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Welcome to the EAA-PHEV.org website (Electric Auto Association - Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle), which formerly lived at SeattleEVA.org. You can join in right now at the discussion pages attached to each article. You can subscribe to or browse our Maillist for the latest developments and discussion regarding plug-in hybrid conversions. Our focus is currently on enhancing the documentation of Prius PHEV conversions similar to CalCars first PriusPlus conversion. Current Hybrids are natural donor platforms because they already have most of the needed electric propulsion components, so the conversion process deals primarily with integrating larger battery packs. A charger is also required, though ideally the existing motor controllers might be used as grid chargers or perhaps even V2G interfaces.

Main articles of interest:

Current News

The DVD of Who Killed the Electric Car? and the book Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America are on sale now at pluginamerica.com. A portion of each sale benefits Plug In America. Their prices are as good as any you'll find and you'll be supporting a good cause.


PBS and NOVA are holding "Open Production" on a new documentary named Car of the Future. Just the kind of thing we can probably help out with!

Maker Fair

Check Inaugural Maker Faire#Post EVent for posts, photos, and even video of the April 22-23 (and 24th) EVent where we converted a stock Toyota Prius Hybrid into a PHEV. There you will also find links to EVents that the car named Blue and it's owner Ryan will be attending in Washington state. For more information Contact Ryan by phone or email.

Movies

Movies to watch this summer and other videos to watch right now.

  • An Inconvenient Truth - Feature Movie Trailer
    • Watch the trailer for 'An Inconvenient Truth'. The film eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Al Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global warming.
  • Who Killed the Electric Car? - Feature Movie Trailer - Centered around the GM EV1
    • A series of interviews with experts, customers, and enthusiasts regarding the controversial decision by General Motors to kill its own brilliantly successful EV1 electric car program, which was followed quickly by the secretive, dramatic, and expensive seizure and crushing of most of the 1,100 high performance, zero emissions, gasoline-free, market ready EV1 vehicles in existence.
  • PlugInPartners.com - Good short movie, touches on many aspects.
    • is a national grass-roots initiative to demonstrate to automakers that a market for flexible fuel PHEVs exists today. "Forget Hydrogen, Forget Hydrogen, Forget Hydrogen". "It's a coalition between the Tree-Huggers, Do-Gooders, Sod-Busters, Cheap Hawks, and the Evangelicals" --James Woolsey, former director of the CIA. Sign the petition, watch the webcast, and spread the word. In short, a PHEV delivers all of the advantaged of a BEV while retaining the unlimited range of traditional gasoline fueled vehicles. See our History Page for more information and links to everything we know about this emerging technology.

Basics

Here on the main page we should address some of the basics, such as:

