Converting Hybrids to Plug-Ins

26 January 2005

The Christian Science Monitor runs a piece on plug-in hybrids. Among the supporters for the concept: James Woolsey, former director of the CIA.

“We’re not talking about electric vehicles, but about plug-in hybrid vehicles that can be topped off with electricity for short trips,” James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said last month during the unveiling of a report by the 16-member National Commission on Energy Policy. “The potential in terms of national policy, and in terms of global warming, ought to be focused on by anyone concerned about terrorism or paying over $2 a gallon.”

Other experts are also urging automakers to take a new look.

“We think the transportation fuel sector should be diversified by utilizing more electricity as a fuel—plug-in hybrids that can get 100 miles per gallon and allow you to run on electricity alone for 20 to 30 miles, then shift to the combustion engine,” says Gal Luft, director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, an energy-security think tank in Washington.

But automakers show little interest.

Earlier post on the Prius+ plug-in conversion here.