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CalCars (also known as The California Cars Initiative) is 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.〔''See Chapter 2. Reinventing the car.''〕〔 ''See Chapter 3. Felix Flirts with Hydrogen.''〕 CalCars envisions 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. CalCars works 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. CalCars engages in public education through its web site (calcars.org ). It displays its + PHEVs at public and private events, shows promotional videos, and makes presentations to different audiences, including political leaders and opinion-makers. CalCars also promotes 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 is closely linked with the work of Professor Andrew A. (Andy) Frank and the Team Fate design group at the University of California, Davis.〔Dr. Andrew A. Frank, Director, http://www.team-fate.net advanced hybrid vehicle research center (which has built 9 plug-in hybrid proof-of-concept vehicles), Professor, University of California at Davis; see a 2003 interview in EVWorld, (part 1 ) and (part 2 ) and a 2006 (Wall Street Journal profile ).〕 == History == CalCars built the first PRIUS+ conversion creating the first PHEV based on the 2004 Toyota Prius.〔〔〔The PRIUS+ was CalCars first PHEV Prius, its homepage can be found at http://www.calcars.org/priusplus.html, (Photos ), (Commercializing Plug-In Hybrids presentation (2MB PDF) )〕 This initial conversion was done with a lead-acid battery pack to prove the concept would work. The build team included Ron Gremban, Felix Kramer, Marc Geller, Kevin Lyons, Andrew Lawton. Others who helped included Tom Driscoll, Michael Geller, Richard Jesch, Les Montavon, Dan Putman, Michael Schwabe, Len Tramiel, Bob Westman, Doug Widney. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「CalCars」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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