PLUG OK license plate
CalCars Events
(See Downloads for the latest versions of the Commercialization and Technology presentations we make at events. Contact us to invite us to speak or demonstrate PHEVs.)

Check back here for updates or subscribe to CalCars-News for announcements of future events.

EV Riders PanelAugust 20 (San Francisco CA)

ClimateOne at the Commonwealth Club presents features owners of battery electric and plug-in hybrid cars discussing their life on the cutting edge of a new paradigm of personal mobility. Speakers include John Kalb (BMW ActiveE, Felix Kramer (Chev Volt and Nissan LEAF, Andrew Kissack, KQED Editor, and moderator Greg Dalton.

Mon, Aug 20 2012, 6:00pm, Commonwealth Club, 595 Market Street, 2nd Floor
Check-in 5:30 p.m., program 6 p.m., networking reception: 7 p.m.
$20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students (with valid ID)

National Plug-In DaySeptember 23 (Multiple locations)

Drivers in dozens of locations will gather to show cars and bring information to the general public. Co-sponsored by Plug In America, the Electric Auto Association, and the Sierra Club, with support from CalCars and many other organizations.

On Facebook


Past Events

  • November 17, 2011: At this Meetup event in Silicon Valley, Felix Kramer looked back at the ten-year campaign, and ahead to prospects for gas-guzzler conversion companies.
  • October 20: Felix spoke on "What's Next for Plug-In Vehicles: How could plug-ins grow fast enough to get vehicles 50% OFF FOSSIL FUELS -- in 20 years?" at Greentech Media's second annual conference on Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles, The Networked EV, in San Francisco. See Download CalCars Presentations for PDF.
  • September 24: CalCars exhibited its Chevy Volt at the annual EV Rally of the Silicon Valley Electric Auto Association
  • September 17: Felix spoke on "U.S. Plug-in Car Movement: Where Do We Go From Here?" at the second annual GreenDriveExpo. Listen to Felix's best talk ever (33-minute mp3) or read the transcript, both keyed to presentation at CalCars Downloads. And at My Perfect Automobile's website, watch excerpts from his presentation and questions, along with follow-up interviews, in four short segments, under the title "Green Drive Expo 20111 -- US Plug-In Car Movement, Parts 1-4."
  • September 15, 2011: Felix spoke on a panel on Post Petroleum Transportation at the Berkeley Ecology Center.
  • June 26, 2011: CalCars exhibited for the fourth year running at the Palo Alto Concours D'Elegance at Stanford University, this time with our Volt.
  • May 1, 2011: Thousands of attendees saw the Volt and hundreds spoke to us at the Pacific Coast Dream Machines event in Half Moon Bay, CA.
  • April 29, 2011: Felix Kramer appeared at a workshop about buying a plug-in car at the San Jose Earth Day event at City Hall.
  • April 22, 2011: At Skyline College Earth Day, Felix Kramer spoke at a mid-day event featuring a theme of green automotive jobs for veterans.
  • April 22, 2011: At a Google campus Earth Day Tech Talk in Mountain View, Felix Kramer and Ron Gremban spoke on "Plug-In Cars: Real-Life Experiences and a Campaign that Ended in Victory."
  • April 20, 2011: At Green Fair at Pacific Shores Business Center in Redwood City, CA, Felix Kramer showed his Volt.
  • April 19, 2011: Felix Kramer's Volt and Leaf were at Los Altos High School Earth Day event for students and parents organized by the school's Green Team.
  • March 16, 2011, Felix Kramer's Nissan Leaf was featured along with a Chevy Volt and a PHEV Prius prototype at the all-electric Cleantech Car Show in downtown San Francisco as part of the Cleantech Forum, in an event co-sponsored by Cleantech Forum and Environmental Entrepreneurs.
  • February 25, 2011: Felix spoke and showed his Volt and Leaf at the annual Electric Auto Association Membership Meeting in Palo Alto
  • January 8, 2011: Felix and Ron showed the Chevy Volt at the monthly meeting of the San Francisco Electric Vehicle Association and on January 15, Felix showed it at the monthly meeting of the Electric Auto Association, Silicon Valley Chapter
  • December 22, 2010: A grassroots event, sponsored by CalCars and Novato Chevrolet, co-sponsored by Plug In America, the Electric Auto Association, and the North Bay, San Francisco and Silicon Valley chapters of the EAA, had "Success of the Plug-In Vehicle Campaign" as its theme. CalCars' Founder Felix Kramer, Technology Lead Ron Gremban, and Dr. Andy Frank, the "Father of the Plug-in Hybrid," celebrated the arrival of their Chevrolet Volts. See "New Plug-Ins Arrive" for photos, reports and links.
  • October 9, 2010: At the Green Drive Expo in Richmond, CA, the Bay Area's first consumer showcase for plug-ins and other green vehicles, Ron Gremban spoke at the final panel of Green Car Conversions.
  • September 27-28, 2010: At Energy Market Consequences of an Emerging U.S. Carbon Management Policy in Houston, TX, a by-invitation international conference sponsored by the Baker Insitute Energy Forum, Felix Kramer was one of five keynote speakers. See summary and links at Our Message to the Oil Industry: Blue-Skying Petroleum's Future.
  • September 16-17, 2010: At Climate Policy and West Coast Transportation in Palo Alto, CA, a conference focused on challenges and opportunities to transform transportation (cars/trucks/ports) and create a green West Coast Corridor, Felix Kramer spoke on "Next Steps in Moving Beyond Oil in Cars and Light Trucks."
