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Good news for those who make short commutes and live in the city, but is it a good thing to get popular right now? So many people still think that hybrids need to be plugged in, was it a good idea to let this cat out of the bag so soon? I guess we'll see in the coming months.

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I don't like it one bit. Not a bit. But, I guarantee you come back 5 years from now and the "hybrid" will no longer be the new kid in town.

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What is there not to like, Jason ?

The public as a whole doesn't understand what hybrids are. They don't realize that they aren't slower and don't have to be plugged in. Publicity for plug-in hybrids will only reinforce ignorance of the technology [and its flexibility] and ultimately confuse the consumer as to what hybrids are all about. Add to it the fact that our energy infrastructure is not equipped to handle 100 million plug-in cars. This is opening up a whole other can of worms.

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I think Jason is correct about a "plug in option" negatively affecting the image of Hybrids and relating them to the "electric car" days.

But I suppose it just depends on the timing, and who is shopping. Knowledgeable Hybrid owners might want that as an option - I for one vote would love that for my HCH - "top off" the battery at night with a plug in the garage. BRILLIANT !!

I read one story a while back about a "plug-in" hybrid car under development that would be able to drive the first 40 or so miles under electric power ALONE !! That would be simply AWESOME in that most people's round trip commute is less than that. Imagine having a full 120-130 horsepower if you need it but being able to commute on electric only almost every day !! My commute is city street only, so that would be PERFECT for me.

larss, this company is a joint venture of CSenergy, which is the company that was collaborating with Felix Kramer of CalCars.org. So I think this is the promised commericializtion phase they were talking about.

The unwashed masses that have somehow missed the hundreds if not *thousands* of announcements regarding hybrid cars, yet are still confused what a hybrid is, will remain so until their neighbor's neighbor gloats daily that petrol prices and scarcity is not his/her problem.

I have read that a new product typically must reach 10% market 'penetration', and then takes off as a general consumer product -- presumably by word of mouth. This mod is not going to confuse the target audience of people like me and larss, that recognize it as the wonderful advancement that it might be: a viable, mass market solution to weaning our cars off petrol.

I completely agree that improvements to the grid are mandatory in the future. (GO) EV's just might be the driving force to do so, unlike the chicken&egg hydrogen economy nonsense. Right now there are three such cars; 100 million will take a while ;-)

If recharge takes 8 hours, most people would do it overnight, when electric capacity is abundant, even excess ("base load" which operates continuously, like nuclear or hydro, is a use it or lose it situation.) If recharging gets faster lots of cars plugging in during the daytime is a real issue. Regardless, our country needs to start thinking about where we will get all the extra power we're going to need, both to replace oil and growth. Hopefully land subsudies for refinieries and insurance guarantees for nuclear will turn into cost or manufacturing subsudies for solar, wind, and other renewables. Right after world peace, I'm sure...

I'd LOVE a plug in hybrid. I do mostly city driving, and the condo association provides the electric in the garage - it'd be like FREE gas!!

I wonder if this company replaced the main drive motor, or just the battery. The Prius on electric only doesn't have the performance for driving in traffic, though I hear a big limiter is the battery - the computer only allows so much drain at once to protect it, apparently the motor has more oomph available. I'd hope so, replacing more than the battery and some electronics would REALLY make this a big project (as if it isn't expensive enough already, I'm sure)

Hi Gregg,

CalCars has said earlier that the all_electric speed limits for the Prius II cannot be improved upon with extra battery. I take that to mean the max electric only acceleration is also fixed at regualar Prius II levels. So in practice one would have a Prius II, with a full battery for some 60 miles of driving. If the sum total is a gas mpg of 100 - 150 during that distance, I consider it a tremendous advance -- although like you, not exactly what I *really* want ..

Yah, I was afraid that would be the case. Electric only acceleration leaves something to be desired, though with a warm engine and 7 bars of charge (and presumably a cool battery) the system is much more aggressive in its use of electric. I'd assume with a completely full charge even more so, but I've never seen more than 7 bars. Still, I'm sure I'd have the engine kicking in quite a bit, but for 150MPG I can live with a quarterly trip to the gas station