Hopes high for plug-in hybrids
Calls to cut use of gas spark new interest in electric cars
By Mark Sauer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 28, 2007
Electric-car owners such as J.F. Lancelot of San Diego were devastated when auto companies pulled the plug on their battery-powered runabouts a few years ago.
Lancelot drives a Mini Cooper now. “I just waste a lot of gas, like everybody else,” he said.
But Lancelot and many other Americans are taking heart from a surge of interest in plug-in hybrid cars, which began with national media exposure last year and got a boost last week from President Bush in his State of the Union address.
Bush set a goal of reducing gasoline use in the United States by 20 percent over the next 10 years. In addition to expanding the use of alternative fuels such as ethanol, wind and solar power, the president said, “We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles.”
Bush followed that the next day with an executive order mandating that all federal agencies with more than 20 vehicles use “PHEVs” – plug-in hybrid electric vehicles – when they become commercially available.
story continued
By Mark Sauer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 28, 2007
Electric-car owners such as J.F. Lancelot of San Diego were devastated when auto companies pulled the plug on their battery-powered runabouts a few years ago.
Lancelot drives a Mini Cooper now. “I just waste a lot of gas, like everybody else,” he said.
But Lancelot and many other Americans are taking heart from a surge of interest in plug-in hybrid cars, which began with national media exposure last year and got a boost last week from President Bush in his State of the Union address.
Bush set a goal of reducing gasoline use in the United States by 20 percent over the next 10 years. In addition to expanding the use of alternative fuels such as ethanol, wind and solar power, the president said, “We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles.”
Bush followed that the next day with an executive order mandating that all federal agencies with more than 20 vehicles use “PHEVs” – plug-in hybrid electric vehicles – when they become commercially available.
story continued
posted by anthony m, at Sunday, January 28, 2007
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