  • September 13-16, 2010: At EV 2010 VE Conference and Trade Show (Vancouver, BC, Canada), Canada's premier plug-in conference, organized by Electric Mobility Canada / Mobilité électrique Canada, Ron Gremban presented on the business and technical aspects of gas-guzzler conversions. See his presentations, How Gas-guzzler Conversions Can Accelerate Transportation Electrification (23 slide PDF 2.2MB) and What codes, standards, & regulations are needed for conversions? (18 slide PDF 1.6MB) He also presented at two poster sessions; download/print these quick summaries of the issues at "Global Business Opportunity Converting Large Combustion Vehicles" (705KB), which includes updated market penetration graphs, and Technologies for Affordable, Profitable Conversion of Combustion Engines (705KB)
  • July 26-29, 2010: At Plug In 2010 in San Jose, CA, the third annual conference for the industry, Felix Kramer moderated and spoke about gas-guzzler conversions at a panel on "Policies that Impact Electric Vehicles: How new fleet and fuel policies can work and their possible impacts on EV and PHEV deployment. " See transcripts of this talk and short comments at the Public Night event at What We Showed and Said at Plug-In 2010. And Ron Gremban presented on retrofit strategies at a panel on "Designing PEVs: Vehicle technology, costs, etc. for today and tomorrow." See Ron's presentation, "Cost Projections and a Rule of Thumb for both New Plug-in Vehicles and Conversions," also found at CalCars Downloads;. Those who did not attend can purchase all the conference and pre-conference presentations at http://plugin2010presentations.eventbrite.com/.
  • July 22, 2010: At the first Cleantech Open National Conference in San Jose, CA, Felix Kramer spoke on gas-guzzler conversions at the Transportation panel "The Road Ahead: Legacy versus Efficiency."
  • June 27, 2010: Ron Gremban displayed the most recent configuration in his Plug-in Prius -- NiMH batteries from Gold Peak, by Plug-in Conversions of Poway, CA (featuring a 25-mile all-electric range, with an EV mode that works at speeds up to 70MPH) -- at the Palo Alto Concours d'Elegance.
  • June 22-23, 2010: Felix spoke on a panel titled "Reducing Barriers And Paving The Way For Electric-Drive Vehicles: The Role Of Federal And State Policies" at the Electric Vehicle Consumer Adoption Summit, in San Francisco.
  • June 19, 2010: Felix Kramer updated the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Electric Auto Association (eaasv.org) on recent developments in plug-in hybrids and CalCars' Big Fix campaign for gas-guzzler conversions.
  • May 22-23, 2010: At the Maker Faire ultimate do-it-yourself celebration, for the fifth time running, CalCars sponsored demonstrations of Prius conversions, this year with 3Prong Power.
  • April 24, 2010 Tahoe-Truckee Earth Day at Squaw Valley, CA included a CalCars Prius converted to Prius. Most people said they wanted a four-wheel-drive PHEV!
  • April 23-24, 2010 at 2010 CAFE Foundation Electric Aircraft Symposium in Sonoma, CA, Ron Gremban talked about the viability of commercializing plug-in hybrid conversions of existing aircraft.
  • February 9-13, 2010 at TED 2010  the annual "brain camp" event, Felix Kramer networked to search for one or more serial entrepreneurs to lead the effort to create a new global industry around "The Big Fix" -- gas guzzler conversions.
  • February 3-5, 2010 at the RETECH 2010 Renewable Energy Technology Conference & Exhibition in Washington, D,  Felix Kramer's talk on Gas-Guzzler Conversions and e-Drive, the new legislation to electrify the postal fleet at the "Advanced Vehicles and Batteries" panel, was cancelled because of the giant snowstorm.
  • February 2, 2010: Felix discussed the CalCars story with two classes at the Harvard Business School taught by Assoc. Prof. Mary Tripsas, focused on the "Entrepreneurial opportunities [that] often exist when industries are either created or transformed by innovation: new products, new business models, and/or new technologies [and how] The pursuit of these opportunities, however, creates challenges for both start-ups and established firms." In the past he has presented at similar programs at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Haas School of Business at the University of California.
  • January 26-28, 2010: at the Electric Drive Transportation's Conference and Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, Felix Kramer participated from the floor at the session, "Batteries for Electric Drive Vehicles: Manufacturing Challenges and Opportunities" and elicited significant comments from battery makers contradicting controversial report by National Research Council -- see CalCars-News posting, Battery Industry's Realities Disprove Influential Research Report.
  • October 19-21, 2009: Felix presented at a panel titled "The Consumer: Who, When, Why?" at The Business of Plugging In, the first major conference on plug-ins in the Motor City of Detroit, Michigan. Download the mp3 audio or a pdf transcript of his remarks.
  • October 16, 2009: Felix Kramer sat down with GM's Vehicle Line Director, Tony Posawatz, for an online webchat, answering audience and general questions about the Business of Plugging In conference coming in the next week. Download the transcript.
  • October 1-3, 2009: Rocky Mountain Institute's first West Coast Symposium, "Reinventing Fire" (referring to RMI's roadmap for eliminating the use of fossil fuels) included a well-received luncheon plenary featuring RMI's National Solutions Council project of the year: The Smart Garage's Project Get Ready to prepare communities to get ready for plug-in vehicles.
  • September 28-30, 2009: Felix Kramer presented "The 'Big Fix:' Gas-Guzzler Conversions" at PHEV '09, the second Canadian conference on "Plug-In Hybrid and Electric Vehicles/Vehicules electriques et hybrides rechargables" featuring a broad range of topics as Canada shows signs of evolving at an even faster rate than the U.S. toward plug-in vehicles. From the event, see 23-slide PDF of "Beyond New Plug-Ins: Fixing Gas Guzzlers" and download mp3 audio and/or a transcript.
  • September 9, 2009: CalCars Technology Lead Ron Gremban presented a 16-slide technical presentation, "Accelerating Vehicle Electrification," on Gas-Guzzler Conversions in Diamond Bar, CA at the California Energy Commission hearing on 2010-11 Alternative Fuels Investment Plan (Electric Drive Vehicles). Download mp3 audio of Ron Gremban making this presentation.
  • August 10-13, 2009: Felix Kramer moderated and presented at a panel at "Plug-In 2009," held in Long Beach, CA. The second annual international conference showcased the latest technological advances, market research and policy initiatives driving the development of plug-in transportation.
