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EV WORLD EXCLUSIVE ARTICLE |
Felix Kramer (front right seat) with Sen. Sam Brownback (driving) and Frank Gaffney (rear seat)with Center for Strategic Policy try CalCars' Prius plug-in hybrid. Photo courtesy of Set America Free.
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Exclusive MP3 interview with California Cars Initiative founder Felix Kramer
Open Access Article Originally Published: May 26, 2006
Felix Kramer is on a mission, one that carried him and his new plug-in Toyota Prius hybrid to the steps of Capitol Hill. There he and representatives of Electro Energy, which brought along their own plug-in Prius, showcased to some of Washington's most powerful politicians, from Orrin Hatch to Hilary Clinton, technology that can help make America less dependent on petroleum: cars that can get 100 mpg.
The event -- organized by SetAmericaFree.Org -- was planned to coincide with an announced summit between the White House and Detroit's beleaguered carmakers. Although the meeting was postponed at the last minute by the Bush Administration until June 2nd, Kramer and company, along with auto industry chief executives, traveled to the U.S. capital to lobby lawmakers and testify before Congress.
EV World talked with Kramer about the historic event -- more photos of which are available Set America Free and CalCars.Org -- to get his impressions and perspective.
Ethanol Isn't Enough
For the auto companies making the rounds in Washington, the message from GM and Ford was we're doing E85, which is a relatively cheap fix of less than $200 per car and according to Kramer, "lets them off of the hook for the next ten years." While he favors ethanol, it alone isn't enough to seriously address America's oil addiction when the nation consumes 140 billion gallons of gasoline annually, while producing just under 5 billion gallons of ethanol.
"If you fuel the local miles with electricity, then you need only 40 billion gallons," he said. "That's really an achievable goal."
He went on to explain how his small, three-person team at California Cars Initiative worked with Electro Energy, a Danbury, Connecticut firm that has developed a technology to improve NiMH batteries for use in plug-in hybrids, to create yet another plug-in Prius, bringing the total in the North America to more than half a dozen.
"The reason we did this process at time when everybody is really talking about lithium ion batteries is that we think there is still life in nickel metal hydride batteries; and we, in particular, think that it is really important to show the world and show Detroit that nickel metal hydride batteries make really good plug-in hybrids, because… the last objection that carmakers have is that… the batteries aren't ready… [and] lithium ion is unproved. There is a certain element to truth in that you don't have… a ten year track record, but that's certainly not the case with nickel metal hydride. These are batteries that carmakers have been using for about a decade in hybrids.
"And so, we wanted to show a lithium ion car, the Energy CS car that is my car, the car I drive every day, and this NiMH car from Connecticut. It was a great combination to have those two cars there."
Kramer explained that there is a slight difference in the low-speed, electric-only range of the two cars: Electro Energy's NiMH car will do about 20 miles, while the Energy CS -- equipped with Valence Saphion lithium ion batteries -- will do between 25-30 miles as long as the speed is below 35 mph, at which point Toyota's computer control system will switch on the gasoline engine.
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12 comments so far...
22-Oct-2008
64555
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Here, we can see that they're really serious talking about the solution to this fuel problems we have. But they should think do fuel savers work or we just need to cope up with the all the increasing price of everything or another and much better solution would be needed.
Posted by: Gail Adams
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26-May-2006
22435
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The calcars people did great. It shows what can be done if you have the will and vision. We need one of the major automakers to make this mainstream. If not aftermarket can lead the way.
Toyota would seem to be the best company to lead the way. Yet we see Damiler-Chrysler with a plugin Sprinter van as the first maker with a related product. Wouldn't be great to see FORD with the full hybrid escape or EVen GM jump ahead with a plugin hybrid.
Posted by: jim stack
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29-May-2006
22785
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I was there and so was EVA/DC. Dave Goldstein, Wallace Rumbarger and Joseph Lado, (that’s me) lent our support to the proceedings being held at the Rayburn House Office Building before the House Science Committee’s Energy Subcommittee. I am particularly proud of my contribution to the proceedings. I saw all those people standing out in the bright sun and talking a great deal and realized that they were going to need water. So I went and got some. Yes folks, I was the event’s water boy, something I am very proud of.
Dave Goldstein, President of EVA/DC and I played temporary host to Rich Rudman who was there to help the team from ElectroEnergy of Danbury, CT, keep its vehicle going. You all might remember Rich Rudman from cable TV’s Monster Garage. In the show he, Sean Lawless and Jesse James put together a hot rod electric dragster using Milwaukee V28 power tool batteries. I also had a chance to shake the hand of Dr. Andy Frank, the guru of plug-in hybrids at the UC Davis. What a thrill it was to offer him a bottle of water. Not a problem, Dr. Andy Frank has to be one of the nicest persons on the planet. I introduced him to Rich Rudman.
I arrived late to the hearing. So, instead of entering late and disrupting the entire event, I hung out with the engineers attending to the PHEVs. This ended up being much more diverting. I first began by talking to Electro Energy's Chris Jaeger. Chris enthusiastically told me all about his NIMH battery powered Prius. How it worked and what made it special. Ron Gremban, the engineer for CalCars, was trying to fix a problem that had developed during the flight over. Fortunately for me a battery to his cell phone had died and he pulled his head out from tinkering to talk. We steeped ourselves in small talk while waiting for the Congressmen and Senators to come out take a ride. Again, you couldn’t find a set of nicer people. Thanks Chris and Ron for making me feel like part of the team.
