Valvoline.com

Super Hybrids

Plug-and-play performance for even greater fuel efficiency

Earlier this summer, three dollars a gallon stood like a benchmark for unacceptable gasoline prices. Now, with record-breaking storms coming in record-breaking numbers and continued instability in the Middle East, the sky appears to be the limit for gas prices. If there ever was a time for innovative approaches to creating more fuel-efficient transportation, this is it.

230 MPG?!

Interestingly enough, tinkerers have become the primary inspiration for a new type of vehicle, the plug-in hybrid (PHEV). Like the hot rodders' obsession with high performance, these new-age tinkerers are pushing the limits of fuel efficiency. A California company, Energy CS, produced two Toyota Prius hybrids with lithium ion batteries, achieving an astounding 230mpg. As far back as 1972, Andy Frank, a University of California, Davis engineering professor, built a 250mpg plug-in hybrid from scratch and has since added seven more to his stable, including a converted, non-hybrid Ford Taurus and a Chevy Suburban.

More recently, Ron Gremban added 18 batteries to a Toyota Prius hybrid and now regularly gets 80mpg. Gremban's effort was to prove that the job could be done at a reasonable cost—a position maintained by CalCars Initiative, a San Francisco Bay area volunteer group. While most of the major auto manufacturers are just beginning to put aside old arguments against the safety and viability of plug-in hybrids, DaimlerChrysler is building 40 PHEV vans for commercial use. Toyota, meanwhile, has admitted that it could learn from the current crop of conversions.

Alliances

An unlikely partner with the environmental groups urging new automotive technologies is the Set America Free organization. Political conservatives such as former CIA director James Woolsey and President Reagan's undersecretary of defense, Frank Gaffney, argue that the American love affair with gas-guzzlers is a source of funding for terrorism, or at least those Middle Eastern governments that are believed to support terrorist organizations. Set America Free is just one of a number of alliances concerned with the country's energy security; all are looking closely at the PHEV.

Driving Technology

The technology driving these plug-in hybrids is nearly self-explanatory. The conventional hybrid Prius uses a gas engine with an electrical motor that runs off of nickel-metal hydride batteries. The gas engine shuts off at idle while the batteries, which are charged with electricity generated during braking as well as from other sources of wasted potential energy, maintain the vehicle's electrical accessories. Conventional hybrids are capable of getting up to 80mpg without the need or even the ability to be plugged in to a wall outlet.

In contrast to conventional hybrid batteries, with the PHEV, extra batteries can be charged while the vehicle is not in use. These batteries power the vehicle like an electrical car for a portion of its mileage. Gremban's PHEV, for example, runs for 20 miles on a 50/50 mix of gas and electricity. As the average American vehicle usage equals 30 to 40 miles per day, gasoline will only be consumed by PHEVs for a little more than half of the entire average daily driven distance.

Figures taken from hybridcars.com, indicate that plug-in hybrids run on all-electric power for 90 percent of all average driving. While individual mileage rates vary based on different types of driving, PHEVs are clearly more fuel-efficient than conventional hybrids. Once the batteries run out, the vehicle goes back to its gasoline mode, which isn't too bad in terms of gas mileage. Hybrids can get about twice the fuel economy of a conventional car (depending on the type of driving) while plug-in hybrids get about twice that of conventional hybrids. Some auto manufacturers concentrated only on conventional hybrids because they did not "have" to be plugged in. Now though, spin-doctors are touting the fact that "you get to plug in" your PHEV at your convenience and reap the full benefits of very high fuel efficiency.

Performance

According to the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, PHEVs perform on an equal par with conventional, gas-powered vehicles. A mid-size plug-in accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in less than nine seconds and can hit a top speed of 97 mph. As for the cost factor of this technology, the CalCars Initiative maintains that, once put into production, purchasing PHEVs may cost $3,000 to $5,000 more than standard hybrids. The cost of ownership over the life of the vehicle though will be lower than any car on the road today.

Looking at the "wheel-to-wheel" emissions of PHEVs, they come out ahead of conventional cars despite a point of criticism against electrical-grid dependent vehicles—nearly 50 percent of America's electrical generation is from coal. The term "wheel-to-wheel" defines the total emissions from extraction, processing, distribution and final use or tailpipe emissions of the fuel that actually powers the vehicle. For a gas-powered vehicle, this includes oil extraction and processing; for a plug-in, the generation of electrical power is factored in. The Institute maintains that a plug-in charged every night could reduce total emissions by as much as 50 percent.

There are a number of alternative technologies to produce cleaner cars and reduce our dependence on oil, foreign or domestic. Plug-ins are clearly one of the most viable of those alternatives.