  • August 9, 2009: CalCars was a Host Committee Member and Auction Donor for "Plug-ins, Pinots and Progress," a benefit for Plug In America held in Woodside, CA. The party also featured a display of many rarely-seen vehicles, an auction, fine food and a few words from Congressman Jerry McNerney and California Public Utility Commissioner Rachelle Chong.
  • July 22, 2009: CalCars' Carol DiBenedetto joined a panel at an event sponsored by the Silicon Valley branch of the Cornell Entrepreneur Network to comment on a presentation by Daniel Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies and member of the California Air Resources Board, and on his latest book "Two Billion Cars."
  • June 28, 2009: CalCars returned for a second year to the Palo Alto Concours d'Elegance -- on a scorching, near-100-degree day, dedicated car-lovers saw antiques, vintage cars and green vehicles.
  • May 30-31, 2009: CalCars sponsored a booth at the 2009 Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA, facilitating this year's demonstration of a PHEV conversion by 3ProngPower and Plugin Supply.
  • May 27-28, 2009: At the fifth annual PowerUp! conference in Wenatchee, WA, Felix delivered the premiere of CalCars' latest presentation (and mission): to begin an industry of converting existing internal combustion engine vehicles to plugin-hybrids, or partially electric vehicles. Refer to Conversions to Electrify World's 900+ Million Cars and the 21-slide pdf Beyond New Plug-Ins: Fixing Gas Guzzlers.
  • May 20, 2009: Felix spoke about "Plug-Ins and Green Jobs" at the Martin Luther King Library in San Jose in a speaker series sponsored by Green Visionaries, a San José based community organization.
  • April 26, 2009: For the third year in a row, CalCars appeared in a "Green Machines" lineup at the entrance to Pacific Dream Machines. PHEV conversion companies Plug-In Supplly and 3Prong Power joined CalCars at this legendary event in Half Moon Bay, CA.
  • April 24, 2009: CalCars' Technology Lead Ron Gremban presented a paper to the Electric Aircraft Symposium in San Carlos, CA. The proposal described his lofty goal of an airborne PHEV entry to the NASA/CAFE contest, requiring a minimum 100 MPG equivalent at 100 MPH on a 200 mile course.
  • April 8, 2009: CalCars, joined by PHEV conversion companies GreenGears, Plug-In Supply and 3ProngPower, showed converted Priuses at the third annual Stanford Cool Product Expo
  • March 25, 2009 Aftermarket conversion companies and CalCars' Tech Lead Ron Gremban participated in the California Air Resources Board's followup public hearing on CARB: PHEV Conversions Systems Standards in Sacramento, CA.
  • March 24, 2009: Felix moderated a panel on "The New Networked Car" at Green:Net 09, sponsored by the GigaOM Network and Earth2Tech in San Francisco, CA, at the largest event yet presenting the clean-tech world to the Information Technologies community. See links to reports and videos at CalCars-News.
  • March 14, 2009: CalCars showed a PHEV at the final day and closing ceremonies of the National Junior Cross Country Ski Olympics Green Program in Truckee, CA.
  • Feb 20, 2009: Felix was a panelist at this year's "State of the Valley," sponsored by Joint Venture Silicon Valley, where the main charge for top business and community leaders was to develop a "Greenprint" for Silicon Valley.
  • Jan 17, 2009: CalCars and many of its members participated in Plugin America's "Inaugural Parade West," which featured dozens of electric vehicles rolling through Santa Monica on the Saturday before the Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C.
  • Dec 2-4, 2008: Felix attended the Electric Drive Transportation Association 2008 Conference and Exposition in Washington, DC in the midst of the emergency loan/bailout talks of the "Detroit Three" automakers on Capitol Hill. Our Proposal to Save and Transform the Auto Industry was developed just prior to this event and circulated throughout.
  • Nov 22-29, 2008: CalCars and Plugins were present at the San Francisco International Auto Show. The Auto Association of Northern California featured a Greenlight Showcase with a plug-in hybrid Prius converted by Luscious Garage with the system from Plug-In Supply.
  • Nov 14-16, 2008: San Francisco Green Festival featured a talk by Co-Op America's Executive Director Alisa Gravitz, "Taking the Leap: Converging Solar, Efficiency and Plug-in Hybrids," and booths by 3ProngPower in Berkeley and the SF Electric Vehicle Association.
  • Oct 1, 2008: Felix Kramer spoke on “Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles and Energy Efficiency” at the the Monterey Chapter of the US Green Business Council, meeting in Seaside. The audience included homeowners, contractors, architects, solar installers, landscape architects, interior designers, government officials, and others from the Santa Cruz and Monterey County area. It was preceded by an invitation-only event for Monterey Bay Region business, municipal and higher education leaders invited by Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue.
  • Sept 26-27, 2008: CalCars had a small presence at the third annual Alternative Energy and Transportation Expo in Santa Monica, CA.
  • Sept 4-5, 2008: Along with other national and international leaders, Felix presented at the Cascadia Center for Regional Development's Beyond Oil: Transforming Transportation conference in Redmond, WA.
  • July 22-24, 2008: CalCars was an integral part of San Jose's Plug-In 2008 Conference & Exposition: A Short Drive to Tomorrow -- the first international conference dedicated to perfecting and promoting plug-in vehicles. CalCars had a booth on the exhibition floor, hosted a networking session and moderated a panel. Felix introduced Andy Grove (former CEO of Intel), whose keynote address focused on the strategic importance of expanding the electrification of transportation to include conversions of millions of existing internal combustion engine vehicles. See multiple postings at CalCars-News Archive.
  • July 19-20, 2008: Felix Kramer was the featured speaker at the third annual HybridFest, part of the Dane County Fair in Madison, WI, which featured car showcases, drives, exhibits, awards and MPG challenge events.
