A Wall Street Journal story today highlights the promise and potential problems with plug-in cars. More accurately, it highlights the problems and shoves most of the promise to the bottom. As automakers ready plug-in hybrids and electric cars for market, the sensational headline poses a clash of the titans: "Utilities, Plug-In Cars: Near Collision?"

As gasoline reaches $4 a gallon, the benefit to consumers of transportation energy at about $1 per gallon (equivalent) is undeniable. And if one reads down to near the end of the story, one finds the studies that show the tremendous upside in terms of carbon emission and petroleum reduction. As the article makes clear, as long as most plug-in cars charge up at night, the American electrical grid can already carry the load of more plug-in cars than are likely to be produced for a decade or more. Of course, night time charging is also more convenient; most cars are parked at night and used during the day. Still, the utilities are already exploring ways to ensure cars utilize the low-cost, excess capacity existing while consumers sleep, including incentive pricing, time of use metering, and smart meters.

And the environmental benefits reported are extraordinary. If enough plug-ins were on the roads, we could see oil consumption cut by 6.2 million barrels a day and U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions cut "by 450 million metric tons annually, equivalent to scrapping 82 million cars." Where the grid is comparatively clean, as in California, switching to electricity is a no-brainer. More surprising, the story reports, "Carbon-dioxide emissions would probably fall even if coal-fired plants made the electricity, some studies have found, because they burn coal more efficiently than automobiles burn gasoline." Of course as the electric grid becomes cleaner and more renewable thanks to state and federal mandates, the cars charging actually get cleaner, too.

[Source: Wall St. Journal]

As the California Air Resources Board meets today to vote on revisions to the ZEV Mandate, the voices calling on CARB to not kill the electric car all over again are rising. Jim Woolsey, Tesla's Ze'ev Drori, the Sierra Club and many more are telling CARB to keep the EV alive. Another voice, perhaps unexpected, has now joined the chorus: George Shultz, who was Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State.

Schultz has written a letter (PDF) to California Governor Schwarzenegger asking that the governator intervene and call on state air regulators to promote plug-in cars instead of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. This seems unlikely to me, considering Schwarzenegger's love of hydrogen cars and his Hydrogen Highway effort. Schultz said hydrogen cars are not a "near-term technology" and added that other states look to California's leadership in the alternative fueled vehicle scene. We'll have more on the CARB vote later today and there are more details after the jump.

What kind of miles per gallon will you see on the EPA stickers of plug-in hybrids as they come out in the next few years? The miles per gallons for plug-in hybrids will be rated lower than traditional hybrids! Why? Unlike traditional hybrids, to get the added miles per gallon from a plug-in hybrid, you have to do something: plug it in. If you don't, the un-used part of the battery is just dead weight and that means lower miles per gallon.

Plug-in hybrids will probably leave part of the battery flat waiting for you to charge it. The car's software could fully charge the battery using regenerative braking but why would a driver go through the effort of plugging in the car if the battery meter was always topped off? A solution to this problem is an "I will not plug you in" button that tells the car to fully charge the battery and don't wait for the driver to plug it in.

I don't think the major automakers will go for a software solution however. I think the first plug-in hybrids will just be better hybrids and get better mileage than traditional hybrids only because they have larger batteries. This will be regrettable because it means plug-in hybrids will hobble the development of traditional hybrids. Plug-in hybrids will only be the panacea we hope for if the auto makers, EPA and drivers get it right.

We want to know what you think. If you were the EPA, what would you put on the sticker for a plug-in hybrid? Would you put the highest possible mileage, the lowest or an average based on plug-in hybrid use studies? If you were the car maker, how would you weigh the options? Would you make every hybrid you made a plug-in or market it as a high end option? As a consumer, what's the minimum miles per gallons increase would convince you to take the time to plug in a car?

Bloomberg editors selected as the lede of a story yesterday about former Chrysler head Lee Iacocca the comment that Cerberus is doing the right thing with Chrysler, the AutoblogGreen audience might be more interested in something buried down at the bottom of the article. Iacocca made comments on PHEVs vs. hydrogen that are, for us, more interesting, no? Iacocca clearly took a stand on the future powertrain debate, saying that, "Plug-in hybrids: that's the wave of the future, not hydrogen." Unfortunately, the Bloomberg article doesn't go into any sort of detail about why Iacocca said this, but I think it's safe to say that he was persuaded by author Sherry Boschert's present last year.

Iacocca also stated his belief that the U.S. needs a universal health care system because that would give the domestic carmakers and other companies a boost. Iacocca has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson, who supports such a system.

[Source: Bloomberg / Alan Ohnsman and Peter Cook]

If you've never heard Dr. Andy Frank, from UC Davis, speak about plug-in hybrids, you're in for a treat. Frank, who has been featured on AutoblogGreen quite a few times (highlights include an interview on UC Davis' Team Fate in the Auto X Prize and talking about kicking the oil habit with no sacrifice in lifestyle), is rightly considered one of the fathers of hybrid technology. He's been working on cars and PHEVs for thirty some years and spoke at the Santa Monica Alt Car Expo's Plug-In Technology Panel. I apologize for not including the cartoon images in the powerpoint presentation that Andy (everyone calls him Andy) used, but you can still get a great picture about the future of PHEVs in the talk.

The panel was moderated by Ron Johnston-Rodriguez, from the Port of Chelan, and also features Dean Taylor from Southern California Edison, Marguaritte Jones of Austin Energy, and Roger Slotkin of RS Management.

Hear it entire thing here.