An Insider's Look at Hybrid Cars: How They Work and Why They Matter
By Bradley Berman, Editor of Hybridcars.com
101 page eBook (pdf)
Nine transcribed and edited interviews
$10.00

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Why do hybrid batteries last for the full lifetime of the car? Do hybrid cars need special maintenance? Why don’t you see television ads for the Toyota Prius? Are diesel cars a better value than hybrids? Will hybrids be wiped out when hydrogen fuel cell cars hit the market—and when will that be? Why are American carmakers so far behind on hybrids? Who is buying hybrids and why?

These questions and nearly 250 more were posed to people who spend their whole day engineering, selling, or servicing hybrids—and those advocating for their use. If a question about hybrid cars has crossed your mind—everything from car safety to maximizing fuel efficiency to minimizing our foreign oil dependency—it’s probably in this document.

The hybridcars.com website has tons of information, but many visitors have requested a single print-friendly resource for hybrid information. This eBook is a "must read" for anybody who drives a hybrid car or is thinking about getting one. It’s not for techies. Technical concepts are very much put into layman's terms. The book is currently only available in pdf format.

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Sample Pages. Click to view (in pdf format):

Page 4	Page 17	Page 39	Page 41
Page 52	Page 60	Page 76	Page 90

The eBook includes nine interviews:

• Jason A. Mark – Director, Clean Vehicles Program, Union of Concerned Scientists
• Craig Van Batenburg – Master Hybrid Service Technician, Automotive Career Development
• Jim Kliesch – Research Associate and Author, ACEEE's Green Book®: The Environmental Guide to Cars and Trucks, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy
• Jason Dove Mark – Director, JumpStart Ford Campaign, Global Exchange
• Sam Williams, Prius Yahoo Group Moderator
• Walter McManus, Executive Director of Global Forecasting, J.D. Power and Associates
• Elizabeth Frame, Honda Sales Associate
• Dave Hermance, Executive Engineer for Environmental Engineering, Toyota
• Therese Langer, Transportation Program Director, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy

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Jason A. Mark – Director, Clean Vehicles Program, Union of Concerned Scientists
Jason is author of several studies on fuel economy, alternative fuels, and advanced technologies. Before joining UCS, Mr. Mark held research positions at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Princeton University Center for Energy and Environmental Studies.

Interview topics include:

• The Consumer’s Most Important Environmental Decision
• Hybrids in the Spectrum of Automotive Technologies
• Battery Electrics and Fuel Cells as an Alternative
• The World Oil and Hybrid Market
• The Impact of Hybrids

Sample quotes:

"On one end of the automotive technology spectrum will be improved conventional vehicles that deliver better fuel economy very cost-effectively, the best that the century-old technology can be. At the other end are purely electric vehicles, say powered by fuel cells. Hybrid vehicles are the bridge in between."

"It’s certainly going to be some time before we see fuel cells at the stage of technological readiness that the hybrid vehicles are today, no doubt about it. It’s an important reminder that we should really squeeze what efficiencies we can out of conventional vehicles, as well as pushing hard on hybrids as first priorities. It’s far more cost-effective and it’s ready now."

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Craig Van Batenburg – Master Hybrid Service Technician
Craig runs the Automotive Career Development Center, which trains mechanics throughout New England. He writes on repair technology and garage management for Motor Age, Auto-Inc.and Action magazines, delivers management and technical seminars nationally, and is a leader in electric-hybrid technical training.

Interview topics include:

• Putting All the Hybrid Pieces Together
• Hybrids and Constantly Variable Transmissions (CVT)
• Gas Mileage and Gas Pedals
• Software Challenges at Ford and GM
• Car Weight, Batteries and Safety
• Buying New or Used: Shopping Tips

Sample quotes:

"Toyota uses a planetary gear set in a unique way of designing a CVT transmission, making it the central hub where all the power sources send their power. The internal combustion engine sends it there. The two electric motors send it there. They can send in three different sources of power simultaneously, at any RPM range, or any torque speed that they like. And Toyota’s CVT transmission knows how to handle it."