  • July 2-6, 2008: CalCars teamed up with Luscious Garage in spreading the word about PHEVs at the Marin County Fair, which showcased over a dozen Alt-Fuel vehicles and talks by some of their inventors.
  • June 22, 2008: CalCars showed a PHEV at the 42nd Annual Palo Alto Concours d'Elegance.
  • June 11-12, 2008: Felix Kramer spoke on a panel at Plug-In Electric Vehicles 2008:
    What role for Washington?
    , a national conference hosted by the Brookings Institution and Google.org in Washington, D.C. The conference, which included luminaries from government, industry, academia and the press, was the culmination of a year of planning and a grant by Google.org to Brookings. See our write-up in the news archive and view video of the speakers and panels captured by Plug In America's documentarian.
  • May 28-29, 2008: Enabling Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Markets, a conference billed as "the first international event to bring together the key players involved in the development of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle markets," took place in Detroit, MI.
  • May 20-22, 2008: CalCars, working with Plug-In Supply and Go100MPG.com, showed a PHEV at the Green West Expo in Los Angeles, and Felix was part of a panel on “Next-Generation Hybrid Vehicles."
  • May 12-16, 2008: Ron Gremban, CalCars Technology Lead, attended the Advanced Automotive Battery and Ultracapacitor Conference and Symposia in Tampa, Florida.
  • May 8-9, 2008: Felix Kramer gave a keynote at the fourth Power UP! Electrifying Transportation Summit conference in Wenatchee in central Washington; other speakers included Sanjeev Choudhary, A123/HyMotion, John Clark, V2Green, Jim Francfort, Idaho National Lab, Andy Frank, Efficient Drivetrains; Victor Juarez, Electro Autos Eficaces, Michael Kintner-Meyer, Pacific National Lab; Steve Marshall, Cascadia Center; Ewan Pritchard, Advanced Energy; P.S. Reilly Athena institute; Tim Stearns, Washington State Dept of CTED. See website for presentations
  • May 3-4, 2008: CalCars, working with Plug-In Supply of Petaluma, Luscious Garage of San Francisco, and the EAA-PHEV group, demonstrated and explained PHEV conversions at the third Maker Faire San Francisco Bay Area in San Mateo, CA.
  • April 30-May 1, 2008: CalCars showed a PHEV at White Plaza in Stanford University, where their Energy Crosssroads '08 Conference was held.
  • April 27, 2008: CalCars together with Plug-In Supply displayed two PHEVs in the "Green Machines" exhibit at the anuual (and extraordinary) Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show in Half Moon Bay, CA.
  • April 26, 2008: CalCars exhibited a vehicle at the Annual Alumi Reunion Clean Tech Expo of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
  • April 24, 2008: Felix Kramer presented a talk on PHEVs and demonstrated his car at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose.
  • April 23, 2008: A CalCars PHEV was featured at the first Silicon Valley Solar Summit that assembled representatives of 30 of the 40 municipalities in Silicon Valley at the headquarters of Akeena Solar in Los Gatos to talk about strategies for expanding and speeding the adoption of solar technologies, featuring inspirational talks by San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and Steve Westly, and a dialgue between Carl Guardino, CEO of Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Attorney General Jerry Brown.
  • April 22, 2008: Felix Kramer presented a talk on PHEVs and demonstrated his car at the Cisco's Earth Day Festival
  • April 20, 2008: CalCars showed a PHEV at the Woodside Environment Fest/Earth Day event at Woodside Elementary School.
  • April 20, 2008: At the Santa Barbara Earth Day and Green Car Show, Kim Adelman from Hybrid Conversions accepted a "Green Car Hero" award on CalCars' behalf from the Community Environmental Council, presented by Congresswoman, Lois Capps.
  • April 19, 2008: CalCars showed a PHEV at Coyote Point Museum's Earth Day Event.
  • April 12, 2008: Felix showed his car and gave a talk at Yuri's Night Bay Area 2008 in Mountain View, at this spectacular celebration of artistic and scientific innovation, held on the 40th anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's first human flight into space.
  • April 11-12, 2008: Joe Lervold represented CalCars and displayed his converted Prius at the Green Transportation Fair in Redwood City, hosted by the city's Green Building Exchange.
  • April 7-9, 2008: Michael Bender showed a Plug-In Supply PHEV at Green Technology Summit in Sacramento, at a booth sponsored by iCel Systems and the National Electrical Contractors Association/International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers of Greater LA. Those who stopped by to talk with us included Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi. Full writeup in our April 22 newsletter.
  • March 29, 2008: CalCars accepted the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Award for Innovation in a Non-governmental Organization at the inaugural Aspen Environment Forum. Other winnners included: • Corporate Energy Generation: SolarCity • Corporate Energy Conservation: Serious Materials • Innovation in Government: State of California Energy Offices Million Solar Roofs Initiative • Individual Thought Leadership: Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute
  • March 25, 2008: CalCars senior advisor Randy Reisinger attended a TiESV event, participating on a Cleantech panel, which focused on the many issues surrounding the electrification of vehicles.
  • March 12 - 14, 2008: Felix attended Auto FutureTech - Summit 2008 in Vancouver, B.C., which featured a strong plug-in thread, with well-known figures such as Andy Frank, Ed Kjaer, and CEOs from major batterymakers.
  • March 7, 2008: Felix Kramer was part of the "Transportation Sector Solutions" panel at the 2008 Berkeley Energy Symposium. Moderated by Dan Kammen, Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL), the panel also included Daniel Sperling: Transportation Member, CARB and Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis, and Michael O'Hare: Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley.
  • February 29, 2008: Felix Kramer gave a three-minute talk at the to the 24th annual Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference in Monterey, CA. See report at "1500 Movers/Shakers Hear about PHEV Campaign".
  • February 23, 2008: Felix spoke on a panel, "Is Silicon Valley Becoming the Detroit of the Electric Car Industry" along with Tom Gage of AC Propulsion, and Byron Shaw from GM's Advanced Technology Office at a plenary session of "Silicon Valley's annual town meeting," State of the Valley: Silicon Valley Network event.
