Romm, J.J., & Frank, A.A. (April 2006 CE). Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction. Scientific American, pp. 72-79. Well written article that covers much of the topics on Priuschat. Concludes that a plug-in hybrid should be able to travel three to four times farther on a kilowatt-hour of renewable electricity than a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle could. General overview of 2006 Hybrid Model Lineup. Based on current trends in fuel costs and climat concerns, a broad market transition is expected around 2020 CE (14 years). I expect things will occur sooner.
Thanks! Accessed the article through the university lib - Very well written and interesting article. Hopefully you are right about the time frames for the plug-ins. I would love to be able to get a pre-market plug in hybrid in about 5 years.
I expect to see Toyota lead the pack and offer a PHEV within five years. Toyota proved concept with the RAV4 EV. Why isn't the current offering of a RAV4 a PHEV?!
I'm behind in my SciAm reading. Heck, I'm still trying to figure out Omega. It'll be next month before I get to this month's issue. Thanks for the trailer! Now I'm more excited to get to it.
"Why isn't the current offering of a RAV4 a PHEV?! " Ask Darrell, my new hero: www.darrelldd.com. It's all there. Read the ENTIRE website. Very well documented. Basically CARB gave in to car companies and oil companies and backed out of the ZEV mandate allowing fuel-cell cars to somehow become the greatest thing. But since FOUR TIMES the energy is required to make a fuel-cell car go as far as an electric car...well, you see that oil just loves that equation! So sad the way big corporate interests get in the way of things that truly would benefit all who breathe on this rock. Plus range is less in a fuel-cell car versus an electric. Plus they are EASILY 10 years down the road. Freezing temp operation? Storage/energy unit? C'mon. The list is long. Battery tech is here and now and so are electrics.
It would be even better if they made a ev vehicle that could regenerate the electricity .... Wasnt there an aritcle about plug in hybrids, that making the betterys fully charge & drin would kill them faster?
All the EVs on Darrell's website that he's owned/driven the past 4 years or so have regen. All were plug-in battery only. The Rav is consistently drained to near zero and is going strong (NiMH, same as Prius pack, maybe different modules or architecture?).
