Plug-in Prius spotted in Charlotte

wait, our power has been randomly going off and resetting all our electronics once per day for months and they can't get that worked out... but they can do a plug in prius?!?!

 

well, nice to see Duke Power doing something with all that money I've paid them over the years......... Now, if they'd just invest in wind, water, or something other than coal, that crap is ruining our mountains.

 

Competing with Myself

I don't know what electrical power goes for in the rest of the universe, but in the San Francisco Bay area we are mostly parishoners of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). During the 1970s, the California state government built or improved almost no roads. The thought process was that if the roads were just awful, people would stop driving. That went well.

There are still many in gummint who are under the impression that people will drive some distance just for the thrill of driving on a new road, not because they have a need to be anywhere near that road. These people are easily identified; they use words such as "stakeholder" several times within a short period when a news camera shows up.

PG&E's job used to be to provide electrical power. Their current job is paying their way out of bankruptcy, making it easier for customers to get money to them faster, and scolding us for using electrical power. In defiance of conventional economics, we now pay more for increasing usage, even though fixed costs don't change.

So if I were to plug my vehicle in to charge at night, I'd be paying top dollar per kilowatt-hour. It would put me into yet a higher tier of increasingly more expensive household power.

For now, at least, it don't make no sense. I am extremely happy with the compromise we have in hybrid vehicles. A little on-board power plant sure beats running out of electrons at a time of crisis.

I have seen the next generation of diesel engines using low-sulfur fuel. THEY STILL STINK.

 

oldensign,

There are some ways around it (I'm assuming you are on E1, where you get a baseline amount of electricity and are charged in stages up to 400% of the base cost at the highest stage).

1) You could switch to E6 or E7, time of use. PG&E will charge you about 3x for electricity used between noon and 6 pm, but "normal" rates after 6 pm until noon. However, if you are home during the day or using a lot of energy during the day, it may not be worth it.

2) November has come and the "winter rates" for electricity have kicked in. They are much lower than the non winter rates (for E7, the on peak rate drops from about $0.30 per kwh to $0.09 per kwh), so you could charge during these months for much cheaper.

In the end, it is about doing a numerical analysis and seeing if it is cheaper to plug and charge vs fill up at the pump.

.......if you want to........lol

 

They're number 55 on Calcar's conversion list :

http://www.calcars.org/where-phevs-are.html


Duke Energy, Prius by Hymotion and Advanced Vehicle Research Center, July 2007, (Charlotte, NC). Contact Mike Allison at [email protected].

I saw them on the news just the other day. Calcar's was parked outside some car manufacturer's meeting in CA and they converted a Prius right outside their doors while the conference was going on..

S.

 

Here is an article about it: Toyota Prius cruises around Charleston at 100 mpg

 

thanks for the post Danny... its a long slow process, but even this little bit will turn people onto electric. as more people see it, more money will flow its way. that is the only way, oil dependence will be overcome...gotta have the money

 

Here are the pictures of the car I saw...didn't try to clock his MPH, but he was probably doing the posted speed limit. Saw this just across the NC/SC state line near Fort Mill, SC, heading south.

The decal work looked nice. There was a plug-in port on the rear bumper, just below the tail light. You should be able to see it in the second picture.

Tim

 

Dang, I'm really wanting one of those!!