Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

These days, I hear more and more about the future of plug-in hybrid cars:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/26/ HYBRID.TMP

[quote]Toyota took a big step Wednesday toward marketing plug-in hybrid cars -- vehicles that run mostly on rechargeable batteries and can go 100 miles on a gallon of gas -- when it announced it would provide two specially made Priuses to the University of California for testing on U.S. roads.

...

The cars look like normal Priuses, but unlike the showroom model, the experimental version runs mostly on its electric motor and plugs into a 110-volt house current for overnight charging. Kwong said the car will travel up to 7 miles on electricity alone and can go up to 60 mph in pure electric mode.

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One potential problem I see with the plug-in hybrids is that most people I know don`t park in a garage! What good is a plug-in hybrid for anyone who parks their car in a driveway, carport, on the street, or any other place that is not within easy reach of an electric outlet?

This needs to be addressed - are there any creative solutions?

Yep your right Oleg thats a problem. My thought is that gas stations will offer quick charges (which is not currently designed yet) that you stop and in 5 minutes your battery is recharged and the station charges you for the electrical usage. For home use or trickle charging (which means you let the batter charge for a long time slowly) you`d have to plug it in and so some type of extension cord would be needed, but it better be heavy duty because thats probably one heck of a load on the line. It all depends on battery technology and thats why they need to race these things, racing builds technology.

I dont know if I would even want to charge my car in the garage, my mom always said "Unplug that coffee maker before you go to sleep!" So I`m suppose to leave some semi experimental vehicle plugged in over night, hummmmm.

It`s an interesting concept, thats for sure. At least Toyota is out there trying to make a difference. Overall though, I think the hybrids or electric cars are only bandaids to something else. My vision is a charged magnetic freeway powered by a nuclear powerplant, the vehicle hovers 4-6" off the gorund and still has wheels for inner city travel. It uses a generator to build up a magnetic floating system and is propelled like the Top Thrill Dragster at Cader Point, magnetics. The cars don`t have to "fly" like we would imagine they only need to float. Well at least that`s my dream. :)

I looked at hybrids and decided to stick with a standard internal combustion vehicle.  The cost difference between the hybrids and gas powered vehicles was to great.  As a result, I would loose any cost savings on fuel to monthly payments.  Once the fuel savings was factored in I would still pay an additional $130 to $140 per month over what my gas powered car cost per month. 

I also could not get a good answer to my question on the batteries.  They have a life expectancy of about five years.   What happens after that?  It’s impractical to replace the battery pack because they account for a substantial portion of the Hybrid.

Do you think the US is ready for plug-in cars? What about the fully electric plug-ins of ~10 years ago?

I didn’t know anything about them at the time, but I did see Who Killed the Electric Car? a few years ago. I don’t think most people outside CA knew that electric cars were actually being used for everyday driving by regular people. CA had even developed some infrastructure for these cars: plug-in stations.

According to the movie, electric cars were squashed by the government, automotive manufacturers, and of course Big Oil. All 3 still have quite a bit of power.  I do think we’re in a different place now, with $3.50 gas and an ongoing war, but I still wonder if plug-in hybrid cars will get a foothold.  

Of course, we also need to work out how to produce electricity with renewable resources so that we aren’t burning natural gas and coal to power our plug-in cars. . .