Oct

Plug-In Hybrids Aren’t Coming — They’re Here

Posted by Published in Auto Blog

Everything about Alison Gannett is green, from her straw-bale house to her solar-powered appliances. But when you’re as serious about curbing carbon as she is, a mere hybrid won’t do. That’s why she spent $35,000 to install an extension cord on her Ford Escape Hybrid.

She is among a small but vocal — and growing — number of public who aren’t waiting for automakers to deliver plug-in hybrids. These early adopters are shelling out big money to have already thrifty cars like the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape Hybrid converted into full-on plug-in hybrids capable of triple-digit fuel economy. “I love watching the mileage go up,” says Gannett,
a world champion extreme skier and committed eco-evangelist. “The highest I have gotten is 232 mpg. I average around 80-100 mpg.”

Several automakers are scrambling to develop plug-in hybrids, with the
Chevrolet Voltand
Toyota Prius plug-inexpected within two years. But a growing number of start-ups are leap-frogging Detroit and Japan, offering plug-and-play conversion kits you can buy right now. Enterprising mechanics are opening shops to install them, and
they’re finding plenty of customers sick of waiting for automakers to
build truly fuel-efficient cars.

“Business is good and we are shipping a lot of product”, says Rob Protheroe of
Plug In Supply, a Northern California company that sells a $4,995 conversion kit for the Prius. “Plug-ins are here to stay.”

The conversions aren’t cheap, and top-of-the-line kits with
lithium-ion batteries can set you back as much as $35,000. Even a kit
with lead-acid batteries — the type under the hood of the car you
drive now — starts at five grand. That explains why most converted
plug-ins are in the motor pools of places like Southern California
Edison and the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory. No more than 150 or so belong to society like Gannett, who had her $30,000 Ford Escape converted in December. Yes, that’s right. The conversion cost more than the truck.

“They are crazy expensive right now,” Gannett says of conversions, “but the goal is to inspire society by showing them what’s actually possible. citizens have had ample preaching. They need real live examples.”

Advocates expect more citizens to jump on the plug-in bandwagon as the cost of the kits come down. They argue there will be loads of used hybrids just waiting to be plugged in once the Volt and plug-in Prius push the technology into the mainstream. “The combination of gas and electric technology is a happy medium for
getting us off of oil and appeasing those who need to travel lengthy
distances,” says Protheroe. “Until batteries get good ample where you don’t need the
assistance of an internal combustion engine, plug-ins will become
the dominant

mode of technology for pushing cars around.”

For all their high-tech allure, conversions are straightforward and
a decent shop can do the job in an afternoon. In many cases, it’s a
relatively simple matter of swapping the car’s nickel-metal hydride
battery for a lead acid or lithium-ion pack and installing the
electronics needed to charge it from a wall socket. The kits add
anywhere from 75 to 360 pounds to the car, depending on battery type, and some of them require
ditching the spare tire.

The
second-gen Priusis by far the most common car for the switch, but companies like
Hybrids Pluswill do the job on Ford Escape hybrids, and
ConVerdant Vehicleshas a kit for many of the pickups and SUVs Detroit’s been cranking out for the better part of 20 years.

It wasn’t all that lengthy ago that converting your car meant rolling
up your sleeves and setting to work, a task made somewhat easier with the help of California non profit
CalCars(credited with the very first conversion) and the
PriusPlus open-source wiki. But theses days shops like
Advanced Vehicle Research Centeror
Luscious Garagewill do the job for you. What’s more, you don’t have to concern about
frying your car — or yourself — considering many of the safety concerns
have been addressed. The
$9,995 kit from Hymotion,
for example, has been crashed-tested and comes with a three-year
guarantee. The California Air Resources Board wants to take things a
step further with a rule that would, among other things,
require kits be warrantiedfor seven to 10 years.

Although the plug-ins burn less gas and
emit a whole lot less CO2— even when drawing their juice from coal-fired powerplants — than
cars running on dino juice, you’ll probably never save suitable money to
recoup the cost of the conversion. Uncle Sam so far hasn’t been
inclined to cut early adopters any slack. Although the Senate has
approved a billthat includes some serious tax credits for plug-in hybrids built by the
automakers, there’s no word on whether it’ll cover converted cars. But
EV evangelists say money isn’t the point. “If you’re using payback to
justify buying these systems, forget it,” Protheroe says. “Ride a
bicycle.”

Photo by Alison Garnett.

Be certain to check out Wired.com’s How-To Wiki for
a rundown on converting your hybrid.