  • February 8, 2008: Felix spoke on Sustainable Transportation in Climate Change & Practical Action at the annual Engineers for a Sustainable World Annual Conference in San Francisco
  • December 14, 2007: Felix Kramer presented PHEVs at the Venture Capital Private Equity Roundtable in Los Altos Hills, CA
  • December 11, 2007: Felix Kramer presented PHEVs at the International Association of Nanotechnology's Nano Clean Tech Forum in San Jose, CA.
  • December 2, 2007: CalCars distributed its new "PHEVs: Organizations/Resources/Summary of Carmakers' Plans" at handout at the all-day PHEV workshop held as part of the International Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exposition (EVS-23 in Anaheim, CA.
  • November 29, 2007: CalCars showed a PHEV at Toyota Sunnyvale's 10th Hybrid Event
  • November 28: Ron Gremban presented PHEVs at AutoDesk's AutoDesk University International User Conference and Expo in Las Vegas. His presentation in "Peka Kucha" format (20 slides each for 20 seconds) was a hit at an event for almost 1000 mechanical design professionals.
  • November 22-December 2, 2007: CalCars showed a PHEV in Northern California AAA's Greenlight Initiative booth at the San Francisco International Auto Show at Moscone Convention Center.
  • November 19, 2007: Felix and other CalCars members attended the "The Electrification of Vehicles" Conference, a joint production of student organizations at Stanford and Berkeley, and the first in a continuing series of focused forums highlighting clean technology solutions. Mary Nichols, the Chairperson of CARB, gave the opening keynote, and Felix participated in the first panel, titled "Policy Changes: California's Leadership."
  • November 15, 2007: CalCars completed a Prius conversion outside the Los Angeles International Auto Show at an event co-sponsored by Rainforest Action Network and Global Exchange.
  • November 3, 2007: CalCars was represented at the Mountain View (CA) gathering of StepItUp2007's national day of climate action, which focused on leadership.
  • November 1-2, 2007: Felix was a featured speaker and moderator at the "Where the Grid Meets the Road" conference in Winnipeg, hosted by Canada's Plug-in Highway Network. Other keynoters included Dr. Andy Frank, Bill Moore, Roger Duncan, Chelsea Sexton and Ewan Pritchard.
  • October 27, 2007: Felix showed his converted Prius and spoke on "The Campaign to Promote Plug-In Hybrids" at the Central Coast Electric Auto Association Meeting in Soquel, CA.
  • October 20-21, 2007: CalCars participated in Austin's first Maker Faire and performed Texas's first public conversion of a hybrid vehicle to a plug-in hybrid.
  • October 19-20, 2007: CalCars partnered with Plugin Partners of Austin at Santa Monica's large Alternative Car and Transportation Expo.
  • October 10, 2007: CalCars and PG&E demonstrated PHEVs at a meeting of the Western Journalists Association in South San Francisco.
  • October 5-8, 2007: CalCars showed a PHEV at the 2007 National Electrical Contractors Association Convention and Trade Show at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center.
  • Sept. 26, 2007: CalCars demonstrated its PHEV at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group's Silicon Valley Projections 2008 “Clean and Green” community forum at Santa Clara University, where SVLG's Our Power campaign for PHEVs was announced.
  • September 19-22, 2007: A team of volunteers lead by CalCars performed the first East Coast public conversion of a Prius at the Embedded Systems Conference, part of CMP's TechMash 2007 in Boston.
  • First Annual Driving Sustainability: Fueling the Future of Transport, Sept 17-18 (Reykjavik, Iceland): International energy experts, visionaries, policy makers and financiers joined to help shape the future of renewable energy for vehicles through a powerful exchange of views in this unique setting. Iceland is a global leader in renewable energy with 72% of its total energy consumption from hydro- and geothermal sources. The majority of the country´s 190,000 vehicles are in the small capital area, making Reykjavík the ideal test market for transforming the vehicle fleet to run on renewable energy. See CalCars-News posting for latest developments: conference organizers arranged for Iceland to get a converted PHEV as part of the event. See Felix's presentation (2.1MB PDF).
  • September 8, 2007: CalCars and PG&E demonstrated their PHEVs at the Society for Environmental Journalists' annual conference in Palo Alto.
  • August 25, 2007: Several PHEVs and many electric cars and advocates were at the 2007 EV Rally of the Electric Auto Association, Silicon Valley Chapter.
  • August 24, 2007: CalCars showed a PHEV at Genentech's Environmental Sustainability event at their South San Francisco headquarters.
  • July 4, 2007: Sherry Boschert, author of "Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America" and CalCars members celebrated the 4th by talking about and displaying their PHEVs and EVs at Kepler's Books Independence from Oil—Energy Independence Day
  • June 18, 2007: CalCars and leading PHEV advocates were at the GooglePlex for the launch of RechargeIT, Google.org's major initiative on PHEVs. See our five postings reporting on the event at CalCars-News and photos of the event.
  • June 16, 2007: A CalCars PHEV along with the AC Propulsion eBox (Toyota ScionB all-electric conversion), the Wrightspeed X1 Prototype, a Myers Motors NmG-1 3-wheel EV, and two GreenEmotor electric scooters were among 200+ vehicles at the 12th annual MOTORFEST in Santa Clara, sponsored by the Mid-California Section of the SAE.
  • June 14, 2007: Driving Change: Alternative Fuels for tomorrows’ Cars. A panel of experts from the areas of hybrid, electric cars, biofuels and venture capital met in Menlo Park, CA to discuss all aspects of alternative fuels—focusing on timing, availability and affordability of these solutions, as well as the market opportunities created.
  • June 3, 2007: Alternative energy (including Felix's plugin Prius) joined other themes at this year's Israel in the Gardens, a large cultural event held at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens.
