Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, is a long-time fan of plug-in cars. He was the author in 2008 of Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addition to Oil and Coal (written while he was Executive Director of the Rainforest Action Network. After speaking along with 350.org founder Bill McKibben at the "Moving Planet" event at the San Francisco Civic Center on Sept. 24, he came over to admire Felix Kramer's Nissan Leaf with a conversation-starter license plate that ties in directly with the Club's Beyond Coal and Go Electric campaigns. Full size photo

Three-and-a-half years after Google celebrated the launch of RechargeIT with a fleet of converted Priuses, a dozen current Google staff, alumni and advisors reunited ion February 3, 2011 to share their favorite stories. They saw the fruit of their efforts, as CalCars' Felix Kramer and Ron Gremban brought two Chevy Volts and one Nissan Leaf to the Googleplex in Mountain View. Staying around for a photo under the photovoltaic rooftop canopy were Ron, Alec Brooks, Rolf Schreiber, David Shearer, Felix, Charles Baron, Brian Beidelman, and Carl Page. Full size photo

Two-and-a-half years after Andy Grove enjoyed the "dongle" we gave him to show that plug-in cars connect to the existing infrastructure, on January 31, 2011, he got to see the real thing -- the accessory that comes with GM's Volt. Full size photo

Felix Kramer gave demos and test drives of the Volt and the Leaf in Los Altos on January 31, 2011 to former Intel CEO Andy Grove, advisor James Jarrett, Leslie Dorosin and Helen Zhang from the Grove Foundation, Eva Grove, and adviosr Tom Waldrop. Full size photo

Kevin Levy, Tommy Hayes and Christine Luong, staff of the Natural Resources Defense Council/Environmental Entrepreneurs, got a demo and test drive of the Chevy Volt in Palo Alto on January 20, 2011. Full size photo

In front of the Chevy Volt are Dave Barthmuss, Group Manager for General Motors' Western Region, Environment & Energy Communications team, James Woolsey, Richard Lowenthal, CEO and Mike Harrigan, VP of Business Development at Coulomb Technologies, at Plug In America's party, Sept 27, 2008, in Culver City at the home of Chris Paine, writer/director of Who Killed the Electric Car. Full size photo

David Godfrey, 13, whose business card says he's a "Future Environmental Specialist," is working on renewable fuels. On August 25, he toured Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, meeting energy scientists and spending time with the Lab's Director, Nobel Laureate Dr. Stephen Chu. In June he visited VC firm Kleiner Perkins; David, who has battled T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, met for two hours with John Doerr, and also talked about his ideas and inventions with Brooke Byers and Elen Pao. His Environmental Sojourn is the 5,000th Wish by the Bay Area Make-A-Wish Foundation. David is shown with his parents, Derek and Marie; CalCars provided him with round-trip transportation from San Jose to LBNL. Full size photo

Leading climatologist the late Stephen Schneider of Stanford University in Palo Alto, August 2008, shows Sven Thesen of Better Place a smart way to recharge Sven's PHEV. Full size photo

Peter Giles, former CEO of the San Jose Tech Museum, now advisor on corporate partnerships for the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, and Russell Hancock, CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, after an August planning meeting at Better Place HQ in Palo Alto to discuss the San Francisco Bay Area's emerging green policies. Full size photo

Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel Corp. and strong advocate for plug-in cars, in Los Altos (May, 2008). Full size photo

Accepting awards to CalCars.org for the plug-in car campaign at the South Coast Earth Day Festival in Santa Barbara were Kim Adelman of Plug-In Conversions (left) and Seth Seaberg of EDrive Systems (right), from US Rep. Lois Capps and Santa Barbara Community Environment Council Energy Program Senior Associate Michael Chiacos (April, 2008). Full size photo

Award received by CalCars from the first Aspen Institute Environmental Forum, March 2008. Full size photo

Toyota USA spokeswoman Cindy Knight and VP of Communications Irv Miller with a Prius converted by the company to a PHEV, at the LA Auto Show, November 2007. Full size photo

Actor Rob Lowe (who plays a Senator on "Brothers & Sisters" and played a senior presidential staffer on "West Wing"), and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., drive an A123 Systems PHEV after testifying before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming in Washington on July 12, 2007 (photo by USA Today).

