01020539

Component

So-called plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), hybrid vehicles whose batteries can be recharged from the electric grid, have the potential to dramatically reduce petroleum fuel consumption. A PHEV60 (with 60 miles of electric range), if recharged nightly, can reduce petroleum fuel use by an estimated 84% compared to a conventional vehicle, by a combination of replacement of petroleum-fueled miles by electricity-fueled miles and by higher efficiency while driven on petroleum fuels. With the widespread availability of fast chargers, a fleet of PHEVs also could represent a Virtual National Petroleum Reserve with the ability to provide oil-free transport in an emergency. And PHEVs offer other benefits ranging from improvement of electric utility load profiles to potentially improving the economics of intermittent renewable sources of electricity. However, PHEVs face important barriers to commercialization, including high vehicle costs, concerns about battery lifetime, and concerns about the availability of moderately priced electricity for recharging. These barriers, while daunting, might profitably be compared to the barriers facing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), which offer benefits that are in some ways quite similar but that have attracted major public and private research funding. The barriers to FCVs are at least as daunting as, and may well be seen as more daunting than, those facing PHEVs. This paper provides an overview of the arguments for including PHEVs as a significant option in the national search for alternatives to the current U.S. dependence on oil as virtually its sole feedstock for transport fuels.

01020180

06-0566

English

15p

2006

Transportation Research Board 85th Annual Meeting

CD-ROM

References (25)

Air pollution; Battery chargers; Costs; Electric batteries; Electric vehicles; Hybrid vehicles; Lithium batteries

Energy; Environment; Finance; Highways; I15: Environment

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2006 Paper #06-0566

BTRIS, TRIS, TRB

Mar 3 2006 10:23AM