  • June 1, 2007: Felix's talk, "The Power of a Demo: The Plug-in Hybrid" kicked off a day-long by-invitation conference on "Innovation Policy for the Next President" at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research on June 1. Other speakers included representatives from the Romney, McCain, Obama and Clinton campaigns, Stanford professors including economist Paul Roemer, Nobel Prize-winning Professor Roger Kornberg, and Chip Heath, author of "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die," Stanford President John Hennessy, Kiva founder Jessica Flannery, and eBay CEO Meg Whitman.
  • May 30-June 2, 2007: Technology Lead Ron Gremban presented CalCars' progress and hosted a panel on plugin technology at EET-2007, one of Europe's leading electric transportation conferences.
  • May 19-20, 2007: 2007 Maker Faire: At this second annual ultimate Invention/Conversion/Do–It– Yourself event, CalCars converted a Prius into a PHEV. This event tied into CalCars' planned spin-off of a for-profit PHEV conversion company and the late stages of the Electric Auto Association-PHEV Do It Yourself Project.
  • May 14-15, 2007: Leading figures in the PHEV world convened at the Power UP! Summit 2007: Electrifying Transportation, focussing on policy and on technologies for vehicle-to-grid projects, integrating solar and vehicles and conversion business opportunities. (Regrettably, no official CalCars presence because of Austin event.)
  • May 14-16, 2007: CalCars participated in Austin's Clean Energy Venture Summit, the city's debut as a cleantech center and made possible by its new Clean Energy Incubator.
  • Saturday May 12, 2007: Green Transportation Day at the Chabot Space & Science Center. Felix spoke in the Tien MegaDome on "Plug-in Cars — Going the Extra Mile," as part of a family-oriented event involving hands-on interactive fun and education about what ordinary people can do to help put greener cars on the road.
  • Monday May 7, 2007: Felix spoke on the "Climate Change Imperatives for Flex-Fuel Plug-In Electric Vehicles" panel at the Jump Start to a Secure, Clean Energy Future Conference — part of Cascadia's TransTech Energy Series — held at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond, WA. See our newsletter summary and its links for further details, audio and video of this premiere PHEV event. See especially the morning and luncheon keynote videos, hosted by TVW, Washington State's excellent Public Affairs Network and archive.
  • April 29, 2007: "Green Machines" were at the entrance to the legendary Pacific Coast Dream Machines event in Half Moon Bay. On the way to see century-old gasoline and electric cars and steam engines, classic and vintage cars, extreme hot-rods, motorcycle streamliners, operational bi-planes, a Japanese Zero and American B-17 from World War II, monster trucks and everything in between, 20,000 attendees walked or drove by Felix's plug-in Prius, a RAV4 E and some bio-diesel vehicles—and thousands stopped to talk and say they'd seen TV shows or read about PHEVs and electric cars.
  • April 24, 2007: CalCars' booth was mobbed all day at Cisco's four-hour Earth Day event in San Jose.
  • April 22, 2007: Felix participated in a panel on "Savvy Solutions to Global Warming at Berkeley Cybersalon," along with David Hammond, of UC Berkeley's Energy & Resources Group, and Jane White and Eli Noyes, founders of Project 3650, animators against global warming.
  • April 21, 2007: Felix showed his PHEV at Acterra's carbon-neutral, zero-waste "Party for the Planet" on Earth Day, 2007, in Palo Alto, CA and at the Town of Atherton's Earth Day Festival..
  • April 19, 2007: CalCars' Technology Lead Ron Gremban and his plug-in Prius were present at the Sierra Club's "Inconvenient Truth, 2.0 .. A Call to Action," held in downtown San Francisco. Representatives from the local offices of Speaker Pelosi and Senators Boxer and Feinstein also participated.
  • April 14, 2007: Calcars' vehicles were showcased as working models in the Bay Area campaigns of the Step It Up National Day of Climate Action, a grassroots demand for action directed at automakers and Congress initiated by author Bill McKibben.
  • April 11, 2007: CalCars exhibited its lithium-ion PHEV (converted by EnergyCS) at the Cool Products Expo, hosted by Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Product Design & Manufacturing Club. Over two dozen exhibitors, including Tesla, Toyota and other non-automotive companies were present.
  • April 9, 2007: Three plug-in Priuses (EnergyCS lithium of CalCars and PG&E and CalCars lead-acid) were exhibited at the Alternative Energy Solutions Summit, featuring U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, sponsored by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and held at the AMD headquarters in Sunnyvale. Silicon Valley leaders saw the first demonstration by a utility of a Vehicle To Grid (V2G) installation.
  • April 1-4, 2007: CalCars' PHEV converted by EnergyCS was shown in the Plug-In Partners booth at the Alternative Fuels and Vehicles Confernece and Expo in Anaheim, California.
  • March 19, 2007: Felix's Prius by EnergyCS was parked at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley before a screening of Who Killed the Electric Car? and subsequent conversation with the film-maker, Chris Paine. The Climate Crisis "Soup & Solutions" event was sponsored by "Mainstream Moms," (theMMOB.org), a nonprofit group founded in Bolinas in 2004 that's now active in 50 states.
  • March 7-10, 2007: Felix was invited to attend the 2007 TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Conference in Monterey, CA, where he had private showings of his converted Prius.
  • March 1-2, 2007: Calcars exhibited Felix's plug-in Prius, along with the Tesla Roadster and other electric vehicles, at the expo segment of Stanford University's inaugural "Energy Crossroads" conference. Nobel prize-winner Steven Chu, former CIA Director James Woolsey and NY Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman were among the distinguished speakers and panelists. See newsletter #689 for the complete agenda.
  • February 22, 2007: Denis Hayes, Co-founder of Earth Day and moderator for the evening's panel discussion, arrived at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club's 104th anniversary dinner and fundraiser — which honored "Green luminaries" — in Calcar's Plug-in Hybrid. See our newsletter #688 for further details about the event and its agenda.
