Finally, plug-in hybrid aftermarket conversions are becoming available to individuals, not just fleets -- in the San Francisco Bay Area from GreenGears, Luscious Garage, OEMtek and Plug-In Supply; in the San Diego region from Plug-In Conversions; in Boulder, Colorado from Hybrids-Plus; with additional availability expected from Hymotion in Ontario in the second quarter of 2008.

Until the carmakers mass-produce PHEVs for $3-$5,000 more than HEVs, customers will be those buying the "environmental feature" at very high prices. We've reorganized and updated our page describing the options and providing links to the converters' websites at http://www.calcars.org/­howtoget.html . Below is news from some of these companies, as well as the activities of the Calcars/Electric Auto Assocation PHEV project.

We're gradually adding vehicles to our list at http://www.calcars.org/­where-phevs-are.html but we're still missing at least 50 of the approximately 150 vehicles we know about, and the map is even further behind.

THE CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO held a ceremony to receive three Prius conversions destined for the Public Library, the Department of Public Health and a third vehicle for public events by the Mayor's office, the Department of Environment and Bay Area Air Quality Management District. At the event were Mayor Gavin Newsom, Environment Director Jared Blumenthal, BAAQMD Executive Officer Jack Broadbent and Pat Cadam and Nick Rothman of GreenGears/Pat's Garage. See the Mayor's press release and photos at http://www.sfgov.org/­site/­mayor_index.asp?id=75691 , the story in the San Francisco Chronicle at http://www.sfgate.com/­cgi-bin/­article.cgi?f=/­c/­a/­2008/­02/­22/­BAASV6L1O.DTL , and at http://www.californiachronicle.com/­articles/­53423 read about Mayor Newsom's plans to organize Bay Area leaders and the US Conference of Mayors to encourage carmakers to build PHEVs.

OEMTEK, BASED IN MILPITAS, CA, announced its offering of conversions using Valence lithium-phosphate batteries. See the story in the San Jose Mercury News at http://www.mercurynews.com/­ci_8280588 .

FIRST CONVERSION IN AUSTRALIA: People from all over the world are starting to use the EAA-PHEV open-source designs we've helped produce to convert cars.

From the Open Source discussion group, a description of the work of John Usher and Chriss Dunstan, from the University of Technology's Institute of Sustainable Futures in Sidney, with Stan Baker of Electrodata and Peter Szental: http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/­group/­eaa-phev/­message/­2126 In a recent posting, John says "two weeks in Australia to do our first one (most of which was talking about how to do the next step). I think number 2 will be much faster!" News report from the Sidney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/­news/­environment/­plugin-car-first-of-its-kind-in-australia/­2008/­01/­31/­1201714150496.html