"Plug-Ins Go Under Microscope in "Real World" Study" Green Car Advisor

Plug-Ins Go Under Microscope in "Real World" Study

Despite all the talk about plug-in hybrids, none of the major carmakers are testing them with real people—although a few dozen are rolling over the roads in government and public utility agencies' test fleets.

That's about to change as the University of California's Davis campus, a hotbed of alternative fuel and power train technology development, begins its own two-year study of everyday people driving cars that combine gasoline internal combustion engines with rechargeable batteries and electric drive.

The program will involve 10 Toyota Prius hybrids—the Prius is the unofficial "state" car of the San Francisco Bay Area, where it is now the best-selling sedan in the region—that will be converted to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, for UC Davis' Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Research Center.

The university will loan the cars, for six- to eight weeks at a time, to a total of 100 families over the next two years.

The cars they'll be getting will be capable of driving up to 20 miles in all-electric mode before their batteries are drained and they revert to conventional hybrid operation—in which the electric motor gets its power solely from electricity generated on board when the brakes are applied.

The plug-in Prius conversions will use suitcase-sized lithium ion battery packs capable of being recharged from a standard 110-volt household electric outlet. The systems are being purchased from Hymotion, a Canadian manufacturer of plug-in conversion kits.

Drivers will be surveyed about their automotive preferences before, during and after their stints with the plug-ins, and the data will be crunched and sometime in late 2009 or early 2010 turned into what the university says will be the nation's first comprehensive consumer report on plug-ins.

Researchers at the university's Institute of Transportation Studies say that 75 percent of American drivers travel less than 40 miles per day and that the plug-in program is designed to see whether a car with 20-mile all-electric range can satisfy their needs.

"We know that existing hybrids offer environmental benefits and some savings on fuel costs, " said Tom Turrentine, a research anthropologist and director of the university's PHEV Research Center. "Plug-in hybrids offer improvements of those benefits."

Among other things, he said, plug-ins cost about 2.7 cents per mile to operate when running in all-electric mode [the cost varies depending on local electricity rates], compared to 7 cents a mile for conventional hybrids and 10 cents a mile for gasoline cars.