Posted by: Joseph Lado
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31-May-2006
23048
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Mike, the plug-in hybrids demonstrated to Congress operated completely on electricity for the first 30 miles or so. If you were to use a plug-in hybrid for your commute, you wouldn’t use any gasoline on the trip. After the 30 miles are up then the vehicles revert to regular hybrid function. Since you travel 15 miles and rest the batteries before coming home, you will probably never have to use gasoline for your commute. This is the same for most Americans. Daily use of an automobile is typically less than 25 miles. Only on the occasional long trip is gasoline going to be necessary. Since gasoline is so expensive at this time a plug-in hybrid looks like a real good alternative for most people. Plug-in hybrids would seem to be an even better idea in Europe where gasoline is far more expensive than in the US. Some of the readers of EVWorld have even put solar panels on their homes and charge their vehicles off the sun. In any case having a plug-in feature for a hybrid seems like a really good idea.
Richard, I know that right now the drum beat for conservation seems to be where a lot of people feel their passion in this debate, but I have to say that having cleaner fuels is a way to get even the most conservative, anti-environmentalist involved in solving the oil addiction. The question I am going to put to you is a question that every one who reads EVWorld should ask themselves. If I had a Hummer that didn’t pollute and used energy from the sun, versus a small Geo metro that got 50 miles to the gallon, which would be worse for air pollution? Culturally you may want to say it is the evil Hummer, the symbol of waste and inefficiency, however, the reality would be that the Geo Metro would be the bigger air polluter. Alternative fuels will have the greatest impact on solving the world’s addition to oil. Once we break the influence of Big Oil, we can more affectively lobby Washington to pull down the barriers for all alternative fuels. Conservation will not solve the problem of our oil addiction, it only postpones the date when we will run out of oil.
To have a real impact on the environment we need to think of energy in a different way. We need to think of energy as being all around us, every sunny day that hits our roofs with out being converted into electricity is a day and a roof wasted. Every day that the wind blows by your house and you haven’t harnessed it for power is wasted bluster. Everyday that it gets hot as Hades and you don’t capture that energy for some purposeful use is a day longer that we stay in the furnaces of hell at power plants and in the combustion chambers of our cars. The solution is to generate most of your energy needs close to home if not at our homes and use that energy to power our cars as well.
Posted by: Joseph Lado
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30-May-2006
22942
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Though NiMH technology is still an excellent choice for pluggable hybrids, what about the Cobasys (ie, Chevron-Texaco) patent possibly preventing their use in such vehicles? I don't want to sound too much like a tinfoil-hatter, but this is one reason everyone's talking up Li-ion so much -- by moving to a different battery technology, the whole issue is avoided.
Posted by: Billy Bibbitt
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30-May-2006
22949
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Greetings from London, where I drive a 2005 Prius and (at the moment) get 58 miles to an Imperial gallon driving to and from work (15 miles in each direction). I have a question about the plug-in concept: how well does the 100+mpg claim stand up when one takes into account the warming of the engine?
For example, on my trip to work, the first half of the journey is urban 30mph, and I invariably get fairly low mpg for that period, as the engine warms up. The second half of my journey (c. 60mph) returns much better mpg, with a warm engine. If I ran those first 10-15 minutes on electric only, using a plug-in prius, then presumably the second half of my journey would return poor mpg owing to a cool engine. I wonder if the game would be worth the candle.
Of course, over long motorway (freeway) journeys, the advantage of the plug-in concept would again be fairly marginal, given the 30-35 mph limit on the electric drive.
It seems the plug-in concept is fairly dependent on use for exclusively urban journeys of 25-30 mile round trip. Not negligible, but not suitable for everyone either. Now if the electric mode was possible at higher speeds too, then that would be a different matter...
Comments welcomed. While I'm at it, has anybody thought of using a Zebra battery in a plug-in hybrid. They seem to have a better cycle-life than most technologies, and a good energy density too.
Posted by: Mike Page
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29-May-2006
22797
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Joesph, Thanks for doing your part to help. It takes all of US doing whatever needs to be done. To influence anyone in DC can make a huge.
Jim
Posted by: jim stack
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01-Jun-2006
23292
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I take your points, Joseph. Actually, being the 'water boy'(mentioned above) you forgot to mention all that Hydrogen awaiting us for solar re-forming - limitless!
The time to start all forms of conservation, including using alternative fuels etc is NOW. The problem is the American mindset. There's always been plenty of everything to waste.
Posted by: Richard Harding
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30-May-2006
22976
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Great article Bill and congratulations to Felix and friends.
However, from the rest of the World's point of view, wouldn't it be a teensy weensy bit nicer if the US stopped harping on about 'Setting America Free'? WE need to be 'set free' from the gas-guzzling America. Remember your apalling per-capita emissions figures. The quest should be towards the GENERAL REDUCTION of America's greedy and selfish use of energy, so that the 'Rest of the World' learns by its example.
We all live together on our precious tiny planet. Arrogance is not the best way to share it.
Posted by: Richard Harding
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31-May-2006
23026
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Mike, I think you would still see 100+ mpg, the CalCars system "spoofs" the Toyota computer into thinking the battery is overcharged, hence it uses the electric more to try and discharge it. You would still see a warmup dip but it would quickly switch back to electric for low to mid throttle.
Posted by: Dave Kennington
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29-May-2006
22871
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Thanks Jim. If we all push together instead of fighting over little things we can make this happen. Let us all put our shoulders to the work there is much to be done.
Mark your calendars. June 4, Power of DC, electric vehicle drag race at Hagerstown Maryland's Mason Dixon Dragway. We are trying to make this more than just a drag race, but more of an exhibition of electric vehicles and hybrids.
Posted by: Joseph Lado
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28-May-2006
22691
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While we all wish that Detroit would grab the ball and run, Toyota will probably lead. Japan imports 98% of its oil...so it has incentive. Wonder if there's a US restriction to selling plug-in hybrids here? If there's a free-market restriction...
Posted by: Jim O
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