  • February 21, 2007: Felix Kramer spoke with Hal La Flash of PG&E, and others, at a session on "The Future of Transport: Scalable Transportation Technologies and the Smart Grid" at the Cleantech Venture Forum (XII) hosted by Cleantech Venture Network in San Francisco. See newsletter #682 for further details about this event.
  • January 4, 2007: On the day before Governor Schwarzenegger was inaugurated for his second term, Felix displayed his Plug-in Prius (along with four other alt-fuel vehicles) in Sacramento as part of California's Celebrating the Green Dream kick-off event.
  • December 30, 2006: CalCars participated in a "Photo-Op" in San Francisco, along with three other Bay Area plug-ins, to help launch Bill McKibben's "Step It Up" campaign.
  • Dec 9 & 10, 2006: CalCars displayed Felix's PHEV Prius in a booth shared with Plug-In Partners at Santa Monica's The Alternative Car and Transportation Expo, the world's largest presentation ever of electric, hydrogen, natural gas, biodiesel, ethanol and high MPG cars.
  • November 18-26, 2006: CalCars had its most recent PRIUS+ (plug-in Prius) on display for general viewing throughout the week-long San Francisco International Auto Show. Felix, Sven Thesen (owner of the car) and Marc Geller of PlugInAmerica spoke at the event.
  • November 19, 2006: Dr. Andy Frank and Ron Gremban spoke at the the "Whatcha Gonna Drive?" event hosted by the Alliance for Post Petroleum Local Economies ("APPLE", Nevada County) in Grass Valley, CA. Ron's car, the world's first PRIUS+, was on display in the afternoon, along with many other alternative-fuel vehicles.
  • November 18, 2006: Felix spoke at the opening of the San Francisco Auto Show, which will include a display of his PRIUS+ (sponsored by AAA).
  • November 12, 2006: Sherry Boschert spoke and introduced her new book on Plug-Ins, called Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America, at the San Francisco Green Festival.
  • November 8, 2006: Cornell Entrepreneurs Network and Cornell Alumni Silicon Valley: Alternative Energy Presentations by Cornell Alumni at Stanford Linear Accelerator, one of the world's leading research laboratories. Felix Kramer presented and demonstrated his PHEV. Other presenters included Thomas Dinwoodie, PowerLight Corporation, President and CEO; Ejnar Knudsen, Cilion, Inc., Executive VP; Alexander Rau, Principal, Climate Wedge Ltd / Cheyne Climate Wedge Fund; Jonathan Stoumen, Architect.
  • November 2, 2006: Felix was part of a panel discussion and Q&A, hosted by UC Berkeley's Haas Alumni, about the technological, regulatory and financial aspects of clean technology in the near to long term. Other panelists included Tom Kahill of UC Berkeley, Sanjay Wagle of Vantage Partners, Hal La Flash of PG&E, and Will Coleman of the Berkeley Environmental Rememdiation Program.
  • October 23, 2006: CalCars' PHEV participated in the Berkeley YesOn87 rally with Al Gore. See our photos page for pictures of this and the UCLA event with President Clinton.
  • October 16, 2006: CalCars' PHEV participated in the San Jose CEO Summit on Alternative Energy.
  • October 13, 2006: CalCars' PHEV participated in the UCLA YesOn87 rally with Bill Clinton.
  • September 30, 2006: Felix displayed his PRIUS+ at the 34th Annual Silicon Valley EV Rally & Show in Palo Alto, CA.
  • September 30, 2006: CalCars Technology Lead Ron Gremban) exhibited the worlds first Prius PHEV at the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza for participants in the San Francisco Solar Homes and Electric Vehicles Tour.
  • September 27, 2006: Felix and Ron spoke during the Open Comment Period of the ZEV Symposium put on by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
  • September 26: Communications Director John Davi appeared along with JB Straubel of Tesla Motors and Michael Pak of Nanoexa, speaking about green automotive technology at Stanford University. Sponsored by GreenMountain Engineering.
  • September 20, 2006: Felix participated in E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs)'s EcoSalon on clean transportation, held in Palo Alto, CA. Other participants included Martin Eberhard, Roland Hwand, Dean Kato, Dan Sperling and Paul Zorner. See full announcement in our Aug 30th newsletter.
  • August 2, 2006: Felix spoke at the launch of Plug-In Bay Area, a local complement to Austin's national Plug-In Partners. Other sponsors included Rainforest Action Network, Bluewater Network, PG&E, Plug In America and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
  • July 8, 2006: Communications Director John Davi participated in the inaugural Greenlight Initiative Rally, hosted by AAA. John drove Felix's PRIUS+ from Santa Clara to the showcase in Sacramento, along with a dozen other vehicles of different fuel types.
  • June 29, 2006: Felix was part of a three-member panel discussing all aspects of PHEVs at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club. Joining Felix were CalCars' advisors Daniel Kammen and Gail Slocum. Listen to the 1hr 20m audio from this page, or directly to RealPlayer from here.
  • June 17, 2006: CalCars' EnergyCS PHEV were on display at the Society of Automotive Engineers Mid-Cal MotorFest, along with 100 other vehicles from classic cars to go-karts.
  • June 2, 2006: CalCars' PHEV(s) were parked at the After Party following the San Francisco openings An Inconvenient Truth.
  • June 1, 2006 Prof. Andy Frank and Felix Kramer spoke at Future Trends in Energy, Technology & Transportation workshop, part of Cascadia’s TransTech Leadership Forum Series.
  • May 16-18, 2006: We brought our EnergyCS conversion to Capitol Hill for ride-and-drives with senators, representatives, generals, government officials and journalists - and to make sure PHEVs are on the docket when President Bush meets with the Big Three.
