History of plug-in hybrids

The concept commuter vehicle housed six 12-volt lead–acid batteries in the trunk area and a transverse-mounted DC electric motor turning a front-wheel drive trans-axle.

[11][12][13] The September 1975 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine featured a cover story on an experimental "turbo-electric" hybrid that "plugs in overnight for thrifty driving around town.

Beginning around 1990, Professor Andy Frank of the University of California, Davis began using student teams to build operational prototype Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

His work attracted industry support and funding from Nissan, Koyo Seiko, General Motors, Saturn, Ford, Visteon, JATCO, Ovonics, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Southern California Edison, the United States Department of Energy, and others.

[12] Inspired by his work as an EV1 propulsion system engineer, Jeff Ronning began developing concepts for plug-in hybrids in the mid-1990s at then Delco Remy, Division of GM.

With the addition of 130 kg (300 lb) of lead–acid batteries, the PRIUS+ achieved roughly double the gasoline mileage of a standard Prius and can make trips of up to 15 km (9.3 mi) using only electric power.

At the UC Davis Hybrid Center, teams led by Professor Andrew A. Frank[30] have been designing and building working prototypes, installed into a GM Equinox for the Challenge X competition.

[11] PHEV conversions of Iveco medium-duty diesel-powered commercial vehicles, sold as Hybrid Daily Bimodales, are offered by Micro-Vett of Imola, Italy in truck, nine-passenger van, and 20-passenger school bus configurations.

Designed for the Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape and Mariner Hybrids, these kits were offered to fleet buyers at first and are projected to be available to the general public in 2007.

[33] May 17: Representatives of academia, government, and the utility and auto industries testified before the House Science Subcommittee on Energy in support of proposed legislation that would advance the commercialization of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

July 18: Toyota announced that it "plans to develop a hybrid vehicle that will run locally on batteries charged by a typical 120-volt outlet before switching over to a gasoline engine for longer hauls.

November 29: GM announced plans to introduce a production plug-in hybrid version of Saturn's Greenline Vue SUV with an all-electric range of 10 miles (16 km).

[43] General Motors presented the Volt as a PHEV-40 that starts its engine when 40% of the battery charge remains, and which can achieve a fuel economy of 50 mpg (4.7 L/100 km), even if the vehicle is not plugged in.

[44] February 28: The United States Department of Energy released a draft of a plan to accelerate the development and deployment of plug-in hybrid vehicle technology.

[52] The vehicle is projected to use a small gasoline-fueled internal combustion engine as a range extender and lithium titanate batteries from Altair Nanotechnologies.

[53] May 2: CalCars announced that it had received a $200,000 grant from Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, for a two-year period to support its work in educating the public about plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles.

[55] Ford announced that it will team up with Southern California Edison to examine the future of plug-in hybrids in terms of how home and vehicle energy systems will work with the electrical grid.

[56][57] July 18: Toyota requested permission from Japan's government to test a prototype plug-in Prius with a lithium-ion battery pack on public roads.

After the test, Toyota is expected to lease them to government and municipal fleets, and may introduce the new model at the Tokyo Motor Show in November.

[58] On July 25, 2007, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport certified Toyota's plug-in hybrid for use on public roads, making it the first automobile to attain such approval.

[74] January 2008: Assistant professor Yi Cui and colleagues at Stanford University's Department of Materials Science and Engineering[75] have made a discovery to use silicon nanowires to give rechargeable lithium ion batteries 10 times more charge.

[76][77] On February 7, 2008, Valence Technology announced it has entered into a contract with The Tanfield Group Plc (LSE: TAN) to manufacture and supply safe, Lithium Phosphate energy storage systems to power zero emission, all-electric commercial delivery vehicles.

On March 27, 2008, the California Air Resources Board modified their regulations, requiring automobile manufacturers to produce 58,000 plug-in hybrids for sale to Californians during 2012 through 2014.

[79] April 2008: Raser and FEV[80] series hybrid/extended range EV powertrain plan to have the first prototype vehicle ready to demonstrate in the third quarter of this year installed in a full-size SUV.

[85] The production design model of the Chevrolet Volt was officially unveiled on September 16, 2008, as part of General Motors centennial celebration at the Wintergarden headquarters in Detroit.

[131] After rescheduling the Fisker Karma market launch to September 2010, and missing its target to build 70 to 100 test cars in 2010,[132] production began in July 2011.

[166] Later, due to complaints from owners not achieving the sticker fuel economy, and following a technical review, the official EPA rating in EV mode was downgraded to 88 MPG-e (2.7 L/100 km).

[198] The first units of the Audi A3 Sportback e-tron, Volkswagen Golf GTE and Mercedes-Benz S 500 Plug-in Hybrid were registered in Germany in August 2014.

The carmaker expects plug-in hybrids, together with natural gas vehicles and battery-electric drive systems, to have a key contribution in achieving the company's CO2 targets.

Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson said the company plans to offer at least a plug-in hybrid version of every model and release an all-electric car in 2019.