Planetary Gear

The Fisker Karma at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in August.

(Credit: Fisker Automotive)

American start-up Fisker Automotive may be about to unveil the first truly affordable plug-in hybrid for the U.S. market.

Ray Lane, managing partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, told an audience at the Always On Going Green conference in Sausalito, Calif., on Tuesday that there could be a big announcement within the next week about a $39,000 plug-in hybrid. Though he would not say who, he mentioned that it was a car for the U.S. market and that it was not strictly electric, according to a report from Cleantech Group.

While Kleiner Perkins has investments in several transportation start-ups such as Think Global and EEStor, the likely company from its repertoire to make such an announcement would be Fisker Automotive.

Fisker has already unveiled the Karma, a four-door luxury plug-in car that can go from 0-62 mph in 6 seconds, and has a maximum speed of 125 mph. But Fisker has set the tentative price for the car at $87,900, making it not much cheaper than Tesla's Roadster sports car.

Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker also told CNET in an exclusive May 2008 interview that advances in battery and software technology would allow his company to offer a $40,000 plug-in car in about four or five years.

Perhaps that day has come sooner than the founder was willing to let on at the time.

But it may not be as soon as others have speculated. Fisker's European press office sent out an e-mail on Monday informing journalists the company has canceled a press conference originally scheduled for this week at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show.

The Idea is a light-use plug-in electric hybrid intended for commercial fleets.

(Credit: Bright Automotive)

Start-up Bright Automotive unveiled a light-use vehicle on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that gets 100 mpg for its first 50 miles.

The Idea, as the plug-in hybrid utility vehicle is called, uses battery power almost exclusively for the first 30 miles when starting with a fully charged battery. It then moves to the electric with gas supplement system found on any typical hybrid vehicle.

Because of this 30-mile electric start, Bright Automotive estimates that in a 50-mile drive the Idea consumes half a gallon of gas, getting it roughly the equivalent of 100 mpg. On a total drive of 70 miles, the Idea uses about one gallon of gas, giving the car "a mileage equivalent of 70 mpg."

Bright Automotive openly clarifies that their mileage count includes that 30-mile electric head start. Given the vehicle's target audience, the odd assessment of what would otherwise amount to a 40 mpg plug-in hybrid might be fair.

The Idea uses low-rolling resistance tires and is built from lightweight materials consisting of a high-tech aluminum from Alcoa and advanced composites to contribute to the vehicle's fuel efficiency. It has a one-ton cargo capacity and a passenger seat that can convert into a mobile office.

In other words, the Idea is not a highway car intended for the masses, but a light-use truck for commercial and military utility fleets. Utility trucks don't typically travel long distances and are often returned to a garage where the vehicle could be fully charged.

The Indiana-based company has applied for $450 million in federal loans from the Department of Energy to mass-produce the plug-in vehicle.

The U.S. government itself is not just a potential lender, but also a potential customer. Last January, the Army announced plans to replace up to 28,000 gas-powered vehicles with light-use EVs in the coming years. Global Electric Motorcar, a division of Chrysler, was the first manufacturer to win a contract for the U.S. Army initiative, and would be an obvious competitor for Bright Automotive if it gets up and running.

Granted the federal loan money, Bright Automotive says it could be in production by 2012 and could be mass-producing 50,000 vehicles a year starting in 2013. Including suppliers, the company would create more than 5,000 U.S. jobs, according to CEO John E. Waters.

In addition to the unveiling in Washington, D.C., Waters held a telephone press conference.

While he was asked several times to elaborate, he would not give any hint at how much the Idea costs.

"If I give you a number, consumers will then look at it like a consumer vehicle and that's not the impression we want to give. Our commercial customers will lease them usually on a monthly basis," said Waters.

Waters did hint that Bright Automotive is looking into an adaptation for a highway legal version for consumers.

"We have designed the vehicle platform to be extremely flexible. We are analyzing it for markets that would include a common power train, and a common chassis for both domestic and international markets," he said.

While Bright Automotive's business plan is based on private capital, the requested loan money from the federal government would ramp up production, giving the company a better chance to survive against the automotive legacy companies, according to Waters.

"We are impatient. We know every day we wait is a day less we have the Idea on the roads, cleaning up American skies, and providing people with green transportation as we see the titans of the world advancing in the world of transportation," he said.

While the company may have only started in 2008, it's not exactly an outsider. Its partners, many of whom have said they are also interested in being fleet customers, include Alcoa, Cox Communications, and Frito Lay.

The Piaggio MP3 500 scooter is a three-wheeler with two wheels at the front.

