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Boulder firm's kit lets drivers charge cars - for a price

By Jeff Soplop, Special to the Rocky

Published July 4, 2008 at 9:05 p.m.

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Ammon Balaster, chief operating officer at Hybrids Plus in Boulder, touches the input plug on a Toyota Prius and shows a battery pack that will be installed in a hybrid Ford Escape.

Photo by Tim Hussin / Rocky Mountain News

Ammon Balaster, chief operating officer at Hybrids Plus in Boulder, touches the input plug on a Toyota Prius and shows a battery pack that will be installed in a hybrid Ford Escape.

Hybrids Plus installs higher-capacity battery packs and wall-charging devices in hybrid cars.

Hybrids Plus installs higher-capacity battery packs and wall-charging devices in hybrid cars.

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Driving into Charleston, S.C., with Jim Poch feels like an ordinary car ride as Poch cruises through the downtown of this charming Southern city with its abundance of historic houses and buildings.

The difference between this trip and any other is the amount of gas being used: Poch's car averaged 94 miles per gallon during the 15-mile trip into Charleston.

What's his secret to great fuel economy? Poch's Toyota Prius has been converted into a plug-in hybrid vehicle by a company called Hybrids Plus in Boulder. The conversion allows him to charge his Prius' batteries from a normal electrical socket and drive it for short distances on pure electric energy.

At the moment, Hybrids Plus is one of only a few companies that convert hybrid vehicles into plug-ins. The company went into business in 2006 when the Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation expressed interest in converting its Prius into a plug-in, says Carl Lawrence, Hybrids Plus co-founder and CEO. "We saw a great business opportunity and decided to form our own company," he says.

In 2007, the company delivered only eight plug-in hybrids and was primarily focused on developing and refining its conversion kits, Lawrence says. The kits are now available for several models of the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape hybrids, and with record oil prices, business is starting to pick up.

"We're selling a lot of units," Lawrence says. "We're doing about one conversion a week and there's a good chance we'll be doing about double that amount before the end of the year."

The gas mileage might be great, but plug-in hybrids don't come cheap. Hybrids Plus' conversions range from around $21,000 up to $36,000, not including the cost of the vehicle. Because of the high cost, many of Hybrids Plus' customers belong to organizations that are interested in promoting the plug-in hybrid technology, such as Poch, who started a nonprofit called the Plug-in Hybrid Coalition of the Carolinas.

"We're not trying to get other folks to convert their cars," Poch says. "We want to create consumer demand so that automakers will realize that the public wants this."

Poch hopes that his efforts will spur automotive manufacturers to take plug-in hybrids from an environmental niche product and into mass production. "I'd like to see this as a mainstream option that's available in all cars someday."

It's all about oil

Poch's dream might not be that far from becoming reality. Several automakers are developing plug-in hybrids, and at least one, General Motors Corp., said in 2007 that it will be the first to put a plug-in into commercial production.

The reason for the rush toward plug-in hybrids is all about oil, says Pete Savagian, engineering director for hybrid power trains at GM. "You might have different views on petroleum," he says, "about how much there is and how long it will last." But what's clear is that demand is going to rise, and "we want to displace petroleum by bringing on diverse sources of energy."

Savagian believes that the key to achieving diverse energy sources is the electrification of the automobile, because electricity can be produced in many different ways, including renewable energy technology. "As time goes, we're going to need the ability to use more and more energy that doesn't come from petroleum sources," he says. "We think electricity is the obvious candidate for how to do that."

For GM, the first part of accomplishing that goal is to make its existing Saturn Vue hybrid - which was just released in 2008 - into a plug-in. By doing this, Savagian estimates that the plug-in version of the Vue could achieve almost double the gas mileage of the regular hybrid model, which gets about 32 miles per gallon on the highway.

Savagian believes the next step will be the production of extended-range electric vehicles, or EREVs. Unlike plug-in hybrids, which have a gasoline-powered engine that kicks in at higher speeds, EREVs run on pure electricity but also have a gasoline engine that acts as a generator when the batteries become depleted below a certain level.

GM has developed a concept EREV, called the Chevy Volt, which it unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show in 2007. Based on the driver-habits study, Savagian expects that around 64 percent of Volt owners will be able to end a typical day of driving without ever having their gasoline engine come on at all.

A race to launch plug-ins

GM hasn't officially committed to putting the Volt into commercial-scale production yet, although it does have an internal goal of entering production by 2010.

"It's assuming we get everything buttoned down and everything falls into place," says Brian Corbett, manager of GM's hybrid communications. "And we don't know if it will."

Other carmakers are also in the race to put plug-in hybrids on the road. Toyota has said it will begin production of a plug-in in 2010, and several smaller companies are planning on producing high-end plug-in hybrids.

When GM and Toyota take the plug-in hybrid into commercial-scale production, smaller companies like Hybrids Plus will probably taper off their conversions, Lawrence says. But he also sees an opportunity for his company to leverage its expertise and develop battery systems that will go into the vehicles at the factory.

Even with all the hype over plug-ins, Lawrence says their future remains uncertain. "A lot of it depends on whether in 2012 you're paying $12 a gallon for gas or not."

Comments

  • July 4, 2008

    9:58 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    theBike45 writes:

    I don't know why this article claims that GM has not committed the Volt to production - it most assuredly has and it happened
    at a GM board of directors meeting several weeks ago. The idea of the Volt not going into production is pretty preposterous. And there are already variations of the E-Flex chassis in design stage to be retailed by Saturn, Opel, and Cadillac. They can be
    produced in very short order once the Volt is on the streets. There are NO obstacles to the Volt's production at this point.

  • July 8, 2008

    12:14 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    EREVBaby writes:

    Actually there is one obstacle to GM producing the Volt...Time.

    I hope they get the Volt built before the go bankrupt.