PLUG OK license plate
Hybridcars.com columnists/blogger Kip Munro on CalCars
Jun 15, 2005 (From the CalCars-News archive)
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Kip Munro

June 13, 2005: What Makes America Great?

It's the inventors, entrepreneurs, and adventurers that make any country great. Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and the Wright brothers have inspired generations. Today more than ever we are blessed with a bounty of researchers, scientists, technologists and engineers who will help us through the years ahead, as population increases and reserves of non renewable energy decline, Without innovations to help us use our resources intelligently, we will suffer a gradual decrease in our quality of life.

Hats off to the visionaries at CalCars. They, along with Battery producer Valence Technology, Inc. of Austin Texas, have created EDrive Systems, LLC, a new consortium formed by EnergyCS of Monrovia, CA, and Los Angeles-based automotive systems integrator, Clean-Tech LLC, to commercialize turn key installations of PRIUS+ conversions. These Lithium battery conversions allow a grid recharged Prius car to travel over 100 miles a day on one gallon of gasoline. The first Commercial installations are scheduled for 2006.

Where does Toyota stand on this? Talking to a representative, I learned that Toyota intends to introduce plug in hybrids when market demand and battery costs justify it. Meanwhile I applaud the actions of those Prius owners who are committed enough to the environment to lay down the substantial cash required. Along with the three prototypes currently in use, these professional installations will prove what is undeniably the way of the future for all hybrid cars.


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