How to Support Plug-In/Gas-Optional Hybrids & CalCars
Aug 15, 2005 (From the CalCars-News archive)

This message, coming to CalCars News Subscribers by email, is also archived at:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news/message/105

We're receiving a deluge of email including many complimentary letters,
from people asking what they can do. Here are few things:
* Spread the word. We encourage all to forward the SUMMARY BELOW to your
email contact list, and email or print out and mail or hand out some of the
PDF documents listed at http://www.calcars.org/faq.html
* If you can connect us to high-wealth individuals who "get" what we're
about, we have very ambitious plans with extraordinary opportunities. I'm
sure if we can raise substantial funds, we'll have an institutional and
media impact that far eclipses what so far we've achieved..
* Similarly, we could use celebrity endorsements and supporters.
* If you're wired in with people who make fleet purchase decisions at
companies or in government, tell them about CalCars and send us their
contact info
* If you know two special categories: serial entrepreneurs and auto
industry veterans interested in a unique new opportunity: see basic info
about our QVM strategy at
http://www.calcars.org/sjmercury-vcinsider+calcars-opportunity.pdf
* If you want to contact Toyota to tell them you'd like a Prius or other
Toyota/Lexus/Scion GO-HEV, we suggest you contact your local dealer, and
feel free to send a copy of any email you write to priusplus@....

And one more IMPORTANT WAY:
Along with the email we're receiving donations, most at the $95 Charter
Sponsor level.

We've never asked the CalCars-News subscribers for contributions, but if
you haven't contributed yet, your doing so at this time will help us reach
our education and advocacy goals, move on to new conversions and
demonstrate the depth of support for PHEVs/GO-HEVs to automakers and others.

Any amount is welcome. It's tax-deductible -- and easy to do with a credit
card, PayPal or Check at http://www.calcars.org/support.html

Thanks for everything!


Below is a quick background summary on CalCars, Gas-Optional or Plug-In
Hybrids, PRIUS+ and Felix Kramer.

The California Cars Initiative (http://www.calcars.org) is a Palo
Alto-based nonprofit startup. We're a group of entrepreneurs, engineers and
other citizens promoting high-efficiency, low-emission cars and harnessing
buyer demand to help commercialize advanced technologies. Somewhat
uniquely, we focus both on public policy and technology development. Formed
in 2002, our efforts for "100+MPG hybrids" began to be noticed in early
2005 when we were covered in The New York Times, Business Week, TIME,
Newsweek, National Public Radio, etc. (See
http://www.calcars.org/kudos.html for print, audio and video clips.)

We're demonstrating the immediate opportunity and benefits of what are
variously called "gas-optional or plug-in" hybrids (GO-HEVs or PHEVs). The
next generation of hybrid cars can be based entirely on existing
components. They're basically like some current hybrids but with larger
batteries and the ability to re-charge conveniently, so local travel is
electric, yet the vehicle has unlimited range. While hybrids may cut
gasoline use by on-third, PHEVS can cut out another third. We see it as the
future pathway to multi-fuel and biofuel PHEVs -- the cars that get 500 MPG
of gasoline that people are talking about. And for advocates of fuel cells,
PHEVs make hydrogen cars more affordable by reducing the size of the fuel
cell stack and the amount of hydrogen stored.

We began with a prototype conversion we call "PRIUS+" to bring attention to
plug-in hybrids and encourage car makers to build them. We "green-tuned" a
stock 2004 Prius by adding batteries and grid-charging. (We replaced the
battery control system but didn't modify the hybrid controls.) Our
proof-of-concept used lead-acid batteries. We document our effort at our
open-source-style technology discussion group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/priusplus/ (see chronology from June 2004-May
2005 at http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/priusplus/message/421).

EDrive Systems LLC, a for-profit integration company in Southern California
(http://www.edrivesystems.com), installed even better lithium packs to get
100+MPG (plus costs of electric power). EDrive intends to begin selling
PRIUS+-style retrofits in early 2006, with a goal of pricing conversions at
$10-$12,000. At http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news/message/37
on May 2 we explained how our efforts intersect. View their Frequently
Asked Questions at http://www.edrivesystems.com/Edrive-FAQ.html .

We're also involved in advocacy and public policy, bringing together the
growing attention given to this "up-and-coming" technology (see our roundup
at http://www.calcars.org/kudos.html). We're educating the large market of
car buyers who will pay extra for all the benefits to them and society of
better cars. We're presenting PHEVs, along with wind and solar power, as a
coordinated response to two of today's greatest challenges: global warming
and energy security.

Our goal is to persuade Toyota and other automakers to build PHEVs for a
market we expect to expand as the Kyoto Protocols and parallel state and
international greenhouse gas initiatives are phased in. We're exploring
with public officials ways to provide incentives to auto makers to build
GO-HEVs. We're demonstrating demand initially from early adopter
individuals and institutions.

Working with other PHEV advocates, we're developing innovative ways to meet
expected demand from utility, government and corporate fleets for
substantial numbers of vehicles before a car company delivers production
PHEVs. To take advantage of that who-knows-how-long window of opportunity,
we're exploring ways for a California company to partner as a Qualified
Vehicle Modifier (QVM) with an automaker to design, assemble and sell
GO-HEVs (at a price several thousand dollars higher than conventional
hybrids, which would provide a lower lifetime cost of ownership than any
other vehicle type). Conversion possibilities include the Ford Escape
hybrid, all cars that use Toyota's "Hybrid Synergy Drive" (Prius, Lexus,
Highlander, Nissan), as well as other forthcoming hybrids.

We're a mostly-volunteer effort. We've gotten contributions from, among
others, a well-known entrepreneur and a major foundation, with others to
come. We accept contributions and offer a unique bumper sticker to Charter
Sponsors.

Founder Felix Kramer says, "I'm a startup person and environmentalist going
way back (http://www.nlightning.com/resume.html). In 2001, I sold
eConstructors.com (marketplace for web development) and began advising
Rocky Mountain Institute/Amory Lovins' Hypercar Inc. My change in focus
from that futuristic simulation to more immediate solutions led to the
launch of CalCars in 2002. My personal motivation evolved from general
environmental and clean air goals to seeing GO-HEVs as a keystone component
of a strategy to address global warming both nationally and
internationally. I envision millions of GO-HEVs, charged from off-peak
electricity from a modernized grid and from distributed photovoltaic and
wind power, with the range extension engine powered by zero-carbon
cellulose ethanol, as a way to significantly reduce the almost 50% of
greenhouse gases that come from transportation."

You can find out far more about us at the URLs below.

Thanks, Felix Kramer