Today I attended the lecture at FIU given by author Sherry Boschert, who recently wrote Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America
The lecture started out with a show of hands who had seen the film, Who Killed the Electric Car? Very few hands went up – though the room was mostly full of FIU students. If you haven’t seen the film already, get it from the library or Netflix, it will explain so much more than I can explain here.
Plug-In Hybrids (PHEVs) are much more complex than regular electric vehicles (EVs), but solve the number one consumer concern: "But what if I want to take a road trip?" PHEVs have different ranges: 20, 40, 60 miles on pure electric before you will need to start using gasoline. For most people, this would mean that you would still almost never need gasoline – just a little charge overnight.
She covered the main concerns of many people when they hear about PHEVs: Q: Isn’t it dirtier because most conventional electricity comes from coal? A: Coal is dirty, gasoline is much dirtier. Q: Won’t my electric bill go up as my gas bill goes down? A: Yes, a little, but to power an EV will cost 2 cents / mile (@ 9 cents/kwh…we pay 5) and 13 cents/mile for gas (@$2.50/gallon). A 2 KW rooftop solar array can produce enough energy to drive 12,000 miles/year. Q: If everyone starts plugging in there cars, aren’t we going to need more power plants? A: Charging is mainly done at off-peak hours when there is sufficient energy supply. Then, an interesting note in the presentation: The US imports 55% of oil. Vehicles use 2/3 of all petroluem in US and 1/3 of all energy.
Afterwards, I took a ride in my first EV with some students from FIU’s Environmental Studies program. Watch the video below to see our first 14 seconds of the ride (Amy Mehu driving). Later I got behind the driver’s seat and went for a ride with some other students. Incredible, and quiet! Thanks so much to Charles Whalen for letting us test drive his very own EV, and for driving down from Delray Beach so that we could see it. He is the PR Director & Director of Public Charging Infrastructure for the Florida Electric Auto Association.
See more photos in our Flickr Set: Plug-In Hybrids
Websites:
Energy Forum (FIU)
Set America Free (bipartisan)
At the Library:
One Response to “Plug-in Hybrids: Sherry Boschert”
An email I just received from Sherry:
Hi Rebecca,
Thanks!
I’m sitting here revising my talk for the presentation that I’ll give at Florida Atlantic University on Thursday, to add an exciting element –
Even though Bush didn’t say much in his State of the Union speech, today he issues an Executive Order that (among other things) requires federal agencies that operate fleets of 20 or more vehicles to buy plug-in hybrids when they become commercially available and have lifecycle costs that are comparable to non-PHEVs. And since studies have been out for years now showing that PHEV lifecycle costs are LOWER than those of other vehicles, that basically means we’re just waiting for them to become available. I see this as a BIG nudge to the car companies.
See the executive order here, especially Section 2 (g) (iii):
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070124-2.html
Cheers,
Sherry