Instead of junking our gas guzzlers, wouldn’t it be better to convert them into gas sipping dual-mode vehicles? Here is a story from AltEnergyStocks entitled “The Time is Right for Gas-guzzler to Dual-mode EV Conversions”. The conversion idea makes more sense to me, but the price is too high right now. Maybe they could bring down the cost through economies of scale and/or government subsidies.
The concept is simple – add electric power trains and battery packs to America’s least fuel-efficient vehicles and give them 50 miles of plug-in EV range coupled with unlimited internal combustion range. The potential benefits to the economy are enormous because the U.S. could slash gasoline consumption by a billion gallons per year for every 1% of the gas-guzzler fleet that’s converted to dual-mode. It’s also a solution that could be immediately implemented using domestic products and create untold thousands of new cleantech jobs.
The story goes on to detail the current cost at over $10,000 and the breakeven point based on different gas prices. This does not hold up well with today’s current $2.00 per gallon, but we know this will not last. So this could be a very viable option for our future.
The beauty of this idea is that the electric components would allow you to drive up to 50 miles a charge. This would cover most daily commutes while the dual-mode could easily switch to gasoline for longer trips. We get the best of both technologies.
This way many families could continue driving vans, trucks and sport utility vehicles to accommodate children and other needs. While a Prius is a great vehicle for the single driver, it doesn’t fit in many other situations. A conversion of our exiting fleet of vehicles would be a huge step towards energy independence.
