Hybrid Vehicles

Hybrid Automobiles have both a gas and electric engine. That makes them hard to repair but more environmentally friendly than traditional forms of automobile transportation.

UC Davis' HEV Center (Hybrid Vehicle Driveline Research & Design Center) is working on the next generation of hybrid cars: plug-in hybrids, which can be plugged into an electrical wall outlet and charged, for instance, when you sleep at night. A bunch of plug-in vehicles have been built at the HEV Center. Plug-In technology is the ideal solution for both energy crisis and environmental problems, at least for now, while a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle costs about a million dollars. The potential in savings for operating costs is considerable. With gasoline at $3 per gallon (Sept. 2005), the power generated by contemporary hybrid-car engines works out to about 52 cents per kilowatt-hour, while the ability to tap into residential electricity costs only 11 cents per kilowatt-hour.

UC Davis' HEV Center is participating in the ChallengeX competition. In this challenge, sponsored by the US Department of Energy & General Motors, seventeen university teams have been challenged to re-engineer a GM Equinox, a crossover sport utility vehicle, to minimize energy consumption, emissions, and greenhouse gases while maintaining or exceeding the vehicle's utility and performance. Visit the UC Davis team's website or their more-detailed Chinese language site for additional information about the HEV Center.

• Wikipedia on Hybrid cars
  

• The Sacramento Bee did a write up called "Hot for Hybrids," which included quotes from Davisites. http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/wheels/story/13074063p-13919217c.html
  

• www.calcars.org and www.iags.org will help explain the features and significance of plug-ins
  

• April 11, 2005 article from Business Week on Plug-ins
  

• Watch Fox's latest report on Plug-ins

My husband and I got our our red 2004 Prius last summer. We waited for nearly 6 months. We love her a lot, although our gas mileage isn't as good as we'd hoped. Her name is Harmony. ~JanelleAlvstadMattson

• That red color is really nice! What's your average gas mileage around town? —JackHaskel
  

• The problem for us is that we don't really get to drive in town much. In Davis, I am usually taking small trips and my communte is a straight shot to West Sac. We average between 42-45 overall. One day I got lost in a residential area of Sac and my milage shot up to 54 as I wondered around. Long trips we might get 47 or so. I really just want to have one tank where I get over 50 overall. I have just heard some info about tire pressure, and how that can effect your mileage pretty dramatically. Are you thinking of getting a hybrid? —Janelle
  

Although not a hybrid, my 98 TDI Jetta (with my username on the plate!) gets around the same mileage as the hybrids coming out. If VW/AUDI come out with a TDI-based Hybrid, the mileage would likely be close to 70 or 80 MPG. For the Record, I currently get 45-50 MPG for highway and 40-45 for city mileage. —TarZxf

• My friend has a diesel Jetta and loves it. He claims Diesel is better for the environment than regular gas, but I have a hard time believing him. It just doesn't make sense to me, but with that high of mileage, you're still doing your part for the environment and your pocketbook. I wish VW would make a hybrid Beetle. On the subject of license plates, there's a Honda Insight in town with the plate "I (heart) 63 MPG" It always makes me smile. —JanelleAlvstadMattson
  

• Diesel has much more energy and releases much more energy per gallon than gasoline, so other than the particulate matter that many diesel engine's release in the exhaust they are much more environmentally friendly. In addition it is possible to make diesel in your garage from waste vegitable oil. —rocksanddirt
  

Plug-in hybrids make me wonder. Where does the juice coming out of the outlet come from? If it's a nuclear/wind plant, great - but if it's a fossil-fuel plant, what's the point? —DomenicSantangelo

• Our "juice" inevitably comes from "The Grid," and thus from mixed power sources. But let us imagine that only fossil-fuel power existed: overall emmissions would still be minimized by burning coal or crude oil in large-scale power plants, where efficiencies-of-scale can be realized, and distributing the resulting power to electric vehicles. So rest assured that no matter where they are plugged in, plug-in hybrids will, overall, consume less fossil-fuel than their purely gasoline-powered counterparts. - Erik Anderson
  

• This assumes the efficiencies of scale are enough to make up for the power transmission loss between the power plant and the plug (generally ~8%), though this is practically always true. Just something to think about... —Erik Friedlander
  

• Duly noted! Similarly, some marginal energy loss is also entailed by transporting fuel by tanker truck and perhaps trips to the gas station on the part of the consumer. But the main consideration is the expense of the refining process itself. Cars don't run on coal or crude oil — in distilling the latter into gasoline, even more energy is expended. - Erik Anderson