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History

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Revision as of 05:23, 11 March 2006 by Rjf (talk | contribs) (→‎Current Hybrids: text moved to PHEV page.)
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Formed in 1967 in San Jose, California, the EAA is a non-profit educational organization that promotes the advancement and widespread adoption of Electric Vehicles. This EAA-PHEV project began in October of 2005 in order to expand those efforts into the PHEV area by providing general information to curious parties and detailed conversion instruction to help guide experienced EV Converters through the process.

CalCars History...

PlugInPartners History...

Production PHEVs History...

Since this is a History page, it might be a good place to discuss the history of Hybrids.

Current Hybrids

Current Production Hybrids such as the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius may turn out to be the missing link of vehicles. They are solely gas fueled car that do electric tricks, but they are not Electric Cars as they can not use electricity as an external fuel source. Rather than a way to transition away from gasoline they are merely a way to slightly reduce consumption. It's the transitioning away from gas as a fuel source which should be a major transportation development priority, as the president said "America is addicted to oil", Plug-In Hybrids may be a big part of the solution.

Since currently no production PHEVs exist, Hybrid Conversions are hybrids which have been modifies such that they can use gas or electricity as sources of fuel, they can plug-in to fuel up with gas or electricity. These are usually one of a kind modified hybrids, but might also include EV's with pusher or genset range extending trailers.

Prius PHEVs

There have been a number of sucessful Prius conversions. Ron of CalCars has a PbA conversion named PriusPlus and EDrive is expected to use Valance Li-ion batteries in conversions for consumers. Both are based on the 2004 or newer (Gen2) Toyota Prius and are now capable of charging from the grid using standard 120vac outlets. They can operate as pure EV's at speeds up to 34mph for the range of their larger batteries, which is about 10 miles for PbA and 30 miles with Li-ion batteries. They also delivering vastly improved mileage at higher speeds in an EV-Heavy type of Mixed-mode which delivers roughly twice the gas mileage durring trips of twice their electric ranges (20 and 60 miles). Of course one should also consider the electric power required to recharge in these 100+ mpg situations (<$1 per gallon equivalent). During extended drives they operate just as a normal Prius and deliver their usual mileage.

See also

News Articles

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