Plug-in hybrids and electricity emissions
I think plug-in hybrids are one of the best concepts floating around in the automotive world. Add some extra battery power to your Toyota Prius or Ford Escape hybrid, and a plug. Charge your batteries over night and most people will be able to go to work and back without using hardly any gasoline. Many have liked this idea, but questioned the gain in emissions since electricity is made with coal. Recent studies; however, by both the Electric Power Research Institute and the California Air Resources Board demonstrate that plug-in hybrids would drop total energy use per car by 45%, while reducing pollution and carbon dioxide emissions by 50% - after accounting for the additional electricity required to power the hybrid vehicles.
Labels: electric cars, Escape hybrid, Ford, Ford Escape hybrid, Hybrid Vehicles, plug-in hybrids, prius, toyota
posted by Dahcredyns at
4:13 PM
2 Comments:
A question springs to mind, given the current hybrid battery shortage:
Don't "plug-ins" require at least twice the batteries, and wouldn't that mean that you could build twice the number of "conventional hybrids" from the same number of batteries?
I'd think the total national gas usage would drop futher with the many-conventional rather than the few-plug-ins.
Just a thought
A Prius hybrid plug-in would require twice the batteries with today's technology.
If a breakthrough in hybrid batteries doesn't occur in the next few years, there won't be enough hybrids to ever affect national gas usage.
For this exact reason, J.D. Power believes that hybrids will tap out at 3% of the market by 2010.
I disagree. I think developments will make hybrid batteries significantly more efficient in the years to come, such as by the next generation Prius - eliminating the need for additional batteries.
Still, efficiency wouldn't solve the supply problem. So, there are definite barriers to hybrid marketshare success, but again, I believe that issue will be solved.
I guess my ultimate point is that if the battery shortage can be resolved, current technology could quite easily end foreign oil dependency without very costly fuel cells. While fuel cells will soon change the world, it could easily be a decade or two before that happens.
Plus, since I live in California, the idea of plugging my hybrid into a solar panel is about the coolest thing I can think of!
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