Minneapolis Mayor First to Use Plug-In Hybrid as Official Car
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak may be the first mayor in the nation to drive a plug-in hybrid vehicle as his official city car.
Since he was first elected in 2002, Mayor Rybak’s official car has been a Toyota Prius. But the dramatically superior gas mileage of a plug-in hybrid vehicle prompted him to make the switch: he had his hybrid converted to a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, from which he expects to get about 70 miles per gallon (mpg) compared to his average 40 mpg with the Prius.
A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is like a regular hybrid with a cord. That is, its battery can be recharged by plugging it into a regular 120-volt outlet.
Typical of many PHEVs, Mayor Rybak’s car can travel about 30 miles solely on battery power if the speeds are 30 mph or less. If he drives further or needs to go faster, the car automatically switches over to using the gas engine. But for local city driving — when speeds are low and distances are shorter — he could go days without using any gasoline to power the engine.
Although most of Minnesota’s electricity comes from coal power, powering a vehicle with the electric grid is still cleaner than gasoline. But the Mayor and other city officials want to make it even cleaner: Minneapolis has applied for a state grant to install solar panels on some city buildings so that future plug-in cars could charge up using solar power instead of fossil fuels. Rybak told the Minnesota Daily:
It became clear to me that the two big things we had to do were convert to plug-in hybrids and find a way to have them use electricity from non-coal sources … I become very frustrated with people saying we need to do years of research on all these issues. Research is great, but the technology is there right now.
Last year, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to pass legislation promoting plug-in hybrids. The law instructs the state to buy plug-in hybrids on a preferred basis when they become available and encourages Minnesota State University - Mankato to develop flex-fuel plug-in hybrid vehicles (plug-ins that can run on an ethanol blend).
Minneapolis has about 100 government vehicles that are either hybrids or use E-85 fuel (an 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline blend). Leadership from the city and supportive government policies could make plug-in hybrids a more common occurrence on Twin Cities roads.
BIOconversion Blog
Cal Cars
City of Minneapolis
Minnesota Daily
Photo Source: City of Minneapolis
October 30th, 2007 at 3:08 am
Well lets just move the pollution from the tailpipe to the power plant and think we’re better people for it.
October 30th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Not exactly: http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/797.html
_______________________________________
Jeff McIntire-Strasburg
Senior Editor
Green Options
jeff@greenoptions.com
October 30th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
I’ve been driving a PHEV for six months now in Houston, TX, and I use wind energy to refill my battery pack. So yes I did move my pollution from Foreign Oil to a Domestic Wind Energy Power Plant. That is the whole point; let’s move to power plants that get cleaner and cleaner as we move to more wind and solar power production.
Now the two cleanest places of a Plug-in drivers commute are their own neighborhood, and where they work. For me it’s my neighbor hood where my family lives and plays, and in Downtown Houston, a non-attainment area. In other words we have the worst air pollution in the country. If all Houstonians who work downtown would drive plug-in cars we would have no tail pipe emissions and your city might be higher on the polluted city list then us.
I don’t feel that I am better then you or anyone else for it, but I do feel better about saving $400.00 per month by driving my plug-in hybrid verses my big Yukon XL. That’s right I drive a big SUV and a Big GMC truck too at times. But since I save so much money they spend most of there time in the driveway now. Don’t get me wrong I love big cars, and fast cars too, but I don’t need to drive one every day if I can save money for my family like this. Two important facts are; you can’t tow a big boat with a plug-in Prius, but also, I don’t have to tow a boat to work every day. Do you?
If it makes sense to drive a Plug-in for you, do it. If not, I guess you’ll just have to keep supporting foreign oil instead of putting the money in your own pocket. Plug-ins are just an environmental upgrade just like leather seats are an upgrade…Buy it if you want it. I know I want it.
Jim Philippi
Houston, TX
October 31st, 2007 at 3:19 am
Great to read the comments about my plug in hybrid….I wanted to give more background.
When I got elected Mayor in 2002, I felt I should use the position to raise awareness to what I felt was the need to address Climate Change and the shortage of oil.
So we traded in the Crown Victoria, which had been used, and got a Prius.
It was great….we got about 40 mpg…. and driving it helped me understand why we needed to convert more of the city’s fleet to hybrids. So we now have hybrids and E85 cars in the fleet. (I drove a Ford Escape hybrid for a while, which, while better than a non hybrid, sadly got only about 25 mpg.)
But about a year ago I went to something called The Sundance Summit, where Mayors and environmentalists got togther to talk about issues we could work together on. After a few days of really focusing on these issues, I felt that the single best thing we could do would be to convert to plug in hybrids and, very important, have a more benign electrical grid (meaning one fed by solar and wind.)
Getting a plug in wasn’t possible until the past year when a couple companies began converting hybrids. So we converted one of our fleet and tied that to a plan to install solar on our public works facility so new plug ins could be powered by solar.
We did this because it is important to understand whether we should make a larger investment in plug ins…and my early experience says that we definately should as soon as the cost drops. We are working on that as well, trying to get one of the converters to do it on a larger scale, and in Minneapolis. That clearly can be done, especially if enough of us who understand this importance raise the visiblity of plug ins….and I feel, get incentives to the industry to lower the price.
There are times when I get very depressed about the climate crisis, but the more I see what these new techologies can do the more I feel our country can be turned around by a green manufacturing revolution that can help the planet AND create jobs.
So spread the word: At least this plug in hybrid driver thinks I’m seeing the future.
November 6th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
It’s kinda cool that Rybak may be the first mayor to start living green here in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“MagicBrad”
November 16th, 2007 at 1:47 am
Many thanks for your comment, Mr. Mayor!
February 10th, 2008 at 3:53 am
What a great article! What an empowered Mayor! Now, if every Mayor in every city only had that mind set, we would really turn this country around.
I think that incentives are definitely the way to go, simply because they are an investment in ourselves.
I think it’s a long slow task for any “group” to accomplish anything quickly. But, the faster we spread the word the quicker it would get out there.
Also, I noticed that after The Iraq war started there was a huge rise in the “war type” movies, hence, de sensitizing us to it.
If we included more eco technology into the every day mainstream ideal by way of; TV Ads, Commercials, Movies, etc, we would take the stigma out of something that seems so radical to so many people.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:38 pm
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