Earth Day Challenge Update: pictures, plugins and diesels

Well, it’s been a great launch to the HybridCenter Earth Day Challenge.  As you might have noted, our Who’s Got Hybrids? section was quite small, but it won’t be for long.  We’ve gotten over 100 testimonials and photos already, and a number of other owners who had testimonials ready, but no photos yet.  I know many of you are anxious to see yourselves up on our site (we're excited, too), but we’ll need a bit of time to get all these photos formatted and up, so give us a week or two and you’ll be seeing a much expanded web feature.

Thanks also to the nearly one thousand people who have already signed up for our new Driving Change Network.  A number of folks have already written in with questions that will be best answered by both our technical experts and on-the-ground hybrid owners, so we’ll start what should be a great exchange of information with this new network at the end of the Challenge.

As you might expect, there are a lot more people coming to look at HybridCenter.org for the first time.  We’ve gotten a couple of repeat comments/questions from these folks that could use a quick answer, and Hybridblog is just the place to do it.

1) Bill Nye, the extension cord, and plugin hybrids: A number of plugin hybrid advocates have the impression that Bill Nye’s photo of him holding an extension cord by his Prius is meant as a “slap” at the plugin hybrid concept.  I understand that those heavily invested in promoting plugin or all electric vehicle technology might be sensitive to this, but that’s simply not the case.  Indeed, we at HybridCenter have been talking about plugins for quite some time.  Jason Mark, the director of the UCS Clean Vehicles Program, blogged about it specifically.  He noted our hopes for plugin development and the potential market, but recognized the  challenges ahead.  I echoed some of those same sentiments in this blog.  You’ll also note that we talk about plugin hybrids in our A New Road report. 

So why is Bill holding the cord?  Because the myth that all hybrid vehicles need to be plugged in is still very pervasive, and is a barrier to the mainstream growth of the hybrid market.  Note this BusinessWeek article that rates the “plug in myth” as #1.  While we at UCS are quite interested in plugin technology development and HybridCenter will continue to cover plugin development, we also believe that there is tremendous need, and potential, to push “no plug” hybrid technology in a cleaner, more efficient direction, and to push it far more widely to the public. Dispelling the “must plug” myth is part of that effort.

2) Diesel & Biodiesel: Seems there are lots of diesel advocates and biodiesel supporters out there as well looking at HybridCenter for the first time.  This is an area we covered extensively in a blog by our vehicles engineer Don Anair (aka “Sharkey”) that featured a lively exchange in the comments section.  The potential of diesel technology, and its current limitations, are explored in our Diesel Dilemma report.  A note that I made in this blog is the fact that no diesel vehicle can currently apply for the advanced technology vehicle tax credits because they cannot yet meet the minimum smog-forming emissions standard to do so.  Biodiesel has both potential and hurdles, and that is something we explore in this biodiesel FAQ.  Remember if you have questions that go beyond hybrids, many of the answers will be available on our UCS Clean Vehicles homepage. 

Thanks to all who have written in and joined the network.  We’ll keep you posted periodically as to how the challenge is going.  Thanks to all, like Mary Laiuppa in San Diego (see her comment on the last blog), for helping to spread the word about the challenge with emails, links, and chatrooms.  We can use all the help we can get!

Posted by:  ScottN

Comments

[altfuels]

Unfortunately, the success of the automakers in convincing the public (and policymakers) that "plugging in = bad" has turned around to bite those of them now selling hybrids, as noted in this discussion of the "plug in myth." However, in spite of this, many hybrid models aren't selling badly at all! My understanding is that the ones doing less well are the two-seat Insight (few people want a two-seater unless it's sporty) and some of the "muscle" and "hollow" hybrids with negligible fuel economy improvements for the investment of technology (and money). Somebody who's actually plugged into marketing statistics could correct me on this, of course, but at the very least it's clear that the "plug in myth" is not preventing, say, Toyota from selling every Prius they can build. I would say that much more effort should go into educating consumers that the "hybrid" label doesn't mean "much better fuel economy" unless you choose the right vehicle.

As long as I'm scribbling, I should note that using emotionally loaded phrases like "heavily invested" and "sensitive to this" makes it look a lot like you are dismissing criticism of your handling of the plug-in concept by claiming it is motivated by hysteria. I _do_ have a lot of emotional investment in alternative fuels, and specifically electric vehicles--I have been tremendously frustrated for more than a decade by GM's under- and anti-promotion of their wonderful EV1, and would have snapped one up the first day if they actually had been _sold_--but I try to keep my comments calm, and I think the reasons for plug-in transportation (PHEVs or battery EVs) make cold, logical sense.

