Plug-in hybrids get big push from Calif. utility
5.1 million customers urged to lobby automakers to build them
This Toyota Prius was converted to allow it to be recharged from an electrical outlet. The automaker doesn't authorize such conversions, but plug-in advocates have gone ahead with this and a few other conversions to show what's possible.
Updated: 9:07 a.m. PT Sept 5, 2006
LOS ANGELES - California's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., is asking its 5.1 million customers to petition automakers to speed up development of plug-in electric-gasoline hybrid vehicles.
Along with their power and gas bills for September, PG&E customers are getting a request to lobby the automakers.
PG&E and its parent, PG&E Corp., have joined with an Austin, Texas-based organization called "Plug-In Partners" that has set up an Internet petition drive to pressure U.S. and foreign automakers to make cars that can charge up by plugging in to a regular 120-volt household outlet.
"The petition basically says, 'If you build it, we will buy it,"' said PG&E vice president Bob Howard.
For their part, the automakers say plug-in hybrids are not ready for the showroom floor.
The leading hybrid seller in North America is Toyota Motor Corp., which including August U.S. sales figures issued Friday is on pace to sell 198,000 hybrids in 2006, up from 145,560 in 2005.
Toyota: Decade away
In June, Toyota said "hybrids will be the core technology of the 21st century."
Hybrids on the road use electricity generated by the gasoline-fueled engine. But affordable plug-in hybrids are a decade away, Toyota spokesman Bill Kwong said Friday.
If that is so, said PG&E spokeswoman Jann Taber, the petition drive and other efforts to pressure automakers could speed up the process of development to mass production.
"Automakers aren't convinced there are enough buyers," PG&E's Howard said. "That's why PG&E is hoping to harness the power of its 5.1 million customers."
The three major U.S. automakers, General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler, do not see hybrids as the winning alternative to gasoline-fueled vehicles.
GM is in the early stages of plug-in hybrid development and has not committed to any production, spokesman Dave Barthmuss said.
Hydrogen fuel cells are the alternative of the future, but plug-in hybrids are likely to be among several alternatives that will serve as a bridge until the time hydrogen fuel cells are affordable and practical, Barthmuss said.
At a hydrogen fuel conference earlier this year, automakers and developers of the technology said hydrogen fuel cell vehicles would not be commonplace until about 2020.
Utility seeks to meet automakers
PG&E's manager of clean air transportation, Brian Stokes, said he has asked to meet with U.S., Japanese, South Korean, and Japanese automakers, and only one company has agreed to meet with him so far.
PG&E on Friday cited a study by the California Electric Transportation Coalition that says if automakers produce plug-in hybrids within a few years, 2.5 million of them would be on the road by 2020.
The petition states: "If I could buy a vehicle that was cheaper to operate, cleaner, ran on domestic electricity, and I could buy it from you for a few thousand dollars more, yes I would positively WANT to plug it in to a 120-volt outlet."
Utilities like PG&E will not benefit from any increase in power use by its customers, said Taber of PG&E. Their rates are regulated by state agencies and they do not make more profit if they sell more electricity, Taber said.
PG&E officials say that if plug-in hybrids do become common, they will urge customers to plug in at night when the power grid is not as strained as it is during daylight hours.
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