October 2005
The city of Austin, Texas has an on-going program to
encourage its citizens as well as its own local government to retrofit their automobiles for hybrid operation. So much so,
the city has allocated $1 million for its citizens and other organizations to buy hybrids. But the city has gone beyond its
Plug-In Austin Campaign, with a campaign called the Plug-in America Campaign. The city has been so impressed with plug-in
hybrids it has formulated a plan to unite other cities to pressure American auto makers to deliver. Armed with lots of city
budget money, the cities plan to persuade the auto makers that there is an existing market for the production of such a car.
Austin city officials indicate that plug-in hybrids with
70 to 80 cents of electricity will provide about the equivalent mileage of a gallon of gasoline, currently running about $3.00
a gallon. The officials also estimate that the use of the converted hybrids have the potential to reduce gasoline consumption
in the United States by as much as 70 percent.
The state of Texas has been extremely active in the environmentally
friendly energy market. The company obtains a significant amount of its energy from the wind, and is one of the leaders in
the United States in the production of wind based electricity.
Hybrid tax credit.
Daimler Chrysler though is not far behind the City of
Austin. That company has planned to deliver a plug-in hybrid car to Austin, called the DaimlerChrysler Sprinter van, sometime
in 2006.
