Plug-In Hybrids Possible in 18-Months...IF

The Patriot News
Jun 05, 2006

It sounds too good to be true. An otherwise conventional vehicle that gets 80-plus miles per gallon, leading to a reduction in U.S. fuel consumption by 60 percent and greenhouse-gas emissions by two-thirds.

That's the claim made in behalf of the plug-in hybrid vehicle. Employing state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries, it would provide an all-electric operating range of 25 to 35 miles or more, after which a regular gasoline or diesel motor would kick in. The battery would be re charged at home at night, when there is plenty of electric- generating capacity available, by plugging the car into a standard electrical outlet.

A movement launched in January by numerous cities and renewable energy advocates, called The Plug-in Partners National Campaign, seeks to show that a market exists for such vehicles in hopes of luring a major automaker into producing them.

But there are two major uncertainties, as there are with any technology that rests on storing substantial amounts of energy:
# Has a battery been developed that will do the job reliably and safely?

# What will it cost?

Those who are pushing for mass production of plug-in hybrids claim the technology is economically and technologically feasible today. Others familiar with the technology say it may take three to five years, even 10 years, for a lithium battery with the power, reliability and acceptable weight and size to be available for the general vehicle market.

Don Hillebrand, director of the Center for Transportation Research at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, where research on such vehicles is under way, says plug-in hybrids could be ready for mass production in 18 months if a concerted effort were made to solve the battery issue.

While the plug-in hybrid is an evolutionary step toward an all-electric or alternative-fueled vehicle, it promises to be revolutionary in a number of respects. For those with relatively close commutes to work, it actually could eliminate the need to "gas up," as it were, saving huge quantities of oil once such vehicles were on the highway in large numbers. The gains in reduced pollution would be equally impressive.

The range of the electric component of plug-in vehicles could be extended by making electrical outlets available at parking spaces at work, public garages, hotels and shopping centers.

Development of a lithium-ion battery that could reliably power a vehicle for considerable distances day after day would have other uses of great significance to society. Such a device potentially would store enough power to keep the lights on in homes, businesses and industries that generated electricity with rooftop solar photovoltaic panels even after the sun goes down.

It's not a case of if plug-in hybrid vehicles will be available at your local automobile dealership, but when. They are, without a doubt, the most promising of the alternative vehicles being developed on the visible horizon. Expanding the effort to solve the battery problems, as Hillebrand suggests, should be a national priority.