MN Star/Tribune Articles

Editorial: Cars of the future deserve state backing
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Thirty years of engineering advances have made the standard automobile much more fuel-efficient and far less polluting. But this progress has been steadily eroded by consumer behavior -- we drive more miles each year, in ever-larger vehicles -- and, anyway, the gasoline engine's fundamental problems endure. Even the best waste energy, foul the air, accelerate global warming and shackle the nation's security, as well as its economy, to imported oil.

Until quite recently the only true alternative appeared to be the hydrogen-powered car, a revolutionary technology whose predicted arrival kept retreating farther into the future. Now it seems possible that a comparable breakthrough is just around the corner: a practical, affordable, high-performing car that runs on rechargeable batteries, home-grown biofuel and perhaps a dollop of gasoline.

As David Morris details on the cover of this section, the plug-in, hybrid, flexible-fuel car combines three familiar, road-tested technologies in a way that melds their advantages and removes their drawbacks. Like the all-electric car, it could go up to 50 miles -- more than most people travel in an average day -- on an overnight charge from a household outlet. Beyond that range, it would automatically switch to the high-mileage hybrid drive made popular by the gas/electric Toyota Prius, but could go the Prius one better by burning fuel that's up to 85 percent ethanol.

Prototypes have been getting their own road tests since about 1990, when the first version was built at the University of California-Davis. What may have seemed a cool but quirky idea back then has gained credence in parallel with rising oil prices and growing worry over supply disruptions. A chief proponent is James Woolsey, the former CIA director, who said recently, "The combination of 9/11 and $60-a-barrel oil is something that has changed a lot of people's mentality on this. This is a parade the participants are forming."

Those participants include a couple of dozen city and county governments, and more than 100 public power utilities, that helped found the Plug-In Partners campaign. Nine of those utilities are in Minnesota, whose wind power and ethanol resources make these vehicles even more attractive. In Texas, where wind power is expanding rapidly, Austin is trying to recruit 50 cities to join in jump-starting a market for the new vehicles by committing to buy them for municipal fleets, and providing purchase incentives to businesses and individuals.

In Minnesota, the House is considering a bill that commits state agencies to buying comparably priced plug-in hybrid cars, trucks and vans for state fleets whenever practicable. It also grants $100,000 to the automotive engineering program at Minnesota State University, Mankato for a demonstration project on converting existing vehicles to plug-in hybrids.

A Senate bill seeks strategies for promoting widespread purchase of plug-ins by private buyers, as well as the state, and for integrating the vehicles into the power grid. It would also explore possible incentives for building them at the Ford plant in St. Paul.

That last idea is a potent reminder that this new technology can provide horsepower for Minnesota's industries as well as its motorists. The plug-in parade is one we ought to join, beginning with these modest steps.