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PAGE 12A -- THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2007 The Car Of The Future? Engineer's Plug-In Hybrid Car Gets 100 Miles Per Gallon Imagine driving a car that gets 100 miles to the gallon. Allen Shedd, a commer cial/industrial engineer with Jackson EMC, doesn’t have to. He drives one every day. Shedd presented a program for the Commerce Kiwanis Club last Thursday about his “plug-in hybrid vehicle,” and the implications for the future with gas prices constantly on the rise . Two years ago, Shedd pre sented a similar program regarding his Toyota Prius, the commercially available hybrid that was getting about 45 miles to the gallon. Since then, as a participant in the Cooperative Research Network, Shedd drove the Prius to California where engineers removed the facto ry battery pack and installed a custom battery pack, com puter monitoring system and a plug-in recharging unit. For starters, the vehicle can run 40 miles on battery power alone. Recharging uses about 40 cents worth of electricity, Shedd told the Kiwanis Club. “The idea is to bring these things to the market,” he said, predicting that the first fac tory-built models could come out in 2010. The test vehicle, one of about 60 in the country, did not come about inexpensively. “The battery cost more than the car,” Shedd noted, but he also pointed out that mass production of the battery would be expected to bring the cost down from the $30,000 spent on his battery to $4,000 to $6,000. The new battery added about 170 pounds to the weight of the car — about the weight of a passenger. It’s Allen Shedd, third from left, explains how his experimental Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid works to Commerce Kiwanis Club members Robert House, Dr. Paul Sergent, Steve McKown and Erskine Rice. located in the trunk, displac ing the spare tire. A computer monitor, like those in most hybrids, pro vides data on performance. Shedd said he’s averaged 161 miles per gallon for the past 60 miles. “The goal is to use it nor mally, collect the data and monitor how much energy we put into it,” he said. The vehicle, which used to average 45-50 miles per gal lon, will get 75-90 mpg on his 26-mile commute, but about 120 mpg on a drive to and from Athens. “On shorter trips, local com muting, you get really good mileage,” he advised, because most of the power comes from electricity. At night, he runs an exten sion cord from a regular 120- volt wall socket to his car. Speaking of his three-day drive home from California, Shedd advised that “it’s eas ier to recharge your car at a cheap motel than at an expen sive motel” because at the former one can usually run an extension cord from the motel room to the vehicle. A full charge takes about four hours. Companies are already beginning to make “kits” to convert hybrid cars into plug in hybrids and others are aim ing to have factory-built plug in hybrids on the showroom floors by 2010. Shedd, who drove the Prius 60,000 miles before the con version and 26,000 since, said he’s seen no change in perfor mance since the larger battery pack was added. Asked about the life of the battery pack, Shedd said that the original Prius battery had an eight-year unlimited-mile age warranty and speculated that when such cars reach dealers, they’ll have warran ties at least that good. While public acceptance of the vehicles will likely take years, the implications for the U.S. consumption of foreign oil are enormous. According to figures Shedd presented, if cars could run 20 miles per day on battery power alone, U.S . oil consumption would fall by 60 percent while reduc ing greenhouse gas emissions and drastically reducing U.S . dependence upon imported foreign oil. Paying eight cents per kilo watt hour to charge the Prius’ battery equates to buying gas oline at 75 cents per gallon, he said . That’s a pretty fair savings with regular unleaded gasoline currently selling at more than $3 per gallon. While Shedd acknowledged that there is no way to recover through fuel savings the cost of the conversion of his car, rising gasoline prices all but assure that future plug-in hybrids will be cost-effective. FOR INFORMATION ABOUT CANCER, INFORMATION ON SERVICES AND PROGRAMS, CALLTHE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY 24 HOURS A DAY; 7 DAYS A WEEK 1-800-227-2345 OR ON THE INTERNET AT WWW.CANCER.ORG Attention Propane Users * FLEXIBLE PAYMENT OPTIONS ... including ALiiornatic, Online & Telephone payments *24 HOUR Fully Staffed Emergency Service * Automatic Delivery * Local DEDICATED EMPLOYEES * World Class Safety •GUARANTEED Price Programs America's Propane Company .H v ! ii {■•! t, Salt. R tsp ontIVt Call Today! 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