 Seattle City Light
News Release |
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| Subject:
Mayor sees possible future in plug-in vehicles |
For Immediate Release:
11/14/2005 1:00:00 PM |
For More Information Contact:
Scott Thomsen (206) 386-4233
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Mayor sees possible future in plug-in vehicles
New type of hybrid car gets 100 mpg with help from extra batteries
SEATTLE - Mayor Greg Nickels wants city departments to study the benefits
of a new technology that could increase the fuel-efficiency of hybrid cars
by plugging them into to standard electrical outlets.
Seattle officials including Councilmember Jean Godden, Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis
and City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco joined members of the mayor’s
Green Ribbon Commission and representatives from the Apollo Alliance in a close-up
look at a prototype Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) during a demonstration
today at City Hall.
Simply put, this technology, which is in the early stages of development,
adds additional battery power to standard hybrid cars to increase fuel efficiency
to as much as 100 miles or more per gallon.
City Light and other departments are evaluating PHEV technology to assess
its cost-effectiveness, potential benefits and impacts on the environment,
particularly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The city’s motor pool
includes about 150 hybrid cars.
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a cornerstone of the mayor’s
environmental agenda,” Ceis said. “PHEV is a promising technology,
and we’ve asked our city departments to look into it.”
The mayor will send a resolution to the council supporting the evaluation
of the PHEV technology.
“What could be simpler: plug in and go with zero emissions,” said
Godden, who chairs the council’s Energy and Environmental Policy Committee. “These
cars will allow people to recharge at home providing maximum convenience with
minimal impact on the environment.”
“It’s an intriguing concept,” Carrasco said. “What
if we had a big shift toward electrifying private vehicles? How would that
affect our utility and the environment? Those are some of the questions we’ll
be trying to answer.”
“If we’re serious about reducing our dependence on foreign oil,
then we should seriously look at this technology,” said Richard Feldman,
Washington State Coordinator for the Apollo Alliance and a member of Mayor
Nickels’s Green Ribbon Commission.
The Apollo Alliance is coalition of labor and environmental groups. Mayor
Nickels created the Green Ribbon Commission to develop a climate action plan
to meet or beat Kyoto’s global warming pollution reduction targets in
Seattle. The commission is considering the promotion of PHEV as one strategy
to meet that goal.
Current available hybrid vehicles - such as Toyota’s Prius and Ford’s
Mercury Mariner - are 100 percent gasoline fueled and use a small battery for
power assistance and regenerative braking. PHEV technology, which is currently
sold as an upgrade kit by an independent manufacturer, replaces the small battery
with a more powerful battery, big enough to provide the power needed to drive
the first 20 - 60 miles each day.
Backers say it is like having a second small fuel tank, only this one is filled
with electricity at home, from an ordinary 120-volt socket. An “electric” gallon
of gas costs about 70-80 cents, based on average national electricity rates.
The batteries are expensive, but operating costs are estimated to be about
one-third the cost of all-gasoline operation.
The Austin, Texas, municipal utility is promoting PHEV technology as part
of a campaign to reduce oil imports and urban smog and boost economic development.
The goal is to convince major car companies that enough demand exists for the
technology to consider adopting it.
Founder Felix Kramer and Technology Lead Ron Gremban of the California Cars
Initiative, a Palo Alto-based non-profit group of entrepreneurs, engineers
and environmentalists brought their prototype PHEV to Seattle for the demonstration.
CalCars’ goal is to motivate automakers to build PHEVs.
Visit the mayor’s web site at www.seattle.gov/mayor. Get the mayor’s
inside view on initiatives to promote transportation, public safety, economic
opportunity and healthy communities by signing up for The Nickels Newsletter
at www.seattle.gov/mayor/newsletter_signup.htm
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Office of the Mayor
Seattle City Light
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