Pioneering Research In Plug-In Hybrid Technology

DAVIS, Calif., Oct. 30, 2007 (KGO) (KGO) -- ABC7's Nannette Miranda reports on California's new effort to improve the technology behind hybrid and electric cars.

How would you like a car that gets 100 miles to the gallon? The technology exists right now with plug-in hybrids. U.C. Davis opened a new research center today focused on improving the technology.

"We're displacing gasoline with the plug-in hybrid," says Andy Frank, Ph.D., a plug-in hybrid pioneer.

It took 30 years, but U.C. Davis mechanical engineer, Andy Frank, is excited his pioneering research on plug-in hybrid technology is finally in the real world.

"I've said from 30 years ago that this is the right technology. This is what's going to bring us out of consumption of oil and address global warming," says Frank.

U.C. Davis opened a new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle research center Tuesday with a three million dollar grant from the California Energy Commission.

Ten Toyota Priuses have been converted to plug-in hybrid technology, where a $12,000 battery can hold enough power for the cars to go 20 to 40 miles after each re-charge. A regular hybrid goes shorter distances on electricity because the battery only recharges while it's on the road.

"We're very interested and this is one of the things we're studying, to see how much the benefits consumers get from the vehicle offset the added cost of that battery," says research director Tom Turrentine, Ph.D.

Since three-fourths of drivers in the U.S. travel fewer than 40 miles a day, researches think the plug-in hybrids will have mass appeal.

Electricity costs about one-fourth the cost of gasoline. That's like paying 70-cents a gallon to drive a plug-in. However, in electricity-starved California where every heat wave taxes the power grid, some wonder whether plug-in hybrids make sense.

The California Energy Commission says yes.

"The lights have not gone out for a couple of years now, even through a couple of very severe heat storms, almost, in the summer time. I think we're winning the battle, plus we're putting a lot more renewable energy on," says Jim Boyd with the California Energy Commission.

U.C. Davis expects plug-in hybrids to be on the market in a couple of years at the earliest, priced slightly above today's hybrids.

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