Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) could help reduce air pollution compared to conventional vehicles and lessen greenhouse gas emissions. Now, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, US, have calculated that several million PHEVs could be charged during off-peak hours without the need to expand the state’s electricity grid. But to make these vehicles really economically viable, car battery prices need to come down by at least 50% or gasoline prices must continue to climb.