"If you step on the gas pedal on a Prius, you’re sending a signal to the computer connected to a sensor, a pedal position sensor. The computer then sends a signal to the throttle that opens it electrically. So you have no control. In the Prius, for example, if you’re sitting in park in the driveway and you floor the gas pedal, the computer will say “Why would it do that? It’s in park.”

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Jim Kliesch – Research Associate and Author, ACEEE's Green Book®: The Environmental Guide to Cars and Trucks, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy
Jim has worked on an array of vehicle- and energy-related topics, including computer modeling of vehicle emissions, vehicle life-cycle assessments, and CO2 emissions trend analyses. He is also the manager and principal vehicle analyst of the GreenerCars.com website. Jim has been consulted by various news media—including The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC.com, and Automotive News—on automobiles and the environment.

Interview topics include:

• Establishing a Vehicle’s Green-ness
• How to Find a Vehicle’s Pollution Info
• Breakdown of Various Tailpipe Pollutants
• Health Costs and Environmental Damage
• Tons of Carbon Dioxide Per Year

Sample quotes:

"One gallon of gasoline produces 19 pounds of CO2. Over 15,000 miles of annual driving, think about how many gallons you’re burning, plus the upstream emissions related to that, as well as the greenhouse emissions of other pollutants."

"The primary drawback of diesels is that, while the fuel economy is great, they’re not nearly as clean in tailpipe emissions as today’s hybrids. So, while you have both the fuel economy and the low tailpipe emissions benefits for hybrid vehicles, diesels offer only the fuel economy benefits."

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Jason Dove Mark – Director, JumpStart Ford Campaign, Global Exchange
Jason is a veteran corporate accountability organizer. He has helped developed campaigns challenging Nike and Gap to end sweatshop abuses and calling on Starbucks and Procter & Gamble to offer Fair Trade Certified coffee. He is the co-author, with Kevin Danaher, of Insurrection: Citizen Challenges to Corporate Power [Routledge Press; 2003].

Interview topics include:

• The Consequences of Oil Addiction
• Responsibility: Automakers, Oil Companies, or Government
• Return on Investment on Hybrid Cars
• Hybrid Cars, Oil, War, and Peace

Sample quotes:

"The typical Ford vehicle on the road today gets worse gas mileage than the Model T did 80 years ago."

"From 1942 to 1943, the entire American auto industry shut down, retooled, and became, quote unquote, “the arsenal of democracy.” What we’re asking is not impossible, if the environmental and social challenges we face, associated with war and threats to our national security, are every bit as pressing as those in 1942."

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Sam Williams, Prius Yahoo Group Moderator
Sam has moderated the toyota-prius Yahoo Group for almost four years. He also moderates the technical group, Prius_Technical_Stuff. In August 2000, he took delivery of a new 2001 Prius, one of the first to arrive in the Northeast. He lives in Acton, Massachusetts, outside Boston, and works as a chemist, engineer, technical manager, and project manager for synthetic membranes and medical products.

Interview topics include:

• Concerns for Prius Drivers
• Toyota’s Relationship with Customers
• Rivalry between Toyota and Honda Hybrid Drivers
• Hybrids as Elite Vehicles Moving into the Mainstream

Sample quotes:

"Several years ago, I heard on the radio that that the BMW 2002 I was driving put out 10 times the pollution of your average new car. It hit me like a ton of bricks. And it really bothered me…Almost that day, I stopped driving the car."

"I do describe myself as an “over-the-top zealot,” I’m also very practical. I’m not pounding the pavement every day, expounding about all the virtues of the Prius."

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Walter McManus, Executive Director of Global Forecasting, J.D. Power and Associates
Walter’s business career includes nine years at General Motors Corporation. He developed models to forecast vehicle sales, created visual information tools to stimulate new product development, and spent a year as a manufacturing supervisor in a component factory. Walter received GM’s Chairman’s Honors twice. He is a subject-matter expert on the market for alternative powertrains, and a frequent speaker at industry conferences on the subject.