Silicon Valley Leadership Group President and CEO Carl Guardino, and SVLG Director of Transportation & Land Use Laura Stuchinsky, shown in June 2007 at a Board of Directors meeting held at Applied Materials, are PHEV advocates as part of SVLG's Clean and Green Energy Action Plan. Full size photo

Sass Somekh chairs the PHEV project of Silicon Valley Leadership Group's Clean & Green initiative. (The founder of Novellus organized Silicon Valley Business Leaders for Alternative Energy.) After briefing the June 2007 SVLG Board of Directors, he and Tom McCalmont, chairman of SVLG's Solar Tech Initiaive and CEO of Campbell-based REgrid Power, talked about the two initiatives. Full size photo

At the United Auto Workers Union office in Fremont near the NUMMI plant (where Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Corolla cars and Toyota Tacoma trucks are built), we met in May 2007 with UAW Local 2244 Trustee and Bargaining Committee Member Javier Contreras, Apollo Alliance Western Regional Field Director Carla Din, Local 2244 President George Nano and Mary Ann Massenburg, retired UAW International Representative. Full size photo

Dr. Terry Galloway, President, Intellergy Corp and Dan Miller, Managing Director of the Roda Group, both Board Members of the Chabot Space and Science Center in the Oakland Hills, with Felix before he spoke in May, 2007. Full size photo

Rogelio Sullivan, Group Leader for the Advanced Materials and Hybrid Electric Systems Programs at the Department of Energy, at the Cascadia Conference in Redmond, WA in May 2007. Full size photo

Sarah Connolly from Rainforest Action Network/the Freedom from Oil Campaign and Plug-In Bay Area, and Danielle Fugere, Director of Climate Change at Bluewater Network/Friends of the Earth, joined Palo Alto Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto at City Hall Plaza for the March 2007 kick-off of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group's program to endorse soft fleet orders for PHEVs. Full size photo

In Sausalito in March 2007, we demoed the car to Jeff Goodell, journalist and author of the recently-published "Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future;" futurist Stewart Brand, involved in creating The Whole Earth Catalog, The Well, The Global Business Network and much more (read about him at Wikipedia); and Alexander Rose, robotics and bio-diesel enthusiast and Executive Director of the Long Now Foundation (read about the 10,000 Year Clock, The Rosetta Project and Long Bets). Full size photo

Engineering Professor Emeritus Gil Masters has inspired several generations of Stanford University students and many others to make environmental issues their life work. Energy Crossroads Conference, March 2007. Full size photo

Denis Hayes, "practical visionary" President/CEO of the Bullitt Foundation, organizer of the first Earth Day in 1970 (now in 180 countries), first director of the federal National Renewable Energy Laboratory, former Stanford University Adjunct Engineering Professor and Silicon Valley lawyer, drove a PHEV for the first time in February 2007, from near San Francisco Airport to a Commonwealth Club event. He is with his wife, Gail Boyer, attorney and author of "Solar access law: Protecting access to sunlight for solar energy systems." Full size photo

Steve Marshall, senior fellow of the Cascadia Center, retiring president of the Seattle Municipal League, formerly a senior executive in the electric utility industry, frequent public advocate for PHEVs in the Pacific Northwest and in Washington DC (see his article, Recharging the Nation's Energy Policy). Mountain View, February 2007. Full size photo

Actor Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings/Pirates of the Caribbean), drove in our car to the GlobalGreen pre-Oscars party, February 2007 (Photo: Wireimage)

Global Green USA President Matt Petersen with PHEV at the 2007 pre-Oscars party. PHOTO: REUTERS/Gus Ruelas

