For a hot automotive topic like “plug-in hybrids,” there are surprisingly few books out there. Sherry Boschert’s title Plug-in Hybrids came in the Amazon search right next to Build Your Own Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle by Seth Leitman and that was pretty much it. I have been looking into a possibility of converting my Prius into a plug-in for some time now but neither the challenge of meddling with a piece of machinery that can easily kill you nor economics of such a conversion made much sense to me, and so I opted for a book that appeared to be less hands-on.
I was looking for a broader look at the plug-in hybrid technology in hopes to understand why the seemingly simple idea (get more batteries, recharge them while the car is idle overnight) has proven itself to be so difficult to realize. Indeed, even Toyota, the leader in hybrid technology, had failed to release the plug-in version with its third generation 2010 model Prius. There has been much talk about it in a couple years leading up to last year’s release of the 3rd-gen Prius but the closest they got to the promise of plug-in hybrid is the (manually engaged) all-electric mode. That will yield you 6-7 miles or less, depending on driving conditions of range. Not exactly your average commute distance as proponents of plug-in hybrids had in mind.
So, back to the book: if you liked An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed the Electric Car, you will most certainly like this. Indeed, Chelsea Sexton, the star of Who Killed the Electric Car, is prominently featured in the opening chapter of the book. There is little technical information there (much to my chagrin) but a whole lot of what has been repeatedly called the “sausage making” process of politics. I now know more names of people allegedly responsible for keeping more fuel-efficient cars off US roads than I care for. However, in my humble opinion, the book did a very poor job at explaining the complexity of the engineering challenge that plug-ins present.
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Source: blogcritics.org
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