As the Chevy Volt has brought plug-in hybrid electric vehicles into the mainstream for us, it’s not surprising that we see so much confusion surfacing around the subject. And of course, the flames of public bewilderment are deliberately being fanned by those who are overtly trying so hard to kill the movement now that it’s finally building momentum.
I was amused at the recent fracas resulting from GM's announcing the specifics behind the Volt's drivetrain. When GM revealed the exact guts of the Volt, George Will and other conservative pundits cried foul, noisily accusing General Motors -- and the Obama Administration that had kept the company afloat -- of the grossest form of deceit. "It’s just a hybrid!" they screamed last week, as if that somehow clarified something – or as if anyone cared exactly how the Volt's various subsystems interoperate.
Yet I saw the seeds of this confusion as they were being sown long ago. In our efforts to elucidate the EV concept, we have generated mounds of jargon in an attempt to pin down exactly what all this means -- most of which, in my observation, has only served to make the situation worse. A few days ago, EVWorld.com’s Bill Moore – one of the industry’s best-known and most trusted journalists – boldly stepped into the fray, writing:
What are we to expect of the average non-technical passerby when confronted with baffling insider acronyms: E-REV, BEV, PHEV, GEV, ZEV, HEV? I'd like to propose a solution. It's not perfect, of course, and I've argued for it before, but now that we finally have product coming to market and survey after survey indicating people are becoming increasingly interested in electric-drive vehicles, it's time to consider adopting the following term when talking about vehicles that incorporate some of the characteristics of a battery electric vehicle (BEV), like the Nissan LEAF, and a hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) like the Toyota Prius. I propose we call vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt, Opel Ampera and Fisker Karma "Electric Hybrids."
As always, Bill’s heart is in the right place – and I certainly don’t think this is a bad idea. But the jargon problem was cast in bronze the moment Toyota called the Prius a "hybrid" a decade ago. The Prius derives 100% of its energy from the gasoline in its tank, and thus, despite the fact that it has various systems under the hood to store and use that energy in ways that were new at the time, it’s really just another gas-powered car. If I had been in charge of marketing this line of vehicles, I would have reserved the word "hybrid" for the point at which my offering provided a blend of energy from gasoline and electricity from an external charging source; in my mind; the Volts and Fisker Karmas of the world are the first true hybrids.
But it’s too late now. And I’m not sure that jargon – even the ripest, most carefully selected, handpicked words – will change anything at this point. I would just urge car-buyers to ignore the fancy words and keep in mind one core fact: the degree to which your car's energy comes through your wall sockets is the degree to which it offers the potential for clean transportation. There is not a single phrase in our language that will change that simple fact.
Craig Shields is editor of 2GreenEnergy.com, and author of Renewable Energy -- Facts and Fantasies (published by Clean Energy Press, 2010)
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