  • May 9: Felix presented "Commercializing Plug-In Hybrids" and demoed his EnergyCS conversion at the Acterra Energy Forum in Palo Alto
  • April 30: Felix Kramer sat on the Green Transportation panel at the New Living Expo
  • April 29: CalCars exhibited our converted Prius at the Planning and Conservation League Legislative Symposium: A Climate of Change
  • April 22-23: CalCars converted a Prius into a plug-in Prius over the two-day Maker Faire
  • April 21: CalCars showcased our PHEV-30 at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) Policy Forum on Energy
  • April 21: CalCars co-sponsored the after-party of the San Francisco premiere of Who Killed the Electric Car
  • April 20: Felix Kramer presented at the Bay Area Future Salon
  • Feb. 25: CalCars' PRIUS+ transported Mexican and US elected officials and other delegates in Sausalito to the US-Mexico Futures Forum sponsored by the UC Berkeley Center for Latin-American Studies
  • Feb. 25: Electric Auto Association Annual Meeting Palo Alto. Felix Kramer thanked the group for its support and talked about future initiatives to promote plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. It turned out that CalCars (and EnergyCS) received an award from the group.
  • Feb. 23: The State of Plug-In Hybrids San Francisco. Evening Lecture at The Pacific Energy Center. Ron Gremban, CalCars Technology Lead, and Sven Thesen, PG&E employee and PHEV supporter spoke to an audience primarily of people in the building professions.
  • Feb. 11: Environmental Forum of Marin, "Clean and Cleaner: The Outlook for Hybrids, Plug-In Hybrids, Fuel Cells and other Clean Energy Vehicles," part of a workshop series at Marin Community Foundation.
  • Feb. 10: Stanford Environmental Engineering and Science (EES) Seminar Series: "Commercializing Plug-In Hybrids"
  • Feb. 8: "Eco-Judaism" talk at Congregation Etz Chayim, Palo Alto
  • Jan. 24, 2006: Plug-In Partners: See transcript and video from launch press conference in Washington, DC.
  • Dec. 6-8: Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) Conference and Exposition in Vancouver, Canada, CalCars shared a booth with Electro Energy. See CalCars Founder Felix Kramer's presentation "Commercializing Plug-In Hybrids" at the Day 2 PHEV track session. Or see most recent version of that presentation.
  • Dec. 8: British Columbia Sustainable Energy Association sponsored a panel where we spoke, at Vancouver City Hall from 6:30-8:15PM.
  • Nov. 19-27: AAA of Northern California sponsors CalCars at 48th Annual San Francisco International Auto Show: Our PRIUS+ was seen by thousands of visitors as they arrived at Moscone Center event.
  • Nov. 14: PRIUS+ in Seattle: morning press conference, afternoon at South Seattle Community College: announcement and details
  • Nov. 15: CalCars participated at Advanced Vehicle Initiative, Wenatchee, Washington
  • Nov. 5-6: San Francisco Green Festival: see announcement.
  • Sept. 24: 33rd Annual Silicon Valley Electric Auto Association Rally in Palo Alto: CalCars showed our PRIUS+.
  • Sept. 22: CalCars' Founder Felix Kramer spoke on "How Plug-in Hybrids Tackle National Security, Jobs and Global Warming at the Same Time" at a Silicon Valley institution since 1977: the PARC Forum (held at what used to be Xerox PARC-Palo Alto Research Center). We spoke to a full auditorium....Tech Lead Ron Gremban (who once worked at PARC) helped in the Q& A and demonstrated our PRIUS+. Get a good overview of our history and strategy from the presentation we gave--see latest version, above). You can view the hour-long event (streaming video) or listen to/download a slightly shorter audio version (MP3). You can fast forward to 30 minutes of lively questions. See the event poster at PRIUS+ Photos.
  • Sept.10-11: At the Sierra (Club) Summit at Moscone Center in San Francisco, we joined Toyota RAV4 EVs at an unofficial Ride-and Drive event sponsored by the San Francisco Electric Vehicle Association, near the automakers' official Ride-And-Drive. We gave informal presentations at SFEVA's booth. And architect/designer William McDonough introduced us at his keynote event.
  • June 3-5: The CalCars PRIUS+ was on view at the GreenCities Expo, part of World Environment Day, at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, thanks to support from Rainforest Action Network and the Bluewater Network (now part of Friends of the Earth).
  • May 21: CalCars presented at the East Bay Electric Auto Association Chapter meeting.
  • April 16: Felix Kramer and Ron Gremban presented the first PRIUS+ at the Electric Auto Association Electric Auto Association Silicon Valley Chapter meeting. Here's Ron's 33-slide presentation (3.3MB PDF)
  • April 2-6: at EVS-21 (Worldwide International Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Symposium & Exposition), a Lithium-Ion version of PRIUS+ (see PRIUS+ for Fact Sheet and photos),premiered, sponsored by battery supplier Valence Technology and created by EnergyCS. See Valence press release.
  • April 3, 2005: EnergyCS co-founders Greg Hanssen and Peter Nortman were at the PHEV Workshop, co-sponsored by Electric Power Research Institute, Southern California Edison, Electricite de France, and the International Energy Agency. Read Greg's Bridge to the Hydrogen Highway (PDF) or text on how adding batteries decreases the cost of fuel-cell vehicles, presented at EVS-21.
  • 2003-04 we spoke at meetings of the Electric Auto Association of Silicon Valley and the Electric Vehicle Association of San Diego.
  • April and May 2003, CalCars presented at a Commonwealth Club panel on "Greening of the Automobile Market: Consumer Voices and Alternative Choices" in San Francisco (along with Prof. Andy Frank from UC Davis and Ernest Bastien, Corporate Manager, Advanced Technology Vehicles, Toyota, hosted by Paul Eisenstein of the Car Connection), and at Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group's "Power and Motion" conference in Sunnyvale.
  • July 29, 2002, CalCars founded in Palo Alto at a knOwhere brainstorming session (see photo)

Check out past CalCars news, or subscribe to our low-traffic PHEV newsletter at right:  
Copyright © 2003-2012 California Cars Initiative | Sit Map