CALCARS.ORG: The California Cars Initiative (CalCars.org) <http://www.calcars.org> is a Palo Alto-based nonprofit startup of entrepreneurs, engineers, environmentalists and consumers promoting 100+MPG of gasoline (plus a penny a mile of electricity) plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Somewhat uniquely, we're ourselves a hybrid, focusing both on public policy and technology development, and harnessing buyer demand to help commercialize PHEVs. The increasingly-successful effort is becoming recognized as a hopeful sign we can get off our addiction to fossil fuels. This may be the first time a high-ticket consumer product will be mass-produced and come to market as the result of a "bottom-up/by popular demand" campaign. This could provide a model to be applied in other sectors of society where we need to develop no-petroleum, zero-carbon products.

OUR CURRENT OBJECTIVES: "SUCCESSFUL PHEV COMMERCIALIZATION ASAP" and "CONVERT GAS GUZZLERS TO PLUG-IN."  We're advocating for immediate commitments to "Version 1.0" demonstration fleets using "Good Enough to Get Started" batteries, so car-makers will have evolved the cars through several versions by the time they're ready to mass-produce them, with even better batteries. We are also focusing on an even more challenging goal: finding ways to partially electrify larger internal combustion vehicles on the world's roads. Doubling the MPG for what former Intel CEO Andy Grove describes as "PSVs" (Pickups, SUVs and Vans) and improving their extended-range MPG is technology possible, and, in large volumes, cost-effective, and is far more energy-efficient than scrapping gas-guzzlers.