A123Systems Li-ion Battery in Prius

What was going on the street outside of the Rayburn House Office Building in D.C. hearing room last week may be as important as what was going on within that august chamber. Inside, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held the sixth in its series of hearings about how to tackle global warming. Just outside on South Capitol Street, the future of the auto industry pulled up and parked at the curb in the form of the first commercially available plug-in hybrid car to arrive in the capital.

The contrast between the inside and outside was stark. Inside, global warming skeptics on the committee continued to insist that action on this issue was tantamount to dooming us all to living in the stone ages. As we questioned experts on cap and trade systems from Europe, some of my colleagues who still believe global warming is a Communist plot kept alluding to the economic ruin that would attend adoption of a plan to reduce CO2. The power of fear was present in the room in the form of members who had the obvious belief that if we adopted a cap and trade system to limit CO2 emission similar to what Europe has done, we could not adopt the technologies that would keep our cars and economy going.

The story was the opposite outside at the curb. Parked there was the handiwork of the A123 Company, which has perfected a way to turn a standard Toyota Prius into a plug-in hybrid capable of getting 150 miles to a gallon of gasoline. The car was a shiny black, which I actually prefer to my grey Prius, but I was more impressed with the A123 lithium battery pack in the trunk that allows the car to go about 40 miles just on the charge from the electricity the user gets from their home plug through the handy little cord that plugs into a socket in the left rear of the car. After that charge runs down, the car runs with great efficiency on the gas in its tank. Putting the two modes together means the car gets about 150 miles per gallon of gasoline, plus the electricity one uses from the grid.

When I took her out for a spin, she was as sporty as I would want, and the “150 miles per gallon” painted on her side seemed to draw some attention. Now A123 plans to make their conversion kit available in the fall. Other than having a little cord to keep in your garage and putting your spare a little higher in the trunk, there is no downside to this fantastic technology.

People in the inside have to start looking at the great technology on the curb outside. We don’t have to wait for technology that can tackle global warming. It is here, right outside on the curb.