101507 News

Coalition charged up to promote plug-in hybrid cars

October 15, 2007

By Kristen Poland,

Staff Writer

It’s tough enough remembering to charge your cell phone and iPod each night, but soon the most important thing to plug in before you head to bed might be your car.

A push to educate consumers about the benefits and advantages of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in North and South Carolina is kicking off in Charleston this month with the launch of the Plug-In Hybrid Coalition of the Carolinas.

Charleston resident James Poch, the coalition’s executive director, recently began driving his prototype plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius. Aside from the sponsor logos and advertisements emblazoned on its sides, it looks much like any other Prius, but tucked away just above the license plate is an outlet where an extension cord can be attached and plugged into any standard 120-volt household electrical outlet.

The difference between plug-in hybrids and the hybrids currently on the road is that the plug-ins contain a bigger battery pack with enough storage capacity to satisfy average daily driving requirements—about 33 miles—solely on electricity.

An overnight charge will allow the Prius to run for about 30 miles using pure electricity at low speeds, or a combination of electricity and gasoline at high speeds. Other models can go up to 60 miles using electricity. As a result, the coalition says, the average city commute would use very little gasoline, allowing the car to achieve up to 100 mpg.

The vehicles aren’t available yet to the public, but there are about 70 prototype plug-in hybrid electric cars and a handful of school buses on U.S. roads right now. The prototypes are available through Toyota’s Prius pilot program, which aims to gauge consumer interest in plug-ins.

A study released in July by the Electric Power Research Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council found that widespread use of plug-in hybrids in the United States could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 450 million metric tons annually by 2050, which would be the equivalent of removing 82.5 million passenger cars from the road.

The study measured the impact of increasing numbers of plug-in hybrids between 2010 and 2050. The study found that widespread use of plug-in hybrids would improve nationwide air quality and reduce petroleum consumption by 3 million to 4 million barrels per day in 2050.

Poch worked with Plug-In Partners, a national grassroots initiative based in Austin, Texas, and with CalCars, a similar initiative in California, to form the Plug-In Hybrid Coalition of the Carolinas. Poch enlisted program sponsors including SCE&G, Duke Energy and Progress Energy. He received his Prius plug-in hybrid prototype in early October and is setting up events in cities throughout North and South Carolina to show off his new wheels.

The Plug-In Hybrid Coalition of the Carolinas will debut Oct. 30 in Myrtle Beach at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Governmental Fleet Managers Association. Poch will speak about plug-in hybrids at the meeting and will ask attendees to commit to the Plug-In Carolinas Challenge.

Poch wants participants to consider what they’d want or need to purchase a plug-in hybrid. For example, would they buy the plug-ins if the cars cost no more than $3,000 over conventional models, if battery packs included a three-year warranty or if the return on investment were reached within four years?

“Our goal is to accelerate the adoption of the technology. We want to get business, civic and environmental groups together to learn about the technology and then we want to ask them to set the criteria by which they would buy a hybrid,” Poch said. “Once we outline our commitment, we’ll take those demands to the automakers.”

Right now, converting a $23,000 Toyota Prius hybrid to a plug-in hybrid costs between $15,000 and $24,000, according to Poch. For many consumers, the total price tag of between $38,000 and $47,000 would be difficult to justify when the net savings are estimated at about $80 a month or less than $1,000 a year. Poch says he expects to save $100 a month in gasoline, but figures his electric bill will increase by about $20.

Still, by the time the cars are available for purchase, the price should be much lower.

“We don’t expect people to buy at this price, but we wanted to get the cars on the road,” Poch said. “By the time we market these in mass quantity, we aim to have the premium around $1,000 to $3,000.”

State Rep. Ben Hagood, R-Charleston, said he thinks state legislators might consider incentives for plug-in hybrids once the cars are on the market. The state already offers some incentives for purchasing hybrid vehicles in the form of sales and income tax credits.

One area of concern among environmentalists is that plug-in hybrids are simply a matter of changing from one source of pollution to another. However, according to Dana Beach, executive director of the Coastal Conservation League, with utility companies moving toward using green energy sources, this shouldn’t be a problem. In addition, when considering the cost of processing and transporting petroleum, the energy conversion is much higher with electricity.

“It’s much more efficient when you consider the energy input vs. the energy output. You’re eliminating the greenhouse gas that comes from petroleum and it becomes an essentially benign impact on the environment,” Beach said. “The most amazing thing would be to combine these cars that run on highly efficient biodiesels with the plug-in hybrid model.”

A study released late last year by the U.S. Department of Energy found that off-peak electricity production and transmission capacity could fuel 84% of the nation’s 198 million vehicles if they were plug-in hybrid electric models.

“Since the cars would be charging primarily during off-peak power times, they would be using energy not already being used,” said Patricia Freshwater, public affairs coordinator for SCE&G. “It wouldn’t increase the need for more electricity or increase the demand for generation.”

In addition, Freshwater said that within the two or three years it would likely take to make plug-in hybrids available to the general public, SCE&G will have greatly increased the availability of green power.

“We are evaluating green energy opportunities, and we will be presenting more information to customers after New Year,” Freshwater said. “We will absolutely have green power down the road.”