Plug-in: the hybrid car's big leap forward
Published on 7/3/2008
By Jason Lesley
jlelsey@gtowntimes.com
Jim Poch turns the key of his hybrid Toyota Prius ... and there's silence.
His modified, plug-in Prius can run about 30 miles on electricity.
Poch represents the Plugin Hybrid Coalition of the Carolinas (www.plugincarolina.org) and he was in Georgetown on Wednesday with his hybrid that gets around 100 miles per gallon by using an electric battery to supplement a gasoline engine.
"We plug in our cell phones and iPods, so why not our vehicles?" Poch asks.
Poch, of Charleston, hopes to organize a caravan of plug-in
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hybrid cars and school buses to travel across South Carolina, promoting battery technology.
"This is the next generation of hybrids," he says. "It has a bigger battery that can be plugged in at home."
The stumbling block to converting cars from gasoline to electric power is the cost.
Poch says the conversion kit and the rechargeable battery in his 100-mpg prototype costs $11,000 and voids parts of the car's warranty.
The next big step in electric cars will come with a better battery. Republican presidential candidate John McCain says he would favor offering a $300 million prize to the inventor who can solve the problems of a quick-charging battery that will power a car for 400 to 500 miles.
"There's a race to get that super battery," Poch says. "This plug-in hybrid is the link between those two things. What's great about my plug-in hybrid is if I want to go to Washington, D.C., I can do so, because I have a gasoline car. The sweet spot for this car is local driving -- church, school, the gym. For trips of 20 miles or less, I can go all-electric. For 40 miles, I can go with an electric assist."
A standard hybrid off a dealer's lot uses the energy created by the car's gasoline engine to charge its battery. "Every time you brake," Poch says, "you capture electricity."
The next generation will replace those nickel batteries with a lithium ion battery that has seven times the capacity and the ability to plug in and recharge at home.
Poch says $4-a-gallon gasoline is pushing the electric car forward ahead of schedule. "Automakers have found religion," he says. "Unfortunately, it takes years to go from concept to the street. The year 2010 should be a breakthrough year where we will see a large number of models from both the big players and the start-ups, including some Chinese cars," he says.
Those projected plug-ins include Vue 2009, Prius 2010, Volt 2010, and the Escape 2011.
Poch says by 2015, there will have been a dramatic change in the auto industry's cars designed for the average American family. Heavy-duty trucks and sport utility vehicles will be used for the loads they were originally intended.
The Plugin Hybrid Coalition of the Carolinas is sponsored primarily by power companies: SCE&G, Santee Cooper, Duke Energy, Progress Energy and PMPA (Precision Machined Products Association). Environmentalists have expressed concern that America would be trading one form of pollution in gasoline powered cars for another from coal-burning electric plants.
Poch says there is enough off-peak electrical capacity today to power 84 percent of the cars and light trucks in America. "If everyone plugs in at night, we would not need one more power plant," he says. "This is one of our best opportunities for the economy and national security we've got. We can reduce our petroleum use by 70 per cent, according to the Cambridge Research Association."
Former CIA director Jim Woolsey has pointed out that America is funding both sides in the War on Terror by its dependence on foreign oil.
"We prop up Venezuela and Russia," Poch says. "That's why I'm so passionate about this."
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