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Study Touts Plug-In Hybrids

Environmentalists, Utilities Agree on One Thing

July 20, 2007

But a new study by the Electric Power Research Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council finds that widespread use of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in the United States could go along way toward improving air quality.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles differ from current hybrids because they have large batteries that can be recharged by plugging them in to a regular electric outlet. Prototypes can run as far as 40 miles before the gasoline engine kicks in.

The research measures the impact of increasing numbers of plug-in hybrids between 2010 and 2050, including the nationwide environmental impact of potentially large fleets that would use electricity from the grid as their primary fuel source.

Among the study’s key findings were:

• Widespread adoption of plug-in hybrids can reduce carbon emissions from vehicles by more than 450 million metric tons annually in 2050 -- equivalent to removing 82.5 million passenger cars from the road

• There is an abundant supply of electricity for transportation; a 60 percent U.S. market share for plug-in hybrids would use 7 percent to 8 percent of grid-supplied electricity in 2050

• plug-in hybrids can improve nationwide air quality and reduce petroleum consumption by 3 million to 4 million barrels per day in 2050.

The two organizations say their analysis is the first to combine detailed models of the U.S. electric system and transportation sector with sophisticated atmospheric air quality models — accounting for the future evolution of both sectors in technological advances, electricity load growth and capacity expansion.

“This research accelerates our understanding of the interplay of emissions from various sources,” said Steve Specker, EPRI President and Chief Executive Officer.

“We now see that widespread use of plug-in hybrids could expand the fuel options in our transportation sector and at the same time yield net benefits to our environment.”

The EPRI-NRDC study represents the most comprehensive analysis of the potential reductions of global warming and other emissions from wide-scale introduction of plug-in hybrids over time. The study addresses the impact that lower-emitting electricity generation can have for increasing these benefits,”

“NRDC believes that a combination of more efficient vehicles, improved battery technology, and a lower-emitting electric power plant fleet can produce substantial reduction in global warming pollution from both the electric power and the transportation sectors, saidDavid Hawkins, Director of NRDC’s Climate Center.

“Our results show that plug-in hybrids recharged from low- and non-emitting electricity sources can decrease the carbon footprint in the nation’s transportation sector.”

Several benefits result from the use of grid electricity as a transportation fuel, the study claims.

Plug-in hybrids can reduce direct emissions at the vehicle tailpipe and indirect emissions at the fuel source when they recharge by electricity produced by a portfolio of efficient combustion, non-emitting or renewable generation. It is this linkage to a cleaner grid, the groups say, that could enable plug-in hybrids to produce less harmful emissions than conventional or hybrid vehicles.

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