS has plans to offer converter kits to convert certain existing hybrids into PHEVs for $12,000. If you want to put that into cost/benefit perspective then read my earlier blog titled 'Hybrid Reality Check'. Its an act of sports for now.