Power, Plugs and People

Hybrid Cars - Power, Plugs and People: "Mar. 01, 2006: See a Prius Makeover at Inaugural Maker Faire

CalCars' next project is quick: we'll convert a Prius in a weekend. This will be fun and important.

Our partner is MAKE, the acclaimed year-old magazine from O'Reilly Media. The venue is MAKE's Inaugural Maker Faire at the San Mateo Fairgrounds, April 22-23. See their press release at our page, CalCars at Make Magazine's Maker Faire. At that page, we'll follow up this announcement soon with additional details: what we'll be doing; a look at our All-Star Conversion Team; how you can help.

This PHEV will recharge in hydropower-rich Seattle. It's a dry run for the EAA-PHEV effort.) That project is developing Open Source (non-proprietary) electronic designs, instructions and recommended components so experienced engineers can complete 'do-it-yourself' conversions on their own. Along with the two private companies now about to offer after-market installed retrofits, this will put some plug-in hybrids on the road. Meanwhile, we plug away at getting the car-makers to do it right: bigger, better and cheaper and of course, bigger -- bringing PHEVs into the fleet faster and more broadly than all the conversions anyone could envision.

Here's a run-down of our current programs (see also CalCars 2006 Goals):

ADVOCACY AND PARTNERSHIPS most important fir"