Interview topics include:

• Problems Per 100 Vehicles
• Uncertain Future for “Clean Diesel”
• Sales and Production Trends for Hybrid Cars
• The Typical Hybrid Driver
• Is Hybrid SUV an Oxymoron?

Sample quotes:

"The most recent forecast has hybrid sales growing to 4 percent of the market by 2009. This year, it’s going to be about a half a percent. Next year, probably 1 percent. How quickly it grows beyond that partly depends on how quickly new offerings come out."

"Today, the folks who buy hybrid cars, and those that intend to buy them, tend to be—and I can say this because I have a PhD.—over-educated. They have a level of education higher than any group of car drivers that I’ve ever seen."

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Elizabeth Frame, Honda Sales Associate
Elizabeth, a sales associate at Frontier Honda in Longmont, Colorado, has been selling Hondas since 1976. She has lived in Boulder, Colorado for thirty years. She enjoys cooking, reading, hiking, gardening, and spending time with her husband and cat.

Topics include:

• Hybrid Customers
• Blank Responses from the Uninformed
• Activism on the Sales Floor
• A Career Selling Hondas

Sample quotes:

"Yesterday, I had some clients walk in, and they had never been in a Honda dealership before…I went up and showed them the hybrid…I got a blank look. It just wasn’t part of their reality."

"The Honda Insight is built around a cage similar to Indy cars in terms of safety. They have reinforced the vehicle even though it’s made with lightweight material, to withstand impact pretty well. I followed racing for many years. Just watching those Indy cars, they hit the wall at 200 miles an hour, and people walk out."

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Dave Hermance, Executive Engineer for Environmental Engineering, Toyota
Dave is Executive Engineer for Environmental Engineering at Toyota Technical Center U.S.A. in Gardena, California. He’s responsible for advanced technology vehicle communication for the North American market, and emission regulatory activities in California. Hermance joined TTC in 1991; from 1985 to 1991 he served as Department Head for Durability Test Development at General Motors. He joined G.M. in 1965, serving in a variety of roles in the Vehicle Emissions Laboratory from 1971-1985.

Interview topics include:

• American versus Japanese Corporate Cultures
• Toyota Hybrid Release Schedule
• Tough Stuff: The Hybrid Computer Control System
• The Leasing of Toyota’s Hybrid Technology
• Consumer Concerns: Fuel Efficiency, Battery Life

Sample quotes:

"You can’t move a buyer away from an SUV if that’s the target vehicle they’re interested in. The best you can hope for with marketing is to get them to switch brands. A lot of folks don’t understand how limited your ability to influence the buying decision with marketing actually is."

"Fuel cells are great energy-conversion devices because they’re very efficient, but are we two days or five years away from it? I don’t think so."

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Therese Langer, Transportation Program Director, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy
Therese is the Transportation Program Director for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) in Washington, DC. She works to improve both vehicle and system efficiencies in the passenger and freight sectors. Her current activities include research and advocacy for stronger fuel economy standards; assessment of diesel-vehicle prospects in the U.S. market; improving consumer information about environmentally preferable vehicles; and development of an approach to stabilizing transportation energy use in the U.S. that integrates technological and demand reduction strategies. Therese provides guidance and analytical support on transportation energy policy issues to environmental groups and Congressional offices, among others.

Interview topics include:

• Understanding the CLEAR Act
• Trying to Make Sense of the Legislative Landscape
• Governmental Role in Gas Prices
• Hybrids Driving Solo in Carpool Lanes
• California’s ZEV Mandate

"Everyone is watching very closely the release of the Escape…It will be the first release of what we regard as a very serious hybrid by a U.S. manufacturer…The success of the Escape Hybrid would have very significant consequences for the view that American manufacturers take of the hybrid market."

"Hybrids have not to date played in a big way into the fuel economy debate because people have taken the view that they’re either too expensive to be regarded as a generally-available technology, or they’re just available in these little cars, and this doesn’t address the problem of people driving gas-guzzling SUVs and so forth. Both of those things are changing."

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