PLUG OK license plate
EVWorld Calls 2006 "Year of the Plug-In Hybrid"
Jan 3, 2007 (From the CalCars-News archive)
CalCars-News
This posting originally appeared at CalCars-News, our newsletter of breaking CalCars and plug-in hybrid news. View the original posting here.
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I just paid my annual $29 to re-subscribe to this invaluable resource. CalCars-News readers who also support EVWorld can benefit from a broad range of news and opinion. Just go to http://www.evworld.com/­subscribe.cfm. EVWorld.com has been faithfully chronicling the growth of interest and support for PHEVs, including an entire section of its website devoted to what it calls "E-Hybrids" http://www.evworld.com/­electrichybrid.cfm.

This week, James Woolsey's Wall Street Journal Op-Ed is the cover story, along with a photo of him and Andy Frank with our car. And in his weekly editorial, Editor/Publisher Bill Moore concludes that PHEVs were the story of the year in '06.

INSIDER COMMENTARY
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Published: Tuesday, 02 Jan 2007
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2006: The Year of the Plug-In Hybrid

Here we are. It's 2007 and things are pretty quiet -- for the moment -- in our EV world. It's almost as if the industry has collectively exhaled, relaxing briefly from an amazing year of transformation, especially in attitudes and perspectives, starting with George Bush's amazing 2006 State of the Union address in which he talked about America's oil "addiction." It's almost as if he gave the nation collective permission to start considering alternatives, though those of us in our EV world have long been advocates for many of the technologies that now have become the center piece of numerous presidential stump speeches.

Perhaps the biggest change was the acceptance of the concept of plug-in hybrids through the efforts of organizations like Plug-In Partners, CalCars, the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and many individuals from Felix Kramer to Jim Woolsey to Thomas Friedman. If you want a visual illustration of how the concept has grown from a handful of visionary pioneers to national consciousness, visit the CalCars.org web site and take a look at their People, Places and Plug-In Hybrids page http://calcars.org/­photos-people.html. Start at the bottom of the page with the photo I took of Greg Hanssen, Seth Seaberg and Felix Kramer in the Spring of 2005 outside the convention center in Palm Springs. Note as you scroll UP, the individuals from rising levels of government and business inspecting and/or driving the first plug-in Priuses. It's a pretty amazing album.

Now all we need are the batteries to make it happen and 2007 could be that year. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

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