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Article published Feb 25, 2008 CVPS, Schools Collect Data On New PLEHs
Although the future looks promising, it’s too early to tell exactly how well plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PLEHs) will work in Vermont, says Steve Costello, spokesperson for Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS). Currently, it’s “so far, so good. We don’t have a lot of data and that still has to be crunched” by project partner Green Mountain College.
This new form of hybrid vehicle has both an internal combustion engine and batteries for power, plus a plug that allows for connecting to an electric power source. Although most PLEHs are passenger cars, they have counterparts that are commercial: passenger vans, utility trucks, school buses, and military vehicles. There are also motorcycles and scooters. Also referred to as grid-connected or gas-optional hybrids, they may also bear the acronym GO-HEVs.
CVPS purchased two in June 2007 and has recently purchased a third, which has been donated to the University of Vermont so that that institution can take part in testing the concept, Costello says.
The hybrid vehicle test has caught the interest of another component of the educational community, Costello notes. Students at Rutland Town Elementary School, which abuts the CVPS facility on Post Road, have become so excited by what they have seen of the vehicles that the electric utility has begun a educational program at the school. Once a month, a CV or Green Mountain College employee will be teaching a class to seventh graders and eighth graders for a day. The final day in the series will be a field trip to the school in Poultney, during which students will look at the information gathered from the hybrid cars, and explore the college’s wind power generation and organic farm projects.
The interlink with the elementary school is exciting, Costello says, because it extends beyond the most obvious mathematics and science elements into other studies including language arts and environmental studies.
Although the data is still being collected, let alone analyzed, the future of the plug-in hybrid appears promising, Costello observes, saying that it appears to be able to operate at “about one-third the cost of gasoline, or the equivalent of $1 a gallon.” There are other advantages besides cost alone, he points out.
“You don’t want to generate dirty electricity,” Costello comments. ‘Vermont’s electrical production is exceptionally clean. We have no coal and very little fossil fuel” used in the production of the state’s electricity.
There is another element to the plug-in hybrid, Costello cites. Used as commuter vehicles, they have the potential to lower air pollution. “If you look at Vermont’s air footprint, the largest amount of pollution comes from automobiles.” Electrically powered vehicles have none of the tailpipe emissions of a conventional vehicle.
Costello and fellow CVPS employee Bruce Bentley are both on the waiting list to purchase the Chevrolet Volt, first revealed as a concept car at the January 2007 North American International Auto Show. Although the Toyota Prius, whether the currently sold Prius hybrid or the next generation of Prius plug-in hybrids, uses gasoline as fuel, the Volt is designed as a flex-fuel vehicle, able to burn either gasoline or E85 (85-percent ethanol fuel).
CVPS already has 15 regular Ford Escape hybrids and a hybrid bucket truck. Because these vehicles operate more quietly than conventional internal combustion engines, there is also a “savings” in noise pollution, Costello says.
Testing at Green Mountain College compares “the same amount of travel you can get from one gallon of gasoline,” says Steve Letendre, associate professor of Business, Economics, and Environmental Science at the school. So far, the costs have been comparable to gasoline priced “as low as 75 cents to 1 dollar a gallon,” he says.
Green Mountain students have been collecting data on how much electricity and how much gasoline the two vehicles use and observing how performance differs with the weather. One Prius has been used by a faculty member with a fairly long commute; in the spring, it will switch to another faculty member who has a 20- to 30-minute commute (approximately the national average) each day.
Letendre and Richard Watts, director of the University of Vermont Transportation Center, have been researching Vermont’s electric grid to determine how many cars it could charge and estimate the resultant gas savings. In theory, the cars would be plugged in overnight to recharge their batteries, be driven during the day, and plugged in again the following evening, using electricity to recharge in off-peak times.
Whether the PLEHs will become popular depends in large part on their cost. “Nobody knows for certain what commercial production vehicles will cost,” Letendre comments, with the caveat that production PLEHs will need larger batteries than today’s conventional hybrids.
Most PLEHs on the road today are production model Toyota Prius hybrids, built in 2004 or later. Experimenters have added plug-in charging and extended the vehicles’ electric-only range.
State agencies are looking carefully at the future of the plug-in hybrid, considering not only how it may fit into the overall power grid, but also its environmental impact and affordability, according to Steve Wark, director of consumer affairs for the Vermont Department of Public Service. “Utilities and polices are issues that the legislature will face. Each division keeps an eye on developing technology and policy. We focus on regulating utilities.”
Vermont differs from most other states in its approach to utilities. “Most states focus on large centralized power generation. We’re cutting edge with net metering. We’ve always had people sell power back to utilities.”
There’s an attitude common among Vermonters, Wark believes. “People really want to contribute any way they can.” He sees the growing number of hybrid owners in the state as one example of that attitude, “helping to do their part.”
Pete Stoddard of White River Toyota in White River Junction is optimistic about the future of the plug-in hybrid. “I think they will be wonderful if they extend the life of the battery. It may give you up to 40 or 50 miles; then you need the gas engine or you need to re-plug in. In an area like this it doesn’t do people much good to drive 40 or 50 miles and then have to plug in again.”
Knowledge about the experimental cars is still scanty. “They keep it pretty secret. If the car stays under 35 miles an hour, you run on electricity. I think it’s a great concept.”
Great concept or not, the plug-in hybrid needs more re-engineering, Stoddard says. “The range has been the big problem,” he points out. Valley residents would have difficulty traveling to Burlington, for example. “As far as we’re concerned, we’re nine months to a year away from having something of that type.” He sees the plug-in’s buyers as primarily those who already have hybrids.
How well the plug-in hybrids sell, whether in Vermont or elsewhere, depends on pricing, Stoddard projects. “The Prius is not an expensive car. If the plug-in version is not much more expensive than what it would cost for the current Prius,” he believes it will sell well.
The market segment of those who already have purchased the current Prius hybrid is fairly broad. “We sell Priuses to people who are just getting out of college to people who are in their 80s. All Prius models are a hybrid of some sort.”
Like many “new” technologies, today’s plug-in hybrids have been a dream of far-thinking companies and individuals for more than a century. Electrically powered cars, running on batteries, were produced as early as the first decade of the 20th century, charging from an external source.
More recently, the July 1969 Popular Science magazine included an article on a General Motors concept commuter front-wheel-drive vehicle design with six 12-volt batteries providing power for a DC electric motor that recharged from plugging into a standard 110-volt AC.
The first PLEHs available to automobile dealers will be the Volt and the Saurvn VUE SUV by General Motors (GM), with a “possible launch date” of 2010, Letendre says. His source is an electrical vehicle symposium that he attended in autumn of 2007. Ford and Chinese automobile builder BYD Auto have also announced plans to build PLEH vehicles.
Renault has been selling the Elect’road, a plug-in series hybrid version of its Kangoo, on the European market since 2003, as well as an Electri’cite electric-drive Kangoo van, powered by battery. The company had sold approximately 500 vehicles, primarily in the UK, France, and Norway, for about $36,845 ($25,000 Euros), before a 2007 re-design.