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Over the last week or two, there have been an alarming number of reports of hybrids harming the environment.

Did you know we’ll need to build more power plants because of hybrid cars?

Or that if you run into a hybrid car, it will kill you?

OR that hybrids are using up our water supply??

More often than not, the issues raised have been misrepresented or over-hyped.

For instance, Science Daily reports that IF 25% of the cars on the road are replaced by plug-in hybrids by 2020 AND if all their owners manage to plug their cars in at 5 p.m. we’ll need up to 160 new power plants. That’s a lot of what ifs … it’s also focused on PHEVs and not traditional hybrids, as the title may have people believing.

Terry Wood of ABC4 in Salt Lake City is saying anyone who touches a hybrid car after an accident could be electrocuted. While there is a risk to rescue professionals, especially when things like the jaws of life come into play, running your car into a hybrid, approaching a hybrid that’s been in an accident, or driving a hybrid that could be in an accident does not pose a legitimate or likely risk of electrocution.

Motor Trend made a similar decision to Science Daily. When discussing the extra water used in electricity production, they failed to make a distinction between “hybrids” and “plug-in electric vehicles.”

Is it important to address these issues now before the problem is knocking at the door? Of course it is. But we need to put the focus on the real problems. Claiming that hybrids are dangerous and bad for the environment – the hybrids being safely used while lessening our impact on the planet – drives customers away, and may prevent technologies that would be a tremendous benefit (once addressing these issues) from ever taking root.
[img src: Public Domain Clipart]

Post from: EveryJoe

Bad news blues

WoW! Two weeks in a row? I don’t believe it. See, it’s great I don’t have a nightlife or you’d be missing out on this wonderful info.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are coming under fire for contributing more to pollution than their gas-only counterparts. Experts claim the production of the electricity used by plug-ins will also produce more waste than if they just ran on gas. It sounds unbelievable, but they’re right. If Every person in the US switched to a PHEV today, coal-burning power plants would be working double-time … but who says we need to keep burning coal?

Bob Bruninga, over at this site right heah is one of several PHEV owners utilizing solar power. His conversion, considered an S-PHEV, cost roughly $3000. That’s half of the cheapest plug-in conversions on the market, and 1/4th the cost of the coveted OEMtek lithium-ion battery kit.

Of course, you have to do it yourself. ;) I’m not sure that’s something that could be (or should be) considered by most owners, but it is just an example of ONE solution – in an ocean-full – to prevent PHEVs from overwhelming the place with pollution.

Post from: EveryJoe

Plug-ins and Clean Energy: S-PHEV converting