Jul

Plug-In 2008 Photo Gallery

Posted by admin Published in Electric Car

SAN Jose, Calif. - Wired.com photographer Emily Lang spent some instance wandering around the exposition corridor at the Plug-In 2008 plug-in hybrid conference we’ve been covering and brought us a look at the cars of tomorrow. You can get a full rundown of our coverage with urls to all the stories at Wired.com @ Plug-In 2008.

Check out the gallery…

The Electric potential Research Institute brought three plug-in hybrid conversions to the show, including that sweet Scion, to prove green cars can be cool too. EPRI’s research shows that even with half of our electricity currently coming from coal, the widespread adoption of plug-in hybrid vehicles could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 450 million metric tons a year by 2050. That’s the equivalent of taking one third of our gasoline vehicles off the road. The institute is working with General Motors and Ford to develop the infrastructure and standards needed to manufacture certain plug-in hybrids have a place to plug in.

Whatever you do, don’t sign it a golf cart. The appropriately named Bad Boy Buggies brought what it says is the first electric four-wheel drive vehicle, even whether it does look like a jacked-up golf cart. It’s emissions-free, of course, and the fuel cost is 9 cents every 5 miles compared to 57 cents to go the same distance with a gasoline vehicle. Somehow we don’t see Ted Nugent taking one of these on his next hunting trip.

Bad Boy Buggy batteries, baby! Try saying that four times fast. The off-roader uses eight 6-volt batteries and allows the buggy to traverse less than friendly terrain nearly silently. That’s

a big draw for hunters who want to sneak up on game before blasting it.

HyMotion and A123 Systems were on hand with one of their Toyota Prius hybrids converted with the L5 Plug-in Conversion module. HyMotion says the conversion brings 100 mpg for 30 to 40 miles. It’s got a 5 kWh battery pack that charges in 4.5 hours. It costs $9,995. But can you really put a price on saving the planet?

So you think plug-in hybrids are slow, do you? Take a look at the Formula Hybrid race car Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies was showing off. Built by students at IIT Armour College of Engineering, it placed third overall in the 2008 Formula Hybrid competition.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed announced a two-year pilot project with Coulomb Technologies to install five plug-in charging stations called ChargePoint so folks can keep cars like the forth-coming Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid running. No word yet on where they’ll be located, but Coulomb will pay the electric bill.

Plug-in econoboxes get all the ink these days, but there’s a push to put batteries and extension cords in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles as well. Makes sense, considering they get awful fuel economy and emit a lot of carbon dioxide. Terex displayed their new PHEV bucket truck, which allows workers to use the aerial without running the engine and saves fuel.

Photos and text by Emily Lang / wired.com.
Original post by Chuck Squatriglia