Sep 18, 2006 (From the CalCars-News archive)
You can see discussions of this at http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/08/hymotion_delive.html and read HOURCAR's press releases at http://www.hourcar.org/index.html. As the first external customer to get a vehicle from Hymotion, HOURCAR is requesting that questions about the car's performance be directed to Hymotion.
Press Release: Hymotion converts HOURCAR's Car-sharing Prius into a Plug-in Hybrid http://www.hymotion.com/pdf/Hymotion-HourcarPressRelease.pdf
"In terms of being environmentally friendly, you can't beat a program like HOURCAR's, that gives you the option to conserve through car-sharing, but also by allowing you to pick one of the greenest vehicles out there.", President Ricardo Bazzarella said today.
Toronto, ON. August 21, 2006: Today Hymotion, a world leader in plug-in hybrid technology, announced that it had delivered one of its L5 Prius Plug-in Hybrid systems to HOURCAR, a car-sharing program that serves the Twin Cities, MN.
The Hymotion L5 plug-in system serves to more than double the already admirable fuel efficiency of Toyota's Prius hybrid. The Hymotion system boasts 100 mpg at speeds of 70 mph, for the first 30-35 miles and an amazing 250+ mpg in the city at speeds up to 35 miles. To recharge the battery system, you simply plug it into a regular household electrical outlet.
HOURCAR is the Twin Cities' fast-growing car-sharing program. HOURCAR, buys, insures, and maintains a fleet of member-shared cars. Research shows that many car owners use their vehicles only a few hours a day. Car-sharing spreads the fixed costs of car ownership among several people. It serves the city with its 13-vehicle fleet of new Toyota Priuses, gas-electric hybrids that regularly garner over 47 miles to the gallon and produce relatively few emissions. Now Hymotion plug-in technology has turned one of HOURCAR's Priuses into a PHEV, which will allow for even greater fuel economy, even fewer emissions, and hopefully a new way of looking at the future of driving.
If you want a run-down of all the current and expected options from after-market companies, see the table at http://www.eaa-phev.org/wiki/Prius_PHEV -- and we'll be updating our summaries at http://www.calcars.org/howtoget.html
