___Power can be transferred cheap and both LA and San Francisco has oil refineries. The power studies have been completed for California all on its own and the Utilities can support the PHEVs as demand grows. I do not believe they include the savings from refineries as there output drops off either.
___Your automobile power efficiency figures are a touch off but not much. A midsized automobile with the weight and aero characteristics of an Accord can travel a mile on about 300 Wh. At $0.11/kWh, it would cost about $4.50 at your electricity rate to travel 150 miles. Still far less then the $13.87 it would cost the average Accord driver to travel the same distance at 27 mpg and $2.50 per gallon.
___As for H2, you want to dive into the details before making any kind of off the cuff statement about that mess. H2 is an energy carrier created to keep the oil companies in business is about the only way I can justify it today. It is such a lossy and non-dense fuel to be all but worthless in terms of pricing, storage, and consumption in todays economy. The electricity needed to split, compress and store H2 via refrigeration or straight compression in the first place can propel a BEV an even greater distance. Again, the powers that be are trying to pull the wool over our eyes
___As for the Prius II, it will eat a Corolla alive as I own an 03 of that model as well. The average Prius II driver receives ~ 45 mpg, Corolla driver ~ 32 - 33 mpg and the average Accord driver ~ 26 - 27 mpg. These are real world numbers Pushing it, I have seen as high as a 52 mpg tank in the Corolla and 66 over a RT segment. I have seen as high as 110 over a tank and 127 over a segment in the Prius II. 58 over a tank in the Accord w/ a 79 mpg segment if that helps. The Accord and Corolla are not comparable in terms of FE to the Prius II. A stripped down Prius II with its std. all around air bags and power equipment is < $20K today. A Corolla cannot be equipped up to its level but expect to pay ~ $17K for an LE w/ Auto and all the toys to come close. Size wise, the Prius is far larger then either
___WRT Ford, they already sell the FEH with a 1.7 kWh Ni-MH pack from Sanyo. As far as reliability is concerned, it is the most reliable vehicle they have ever produced. They are currently testing Li-Ions of a similar size but half the weight from both JCI/Saft and A123 Systems. These Li-Ions are nothing like the Sony Li-Ions going up in flames in a few Dell laptops.
___CA05LXDriver, would you rather breathe in 200 train car loads of coal a day X 1000 days or store the same amount of fuel encased in alloy rods all into the size of a large truck for a few thousand years deep inside a mountain? The French reprocess their fuel and store it encased in glass which would fit into a small automobile for a similar amount of power. This is the choice. Millions of tons of CO2 + hundreds of tons of other carcinogens or none and store it in a mountain for a few thousand years. Tough choice for almost 20% of our daily electricity needs, isnt it.