Futurist and business strategist Peter Schwartz, co-founder of the Global Business Network, former head of scenario planning for Royal Dutch Shell, and co-author of the much-discussed report for the Department of Defense, "An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for US National Security," appreciates the broad significance of PHEVs. This demo was in Berkeley in February 2007. Full size photo

Inventor Dean Kamen, in his iBOT Mobility System, got a ride in our car in Mountain View in February 2007. Kamen has created breakthrough devices including the first drug-infusion pump and home dialysis unit, the Segway Human Transporter and recently, extraordinary inventions to provide clean water and electricity to hundreds of millions of people in the third world. DEKA Research is also working on Sterling engine technologies that could match well with PHEVs. Full size photo

Maria Shriver at pre-Inaugural "Leading the Green Dream" event with CalCars Founder Felix Kramer in Sacramento, January 2007. Click left half or right half for full size of that image.

California Air Resources Board Chairman Robert Sawyer, former Secretary of State George Shultz, and former Secretary of the Environment Terry Tamminen at pre-Inaugural "Leading the Green Dream" event in Sacramento, January 2007. Full size photo

CalCars' Ron and Felix with Jeff Hawkins, co-founder of Palm, Handspring and Numenta, currently CTO at Palm, after a "brown-bag lunch" CalCars presentation at Palm's headquarters, December 2006. Full size photo.

UC Davis Prof. Andy Frank and former CIA Director James Woolsey both spoke at the Alternative Car and Transportation Expo in December 2006 in Santa Monica. Woolsey first said, "for a plug-in hybrid, we need a bigger battery and, yes, there is an infrastructure investment: an extension cord. Each family would need an extension cord," at the launch event for Plug-In Partners. Full size photo.

CalCars Founder Felix Kramer had a few minutes to talk with Al Gore after his speech, before he returned to the airport in our car. Gore's top questions were about cost and availability. Full size photo. In his September "What we can do about it" speech at NYU, Gore urged "retooling our failing auto giants — GM and Ford — to require and assist them in switching to the manufacture of flex-fuel, plug-in, hybrid vehicles."

Daryl Hannah first encountered CalCars at the MakerFaire, where she produced a Treehugger segment. In mid-October 2006, she was picking up some images for her video website, DHLoveLife.Com, before heading down from San Francisco to Palo Alto in our car. Click left half or right half for full size of that image. See her finished video, featuring CalCars in the second half.

Robert "Bud" McFarlane, member of Set America Free, former national security adviser to President Reagan, and principal at Energy & Communications Solutions, gives his "thumbs up" before taking our PHEV for a spin and after speaking at the October CEO Summit on Alternative Energy in San Jose.

This Silicon Valley delegation's August 2006 visit to Sacramento was noted as a balance-tipper toward the successful signing of AB32. See more at See more at CalCars and Global Warming and Felix Kramer's blog.
First row: Ellen Pao, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Dave Pearce, Miasole; Jack Newman, Amyris; Bob Epstein, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2); Nathalie Hoffman, CA Renewable Energies; Diane Doucette, CA Global Warming Campaign. Second row: Larry Gross, Altra; John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Amy Christiansen, Google.org; Felix Kramer, CalCars. Full-size photo

SpaceShipOne's Burt Rutan, alongside the CalCars plug-in charging from an Energy Innovations solar carport, at Pebble Beach in August 2006. Full-size photo

Felix with CalTech professor Nate Lewis, leading global warming researcher, June 2006 in Pasadena. Full-size photo

Southern California Edison's Dean Taylor, longtime PHEV advocate, as Felix takes delivery in Monrovia of his EnergyCS-converted Prius in April 2006. Full-size photo

Felix Kramer and Ron Gremban in San Francisco February 2006 with Lester R. Brown (center), founder, Worldwatch, Earth Policy Institute. Full-size photo