May 10, 2005 (From the CalCars-News archive)
The latest coverage is a 3:20 news segment on the #1 late night news show in Los Angeles, KTTV-Fox11, ably produced by Bob Turlau
New anchor John Beard narrates interviews with Ron Gremban and Felix Kramer from CalCars, UC-Davis Hybrid Center Prof. Andy Frank, and announces the expected availability of EDrive Systems conversions in 2006. (He mentions the $15K price of the Valence batteries now; EDrive has not yet disclosed conversion prices.)
He shows film of our PRIUS+ and of the UC Davis Chevy Suburban and Mercury Sable. The station includes links at http;//www.fox11.com to CalCars, the UC-Davis Hybrid Center and EDrive Systems.
Also included is a brief interview/narration about Toyota's view, filming Dave Hermance, executive engineer for environmental engineering, whose quotes can be compared to those cited in our report on the Clean Cities Conference at
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news/message/42
Turning any Prius into a plug-in doesn't get Toyota's vote. "The downside is cost -- and weight." The company's Dave Hermance says it'll take time for the concept to become practical and profitable. "We've looked at plug-in hybrids, we're watching what's going on in industry."
You can watch it -- thanks to a helpful supporter (a former owner of a Honda EV+ and current owner of a Toyota RAV4E and a Prius) -- at the top of http://www.calcars.org/kudos.html -- right now it's 8MB but we hope to replace it with a more lightweight file.