Here's
1. News of a welcome contribution;
2. a report on CalCars' financial situation;
3. info on new resources on the website.

The California Cars Initiative has with great pleasure accepted a contribution from Southern California Edison for the purpose of "educating Californians on the benefits of plug-in hybrids".

This grant was made possible by Ed Kjaer, Director of the utility's Division of Electric Transportation (www.sce.com/electrodrive.) (He's also a past chairman of EDTA, the International Electric Drive Transportation Association, and is a member of the Hydrogen Highway Blueprint Plan Leadership Group.) The Department has a long history of leadership on electric vehicles, on the policy, fleet and customer sides, and its EV Tech Center in Pomona remains one of the key resources for testing and evaluating performance of advanced technology vehicles.

CalCars is privileged to have the opportunity to work together with their able team.

This logically brings us to a report on our financial situation:

We continue to be gratified at other support we've received. Almost a year ago, a grant from the national Electric Auto Association (http://www.eaaev.org) and one (anonymously) from a major national foundation enabled us to build PRIUS+. A Silicon Valley entrepreneur has provided us critical support at strategic moments. and we've received support from over a hundred other individuals, mostly in the $95 Charter Sponsor range. And other organizations have allowed us to piggyback on their exhibition booths.

The modest total of about $50,000 raised has enabled us to get as far as we have -- but we still have no significant budget for travel or conferences, let alone salaries. (Felix Kramer and Ron Gremban remain full-time volunteers -- which among people who talk about sustainability, isn't.)

Right now we have what we think are innovative plans and very ambitious short-term goals. We hope to take advantage of immediate opportunities -- but we may miss them for lack of resources and staff. If we move as quickly as the opportunities allow, we think we could get an additional auto maker involved in a pilot PHEV program within months. Meanwhile, we're still catching up on the inquiries resulting from the mid-August Associated Press and subsequent media coverage.

Thank you in advance for anything you can do to help on an individual level (tax-deductible by credit card, PayPal or check at http://www.calcars.org/­sponsor.html). And we'll be grateful if you can connect us with:

• a professional grant-writer able to donate substantial time
• high-wealth individuals who recognize the value of what we're doing.
• successful serial entrepreneurs interested in getting involved in something that's probably very different than their last start-up.

We've moved links to our favorite TV broadcast, the 6-minute WNBC story, to the front page of our website. And we've added links to streaming video for recent coverage from Beyond Tomorrow (Australia), KRON, CBS, KTVU, KDTV (Spanish) and others.

On the website, we'll soon add links to all the new players: Plug-In Austin, the Advanced Hybrid Vehicle Developoment Consortium, the Pennsylvania initiative, and a few others in the works.