According to a 2000 staff report from the California Air Resources Board, the inevitable degradation with age of the emission control systems that are needed to make gasoline vehicles, including non-plug-in hybrids, run clean when new, combined with the improving cleanliness of electrical power generation, means that a battery EV charged from the California power mix will run 95% cleaner than even the cleanest (PZEV) gasoline vehicles, including hybrids, over their lifetimes. (Even outside California with coal in the mix, you still come out ahead except, I understand, for a small uptick in sulfur dioxide.) The reason I keep hammering away at this is that the automakers have done their best to confuse the issue, and the upshot is that the public perception seems to be "since we have hybrids now and will have hydrogen vehicles in the future, we don't need those icky, inconvenient alternative fuels like electricity and natural gas." Toyota's repeated claims that the Prius is 90% cleaner than conventional cars omits the important words "when new"--the ratio is a lot lower when emission-control degradation is factored in--and they also fail to mention that many non-hybrid vehicles, starting with the 2001 Nissan Sentra, are equally clean. Also, the first brochure I picked up for the Ford Escape hybrid says it is 99.4% cleaner than "unregulated vehicles"--this is probably true, but useless, since "unregulated vehicles" haven't been sold new in forty years! But the average consumer will see this and think "gosh, 99.4% cleaner than the non-hybrid vehicles on dealer lots today." In light of this, any actions that undermine today's alternative fuels, i.e., those that have been on the road (EV1, my natural-gas van, the EDrive plug-in Prius) in a form other than million-dollar prototypes, only aid and abet the automakers' largely successful efforts to relegate them to the history books. (It is interesting to note that every automaker except Honda either cut back or killed outright their natural-gas vehicle lineups as soon as they had a hybrid to promote.) And, for those who are serious about hydrogen in the future, in ten years are we going to be hearing "but we already have hybrids--why do we need those icky, inconvenient alternative fuels like hydrogen?"

[Marc Geller]

Plug-in capability is the only way to redeem hybrids, which have had lower mpg with every new hybrid vehicle. Insight 60mpg; Prius/Civic; 50mpg; Escape 30mpg; Silverado 25? And without gasoline, they just won't go. Adding the plug gives consumers the option to use cleaner, cheaper, domestic electricity instead of oil. UCS can support gasoline-only hybrids as one way to reduce gasoline usage, but they ought to educate consumers about the real savings that will be achieved with plug-in hybrids.

[Linda Nicholes]

The UCS Hybrid Center says that an intentionally nerdy-looking Bill Nye pictured with his floppy, flacid extension cord and accompanied by the statement that plugging in is a myth does not send a negative message?

You CAN'T be serious!

I am one of those people "that are heavily invested in promoting plug-in or all-electric vehicle technology" and yes, I'm "sensitive to this." Gasoline hybrids such as the Prius could easily be promoted without simultaneously dissing the notion of a plug-in hybrid. Plug-in technology needs to be "plugged" at every opportunity. Fortunately for all clean air advocates, UCS does hold a powerful microphone. Why doesn't the organization use that microphone to promote the BEST technology that will receive the best results? Current hybrids do have small batteries, true, but these batteries are charged from the internal combustion engine that runs on WHAT? Answer: Gasoline.

On the other hand, plug-in hybrids can be charged from clean, renewable sources such as the sun. Plug-in hybrids can reach mpg in the stratospheric range of at least 100 mpg; more than doubling what a present day production Prius can boast in everyday driving conditions. And NOW (and I emphasize that word) Prius's have successfully been converted to the plug with conversion kits. These cars are moving NOW (there's that word again) on California freeways. At the moment there are only a very few such vehicles. But guess what? Early, high-profile adapters are already lined up to convert.

I ought to know. My not-so-high-profile Prius is waiting in line.

What a shame that Toyota doesn't run with this very doable technology NOW (darn word just keeps croping up; doesn't it?)instead of waiting until another OEM beats them to the punch. For instance, stodgy old Daimler Chrysler has laready developed a plug-in van for fleet use . . .well . . . NOW.

Stop trying to rationalize your inconsistent message on plug-in hybrids, UCS. Step up to the best technology plate . . . NOW!

[altfuels]

Uh, a word of clarification--several people who have read postings on this blog about the "plug in myth," and who have responded here and elsewhere, seem to have misunderstood what is being called a myth. These readers appear to think that UCS (and Bill Nye) are dismissing as a myth the assertion (e.g., by me in my posting above) that plug-in vehicles are cleaner or more efficient than non-plug-in hybrids. UCS bloggers here have, in fact, raised questions about this assertion (for example at http://hybridblog.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/12/hybridcenter_ma.html and http://hybridblog.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/11/hybridcenter_ma_1.html , both of which I replied to); however, they aren't so dismissive of the idea as to call it a myth! The "myth" they are addressing is the idea that some consumers seem to have that "hybrids have to be plugged in," simple as that. Since automakers have done a very effective job of convincing consumers that "plugging in = bad," this "myth" can dissuade potential buyers from considering hybrids, and so UCS is trying to dispel it by getting out the word that you don't have to plug in today's hybrids (since, of course, you _can't_ plug them in). If you read my lengthy comment above, you'll see that I think UCS is overly worried about this, to the point that they are undermining plug-in hybrids (as opposed to merely ignoring them); however, in their defense, they aren't so hostile as to call them a "myth!"

[Mark Wiener]

If one compares the cost of photovoltaics with whatever fluid fuel de jour, PV is less expensive than $3/gallon fuel or gaseous equivalent. In sunny California, a 3KWp array provides enough electricity for a 50 mile daily commute in a nice PHEV. The combination of PHEV-utility interactive and PV and wind provides electric utilities with a peak reserve for free. The reluctance of environmentally minded organizations to aggressively promote utility interactive PHEV is obscene.

[Dirk van de Broek]

i have signt up for Driving Change Network and i never really undertand it.