Minnesota: unanimous public official support/media goes all-out on PHEVs
Jun 12, 2006 (From the CalCars-News archive)

We've been watching this local phenomenon since
David Morris of the Institute for Local
Self-Reliance started the ball rolling. It picked
up momentum when a local Ford plant closing was
announced. Now everyone is on board -- even going
so far as calling it "the silver-bullet solution
to all the automobile's worst problems". Below is
one news story, three weekend editorials from the
Minneapolis Star Tribune (most recent first) and
an opinion piece by Morris about PHEVs and Ford.

http://www.brownfieldnetwork.com/gestalt/go.cfm?
objectid=B5050C86-E5E4-91BA-E92F6A4E31D2D476

Plug-in hybrid flexible-fueled cars on the way
Thursday, June 8, 2006, 2:01 PM
by Bob Meyer

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has signed a law
promoting plug-in hybrid flexible-fueled
vehicles. The car runs primarily on electricity
and renewable fuels like ethanol power the
engine. The new law instructs the state to buy
plug-in hybrids on a preferred basis when they
become available and also it encourages Minnesota
State University at Mankato to develop a
flex-fueled hybrid. A task force has been created
from business, government and utility
representatives to develop a plan to build the
cars in Minnesota. Specifically, they are
targeting the Ford plant set for closure in St.
Paul. Coincidentally, the electricity at the Ford
plant comes from its own hydroelectric generator
on the Mississippi. Frank Hornstein was chief
author of the bill in the Minnesota House, he
sees this as a great opportunity, “We have the
research at Minnesota State, we have the corn and
ethanol industry and we have the Ford plant.”

http://www.startribune.com/561/story/484208.html
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Editorial: Minnesota lays a bet on cars of the future
Investments in plug-in hybrids are modest but welcome.

It's not often that an idea wins over all of
Minnesota's legislators and its governor,
especially when the subject is energy. That
investments in plug-in hybrid vehicles won
universal backing is clear testimony that this
technology may be the silver-bullet solution to
all the automobile's worst problems.

Think of plug-ins as the Prius of the future,
making a good idea profoundly better. Like
today's hybrid gas/electric models, it's powered
by both a gasoline engine and a battery-driven
motor. But, like many of the big cars and trucks
coming out of Detroit in recent years, it could
burn E85 -- a fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol to
15 percent gasoline. Best of all, it could meet
the average driver's daily needs of up to 50
miles on electricity alone, thanks to a rechargeable battery.

So: a car that emits zero pollution on most days,
and stretches a gallon of gasoline over 500 miles
or more (because most power comes from electricity or ethanol).

There are no technical hurdles; enthusiasts have
already built various prototypes, and Daimler
Chrysler has some plug-in versions of production
vehicles on the road for extended testing. Even
the added cost of perhaps $4,000 per vehicle
isn't unattractive when fuel is a penny or two per mile.

But, you may ask, what about pollution from all
that extra electricity? Studies by California
government are highly favorable; even greenhouse
gases attributable to a plug-in using coal-fired
voltage are about half what a conventional car produces.

A handful of entrepreneurs are poised to sell
kits for turning a Prius into a plug-in. But
automakers won't be interested until they see a
big, guaranteed market. By committing to buy
plug-ins for its fleets whenever practical,
Minnesota has become the first state to join a
nationwide "preorder" campaign for plug-ins.

The new law also positions Minnesota to benefit
from the surging interest in plug-ins -- by
encouraging research at Minnesota State
University-Mankato, and by directing study of
in-state manufacturing potential, perhaps at St.
Paul's Ford plant, now set to close in 2008.

In contrast to the Legislature's otherwise
lackluster progress on energy this session, the
plug-in law makes modest, low-risk investments
that could yield significant payoffs. And it's
timely -- silver bullets sometimes travel faster than anyone expects.

http://www.startribune.com/561/story/458099.html
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Editorial: Is this the 'Return of Big Thinking'?
Signs that ambition is making a comeback in Minnesota.

One legislative session doesn't make a trend. But
after years of searching for excuses not to do
things, years of pretending that pretty good was
good enough, years of shying away from
investments necessary to compete in the
next-generation economy, lawmakers left an
impression last week that a corner may have been
turned. Maybe, just maybe, Minnesota is ready for big thinking again.
<snip>
Building a major bioscience lab at the University
of Minnesota was also evidence of big thinking,
not because it's sufficient but because it's
widely considered a down payment. Indeed, in the
area of research, there's fresh understanding
that Minnesota is well situated to profit from
the national market's inevitable shift from
petroleum to bio-based fuels. Rep. Frank
Hornstein's modest proposal to explore local
development and production of a plug-in hybrid
car drew wide interest. It's an example of big
thinking. So is Minneapolis-St. Paul's bid to
host one of the 2008 national political
conventions or the idea to pursue the Olympics.
The astonishing renewal of the Twin Cities
cultural venues offers more evidence that ambition is back.