  • What is an Electric Vehicle (EV), Hybrid EV (HEV), and Plug-In Hybrid EV (PHEV)?
    • EV - EV's have a rich History, having been more popular than gas vehicle in the early 1900's, These vehicles use electricity as their fuel source. See SEVA:Electric vehicle.
    • HEV - The current generation of production Hybrids are 100% gas fueled vehicles with a few EV tricks like Regen Braking and no wasteful Idling.
    • PHEV - These vehicles would combine the advantages of both HEV and EV vehicles. They would use cheap, clean, and domestic electricity for short trips and daily commutes, displacing or eliminating oil consumption and CO2 pollution. However they would also retain the ability to travel long distances when utilizing the existing gas or diesel refueling infrastructure.
  • What's all the fuss about "plugging in", what difference does it make?
    • CalCars' Plug-In Hybrids page has a good explanation; Ron Gremban's PHEVs: the Technical Side presentation notes follows up with a technical overview of gasoline vs. flex-fuel vs. Diesel vs. hybrid vs. plug-in hybrid vehicles, followed by the (positive) social implications of PHEVs and especially flex-fuel PHEVs.
  • What changes do we make to convert a gasoline-only hybrid to a Plug-In Hybrid?
    • Basically, one either replaces or adds to the vehicle's hybrid battery for greatly increased energy storage capacity, adds a charger that plugs into a wall outlet, and arranges for the hybrid system to use more (or only) electricity and less (or no) gasoline for propulsion until the battery is mostly depleted. This last bit is the tricky part, as the control systems of all current hybrid vehicles are proprietary and not designed to function in this manner. Keep in mind that such changes would be trivial for the OEM to implement themselves, perhaps we can convince them to do so.
    • In the Toyota Prius companies like EDrive and Hybrids-Plus have simply developed their own replacement for the OEM battery management subsystems and replaced the battery pack. Others projects like PriusPlus, Hymotion, and PiPrius have discovered ways of manipulating the OEM battery management system in order to make it act as desired. The latter projects utilise what is know as Hybrid Battery Pack Configurations in which we take advantage of State Of Charge Drift in order to accomplish State Of Charge Manipulation which allows us to utilize our additional battery capacity.
  • What does the number after the PHEV represent, how do we measure their mileage and performance?
    • This number represents the electric propulsion range of the PHEV before it must depend upon its internal combustion engine for motive power. In English-system (vs. metric) countries like the U.S, it is in miles. A PHEV-20, for example, has a 20-mile electric-only range. Due to its limitations, the PRIUS+ is more complex to describe, as, in mixed city and highway driving it is only 50:50 electric/gasoline. CalCars' original PRIUS+, though actually a PHEV-10, generally travels 20 miles at double its hybrid gasoline mileage (rather than 10 miles powered purely electrically) before its battery is depleted.
  • What types of hybrids are there? Full, Mild, Weak, Series, Parallel, Series-Parallel, ...
    • The Honda configuration such as that in the Insight is a Parallel system, in the the ICE and Motor contribute motive power in parallel.
    • The Toyota configuration such as that in the Prius is a Series-Parallel system, in that the ICE and Motor can provide motive power each on their own or in parallel, in addition the ICE can generate electric power via the Motor(s) which also act as Generators.
    • The new SEVA:Chevy Volt Prototype is a Series system, and probably the ideal configuration for a number of reasons. It ensure a fully capable electric power train which should include enough battery capacity for commuting, and should also have the ability to Plug-in to refuel. The generator portion of the system can then be downsized, modular, removable, and easily able to utilize any one of a number of technologies such as ICE, Micro Turbine, Stirling, to perhaps even FuelCell and Mr. Fusion.
    • Full - Spin used to differentiate vehicles with EV-Only modes, though which do not use Electric Fuel sources.
    • Mild - Spin used to describe vehicles which have substantial amounts of motive power provided by electric motors though do not have EV-Only modes.
    • Weak - Vehicles which are barely Hybrids at all as they have very little or even no electric motive power, often they only include no-idle technology.
    • Real - PHEV's are Real Hybrids in that their fuel sources are Hybrid in nature which is far more important than the minor efficiency improvements derived from the way that gas-only Hybrids (Full, Partial, or Mild) deliver power to the road via the utilization of electric motor and battery technologies. It's all about the Fuel Source!

EAA

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The Electric Auto Association (EAA) was 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.

Electric vehicles (EV) or (BEV) are a clean, quiet alternative to conventional automobiles, which are powered by petroleum derivatives that, when burned, emit noxious gases into the environment.

Electric Vehicles not only keep our Earth cleaner, their use preserves the earth's natural resources. EVs are a smart and efficient choice for personal transportation.

The EAA's mission is "to act as a public source of information about developments in electric vehicle technology, to encourage experimentation in the building of electric vehicles, and to organize public exhibits and events of electric vehicles to educate the public on the progress and benefits of electric vehicle technology."

CalCars

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CalCars.org The California Cars Initiative is a nonprofit startup. We're a group of entrepreneurs, engineers, environmentalists and consumers promoting high-efficiency, low-emission cars and harnessing buyer demand to help commercialize plug-in hybrids. Somewhat uniquely, we focus both on public policy and technology development.

Formed in 2002, our efforts for "100+MPG Hybrids" took off when we built PRIUS+, the world's first plug-in Prius). We've been working on others to show what can be done now with existing technology. Our efforts began to be noticed in early 2005 when we were covered in The New York Times, Business Week, TIME, Newsweek, National Public Radio, and local and network TV.

By early 2006, the solutions we promote had become so broadly welcomed that they were supported by President Bush. Yet they are still far from adoption. Our projects tackle national security, jobs and global warming -- at the same time.

Our goal: Get car makers to build Bettah PHEVs than we can convert ourselves.

PlugInPartners

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PlugInPartners.com is a national grass-roots initiative to demonstrate to automakers that a market for flexible fuel PHEVs exists today. "Forget Hydrogen, Forget Hydrogen, Forget Hydrogen". "It's a coalition between the Tree-Huggers, Do-Gooders, Sod-Busters, Cheap Hawks, and the Evangelicals". --James Woolsey, former director of the CIA. Sign the petition, watch the webcast, and spread the word. In short, a PHEV delivers all of the advantages of a BEV while retaining the unlimited range of traditional gasoline fueled vehicles.