(Business Wire) Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC: GSPI) announced today that within the next four weeks it plans to publicly test its plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).
The demonstration will take place in Corbin, Kentucky, where the vehicle will be test driven and evaluated by industry representatives. The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle will be driven on a simulated city driving test route. The company expects to demonstrate that during an eight hour delivery day simulation this plug-in hybrid vehicle can exceed 150 miles while exhibiting an efficiency of over 75 mpg (miles per gallon).
Earlier this month, Green Star Products along with its International Consortium partner Global Green Cars had publicly tested its full electric vehicle version at tracks in Utah and Kentucky. Global Green Cars is a U.S. and International Consortium of automobile companies and associated supply companies which includes Green Star Products as an engineering and technology provider.
The previous successful public demonstrations incorporated test drives for a variety of people including legislators, government officials, race car drivers and other interested parties. Please see press release “Successful GSPI Electric Car Demonstration Covered by Media” (http://www.greenstarusa.com/news/09-04-09.html) dated April 9, 2009, and “Green Star Kentucky Electric Car Demonstration Covered by News Media” (http://www.greenstarusa.com/news/09-04-16b.html) dated April 16, 2009, for media coverage of the demonstration events.
Mr. Joseph LaStella, President of Green Star Products, stated, “This demonstration is the next in a series of public demonstrations on advanced electric powered and hybrid powered vehicles that the company intends to offer to the public in the near future in the $25,000 price range.”
President Barack Obama's New Energy For America program calls for deployment of 1 million plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2015, and on March 19, 2009, he announced programs directing $2.4 billion to electric vehicle development.
About Plug-In Hybrids
The general public does not realize that the hybrid vehicles produced by the major auto companies today are not plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Today's hybrids have small battery packs and cannot be recharged from the utility grid system. Therefore, they have extremely limited range on their small battery packs and are usually only used at very low speeds (below 15 mph). Presently there are no plug-in electric hybrid vehicles offered by any major car company in the U.S.
The advantages of a PHEV with a larger battery pack with ranges up to 40 miles or more is that it gives you the ability to recharge this battery pack from the electric utility company at night, utilizing inexpensive clean electrical energy which is abundantly available during night time hours.
Additional advantages of PHEVs are as follows:
- Reduces the use of foreign oil since the electricity in the United States is primarily produced by domestic non-oil resources (97% by natural gas, hydro, coal, nuclear and other alternative energy sources).
- Night time electric power is available from many renewable resources therefore reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Many utility companies, including PG&E (NYSE: PCG), are offering incentives for PHEVs to utilize inexpensive night time energy.
- Utilizing domestically produced energy also helps the U.S. balance of payment deficit from oil producing nations and promotes U.S. energy independence.
- The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has estimated that 85% of the vehicles in the United States drive less than 30 miles per day. If these were plug-in electric hybrid vehicles they would not utilize any petroleum fuels at all for these short trips.
There are more than twenty international environmental organizations supporting PHEV including World Wide Fund for Nature, National Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Earth, Alliance for Climate Protection, Set America Free Coalition and the Rainforest Action Network.
Green Star Products is targeting to replace in-city delivery trucks which are the highest polluting vehicles in use today. These delivery vehicles are in-city, slow moving, stop-and-go vehicles which do not travel more than 35 miles per day and pollute more than any other vehicle on a per mile basis.
Green Star Products is not in competition with Toyota or any other major automobile manufacturer because it is targeting a different market. Toyota is presently planning to modify its Prius model to be a plug-in hybrid in the near future.