Please take note: Public spending must be smart,
prudent, efficient and strategic. It can't solve
everything. Problems with health care, persistent
poverty and urban education are partly matters of
culture that cannot be quickly overcome. But
perhaps a corner has been turned. Six years ago,
this page wondered whether Minnesota, facing a
new, more mobile economy, would compete or
retreat. The answer isn't certain, but things are looking up.

http://www.startribune.com/561/story/344079.html
Sunday, April 2, 2006
Editorial: Cars of the future deserve state backing

Thirty years of engineering advances have made
the standard automobile much more fuel-efficient
and far less polluting. But this progress has
been steadily eroded by consumer behavior -- we
drive more miles each year, in ever-larger
vehicles -- and, anyway, the gasoline engine's
fundamental problems endure. Even the best waste
energy, foul the air, accelerate global warming
and shackle the nation's security, as well as its economy, to imported oil.

Until quite recently the only true alternative
appeared to be the hydrogen-powered car, a
revolutionary technology whose predicted arrival
kept retreating farther into the future. Now it
seems possible that a comparable breakthrough is
just around the corner: a practical, affordable,
high-performing car that runs on rechargeable
batteries, home-grown biofuel and perhaps a dollop of gasoline.

As David Morris details on the cover of this
section, the plug-in, hybrid, flexible-fuel car
combines three familiar, road-tested technologies
in a way that melds their advantages and removes
their drawbacks. Like the all-electric car, it
could go up to 50 miles -- more than most people
travel in an average day -- on an overnight
charge from a household outlet. Beyond that
range, it would automatically switch to the
high-mileage hybrid drive made popular by the
gas/electric Toyota Prius, but could go the Prius
one better by burning fuel that's up to 85 percent ethanol.

Prototypes have been getting their own road tests
since about 1990, when the first version was
built at the University of California-Davis. What
may have seemed a cool but quirky idea back then
has gained credence in parallel with rising oil
prices and growing worry over supply disruptions.
A chief proponent is James Woolsey, the former
CIA director, who said recently, "The combination
of 9/11 and $60-a-barrel oil is something that
has changed a lot of people's mentality on this.
This is a parade the participants are forming."

Those participants include a couple of dozen city
and county governments, and more than 100 public
power utilities, that helped found the Plug-In
Partners campaign. Nine of those utilities are in
Minnesota, whose wind power and ethanol resources
make these vehicles even more attractive. In
Texas, where wind power is expanding rapidly,
Austin is trying to recruit 50 cities to join in
jump-starting a market for the new vehicles by
committing to buy them for municipal fleets, and
providing purchase incentives to businesses and individuals.

In Minnesota, the House is considering a bill
that commits state agencies to buying comparably
priced plug-in hybrid cars, trucks and vans for
state fleets whenever practicable. It also grants
$100,000 to the automotive engineering program at
Minnesota State University, Mankato for a
demonstration project on converting existing vehicles to plug-in hybrids.

A Senate bill seeks strategies for promoting
widespread purchase of plug-ins by private
buyers, as well as the state, and for integrating
the vehicles into the power grid. It would also
explore possible incentives for building them at the Ford plant in St. Paul.

That last idea is a potent reminder that this new
technology can provide horsepower for Minnesota's
industries as well as its motorists. The plug-in
parade is one we ought to join, beginning with these modest steps.

http://www.startribune.com/146/story/125465.html
December 17, 2005 – 12:08 AM

Business Forum: Ford can find its way by looking to future
Toyota and Honda are winning the hybrid race. But
Ford has a foothold in the technology -- and a golden opportunity in Minnesota.

By DAVID MORRIS
The imminent eclipse of General Motors by Toyota
as the world's largest car manufacturer was
decades in the making. We will read many
instructive tales about how General Motors, and
U.S. car companies in general, lost their way.
Let me add one more: the dramatically different
way the Japanese and U.S. private sector
addressed hybrid cars. I emphasize the private
sector because in both countries the public
sector promoted this technology with equal vigor.

Here's the story.

