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UC Davis Launches PHEV Consumer Study
30 October 2007
The UC Davis Plug-in Hybrid Center is launching a two-year research program that will place 10 Toyota Priuses converted to plug-in hybrids with 100 families in Northern California for six to eight weeks each. The drivers will be surveyed about their automobile preferences and attitudes before, during and after they use the cars. UC Davis has yet to identify the survey drivers.
With so few plug-in hybrids on the road (approximately 100 converted units to date), little is known about how consumers will use them. The UC Davis analysis of their experiences will constitute the first comprehensive consumer report on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
The UC Davis Plug-in Hybrid Center was established in January with $3 million in funding from the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. The consumer-attitude research project being launched today is supported with an additional $1.8 million from the California Air Resources Board.
Two other key partners in the Plug-in Hybrid Center are Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) and the American Automobile Association (AAA) of Northern California.
PG&E is one of the members of the center’s Advisory Council, which guides its research agenda; the energy supplier for much of Northern and Central California hopes to gain an understanding of the potential impact of plug-in hybrid vehicles on California's electricity grid. AAA of Northern California has a Greenlight Initiative to help educate customers on alternative fuels and vehicles. It will provide roadside assistance and insurance coverage for the plug-in hybrids, and many study families will be chosen from the AAA membership rolls.
Other center partners include:
California utilities (including Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas and Electric);
California government agencies (including the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the California Air Resources Board);
Automakers (including Nissan, Daimler and Ford);
Electric Power Research Institute; and
US Department of Energy.
The Center plans to begin its work with hybrid passenger vehicles that have been converted to plug-in hybrids, then expand the program to include medium-duty trucks. It will also encourage the conversion of other passenger vehicle hybrids to broaden scope of study, eventually evolving to dedicated PHEVs made by original equipment manufacturers.
October 30, 2007 in Plug-ins | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: HealthyBreeze | October 30, 2007 at 02:46 PM
Perhaps we can cut to the chase
- People will use them much like any other personal transportation
- Those tuned into the EV mode will do all they can to keep it in EV mode. In fact, they will get annoyed when that darn ICE turns on (speaking from hybrid experience)
Posted by: Giant | October 30, 2007 at 07:34 PM
It would presumably be possible to treat it like a regular hybrid, and never charge it. Some people might do that, and some might only charge it occasionally. The best use of a PHEV will happen if it is extremely convenient to recharge it. What I think is needed is something like a docking station that you just drive up to and boom, you're connected. If you have to drag an extension cord out and plug it in, well, that's going to not get done much of the time. The data that they gather with this study will only be relevant to the type of charging technology they are using.
Posted by: George | October 31, 2007 at 08:13 PM
I think PHEV's will really come into prominence when supercapacitor batteries become available after 2011. That way, you get lots of power storage in a small battery pack with extremely fast recharge times from regenerative braking, going downhill, etc., which will minimize gasoline engine usage.
Posted by: Raymond | November 01, 2007 at 08:20 AM
Raymond,
Any idea how long the supercaps can keep their charge? One of the main advantages of plug-ins is that you can charge them overnight and then run long on EV during the day.
Giant,
I think some of the interesting questions that may be answered are:
- How often do people remember to plug them in and how long will they charge them?
- Will their habits change over time (i.e., will they get used to plugging them it), or will they retain their initial habits?
- How far will people tend to drive them before plugging them in again? Will they spend more time in EV mode or hybrid mode?
Posted by: j.w. | November 01, 2007 at 12:45 PM
A colleague of mine just returned from China, if we don't stop studying this to death and cut to the chase of building them all our PHEV and EV cars will be Chinese and we'll be standing around wondering what happened...
Posted by: Mark M | November 01, 2007 at 12:52 PM
I don't understand all this hand-wringing over whether people will plug the cars in. It takes a few seconds, what's the big deal?
Posted by: Tony Belding | November 02, 2007 at 08:24 AM
PHEV? Charging? How many here plug in their cell phones/ iPods and PDAs regularly? A non-issue.
Posted by: gr | November 02, 2007 at 02:01 PM
gr,
Charging a little electronic device is one thing, but charging a battery pack that weighs a couple of hundred pounds is quite something else. That's why there's interest in using supercapacitors for EV/PHEV battery packs, since they charge in a small fraction of the time you need with NiMH and Li-On battery packs.
Posted by: Raymond | November 02, 2007 at 10:37 PM
@j.w.
My impression is that they want to keep things simple to start, so these are Prius with expanded NiMH battery packs capable of PHEV20. (Opportunity for double blind study on battery systems?)
Maxwell needs to "get its groove on", if it is going to be a major player in this transitional time. Ultra capacitors quickly self-discharge, so their value is not in storing overnight charge from the Grid. Their value is in reclaiming kinetic energy, which is how these vehicles get better city mileage than highway mileage.
The University of Tasmania just announced demonstration of a gas-electric series hybrid scooter. Any idea of how many two and three wheeled vehicles are in use in Asia? Most of them are the more polluting two-stroke engines.
Imagine what sort of 'game-change' initiative it would be if these vehicles were running on cellulosic ethanol and getting better mileage because of super capacitors packs and electric drive that enabled regnerative braking.
Posted by: jcwinnie | November 04, 2007 at 07:40 AM
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UC Davis knew PHEV was the right answer a decade ago. They modified an aluminum body Mercury sedan in a supercar contest, and they slightly lowered their total fuel economy (by the test's measure) because they insisted on having the bigger batteries and electric motor to enable substantial all-electric mode. They complied with California's most strict air quality standards and still finished close to the top. The winner that year, University of Wisconsin, won on mileage with a diesel engine.
It would have been nice if they'd kept the super car contest going instead of changing it to super truck, which is like having a cross-country runner pull an ox cart.