Professor Andrew Frank from the University of California at Davis developed a hybrid SUV that can get about 100 miles per gallon – or so the article says. It does this because it’s a plug-in hybrid. It recharges its batteries from an outlet at night. This is indeed really cool, but what I’d like to know is how much electricity it consumes. I’m not sure that the fuel savings offset the cost in electricity, so if we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, is it worth it? Here’s the link to the article.

Addition: just stumbled onto this related article, also at CNET News, which talks about the upcoming “100 miles per gallon” cars. Problem is, there’s a cost of $10-12K to convert a hybrid car to a plug-in hybrid, and again, the cost of electricity used to charge it up seems to be sidestepped.

Yet another addition: just came across this video from the Maker Faire, also at CNET News, where the fellow who gets interviewed mentioned you can take an ’04-’06 Prius and convert it for under $3K. One caveat: you’ll need the help of an engineer or electrician who’s comfortable working with high voltages. Cool!