Roused to action by the 1991 Gulf War, Japan and
the United States each launched initiatives to
reduce oil consumption. They targeted the primary consumer of oil, vehicles.

In the United States, the centerpiece of the
effort was the Partnership for a New Generation
of Vehicles (PNGV), a $120 million-a-year, seven-year program launched in 1993.

In Japan, the centerpiece was the somewhat less
handsomely funded Popularization Plan, launched
in 1994. Each program focused on developing a new
type of automobile that promised substantially
higher fuel efficiencies: a hybrid car propelled
by both an electric motor and an internal combustion engine.

PNGV funds were available only to U.S. companies.
Recipients agreed to unveil a concept hybrid car
by 2000 and a preproduction prototype by 2004 and
to be in full production by 2010. Ford, GM and
DaimlerChrysler happily accepted the money and
the terms. In early 2000, each unveiled its concept cars.

Then the U.S. car companies, gorging on the
profits from selling ever-larger SUVs, abandoned
hybrid cars. Why? Hybrids would lose money.

In December 1997, Japan unveiled its hybrids at
the annual car show. Detroit pooh-poohed the
Japanese companies' achievements. "I don't see
six months' difference in anything that's being
done," then-GM Chairman John Smith told Business
Week. The magazine added, "the only difference,
say the Big Three, is that Japanese manufacturers
are willing to accept huge losses."

As late as April 2002, GM CEO and President
Richard Wagoner insisted, "How will the economics
of hybrids ever match that of the internal
combustion engine? We can't afford to subsidize them."

Japanese corporations adopted a more farsighted
strategy. Each sale of Honda's original hybrid,
the Insight, did indeed lose money, as much as
$6,500. Toyota reportedly lost $16,000 per car on
its first-generation Prius. But as Hisao Suzuki,
president of Honda's European R&D division,
answered when asked why they would sell a car at
a loss, "We are investing in the future."

Despite its initial losses, in 1999 Toyota
announced it would introduce the Prius to the
North American market in mid-2000, "shocking the
domestic auto industry," industry observer David Chao said.

The rest is history.

Since 2000, hybrid sales in the United States
have doubled each year. This year sales will
exceed 200,000. More than 90 percent will be made
by Toyota and Honda. The best-selling Prius has a
five-month waiting list. Booz Allen Hamilton, a
global strategy and technology-consulting firm,
predicts that hybrid cars will make up 80 percent
of the overall new car market by 2015.

Oh yes, and Toyota is making a nice profit on its
Prius. In fact, in 2004, Toyota became the
world's most profitable car manufacturer. In
contrast, that year Standard & Poor's downgraded
Ford Motor Company's credit rating to BBB-, one
notch above a junk rating. A few days ago, in a
desperate move to avert bankruptcy, General
Motors announced it would lay off 30,000 workers.

There's probably little that can be done anytime
soon to make GM competitive. This year it finally
introduced a hybrid vehicle so primitive and
ineffective that it doesn't even qualify for the
new and very tolerant federal hybrid tax incentive.

Ford is a different story. Bill Ford was smart
enough to know what his company did not know. He
licensed Toyota's technology for its
first-generation Escape hybrid and thus has a
state-of-the-art hybrid system. The company is
working aggressively to nurture in-house expertise.

Ford is deciding what to do with its St. Paul
truck plant and has received overtures from local
politicians. But late last week, news reports
said the St. Paul plant is slated to be closed,
although Ford has not said as much officially.

Here's my suggestion. Keep the St. Paul plant
open and make hybrid trucks. And make them
"plug-in" hybrids, allowing them to connect to
the electrical grid system. Finally, make it a
flexible-fuel vehicle, capable of operating not
only on electricity but on any combination of gasoline and ethanol.

The Escape, as Ford's ads proudly tell the world,
can run solely on electricity, at least for short
distances, unlike GM and Honda hybrids. With a
grid connection and larger batteries, Ford could
make electricity its primary hybrid fuel. That
would cut in half the vehicle's operating costs
and would give Ford the technological edge even
over Toyota, which so far has refrained from making a plug-in hybrid.

Bill Ford wants to make his company a
technological leader again. By deciding to
convert the St. Paul plant into a "plug-in"
hybrid, flexible-fueled truck manufacturer, he
can make St. Paul's auto workers, officials,
wind-turbine owners and farmers very happy.

And I firmly believe he will make his stockholders very happy as well.

David Morris is vice president of the Institute
for Local Self-Reliance, based in Minneapolis and
Washington, D.C. His e-mail is dmorris@....