US Department of Energy held its first-ever Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Discussion Meeting. The event included by-invitation representatives from seven auto-makers, industry suppliers, federal agencies and research labs, energy industries and lobbying groups, as well as a good number of plug-in hybrid advocates (including CalCars).

Notably, this was a chance for all the more than 150 attendees (almost twice as many as had been expected) to explore together the benefits and obstacles to commercialization of PHEVs, and begin to fill out the Advanced Energy Initiative announced in January.

The event started with a bang with a short presentation by host Ed Wall, Program Manager of the Office of FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies http://www1.eere.energy.gov/­vehiclesandfuels/­, announcing the surprising (to me) results of an April Opinion Research Corp survey of over 500 households. Over 75% had heard of PHEVs; 55% thought they were a good idea, and almost 75% parked in a driveway, carport attached or unattached garage. (Find that at http://www.sentech.org/­PHEV/­Opening_Presentations/­Wall-Introduction.pdf -- wouldn't it be great if CalCars had funds for polling!)

Below are excerpts from the post-meeting roundup. http://www.sentech.org/­PHEV has links for the plenary session and breakout session presentations are now available. A summary report is under preparation and will also be posted there soon.

Discussion Meeting on Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs)

The Office of FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies sponsored a discussion on Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) technology at Department of Energy Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday and Friday, May 4-5, 2006. The discussions involved over 130 participants representing a wide spectrum of corporate, technical, scientific, and academic expertise in hybrid vehicle and energy technology.

The objectives of the meeting were to:

• address what is known and unknown regarding plug-in hybrids and related energy technologies;
• identify research areas that the Federal Government should address and those industry should address;
• begin a dialog among hybrid designers/producers and electric utilities for the purpose of specifying mutually desirable plug-in hybrid and utility attributes;
• develop sets of hybrid systems to be investigated for cost vs. benefits;
• identify and prioritize areas for future research and development;
• note opportunities to accelerate market adoption of successful research; and
• identify the value proposition in plug-in technology that will attract customers.

The meeting included a plenary session with speakers covering major opportunities and challenges of this technology followed by facilitated breakout sessions that engaged the participants in lively discussions. A Discussion Issues and Questions white paper was distributed to participants about one week before the meeting.

Presentations from the Plenary Session:

Ed Wall - Introduction: Consumer Perspectives are Changing Dominique Portman - Lessons Learned in Developing the DaimlerChrylser Plug-In Hybrid Mark Duvall - PHEV Technical Challenges from EPRI's Perspective Don Walkowitz - USCAR Observations Andrew Frank - The Plug-In Hybrid, PHEV, for Energy Efficiency and Moving the USA from Oil and Coal to Renewable Energy for Both Stationary and Transportation Uses NOW. Danilo Santini - Broad Overview of Plug-in Hybrids and Analytical Studies

Presentations form the Breakout Sessions:

Discussion Issues and Questions (White Paper) Discussion Session Guidance 8 Discussion Group reports

Click here to download a Zip File containing all the presentations from both the Plenary and Breakout Sessions