Plenty Magazine: Green My Ride
Nov 8, 2005 (From the CalCars-News archive)

[article gets PHEV concept right, but some numbers wrong, and doesn't make
clear that EDrive offers installations, not kits]

http://www.plentymagazine.com (subscription info: article in print only)
Plenty
October-November 2005
Cover promotes story as "Pimp Your Prius" (as did NYT Magazine and Wave
Magazine)

"Wheels" story p. 26:
Green My Ride
How to achieve otherworldly gas mileage
by Justin Taylor Clark

While skeptics scoff that alternative-energy vehicles aren't sexy ednough
to woo the average SUV-loving American, a small but growing subculture of
car enthusiasts disagrees. Call them conversionists: green-minded
green-minded car owners who take a perfectly functional vehicle and install
the environmental equivalent of hydraulics, custom rims, and a backseat wet
bar. Not content with simply snapping up the latest model of the Toyota
Prius or the Honda Insight, the conversionist yearns to transform an
altready sensible car into a beast of efficiency.

So what does it take to green your ride? We asked advocates of the three
most popular types of conversionists to spell out the costs and challenges,
as well as the benefits.

2. HYBRID HACKS
What do you do if you want the range of a hybrid but don't want to use any
gas on short trips around town? The newest and most exciting option on the
horion -- if you can afford it -- is the pluggable hybrid, or the PHEV.
While current hybrids recharge their batteries using only their brakes,
alternative-energy enthusiasts in California have created a prototype for a
hybrid that can be recharged directly from the power grid.

But hybrid manufacturers are reluctant to spend the extra $3,000 per
vehicle to install plugs. Automakers have sought to convince consumers
that hybrids have a range superior to EVs and don't require the chore of
finding and using an electrical socket. "Toyota is spending millions of
dollars telling people you don't have to plug it in," says Felix Kramer,
founder of the pluggable-hybrid advocacy group CalCars. "It's hard for them
to make a 180-degree turn."

In the meantime, California start-up EDrive Systems plans to produce a
conversion kit for the Prius that will go on the market next year for a
staggering $10,000 to $12,000, to be followed by a kit for the Ford Escape
hybrid.

THE PLUG CONVERSION KIT
The kit will allow drivers to travel 50 miles gas-free or obtain 100 mpg
for 50 miles on the freeway. But make sure you have someone else to do the
labor for you. "It's not practical for people to do the hack on their own,"
explains Kramer. It isn't only about the amount of time it takes, he
explains; a hybrid conversion also has to obtain components that people
"don't normally have access to." But if interest in pluggable hybrid
continues, then the mass production of the conversion kits could lower
their price dramatically.

LINKS: PHEV CONVERSIONS
For now, only EDrive Systems is planning to offer a PHEV conversion kit
(edrivesystems.com). [Other links in section links to cazadrosupply.com and
greasel.com are actually for vegetable oil.]

1. BIODIESEL AND STRAIGHT VEGETABLE OIL, with links to biodiesel.org,
biodieselgear.com, elsbett.com/engl, and biobling.com
3. GAS-TO-ELECTRIC CONVERSIONS, describing pioneers Steve Heckeroth and Ray
LeMeur, with links to CloudEV, and other converters, and eaaev.org