California Cars Initiative
| Origins | 2002 |
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CalCars (also known as The California Cars Initiative) was a charitable, non-profit organization founded in 2002 to promote plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) as a key to addressing oil dependence and global warming both nationally and internationally. It was active until 2010, when the first mass-produced PHEVs arrived. CalCars envisioned millions of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, charged by off-peak electricity from renewable energy sources, and with their internal combustion engines powered by low-carbon alternative fuels, as a way to significantly reduce greenhouse gases that come from transportation.
With co-sponsorship from Hypercar, Felix Kramer organized what became the founding meeting of the California Car Company Initiative on July 29, 2002 in Palo Alto, CA, which evolved into the non-profit California Cars Initiative, and shifted its focus from hydrogen fuel cells to the nearer-term plug-in hybrid. The focus was on a solution using existing technology and 120-volt household power rather than a new infrastructure. CalCars announced its dual approach of technical demonstration of feasibility and advocacy to reach "influencers" and decision-makers. Having recruited engineer Ron Gremban as Technology Lead and begun an open source Prius Plus conversion program, CalCars completed the first Prius conversion in 2004. In 2006, with a conversion by one of the independent conversion companies, Kramer became the "world's first non-technical consumer owner" of a PHEV. He flew that vehicle to Washington DC in May 2006 for the first public viewing of a PHEV on Capitol Hill.
CalCars worked with allied organizations to build buyer demand for PHEVs in the United States and promote commercial production of plug-in hybrid vehicles by major automakers. It engaged in public education through its web site calcars.org. It displayed its +100 miles per US gallon (2.4 L/100 km; 120 mpg‑imp) PHEVs at public and private events, showed promotional videos, and makes presentations to different audiences, including political leaders and opinion-makers. CalCars also promoted technology development for PHEVs by building example plug-in hybrid vehicles, and maintaining open-source documentation of technological information about its prototypes. In its technology development, CalCars was closely linked with the work of Professor Andrew A. (Andy) Frank and the Team Fate design group at the University of California, Davis.
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