Plugin Hybrids
July 2nd, 2008 by john
Out in San Francisco last night I came across one of Google’s plugin hybrids parked in the garage under the building they have office space in. There were three spaces in the corner of the garage nearest to the door to the Google space marked as reserved for Google Fleet vehicles, and all three spaces had retractable extension cords mounted on the wall in front of them.
Only one Toyota Prius was there, and despite being painted in RechargeIT.org colours and saying that it was a plugin hybrid, it was not actually plugged in. Furthermore, we couldn’t actually see any obvious place to plug it in (normally, the after market conversions have a small connector on the rear bumper).
Why a Plugin Hybrid?
So, why buy a brand new hybrid car like the Prius, which already has better fuel consumption figures than most of the cars on the roads in the US, and spend more money on an after-market plugin conversion? Well, Google’s dashboard for the RechargeIT project gives some idea of why:
| Standard Prius | Plugin Prius | |
|---|---|---|
| MPG | 44.6 | 66.2 |
| CO2/mile | 0.530 | 0.411 |
So, 50% better gas mileage is a pretty good reason for the conversion, and the further reduction in the CO2 emissions is a bonus. But there must be more…
Taking it Further
Why is Google looking at this technology though? Their plans go beyond a 50% improvement in fuel economy for sure. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of what they’re doing is a joint project with PG&E (the electricity utility for much of northern California) to explore vehicle-to-grid technology. That’s an idea that uses the batteries in plugin hybrid cars to store electricity when there is plenty available, and feed it back into the grid when there is more demand than the grid can supply.
During the daytime electricity usage can peak as people switch on heating or cooling systems, and during those times many cars will be safely parked and plugged in ready to supply extra electricity. Any electricity that they supply back to the grid is paid for too, so the owner gets a nice little bonus for plugging in their car all day that goes beyond the mileage improvements.
The other time this technology might be useful is for those who have solar panels on their property. During the day, at least here in California, there is plenty of sunlight for generating electricity. At night though things change dramatically! To solve this, you can either store the excess power generated during the day, or you can buy power from the grid overnight (and sell the excess during the day to them). Now, if you have a plugin hybrid, it can act as your storage unit while it is plugged in, help you get through the night without needing power from the grid and probably still have enough charge to get you to work in the morning without using much gas.
Want to Learn More?
Check out the RechargeIT site for lots of good information and links to other resources. Follow the Google team’s blog, and check out some of their video materials too, like this one explaining some of the benefits of plugin hybrids:
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Yes, we definitely need more choices when it comes to hybrid technologies. It couldn’t come at a better time. We don’t need anymore huge gas guzzler vehicles out in the road. The SUVs are not only highly inefficient, but also its polluting the air for our children. We all must practice conservation. But in order for this to happen, people need to change their behavior when it comes to fuel consumption.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:54 am
This is really cool. Nice to see that people are actually using these plug-in hybrid cars. I saw a lot of green concept cars at the Detroit Auto Show this year. Hopefully one day we can all just recharge our cars like we do with ipods and never need to go to the gas stations. But in that case, the oil companies will cry and people will lose their jobs. Or, maybe they can start new business on building plug-in charging stations at the parking lot.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:04 am
[...] Prius, in two ways: firstly, it can be plugged in to recharge the batteries while parked (although plugin Prius conversions do exist, they are not factory fitted just yet); secondly, the gasoline engine is not [...]