Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are among the best available automotive technologies to break our oil addiction and curb the climate crisis. Plug-ins add a bigger battery pack and a plug to a conventional hybrid, allowing the car to run more efficiently while powered by electricity from the grid or from rooftop solar panels.
What are the benefits?
- Plug-ins could reduce the average American driver's gas consumption by 85 percent!
- With a plug-in (which uses a battery-powered, all-electric motor for the first 30 to 60 miles), most American commuters would rarely, if ever, need to fill up with gasoline unless making a long trip.
- We can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent simply by plugging our cars into the existing electrical grid. Of course, simultaneous work to green the electricity grid will make plug-ins even cleaner. Oil, unfortunately, will always be toxic and carbon-intensive.
- In contrast, biofuels (aka agrifuels) such as E85 ethanol and biodiesel are often even more greenhouse-gas-intensive. Plug-ins don’t require converting our food crops into fuel and they don’t destroy rainforests for palm oil plantations; all they need is an extension cord!
In other words, plug-ins are our best bet for breaking our oil addiction while also curbing the climate crisis. And seeing as they are capable of more than 100 mpg, plug-ins make a national fuel economy goal of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 seems woefully conservative.
Plug-ins are currently only available through after-market conversions (i.e., you must buy a hybrid Prius or Escape and then have a plug added on). Conversions are a good start, but they are not accessible to the average consumer and do not achieve the numbers needed to reduce emissions and dramatically cut oil consumption.
Automakers have begun to murmur about mass production of plug-ins, and we aim to keep the pressure on the industry until it mass produces these innovative vehicles.
