Hybrid Car Review

The Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity (AVTA), run by the US Dept of Energy (DOE), has now run their plug-in hybrid test vehicles for one million miles.

Using fleet and public drivers the AVTA is attempting to assess and demonstrate Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV). They have now surpassed the 1 million mile mark, plus they have had 26,000 'charging events' to date. With more than 215 PHEVs, and 12 different PHEV models, the test fleet is testing benchmark performance.

The testing has looking at energy consumption, via gas or electricity, in a wide range of operating conditions. The test vehicles are in 23 states and Canada. They are also examining the various factors that affect PHEVs, such as air temperature and human behavior.

See the report from July to get a good idea of what the AVTA is looking at with their test fleet. It's amazing what a difference driving 'aggresively' vs 'mild' can do to gas mileage.

By measuring the different factors, the AVTA hopes to demonstrate vehicle energy consumption results and potential electric grid impacts.

The AVTA's PHEV testing effort involves more than 75 testing partners, including electric utilities; city, county, state, federal and provincial governments; universities and colleges; clean air agencies; private companies and other organizations. As part of the AVTA, INL also collaborates with testing partner Argonne National Laboratory, which performs laboratory dynamometer testing of each PHEV model tested on the road. This testing partnership provides an important link between standard laboratory test results and real-world performance. In addition to Argonne, INL also collaborates with other DOE laboratories by sharing PHEV data analysis and reporting.

The AVTA is conducted by Idaho National Laboratory and the Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec) for DOE's Vehicle Technologies Program. The AVTA also tests other electric drive vehicles such as hybrid electric vehicles and neighborhood electric vehicles. Additional information about the testing results can be found at http://avt.inel.gov/

INL is one of DOE's 10 multiprogram national laboratories. The INL performs work in each of DOE's strategic goal areas: energy, national security, science and environment. INL is the nation's leading center for nuclear energy research and development. Day-to-day management and operation of the laboratory is the responsibility of Battelle Energy Alliance.