(Credit: Piaggio)

Piaggio Group Americas, a subsidiary of the Italian manufacturer known for the Vespa, has a highway legal plug-in hybrid scooter in the works that could be available in the U.S. for early 2010.

While Paolo Timoni, the president and CEO of Piaggio Group Americas, has made mention of this plan in interviews, the company has made no formal announcement so it's been hard to gauge whether you can hold it to the timeline.

The plug-in hybrid version in the works is a modified version of Piaggio's MP3 500 (the Gilera Fuoco in Europe). The MP3 500 scooter in plug-in hybrid version will get about 140 mpg, have a range of 40 miles per charge when running on electric power alone, and be priced between $8,000 and $9,000, according to Timoni.

For those unfamiliar with the MP3 500, it's a scooter/motorcycle hybrid that attempts to get rid of the girlie, Audrey Hepburn image of the Vespa. It offers a little more speed and heft, but with two front wheels maintains the stability of a scooter. There is even a switch so drivers don't have to balance themselves at stoplights.

Timoni acknowledged in one interview that one obstacle his company has had to overcome is that U.S. cities are not yet scooter-friendly. Rather than offering preferred parking spaces, most U.S. drivers are faced with the same parking options as car drivers.

But the company was encouraged by its 2008 U.S. success, according to Timoni. While sales were down in the last quarter, Piaggio Group Americas saw a 61 percent increase in the sales of scooters and 15 percent increase in motorcycles overall for 2008. The company attributed the good year to the gas price increase, convenience, and the lower cost of scooters generally compared to cars.

If the company makes good on Timoni's promise, as HybridCars points out, this would mean Piaggio is going to beat Chevy and its Volt to market by about six months.

While there are all-electric plug-in scooters, a hybrid would give riders the flexibility of filling up at the pump in an emergency. They wouldn't be stuck without juice, or have to time when they next need to charge up at an outlet.

Whether a scooter is an actual competitor to a rain-proof car is arguable. But you could see a plug-in hybrid scooter as an option for urbanites and commuters who park daily at the train station near their house.

Piaggio did not immediately return a request for comment.

A project funded by the Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory will test bidirectional battery chargers and "smart" grids that could prevent U.S. electric grid overload from plug-in vehicles.

Ecotality is best known for the Hydratus, its onboard hydrogen fuel generator for buses, that grew out of a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory project. Its subsidiary, eTec, makes chargers for rechargeable lithium ion and lead acid batteries used in electric light-construction vehicles.

Through this project, eTec will test battery-charging technology that could eventually be used to mitigate the anticipated strain on the U.S. electric grid from plug-in hybrid cars, the company announced Tuesday.

A company called V2Green has developed a "smart" electric grid that allows charging stations to control the flow of electricity between plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) batteries and an electric grid. Working with V2Green and its system, eTec plans to test the strain that bidirectional fast charging might have on the life of PHEV batteries.

The goal is to develop a system that would essentially allow plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, in conjunction with battery-charging stations, to store energy at charging stations so they could recharge in 10 minutes at any time, taking from the electric grid during off-peak hours and giving electricity to the grid during peak hours.

"Not only does this project demonstrate the ability to fast-charge a PHEV in 10 minutes, but it also highlights the additional benefit of fast-charging systems for managing facility energy consumption," Don Karner, the president and CEO of eTec, said in a statement.

Keep in mind, eTec does not manufacture the type of electric car battery you would find in a plug-in hybrid car like a Toyota Prius, but rather for those found in slower, lightweight off-road electric vehicles. Still, the project, if successful, could provide an immediate application for construction and utility companies that already rely on fleets of light PHEVs.

Karner said the data gathered on bidirectional fast-charging for recharging facilities, as well as on electric utilities, could lay "the foundation for the development of a public fast-charging infrastructure for on-road electric vehicles."

Several studies on this topic are under way, as delivery dates of plug-in hybrids for Main Street USA, promised by automakers such as Toyota, Ford Motor, and General Motors, loom closer.

While the U.S. Department of Energy has said it's confident it can handle a plethora of plug-ins, many still wonder what kind of strain will be put on the U.S. power infrastructure once consumers tap into it as a fuel source to recharge cars.

Even the confident Department of Energy announced in mid-June that it's giving $30 million to several car companies and research institutes to further develop hybrid plug-in car technology. Some of that funding is earmarked specifically for research on battery packs and charging systems.

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), with sponsorship from General Motors and others, has also announced that it has a grant to study what effects a multitude of PHEVs being charged during peak electricity hours might have on Michigan's state electric grid.

The city of San Jose, Calif., announced on Tuesday that it will begin testing electric car charging stations developed by start-up Coulomb Technologies.