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Professor Allen Davenport of Jerseyville, left, a hybrid vehicle technician, explains to Paul Scott of Carlinville the components under the hood of a 2006 Ford hybrid vehicle Sunday at La Vista
Community Supported Garden in Godfrey, where hybrid cars were on display. Experts and hybrid vehicle owners were on hand to answer questions about the vehicles.
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Motorists revved up about hybrid vehicles
By CYNTHIA M. ELLIS
The Telegraph
GODFREY -- Concerned with rising gasoline prices and a curiosity about the new
hybrid and E85 vehicles brought consumers to La Vista Community Supported Garden on Sunday.
"As hybrid cars grow in number and type, consumer interest in owning one of these vehicles will expand,"
Allen Davenport of Jerseyville said.
Davenport, a Ranken Technical College teacher and expert on advanced technology vehicles and alternative energy, presented information during an Energy Solution meeting at
the garden, 4300 Levis Lane.
Davenport said what initially appealed to a select group of environmentalists is now of interest to a more mainstream group of buyers.
Paul and Janice Scott of Carlinville
were interested in finding out more about the gas-electric cars.
"I'm traditionally a General Motors man," Paul Scott said.
The Scotts took a look at five hybrid vehicles made available by
two dealerships, Dave Mungenast Toyota Dodge of Alton and Roberts Ford of Alton/Wood River, and a private owner, John Wood of East Alton.
Davenport showed the couple the vehicles' unusual functions, which
included the absence of starters and alternators.
"When you turn the key on you don't hear the typical start sound; the engine just starts," he said as he turned on a silver Ford Escape.
He explained the engine would shut off when it's not needed.
"I can move it without the engine running," he said. "There is still power, though, it's just running by the electric charge."
Davenport then showed the Scotts Wood's Toyota Prius.
Wood, who also teaches at Ranken, said he's owned his car for nearly two years. He said he was interested in hybrids before the price of gas went
up.
Wood said he averages about 50 miles per gallon and it includes city and highway driving.
One of the myths Wood dispelled about his car was, "You never have to plug it in."
The
car is developed with a system known as regenerative braking. The energy lost when a vehicle is slowing down or braking is reclaimed and routed to the hybrid's rechargeable batteries.
"The process is automatic," Wood said.
He said a nickel metal hydrid battery, which weighs about 85 pounds, is stored in the car's trunk.
"In some vehicles the battery is stored under a
rear passenger seat," Davenport said. "Like in the Escape."
Wood said another one of the technologies he liked was the smart entry/smart start system.
"I don't need a key to get in the car or to start it," he said.
In fact, there isn't even a spot where you would normally place the key in the ignition, Wood said.
Davenport said that
although he isn't driving a hybrid car yet, he plans on doing so when he purchases his next vehicle. He explained rising fuel costs are not the only reason people are buying hybrid vehicles.
"They are doing it because it's healthier for the environment," he said.
He said people are also buying cars that use ethanol-enriched fuel, which burns cleaner and produces fewer emissions.
Davenport said flexible-fuel vehicles, which can use gasoline or E85 fuel, a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 gasoline, are extremely efficient but there are a limited number of places where drivers can buy fuel.
Another reason Davenport said that he likes seeing people using the alternative fuel is that it is locally produced by farmers and plays a key role in efforts to reduce dependence on foreign oil.
"I'm one of those farmers," he said.
Ethanol is distilled from fermented grain -- usually corn -- in production plants. Right now, there are more than 95 ethanol production plants in the United
States, producing almost 4.3 billion gallons of ethanol every year. That's a lot of fuel -- and a significant contribution to our nation's economy.
Paul Scott said he liked what he saw and after learning
Mungenast would be getting a Toyota Camry hybrid delivered to its dealership within the next several weeks he was contemplating a trade-in of his Cadillac Escalade.
"I like my Escalade," he said. "But I'm seriously thinking about a hybrid."
cynthia_ellis@thetelegraph.com
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