LA Auto Show: Plug-In Advocates Throw a Different Demonstration

Rechargeable batteries added to Prius can boost fuel economy to 100 mpg. 

By Scott Doggett, contributor

Here's the news as Jay Leno might deliver it:

"A distinguished panel of judges gave the 2008 Green Car of the Year Award to Chevrolet for a hybrid SUV that gets 21 miles per gallon. At the same time and just across the street, three geeks demonstrated for the nth time how to modify a Toyota Prius so it gets more than 100 miles per gallon —almost five times the fuel economy of  the award-winning Chevy. I don't know about you but I think the judges may have smoked a little too much 'green tobacco' in their youth."

Granted, the geeks — all CalCars engineers — weren’t mass-producing a 100-mpg vehicle. Nor were they making a super-clean, 35-mpg diesel sedan like the Mercedes-Benz E340 Bluetec, a sexy fuel-cell sedan like Honda's 68-mpg FCX Clarity, or an affordable micro-compact runabout like the Smart Fortwo that's rated at 50 mpg; 69 mpg for the European diesel version. (All are arguably "greener" than the Tahoe Hybrid, but for various reasons weren't eligible for the green car award, whose judging panel really did include Leno).

But on a patch of hot blacktop across the street from the LA Auto Show on Thursday, all but ignored by the 3,500 accredited journalists attending the climate-controlled car show's media preview, the three CalCars engineers spent the morning converting a Toyota Prius gasoline-electric hybrid capable of 50-plus mpg into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that's more than twice as fuel efficient.

CalCars team (from left)  Randy Reisinger,  Ron Gremban  and Felix Kramer are serious plug-in advocates.

The conversion, which consisted mainly of installing a plug-in/rechargeable nickel-metal hydride battery pack into the tool tray space above the Prius' spare tire compartment and doing some nifty wiring, was sponsored by the Freedom From Oil Campaign, an advocacy group that often blasts carmakers for publicly touting their eco-credentials at auto shows while fighting progress on fuel efficiency and emissions in the courts.

But instead of bashing automakers yesterday, the handful of activists who addressed the 25 or so attendees at the plug-in demonstration spent most of their energy explaining plug-in technology. "It’s as if you’re adding a second small fuel tank to the car, and this fuel tank you fill with electricity instead of gasoline and you use it first,"  said CalCars co-founder Felix Kramer.

In other words, after starting the plug-in vehicle, the car's electric motor powers the modified Prius as far as it can go on a single charge (typically, 14 or 15 miles using NiMH batteries or 30 using lithium-ion batteries); after that, the gasoline engine takes over.

Also, every time the vehicle's speed reaches 34 mph, the gasoline-powered motor kicks in, no matter how many – or few – miles have been traveled.

This is due to Prius programming that CalCars' techs won’t touch (Toyota, however, has presented researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Irvine with Priuses it converted to plug ins and the software on the two cars has been modified to allow the cars to hit 62 miles per hour before fuel consumption shifts from electricity to gasoline).

Leading the conversion demonstration was Kramer, a tall, thin man with a wisp of moustache on a lean face and a ready answer for every hybrid question lobbed at him. 

Q: With superior, mass-produced lithium-ion car batteries perhaps less than a year away, aren't automakers just being prudent holding off on plug-in vehicles until the Li-ion battery is available?

A: I remember at various times after I got my first computer, in 1979, that many people said, "I'm not going to get one yet because a lot of people say they are going to get better and be cheaper." I remember saying, "but I need a computer now." We need cleaner cars now.

Kramer says grassroots engineers like him can do pretty good conversions, "but we won't all win until carmakers do the job right."

By mass-producing plug-in hybrids, the auto industry will make them affordable, lowering the cost of the conversion components from $10,000 to possibly less than $3,000, he said.

"And they could start now, with 'good-enough' batteries in the first few thousand cars, knowing that by the time they've refined the product and built hundreds of thousands they'll have even better cars."

Kramer says CalCars' mission is to hammer home a simple message: "Let's get started with plug-in hybrids now using good-enough technology."

The big strength of a plug-in hybrid is that it only requires presently available technology and infrastructure. Assuming you have an electrical outlet in your garage for overnight recharging and an extension cord, you’re good to go. Compare that to hydrogen fuel-cell and ethanol technologies that require special filling stations.

Plug-in vehicles also provide savings at the pump, help strengthen national security by reducing our reliance on foreign oil, and slow global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Kramer says.

So just why did the judges pick the Tahoe Hybrid for top-green-vehicle honors? For starters, it is the industry's first application of hybrid technology in a full-size SUV. While a few vehicles with V-6 and V-8 engines are now being offered with hybrid options, most hybrid technology has been incorporated into mid-size or smaller vehicles with four-cylinder engines because that is where big fuel economy gains are most readily achieved.

Achieving meaningful fuel economy increases on large vehicles of greater weight where substantial cargo hauling and towing may be needed was a more difficult challenge. The Tahoe Hybrid features seating for up to eight passengers, 60-cubic-feet of cargo volume with the second and third row seats folded, the ability to carry up to 1,400 pounds of cargo, and a tow rating of up to 6,200 pounds.

Still, 21 mpg doesn’t have nearly the wow factor that driving a modified Prius does.

After witnessing the conversion of a standard hybrid into one packing a "second tank" of electricity, we got to ride in Kramer's personal plug-in Prius on a drive around the convention center. When we returned to our starting point, a display indicated that the gasoline motor had never come on. All of the juice had been electric and the ride had not required a drop of gas.

Now that's cool.

Posted by

John O'Dell November 16, 2007, 11:50 AM

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