Why are 250 mpg plug-in hybrids not available for sale on the East Coast?

[papau]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/aptech_story.asp?category=1700&slug=Hybrid%20Tinkerers

University of California, Davis engineering professor Andy Frank built a plug-in hybrid from the ground up in 1972 and has since built seven others, one of which gets up to 250 mpg. They were converted from non-hybrids, including a Ford Taurus and Chevrolet Suburban.

Frank has spent $150,000 to $250,000 in research costs on each car, but believes automakers could mass-produce them by adding just $6,000 to each vehicle's price tag.

Instead, Frank said, automakers promise hydrogen-powered vehicles hailed by President Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, even though hydrogen's backers acknowledge the cars won't be widely available for years and would require a vast infrastructure of new fueling stations.

"They'd rather work on something that won't be in their lifetime, and that's this hydrogen economy stuff," Frank said. "They pick this kind of target to get the public off their back, essentially."

CalCars Initiative
100+ MPG in a roomy vehicle that can fit your passengers and your gear?
http://www.calcars.org/priusplus.html
http://www.calcars.org/kudos.html
http://www.calcars.org/vehicles.html
http://www.calcars.org/history.html
Meet the World's First 150 MPG Plug-In Prius about EnergyCS's version of PRIUS+, EVWorld, March 7, 2005 http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news/message/3


http://wired-vig.wired.com/wireless/story/0,2278,68101-,00.html
Making a Plug for Hybrids


Energy CS engineers and co-owners Greg Hanssen and Pete Nortman created a battery-management system that allows the car to operate in electric-only mode and deceives the car's main computer system, telling it that the batteries are very nearly full even when they are more than half empty. To maximize the life of the battery pack, Toyota engineers designed the Prius to keep the batteries about 60 percent charged. The Energy CS controller tells the main computer that the batteries are well above 60 percent full, so the system will draw more power from the batteries. When the batteries are nearly drained, the controller switches back to standard hybrid operation

[MASSAFRA]

1. This is an experimental model.

I own a Prius and get 50+ miles to the gallon. I enjoy the trunk space that comes with the car. To get 250 mpg I would have to fill up my trunk with batteries. I look forward to getting a more fuel efficient vehicle.

[papau]

3. The stories at the links describe cars larger than the Camby/Prius - as in

a Honda Accord or Ford Escape - that have been modified.

Granted you must find room for a dozen "bricks", but there seems enough room left over.

With some great universities out East I wonder why no funding of conversion to plug in hybrid research. Or is there such research going on?

[TomClash]

2. They don't use enough gasoline

so the profits of Big Oil would decline.

[Codeine]

4. Batteries work more efficiently...

...in warm weather. Solar and battery tech cars are far more commonly tested in the Southeast than anywhere else for that reason.

[papau]

5. Thanks for the info - problem is we Boston types could use such

a car - paying $45 per month for gas rather than $450 would be a nice cost savings (15 mpg at $3 per gal going to 150 mpg)